BŪŠEHRĪ, ḤĀJĪ MOḤAMMAD MOʿĪN-AL-TOJJĀR (b. 1238 Š./1859 in Būšehr, d. 1312 Š./1933 in Tehran), a merchant active in the Constitutional Revolution. He received the education common at the time and then joined the business of his father Ḥājī Moḥammad-Raḥīm Dehdaštī (Šajīʿī, p. 309). Having gone bankrupt, Būšehrī and his father left for Iraq. After spending some time in providing menial services for the pilgrims at Najaf, he returned to Būšehr and started to work in a trading company (ʿAlawī, p. 138). In 1266 Š./1887, having saved some money, he went to Baghdad and continued his work as a merchant. On the death of his relative Ḥājj ʿAbd-al-Moḥammad Malek-al-Tojjār, he inherited 400,000 rupees (Sadīd-al-Salṭana, p. 21), and after a pilgrimage to Mecca and a trip to Europe he returned to Iran and became a prominent merchant in Fārs and was given the title of Moʿīn-al-Tojjār by the governor of Fārs. He succeeded in obtaining the rights for mining ferrous oxide on Hormoz island. Later, he rented Lārak, Hormoz, Qešm, and Bostāna islands, and expanded his possessions in Ḵūzestān and the Persian Gulf area. He owned many villages in the Mamasanī region in Fārs province, as well as in the area bordering on the Persian Gulf (Eḥtešām-al-Salṭana, p. 311; Sadīd-al-Salṭana, p. 21). In 1277 Š./1898, due to a disagreement with Qawām-al-Molk, he moved to Tehran and developed a friendship with Prime Minister Mīrzā ʿAlī-Aṣḡar Khan Amīn-al-Solṭān and gained great influence. He later purchased a part of Bāḡ-e Lālezār in Tehran, where he built a number of stately homes for himself and his children, whose furnishings he imported from Europe. By showering Moẓaffar-al-Dīn Shah with gifts he became one of the most influential merchants in Tehran’s bāzār, strengthened his ownership of southern islands, and gained concessions for the exploitation of mines in Bandar-e ʿAbbās.
During the Constitutional movement, he urged the bāzār merchants to side with the Constitutionalists, and he was elected as a representative of the merchants to the first Majles. When the Majles rejected the bill on foreign loans, Būšehrī and Ḥājj Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Amīn-al-Żarb took steps to secure loans from the public and to set up a national bank, but their efforts were not successful (Tārīḵ-ebīdārī II, ed. Saʿīdī Sīrjānī, pp. 4-5, 19; Afšār, p. 396). He was elected deputy to the third Majles from Būšehr (Taqīzāda, V, p. 78). In 1298 Š./1919, by which time he had become one of the most influential politicians, he opposed the 1919 Anglo-Iranian Agreement (Asnād-e maḥramāna, pp. 21, 77) and was arrested on the order of Prime Minister Woṯūq-al-Dawla and was exiled to Kāšān. After ten months of exile, when Woṯūq-al-Dawla’s cabinet fell, he returned to Tehran and was warmly welcomed by the people and merchants of Tehran (ibid., p. 91, Mostawfī, Šarḥ-e zendagānī III, pp. 10, 127). After the coup d’état in 1299 Š./1921 he went into hiding, and his son Jawād was arrested instead of him; after the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty he lost most of the concessions he had gained during Moẓaffar-al-Dīn Shah’s reign, including the ownership of the islands.
His sons Reżā, Jawād (Amīr Homāyūn), and Moḥammad-Ṣādeq Būšehrī held high political offices under the Pahlavis.
Bibliography:
Ī. Afšār, Awrāq-e tāzayāb-e Mašrūṭīyat wa naqš-e Taqīzāda, Tehran, 1359 Š./1980.
Mehr-ʿAlī Khan Sadīd-al-Salṭana, al-Tadqīq fī sayr al-ṭarīq, ed. A. Eqtedārī, Tehran, 1362 Š./1983.
S. A. Ḥ. ʿAlawī, Rejāl-e ʿaṣr-e mašrūṭīyat, ed. Ḥ. Yaḡmāʾī, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984, pp. 138-39.
Asnād-e maḥramāna-ye Wezārat-e Ḵāreja-ye Berītānīā dar bāra-ye qarārdād-e 1919-e Īrān o Engelīs I, tr. J. Šayk²-al-Eslāmī, Tehran, 1365 Š./1986.
M.-ʿA. Sadīd-al-Salṭana (Kabābī) Bandar-e ʿAbbās o Ḵalīj-e Fārs (Eʿlām al-nās fī aḥwāl Bandar ʿAbbās), ed. A. Eqtedārī and ʿA. Setāyeš, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984, pp. 3-4, 6-7, 17, 25, 92, 212, 337-52, 700.
Z. Šajīʿī, Nemāyandagān-e Majles-e Šūrā-ye Mellī-dar bīst o yak dawra-e qānūn-goḏārī, Tehran, 1344 Š./1965.
S. Ḥ. Taqīzāda, Maqālāt-e Taqīzāda V, ed. Ī. Afšār, Tehran, 2535 = 1355 Š./1976, p. 78.
Search terms:
| بوشهری، حاج محمد | boshehri,haj mohammad | boshehry haj mohammad |
(Bāqer ʿĀqelī)
Originally Published: December 15, 1990
Last Updated: December 15, 1990
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 6, pp. 572-573
Bāqer ʿĀqelī,“BŪŠEHRĪ, ḤĀJĪ MOḤAMMAD” Encyclopædia Iranica, IV/6, p. 572-573, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/busehri-haji-mohammad-moin-al-tojjar-b (accessed on 30 December 2012).
