Piram Khan Leads The Uprising

Mohammadali Shah's shelling the parliament with canons instigated people from all around Iran to join revolutionary forces. Piram khan, originally an Armenian was chosen the leader of these forces in Gilan. With the help of immigrant Caucasians they took control of Rasht and joined forces with other scattered armed groups calling themselves Mojahedin. He leaded this forces towards Tehran. A strong resistance in Qazvin led to a bloody encounter between the revolutionary and state forces. Near Tehran, they met other Mojahedin from Isfahan including Bakhtiyar cavalry and abruptly captured the capital. Mohammadali Shah escaped and found refuge at the Russian embassy. The Shah was dismissed. Piram Khan later became the police chief of Tehran and served till the end of his life. (Updated: Feb, 15, 2008)

British Persian Petroleum Company Registered

A year after exploring rich oil reserves in Masjed-e-Soleyman in 1908, William Knox D'Arcy registered the British Persian petroleum company in London. Before D'Arcy, a French man named Julius Reuter had tried to gain the rights to Iranian oil reserves but he did not succeed. But D'Arcy somehow succeeded in bribing some influential people at the royal court including the prime minister and signed an agreement with the Shah in 1901 for a period of 60 months. Due to objections from Russians, 5 northern provinces bordering Russia were excluded.
Although oil was found, lack of funds forced D'Arcy to sell some of the shares of the company but he remained in the board of directors until 1917 when he died. At the brisk of the World War I, the British government owned %51 of the shares. The state share gradually went up to %97 until the nationalization of oil movement in Iran. The company later became British Petroleum and now is known as one of the biggest oil companies in the world. (Updated: Apr, 14, 2008)

Regulations For Second Parliament Elections

Second election regulations also called 2 phase elections were approved according to which more civil participation was foreseen. All voters should own a property worth al least 250 Tomans, or their taxes paid be above 10 Tomans or they should have a yearly income of 50 Tomans or they should be educated. Moreover the number of representatives became 120 down from the original 156 and elections were held in 30 electoral regions. Voters minimum age dropped from 25 to 20 but still women could not vote. In phase one, people with highest votes were to gather and hold another election among themselves. (Updated: Jan, 24, 2008)

13 Year Old Becomes Last Qajar King

After 5 months of political chaos, the high council of the constitutional monarchy stripped Mohammad Ali Shah off his powers as king due to his negligence towards constitution and seeking shelter at the Russian embassy, then appointed 13 year old Ahmad Shah as the new king. After Ahmad's coronation, on on August,5, 1909 his father was sent to exile with a yearly salary of 100,000 Tomans.
The revolutionary court had ordered execution of some dissidents including Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri. (Updated: Nov, 22, 2007)

• Armenia: ارمنستان
• Caucasia: قفقاز
• Gilan: گيلان
• Isfahan: اصفهان(Esfahan, Sepahan اسپه دانه، اسپهان)
• Mohammad Ali Shah: محمد علي شاه
• Mojahedin: مجاهدين
• Persia: ايران
• Piram: پيرم خان
• Qajar: قاجار(Ghajar)
• Qazvin: قزوين(Ghazvin)
• Rasht: رشت
• Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri: شيخ فضل الله نوري
• Soleyman: سليمان(Suleiman, Soleiman, Suleyman)
• Toman: تومان