SAEDNEWS: Maryam Firouz Farmanfarmaian, daughter of Abdolhossein Mirza Farmanfarma, in a wedding dress, circa 1308 SH (1929–1930).
According to Saed News social service: Abdolhossein Mirza Farmanfarma (1231 AH, Tabriz – 30 November 1318, Tehran) was a Qajar prince and the Prime Minister of Iran during the reign of Ahmad Shah Qajar, as well as the head of the Pasteur Institute of Iran. He was the son-in-law of Naser al-Din Shah through his fifth wife, Hamdam al-Molouk (Hamdam al-Saltaneh Qajar), and the son-in-law of Mozaffar al-Din Shah through his first wife, Ezzat al-Saltaneh. He was a descendant of Fath-Ali Shah, the second ruler of the Qajar dynasty, and the grandson of Abbas Mirza. The Firouz and Farmanfarmaian families are descended from him. He was the maternal uncle of Mohammad Mosaddegh. At one point, Farmanfarma was considered the richest man in Iran; areas such as Farmanieh and Punak were part of his property. After the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty, he gradually lost his wealth and political influence.
At the age of thirty, Farmanfarma married Fatemeh Khanum Ezzat al-Saltaneh, the fourth daughter of Mozaffar al-Din Shah and Taj al-Molouk (daughter of Ezzat al-Doleh and Amir Kabir), and did not take another wife for the next twenty years. Later, Ezzat al-Saltaneh became increasingly oppositional, including when Farmanfarma forced his eldest son Nosrat al-Doleh to marry Amina (daughter of Najm al-Saltaneh and full sister of Mohammad Mosaddegh). Ezzat al-Saltaneh strongly opposed this marriage, considering it inappropriate for her son to marry outside the Qajar lineage. After two years of hostility and pressure from his mother, Nosrat al-Doleh was forced to divorce Amina. Even the newborn child, Mozaffar, was taken away from his mother by order of Ezzat al-Saltaneh. Najm al-Saltaneh never forgave Farmanfarma for the suffering imposed on her daughter, and Farmanfarma completely cut ties with Ezzat al-Saltaneh, who had disrupted his friendly relations with her family. After this incident, Farmanfarma married other women, including Hamdam al-Molouk (Hamdam al-Saltaneh), the youngest daughter of Naser al-Din Shah, as well as five other wives, and had thirty children from them.
After the enforcement of family names by Reza Shah and the abolition of titles, Abdolhossein Mirza chose his title “Farmanfarma” as his surname. Most of his children adopted the surname “Farmanfarmaian,” while some chose “Firouz,” derived from his father Firouz Mirza. Farmanfarma was the maternal uncle of Mohammad Mosaddegh and had familial ties as both the son-in-law of Naser al-Din Shah and the brother-in-law and son-in-law of Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar.
Daughter of Abdolhossein Farmanfarma
