Saed News: The questions of where Nasser al-Din Shah first saw Jeiran in a village in Shemiran and whether Jeiran was truly a beautiful girl are ones we will answer by referring to historical sources below.
According to the analytical news service of Saed News, as reported by Hamshahri Online, the story of Nasser al-Din Shah's love for Jeiran occurred during a time when Tajrish was not an upscale neighborhood in the northern part of the city but a village full of agricultural lands at the foot of the northern Tehran mountains. Tajrish, with its beautiful gardens and pleasant climate, became so beloved by the Qajar king that whenever he had the urge to hunt, he would head to Tajrish with his entourage.
It was during one of these trips that Nasser al-Din Shah saw Jeiran and, in an instant, fell in love with the young girl from Tajrish. Many stories have been written about this encounter. As "Taghi Daneshvar," known as A'lam al-Saltanah, describes in his memoirs, the first meeting between Nasser al-Din Shah and Jeiran happened as follows: "One day, the Shah had gone hunting for quails around Shemiran and Tajrish. A few quails accidentally flew onto a mulberry tree, and the Shah went under the tree to shoot them. A village girl had climbed the tree and was eating mulberries. She did not pay any attention to the Shah.
But the Shah became captivated by the beauty of the peasant girl and, in a playful tone, said to her: 'Girl! Will you be my wife?' The girl shrugged her shoulders and, not realizing she was speaking to the king, said: 'You're nobody. I’m not going to be the king's wife!' Then, she ended the conversation with a dismissive 'Go away!'
However, when the Shah’s attendants nervously explained to her that the man in front of her, with his royal attire and entourage, was the king, Jeiran quickly descended from the tree and, with polite and apologetic behavior, apologized. The young Shah, already enchanted by her mannerisms and beauty, invited her to the royal palace and asked her to marry him."
Jeiran was neither beautiful nor charming!
Jeiran's real name was "Khadijeh Tajrishi," but it is said that Nasser al-Din Shah called her "Jeiran" because of her beautiful eyes. The young peasant girl was so attractive in the eyes of the Qajar king that he gave her a special name and, in doing so, invited the jealousy and resentment of the other women in his court. But was Jeiran truly as beautiful as she is portrayed in today's popular series, according to those around the Qajar king?
"Pollack," the personal physician of Nasser al-Din Shah, wrote in his memoirs about Jeiran's physical features: "She had no particular beauty, nor any grace or charm, and she had a large scar on her left cheek. Despite all this, she had a great influence on the Shah, and people believed this influence was due to magic and sorcery." Regardless, Jeiran was considered so beautiful by Nasser al-Din Shah that, out of love for her, he divorced one of his four wives to add Jeiran to his permanent wives.
