text:
Muhammad Shah

Mirza Nasir-ud-Din Muḥammad Shah (born Roshan Akhtar; 7 August 1702 – 26 April 1748) was the thirteenth Mughal emperor from 1719 to 1748. He was son of Khujista Akhtar, the fourth son of Bahadur Shah I. After being chosen by the Sayyid Brothers of Barha, he ascended the throne at the young age of 16, under their strict supervision.

He later got rid of them with the help of Nizam-ul-Mulk, Asaf Jah I – Syed Hussain Ali Khan was murdered at Fatehpur Sikri in 1720 and Sayyid Hassan Ali Khan Barha was captured in battle in 1720 and fatally poisoned in 1722. Muhammad Shah was a great patron of the arts, including musical, cultural and administrative developments. His pen-name was "Sadrang" and he is also sometimes referred to as "Bahadur Shah Rangila" after his grand father Bahadur Shah I.

Muhammad Shah's reign was marked by rapid and irreversible decline of the Mughal Empire that was exacerbated by Nader Shah's invasion of India and the sacking of Delhi in 1739. The course of events not only shocked and mortified the Mughals themselves, but also other foreigners, including the British.

Rebellious activities against Muhammad Shah
In 1719, Kolis of Mahi River were most rebellious against Mughal rule and plundering the villages, Mihir Ali Khan who was acting as Viceroy of Gujarat at the place of Ajit Singh of Marwar, marched against Koli rebels of Mahi who were committing piracy against muslims and subdued them.

In 1721, Kasim Ali Khan who was an officer in Mughal Empire under Muuhammad Shah employed against the Kolis of Kheda district to collect the fine but they refused to pay and there was a battle in Pethapur between Kolis and Mughal army under Kasim Ali Khan. Kasim Ali Khan was killed by Kolis and Mughal army was defeated and retreat to base.*

In 1722, Muhammad Bahadur, son of Salabat Khan Babi, was placed in charge of Sadra and Virpur, with the title of Sher Khan. Shortly after his arrival the viceroy marched against and subdued the rebellious Kolis of the Chunval but was wounded deeply. After that Kolis of Modhera opposed the Muhammad Shah but Modhera village was burnt down.

In 1729, Mughal Viceroy of Sultan Muhammad Shah faced the challenge of anti-muslim activities of Kolis of Sorath, viceroy marches against Kolis of sorath and destroying them taken to Ahmednagar. after this, Jawan Mard Khan Babi who was Governor of Petlad ordered against rebellious Kolis of Balor, probably Bhátod about fifteen miles east of Bharuch, but Jawan Marad Khan was killed by a man of Koli tribe, and in revenge for his death the town of Balor was plundered. On the death of Jawán Mard Khan, at the request of Salabat Muhammad Khan Babi, his eldest son Kamal-ud-din Khan Babi received the districts of Sami and Munjpur and the title of Jawan Mard Khan.

In 1738, Sher Khan Babi was of Junagadh was appointed as governor of sorath, Babi was obliged to march against a Koli chieftain Kanji Chunvalia of Chhaniar in Chunval because Kanji opposed and resisted the mughal authority but Sher Khan Babi was bravely resisted by Kolis so Momin Khan was called with large force and Chhaniar was burned down by mughal army.

In 1739, Koli chieftain Jamaji of Thara, raised the Kolis of Kankrej against sultan and continually plundered the mughal territory. Jawan Marad Khan was ordered to march against the Koli chieftain but he was unable to maintain order so he requested the Fida-ud-din Khan to subdue the Kolis. After defeating the Koli chieftain, the Koli country was plundered by mughal troops.

In 1740, Kolis of Atarsumba, challenged the Mughal authority and refused to pay any form of tax to mughal sultan. Jawan marad khan along with his brother Zorawar Khan Babi Marched against Kolis of Atarsumba but they were strongly resisted and there was a battle but mughals defeated the Kolis and make them to pay tax. But it was not for long time, after some time, Kolis again refused to pay tax and mughal troops were sent under Abdul Hussain Khan and Vajeram burnt the three Koli villages.

In 1747, Rangoji a Maratha military leader returned to Áhmedábád, and Jawán Mard Khán had an interview with him a few miles from the city. Shortly after this the Kolis of Mehmudabad and Mahudha rebelled, but the revolt was speedily crushed by Sháhbáz Rohilla.

Removing the Sayyid Brothers

On 9 October 1720, Syed Hussain Ali Khan Barha, the commander and chief of the Mughal army, was assassinated in his encampment in Todabhim and Muhammad Shah took direct command of the army. Asaf Jah I was then dispatched to gain complete control of six Mughal provinces in the Deccan, and Muhammad Amin Khan Turani was assigned as the Mansabdar of 8000. He was sent to pursue the Mughal Grand vizier Syed Hassan Ali Khan Barha, who was defeated at the battle of Hasanpur by Muhammad Amin Turani, Khan-i Dauran, Sher Afkan Panipati, and Amin-ud-Din Sambhali. Hassan Khan Barha fought on the side opposing Khan-i-Dauran where the most danger was anticipated, was captured on 15 November 1720 and executed two years later. The fall of the Sayyid Brothers would mark the beginning of the end of the Mughal Empire's direct control over its dominions in the Deccan.

Loss of Deccan subahs
On 21 February 1722, Muhammad Shah appointed the Asaf Jah I as Grand Vizier. He advised Muhammad Shah to be "as cautious as Akbar and as brave as Aurangzeb". Asaf Jah used his influence with the emperor to fulfil his territorial ambitions in the Deccan. He lost the emperor's confidence when he appointed Hamid Khan, a relative to Saadullah Khan and his maternal uncle, to administer Gujarat after having sending him on the pretext of restoring order to the province. Realising his loss of influence and trust from the emperor, Asaf Jah resigned as Grand Vizier and returned to the Deccan.

Asaf Jah I appointed commander Ewaz Khan as the master of the garrison at Aurangabad, and much of his logistical duties were carried out by Inayatullah Kashmiri. In 1723 he set out on an expedition to the Deccan, where he fought Mubariz Khan, the Mughal Subahdar of the Deccan, who had kept the ravaging Maratha Empire at bay. Mubariz Khan was a former ally of the Barha Sayyids, who was appointed by Muhammad Shah to kill Asaf Jah I. Taking advantage of Mubariz Khan's conventional weaknesses, Asaf Jah I defeated and eliminated his opponent during the Battle of Shakar Kheda. Asaf Jah I then established the Hyderabad State and appointed himself the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1725.

The Mughal-Maratha Wars (1728–1763) would cause irreparable devastation to six Deccan subahs–Khandesh, Bijapur, Berar, Aurangabad, Hyderabad and Bidar. Asaf Jah would the Marathas to invade Malwa and the northern territories of the Mughal empire to protect his newfound independence. The Nizam described the Maratha army to be an instrument to be wielded to his own advantage in the Maasir-i Nizami: "I consider all this army (Marathas) as my own and I will get my work done through them. It is necessary to take our hands off Malwa. God willing, I will enter into an understanding with them and entrust the Mulukgiri (raiding) on that side of the Narmada to them." The ears of the Muhammed Shah were possessed by the Amir-ul-Umara, Khan-i Dauran. Muhammad Shah appointed Qamar-ud-Din Khan as Grand Wazir to succeed Asaf Jah. However, he was quickly dismissed in favour of Roshan-ud-Daulah Turrah Baz Khan, a native of Panipat, who was appointed the Grand Wazir, in order to reduce the influence of the Turani family.

Despite the loss of the Deccan subahs in 1724, the Nawab of Awadh Saadat Ali Khan and the Mughal subahdar Dilawar Khan (r. 1726–1756) remained loyal to the emperor and established a well-protected bastion on the Malabar Coast.

Cultural developments

While Urdu (derived from Zuban-i Urdū-yi Muʿallá or in local translation Lashkari Zaban, shortened to Lashkari) was already in use before Muhammad Shah's reign, it was during his reign that it became more popular among the people and he declared it as the court language, replacing Persian. During Muhammad Shah's reign, Qawwali was reintroduced into the Mughal imperial court and it quickly spread throughout South Asia. Muhammad Shah is also known to have introduced religious institutions for education such as Maktabs. During his reign, the Quran was translated for the first time into simple Persian and Urdu. Also, during his reign, the formal Turkic dress, normally worn by the high Mughal nobility since Mughals originally hailed from Samarqand, was replaced by the Sherwani. However, Muhammad Shah's adoption of the Deccan-influenced dress to court would lead to derisive comments, such as "See how the Deccan monkey dances!"

Mohammad Shah was a patron of the performing arts, almost at the cost of administrative priorities, paving the way for the disintegration of governance. While Mughal political power did decline in his reign, the Emperor encouraged the arts, employing master artists such as Nidha Mal (active 1735–75) and Chitarman, whose vivacious paintings depict scenes of court life, such as Holi celebrations, hunting and hawking. The Mughal court of the time had musicians such as Naimat Khan, also known as Sadarang, and his nephew Firoz Khan (Adarang), whose compositions popularised the musical form of khyal. Naimat Khan composed khyal for his disciples and he never performed khyal. This key component of Indian classical music evolved, ascended and received princely patronage at the court of Muhammad Shah.

He himself was a poet under the penname "Sadrang" and was also a composer of Indian classical raga songs in the bhairav, kafi, dhamar and malkauns genres. These included songs on the themes of love and the festival of Holi.

Scientific developments
During the reign of Muhammad Shah, a significant scientific work known as the Zij-i Muhammad Shahi was completed by Jai Singh II of Amber between the year 1727 and 1735; it consisted of 400 pages.

Bengal and Sikhs raids
Muhammad Ali Khan the Mughal Faujdar of Rangpur and his stern ally Deena Narayan were ambushed out of Koch Bihar by Upendra Narayan a Hindu Bihari and Mipham Wangpo (r. 1729–1736) the ruler of Bhutan. Ali Mohammed Khan had established the barons of Rohilakhand. In the Punjab region, the Sikhs were at war with local Mughal subahdars, devastating them with their hit-and-run tactics.

Loss of Gujarat and Malwa subahs
After decisively defeating Asaf Jah in February 1728 at the Battle of Palkhed, Bajirao I and his brother Chimaji Appa re-invaded Malwa. The Mughal subahdar Giridhar Bahadur was defeated and killed at the battle of Amjhera in November 1729. Chimnaji Appa then unsuccessfully attempted to besiege the remnants of the Mughal army at Ujjain. In 1731, Asaf Jah managed to secure the defections of influential Maratha leaders, such as Trimbak Rao Dabhade and Sanbhoji who threatened to abandon the Marathas and join the forces with the emperor Muhammad Shah. However, the defectors were overrun and killed by a large Maratha force led by Bajirao I and Chimnaji Appa during Battle of Dabhoi. Bajirao I then attacked Gujarat with his full force and drove out Sarbuland Khan by 1735.

Bajirao I defeated a well-trained Mughal army led by Amir Khan Bahadur, but was forced to withdraw when well-armed Mughal reinforcements fought major skirmishes with the Marathas on the outskirts of Delhi. Bajirao and his Marathas fled southeast to Badshahpur, where he corresponded with the emperor Muhammad Shah, who ratified peace by agreeing the handover of Malwa to the Marathas.

Invasion of Mughal empire
In May 1738, Nader Shah attacked northern Afghanistan and captured Ghazni. He captured Kabul in June and Jalalabad in September. By November, he had crossed the Khyber Pass and besieged and razed the fortress of Peshawar. In January 1739, he captured Lahore, after completely subduing the forces of the Mughal viceroy, Zakariya Khan Bahadur and his 25,000 sowars, by the Chenab river. The Afsharid forces soon encountered bands of Sikh rebels whom Nader Shah predicted would clearly benefit after his invasion. The Afsharids would capture territory all the way up to Attock, forcing Muhammad Shah and his court to realise that the Persian emperor would not be satisfied with the loot of a province. The cities of Wazirabad, Eminabad and Gujrat were not only sacked but razed to the ground. Near Larkana, the Afsharids completely routed the Mughal army of the Nawab of Sindh, Main Noor Mohammad Kalhoro, and later captured him and his two sons. Sirhind was then captured by the Persians in February 1739, opening the route towards the Mughal capital of Delhi.

Battle of Karnal

Rao Bal Kishan of Rewari, with his army of 5,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry and with the forces of Delhi, attempted a desperate defence of the city but was killed in battle and has been immortalized the name "Vijay or "Veergati". Nadir Shah remarked to emperor Muhammad Shah that "if your combined forces helped Rao Balkrishna of Rewari, then I might not able to enter in Delhi. I had never seen any warrior like him brave, Fierce and strong. Muhammed Shah commissioned a royal chhatri to pay tribute to Rao Bal Kishan.

After entering Delhi, Nader Shah claimed to invasion and occupation of the Mughal Empire was borne out of religious devotion and that if "the wretched Marathas of the Deccan" moved towards Delhi, he might "send an army of victorious Qizilbash to drive them to the abyss of Hell."

Sack of Delhi

The occupation of Delhi was initially cordial, however, rumours spread throughout the city that Nader Shah was assassinated. The masses attacked the Persian force and killed some soldiers. Nader Shah, furious, ordered to massacre the populace, and leaving at least 30,000 dead. Muhammad Shah and Asaf Jah I had to beg Nader Shah for mercy and thus he stopped the massacre and turned to looting the Mughal treasury. The famous Peacock Throne, the Daria-i-Noor and Koh-i-Noor diamonds and unimaginable wealth was looted. In addition, elephants, horses and everything that was liked was taken. Muhammad Shah also had to hand over his daughter Jahan Afruz Banu Begum as a bride for Nader Shah's youngest son. Asaf Jah I retired to Deccan after installing his eldest son Intizam-ud-Daula as a major commander in the Mughal Army.

Later Maratha wars
In the year 1740, Dost Ali Khan to Nawab of the Carnatic and Chanda Sahib faced the task of expelling the Marathas under Raghoji I Bhonsle, authorised by Chhatrapati Shahu I. Dost Ali Khan was killed on 20 May 1740 at the Battle of Damalcherry in defence of Arcot, which was eventually looted and plundered. Chanda Sahib along with his garrison was captured and imprisoned in Satara. Chanda Sahib and his forces ferociously defended their rightful reams during the Siege of Trichinopoly and almost all the territories of the Nawab of the Carnatic despite being outnumbered substantially by the Marathas, their daunting efforts soon attracted the attention of the French East India Company official Joseph François Dupleix.

Dissatisfied by the Maratha occupation of the territories of the Nawab of the Carnatic, Asaf Jah I led an expedition to liberate the region. He was joined by Sadatullah Khan II and Anwaruddin Muhammed Khan together they recaptured Arcot and initiated the Siege of Trichinopoly (1743), which lasted five months and forced the Marathas led by Murari Rao Ghorpade to evacuate the Carnatic.

In the year 1747, the Marathas led by Raghoji I Bhonsle, began to raid, pillage and annex the territories of the Nawab of Bengal Alivardi Khan. During the Maratha invasion of Orissa, its subahdar Mir Jafar completely withdrew all forces until the arrival of Alivardi Khan and the Mughal Army at the Battle of Burdwan where Raghoji I Bhonsle and his Maratha forces were completely routed. The enraged Nawab of Bengal Alivardi Khan then dismissed the shamed Mir Jafar. However, four years later, emperor Muhammad Shah ceded Orissa was ceded over to the Marathas.

Foreign relations
Following Nader Shah's invasion, the Ottoman Empire exploited the void that was created at their eastern borders as almost all Persian forces were deployed to India. During that period, emperor Muhammad Shah tried to recover all territory until being attacked by the Durrani Empire at Battle of Manupur.

Marriages

Emperor Muhammad Shah had four wives. His first wife and chief consort was his first-cousin, Princess Badshah Begum, the daughter of Emperor Farrukhsiyar and his first wife, Gauhar-un-Nissa Begum. They married after his accession, on 8 December 1721, at Delhi, and he gave her the title Malika-uz-Zamani (Queen of the Age) by which she was popularly known. They had a son, Shahriyar Shah Bahadur, who died young in 1726. She died on 14 December 1789.

Muhammad Shah took a second wife, Sahiba Mahal, and had a daughter Hazrat Begum, who was married to Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1757.

His third wife was a dancing girl, Udham Bai, who bore him his successor, Ahmad Shah Bahadur on 23 December 1725. Upon his birth, he was taken from her and was lovingly brought up by Badshah Begum, who considered him her own son. It was through Badshah Begum's efforts that Ahmad Shah was able to ascend the throne upon Muhammad Shah's death in 1748.

Death
The victory of the Mughal Army during the Battle of Manupur (1748) came with a heavy price as many fell in battle. Initially this was kept a secret. However, when the news reached the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah, he could not speak, suddenly became sick, and did not come out of his apartments for three days. During this period he fasted. His guards could hear him crying out loud and saying: "How could I bring about anyone as faithful as he? (Qamaruddin Khan)". He died due to grief on 26 April 1748, his funeral was attended by visiting Imams from Mecca. Muhammad Shah's tomb is located in an enclosure within the Nizamuddin Dargah complex.

In popular culture

 * In the 2010 historical TV series Maharaja Ranjit Singh telecasted on DD National, the character of Muhammad Shah is portrayed by Rishikesh Sharma.

title: Muhammad Shah


text:
Schneeball (record label)

Schneeball was a German record label founded in 1976.

Embryo, Missus Beastly, Sparifankal, Ton Steine Scherben and Julius Schittenhelm decided to take their fate into their own hands in 1976. Setting themselves apart from the phonograph industry, they founded their own record company (APRIL Records) and cooperatively organized the distribution. “Music distributed by the musicians” was the primary guiding principle. There were no European models to imitate, although the Filmverlag der Autoren [Authors’ Film Publishing Company] was surely groundbreaking at the beginning. Established several years previously, it had succeeded in marginally pushing back the market power of the Anglo-American media flood so the filmmakers who belonged to it could make a living for themselves. The start of APRIL Records was extraordinarily successful and attracted much attention. After CBS threatened to take legal action, its name was changed to “Schneeball” [“Snowball”] in 1977. The situation was quite difficult, but samplers entitled “April ist Schneeball” [“April is Snowball”] enabled it to remain recognizable in the music and media landscapes. The name was chosen to express the energy in the center of the music spectrum and the expansion and development along its margins. Many others subsequently used APRIL Records as a model. Within a short time, numerous bands wanted to be part of it. Other artists who published at Schneeball are Real Ax Band, Munju, Checkpoint Charlie, Moira, and Hammerfest. An important cooperating partner for distribution via bookstores was the Trikont label “Unsere Stimme” [“Our Voice”], which had sprouted from Trikont Buchverlag [Trikont Book Publishing Company]. At the same time, the “Umsonst und draußen” [“Free and Outdoors”] festival movement developed as an organizational form for noncommercial music festivals. New labels were founded, including, for example, NO FUN, Zickzack, Eigelstein, Subup, and Trikont. The distribution was taken over by EfA(Energie für Alle) [Energy for Everyone] at the beginning of the 1980s. Schneeball Oper 1 und 2 [Snowball Operas 1 and 2] were developed as a new cooperative project by the musicians from the various bands. This showed that a mutual willingness existed to collaborate beyond the horizons of each individual band. The distribution structure became increasingly independent, but this autonomy unfortunately proved detrimental to the interests of the producing artists. Consequently, Efa and INDIGO Musikvertrieb [INDIGO Music Distribution] separated in 1992.

Schneeball’s most productive era was already over by the mid 1980s. The reasons were manifold. Ton Stein Scherben broke up. Rio Reiser began a solo career at Sony. At EMBRYO too, many years of collaboration among the musicians and composers Christian Burchard, Roman Bunka and Uve Müllrich came to an end after a trip to India – but not before the releases of the double LP “EMBRYO’s Reise” [“EMBRYO’s Trip”], a road movie, and a music documentary film “Vagabundenkarawane” [“Caravan of Vagabonds”] by Werner Penzel and Nico Humpert.

EMBRYO’s dissidents hived off, joined forces with Hartmut Bremer, and co-founded the EXIL [EXILE] label, likewise at INDIGO. Christian Burchard formed EMBRYO anew with different personnel. Sparifankal switched to a new label and a new distributor. A great die-off of the pioneering German bands began, and no one wept to see the trailblazers disappear. Punk, Neue deutsche Welle, disco: the audience’s orientations had changed.

Othmar Schreckeneder, EMBRYO’s producer since 1972, continued to publish audio recordings until the mid 1990s on the Schneeball label with EMBRYO and its guest musicians from diverse cultures and countries. He also published radio plays for Bayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Radio] (Ernst Jandl, Grace Yoon) and works by artists such as Eugen de Ryck, Chris Karrer, and Amon Düül II.

EMBRYO switched to Trikont, thus remaining under Indigo’s distribution. Only Schreckeneder continued to use the label for occasional new releases, e.g. Charlie Mariano with Rama Mani in 2005 or Peter Michael Hamel with Thomas Gundermann in 2014.

Schneeball was the trailblazer of the “Independent Label” movement, which conquered its place in the global music industry.

First issues of April/Schneeball

 * (0000) : Sparifankal - Bayernrock
 * (0001) : Missus Beastly - Dr. Aftershave And The Mixed Pickles
 * (0002) : Ton Steine Scherben - Wenn die Nacht am tiefsten ...
 * (0003) : Embryo - Live
 * (0004) : Julius Schittenhelm - Aristoteles
 * (0005) : Embryo - Bad Heads And Bad Cats
 * (0006) : Brühwarm Theater / Ton Steine Scherben - Mannstoll
 * (0007) : Ton Steine Scherben - Keine Macht für Niemand
 * (0008) : Ton Steine Scherben - Warum geht es mir so dreckig?
 * (0009) : The Real Ax Band - nicht stehen bleiben, move your ass in time
 * (0010) : Embryo - Apo Calypso
 * (0011) : Missus Beastly - Space Guerrillia
 * (0013) : APRIL ist SCHNEEBALL // sampler
 * (0018) : Sparifankal - Huraxdax Drudnhax
 * (0020) : Embryo - Embryo's Reise
 * (0021) : Julius Schittenheim - Müllmutanten
 * (0023) : Embryo - Live
 * (2012) : Munju - Highspeed Kindergarten
 * (2014) : Moira - Crazy Count Down
 * (2015) : Checkpoint Charlie - Frühling, der Krüppel
 * [2017) : Munju - Moon You
 * (2019) : Checkpoint Charly - Die Durchsichtige
 * (2022) : Munju - Brot & Spiele
 * (2024) : Checkpoint Charly - Kravall im Schweinestall
 * (3025) : Hammerfest - Hier bei uns
 * (3026) : Hammerfest - Schleudertest
 * (12-1035): Hammerfest - Dezente Elemente
 * (ST-HFOO 1) : Hammerfest - An einem schönen Tag in Mai / Wir jagen diese Irren aus unserem Land
 * (ASS1) : Elastic Rock Band - Faruks Traum
 * (ASS3) : Unsonst und Draussen (sampler Vlotho' 76
 * (ASS5) : Embryo - Anthology
 * (ASS9) : Gebärväterli - In Tal der Emmen
 * (MC-1) Dissident of Embryo (Compact Cassette)
 * (nnnn) = historical distribution number
 * additional : three live samplers : Vlotho - umsonst und draussen 1975 / 1976 / 1977
 * (LC 5372) : Hammerfest - Schöne Grüße aus Hammerfest (first Schneeball CD (1991))

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Schneeball (record label)


text:
Mohammad Shah Qajar

Mohammad Shah (born Mohammad Mirza; 5 January 1808 – 5 September 1848) was the third Qajar shah of Iran from 1834 to 1848, inheriting the throne from his grandfather, Fath-Ali Shah. From a young age, Mohammad Mirza was under the tutelage of Haji Mirza Aqasi, a local dervish from Tabriz whose teachings influenced the young prince to become a Sufi-king later in his life. After his father Abbas Mirza died in 1833, Mohammad Mirza became the crown prince of Iran and was assigned with the governorship of Azarbaijan. After the death of Fath-Ali Shah in 1834, some of his sons including Hossein Ali Mirza and Ali Mirza Zel as-Soltan rose up as claimants to the throne. With the support of English and Russian forces, Mohammad Shah suppressed the rebellious princes and asserted his authority.

Mohammad Shah dismissed and executed his tactful premier, Abol-Qasem Qa'em-Maqam, and appointed his favourite, Haji Mirza Aqasi, as the grand vizier. The new shah's main goal was to reestablish the rule of the Iranian government in the rebellious city of Herat. In 1837 he marched to Herat and laid a futile siege on the city, which was eventually withdrawn when the British government threatened to invade Iran. On his return, Mohammad suppressed a revolt in Isfahan led by the major clergy figure Mohammad Bagher Shafti. Through British-Russian mediation, he concluded the Second Treaty of Erzurum with the Ottoman Empire, after initially wanting retaliation for the sack of Khorramshahr by the Ottoman governor of Baghdad.

Due to British pressure, Mohammad Shah reluctantly abolished the slave trade through the Persian Gulf, but still allowed the possession and trade of slaves in the country. During the rise of the Bábism faith and its prophet Báb, Mohammad refused to persecute them despite the fatwa (decree) imposed by Shiite clerics. Diplomatic relations between France and Iran recommenced during his reign. Mohammad suffered from gout, which overshadowed his reign. In the final years of his life, his physical health deteriorated, leading to his death from a combination of gout and erysipelas on 4 September 1848 at the age of 40 after fourteen years of reign. He was buried in Fatima Masumeh Shrine in Qom and was succeeded by his son, Naser al-Din Shah.

As a ruler, Mohammad Shah did not receive praise. He was labeled as a figurehead king for Aqasi, whom he was highly dependent on. Mohammad was devoted to both Aqasi and his teachings on Sufism; he became a willing sustainer of Sufis, and sought spiritual guidance in mystical rituals instead of the marji'i taqlīd (Shiite clerics). The ulama grew as his firmest rivals, who challenged his legitimacy and authority throughout his short reign. Mohammad enlarged the Qajar bureaucracy, and filled governmental positions with Aqasi's Sufi friends and companions, thus establishing a corrupt administration that saw its peak during his son's reign. Mohammad Shah was the last Qajar king who attended the battlefield in a foreign war, and was also the last to use the title Ghazi (warrior of Islam) for his activity in the Iran-Russia war and for suppressing the rebellion in Isfahan.

Background
The Russian Empire invaded the Caucasus in 1795, while Agha Mohammad Khan, the founder of the Qajar dynasty, was reconquering the eastern provinces of Iran. Thus, Agha Mohammad was forced to withdraw his army and march towards Caucasus without consolidating his rule in the east, including in Herat. The Russian army retreated before he could reach the Caucasus, and, Agha Mohammad was assassinated in 1797 in Shusha. Though his realm never reached the far east of Greater Khorasan, he was recognised as the Shahanshah by Ahmad Shah Durrani, who proclaimed his allegiance in a public khutba. Agha Mohammad Khan was succeeded by his nephew, Fath-Ali Shah (Then called Baba Khan). During the reign of Fath-Ali Shah the tension in the Iranian-Russian relation escalated and turned into two full scale wars which saw the defeat of Iran in several stages; According to the Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties, large parts of the realm were separated and Iran was forced to make many concessions to Russia. The war also tarnished Iran's global image to a weak state with unstable borders, and overshadowed Iranian pride.

In Europe, British Empire, gained sovereignty over India and viewed Iran as a strong barrier to prevent Russia from gaining access to the region. On the other hand, it was well known that the Russian Empire, in its quest to reach the open waters in southern Iran, intended to expand its sovereignty over Iranian territory. Thus, during the reign of Fath-Ali Shah, the Iranian political stage was a competition between the Russian and British governments to receive numerous concessions and expand political influence.

In the years between the two wars with Russia, a conflict broke out between Iran and the Ottoman Empire in 1821, which ended with the military victory of Iran and the conclusion of the First Treaty of Erzurum in 1823. The treaty did not resolve fundamental differences, the most important of which was the unclear borders of the two nations. There were also disputes such as the persecution of Iranian pilgrims to Shiite holy sites by the Ottomans and the citizenship of border tribes. Another contentious issue was the trade rivalry between Khorramshahr and Basra.

From the beginning of his reign, Fath-Ali Shah tried to present himself as a pious king in the eyes of Shiite clerics and went so far as to declare his monarchy a subrogation for the ulama. During his reign, Isfahan once again took on the image of the religious capital of Iran, and the government left the hands of Shiite clerics free to persecute religious minorities. Sufis suffered the most. Fath-Ali Shah took upon himself to lead their persecution; In such ways like ordering to "suffocate" the Sufi leaders of Tabriz.

Childhood

Mohammad Mirza was born on 5 January 1808 in Tabriz. He was the eldest son of crown prince Abbas Mirza and Glin Khanum, daughter of Mirza Mohammad Khan Qajar Davallu. During his childhood and youth, Mohammad Mirza was a "quiet" and "shy" boy with no apparent political ambitions. He completed his traditional princely education in Tabriz and became a skilled calligrapher and painter, the latter which he learned from the Scottish artist Robert Ker Porter. His level of knowledge, however, was limited compared to that of his brothers, especially Djahangir Mirza and Farhad Mirza, who excelled in writing and other "branches of science". A turning point in his life was the arrival of the local dervish, Haji Mirza Aqasi to his father's household. By the orders of Abbas Mirza's majordomo, Mirza Bozorg Qa'em-Maqam, Aqasi was appointed the chief tutor to Mohammad, who quickly became a devotee to his Sufi teachings. Abol-Qasem Qa'em-Maqam, another of Mohammad's tutors, tried to dissuade Mohammad from studying under Aqasi but Aqasi's influence on Mohammad increased.

When Mohammad Mirza was 12 years old, Fath-Ali Shah summoned him from Tabriz to Tehran to marry Malek Jahan Khanom, the daughter of Mohammad Qasim Khan Zahir al-Dawla, to establish solidarity between the royal family and the Davallu cadet branch of the Qajar dynasty. The marriage, which took place in September 1819, was loveless. As a result of recurring deaths of their infants, Mohammad Mirza developed resentment towards Malek Jahan. Of their children, only Naser al-Din Mirza, who later became the crown prince and then king of Iran; and Ezzat ed-Dowleh, who married Amir Kabir, later the chief minister of Naser al-Din Shah; survived into adulthood.

Early military career

The Second Russo-Iranian War began with the declaration of jihad by Shiite clerics. During the war, Abbas Mirza sent Mohammad Mirza with an army consisting of the tribes of Khajevandi and Abdul Maliki to protect the fortress of Ganja. There, with the command of Amir Khan Sardar—Abbas Mirza's maternal uncle—Mohammad launched an attack on the Russian army. In the resulting battle, Amir Khan was killed and Mohammad was severely defeated and forced to retreat; he, however, was praised for his efforts during the war and was nicknamed as Gazi (warrior of Islam). After the war, Fath Ali Shah appointed Abbas Mirza to rule Khorasan and regulate the security of that area, which underwent constant raids by Prince Kamran, whom the Iranian government had previously appointed as the governor of Herat and now styled himself "Shah". Mohammad Mirza also accompanied his father on this trip. In one of his missions, Mohammad released nearly 20,000 Iranians held captive by Central Asian Sunni tribes; in honor of this victory, he named his newborn child "Naser al-Din" (defender of the faith).

Abbas Mirza spent two years in Khorasan suppressing rebel khans; Khiva and Herat supported these revolts, and promised aid but Mohammad's victories discouraged them. In 1832, Abbas Mirza summoned Kamran Shah, the ruler of Herat, to pay tribute but Kamran instead sent his vizier Yar Mohammad Khan. Feeling insulted, Abbas Mirza sent Mohammad Mirza with an army to Herat. Mohammad Mirza advanced directly to Herat and prepared for a siege. Meanwhile, Abbas Mirza was on his way with reinforcement when he suddenly died in Mashhad. Upon hearing the news, Mohammad Mirza and Abol-Qasem Qa'em-Maqam, who was also a leading figure in the siege, were forced to negotiate with Kamran. It was agreed Kamran would accept the sovereignty of Iran, pay 15,000 tomans in gold and fifty Kashmir shawls, and release the Iranian prisoners who had been captured during the war. Mohammad appointed his brother Ghahreman Mirza the governor of Khorasan and, with Qa'em-Maqam, went to Tehran to claim the title of crown prince.

Accession

At Nowruz (Iranian New Year, which was held at the March equinox) of 1834, Mohammad Mirza was appointed as crown prince and took the governorship of Azarbaijan—the office of his father—and left Tehran for Tabriz. As crown prince, Mohammad Mirza was under the complete influence of Qa'em-Maqam, on whose orders, he imprisoned four of his brothers, including Djahangir Mirza and Khosrow Mirza, in Ardabil and later blinded them to invalidate their claims to the throne. The appointment of Mohammad as the crown prince angered Fath-ali Shah's fifth son Hossein Ali Mirza, the Prince-Governor of Fars, who thought the appointment would deprive him of his rights and was a sign of submission to Russian demands.

In October 1834, Fath-Ali Shah, with the intention of collecting 200,000 tomans tax arrears from Hossein Ali Mirza and a hidden motive to revoke him of his lands, went to Fars but died en route at Isfahan. Couriers were quickly sent to Tabriz but otherwise, the shah's death remained secret. His body was then taken to Fatima Masumeh Shrine for burial; only then the death it was publicly announced. As expected, his death sparked revolts across the country, and a number of princes, including Hossein Ali Mirza in Shiraz and Ali Mirza Zel as-Soltan in Tehran, proclaimed themselves kings.

In early November, John Campbell and Comte Ivan Simonich, British and Russian envoys respectively, arrived in Tabriz to proclaim their support for Mohammad Mirza. They provided him an army led by Col. Henry Lindsay Bethune that set off for Tehran, where Ali Mirza had proclaimed himself king. Mohammad's army met the 15,000 Ali Mirza's men, who were led by Ali's brother Emamverdi Mirza, in Takestan, west of Qazvin. After a brief confrontation, Emamverdi Mirza sought to surrender and pledge fealty to Mohammad. The new king agreed to waive his uncles' punishment. In early 1835, Mohammad entered the capital with Qa'em-Maqam, his courtiers and Russian and British ambassadors, and was crowned king on 14 January.

In February 1835, Mohammad sent an army under command of Manuchehr Khan Gorji to liberate Isfahan from Hossein Ali Mirza's forces, who were under the command of his brother Shoja al-Saltanah. After reconquering Isfahan, Manuchehr Khan Gorji marched to Shiraz, where he captured Hossein Ali Mirza and ended his rebellion. Hossein Ali was imprisoned in Ardabil and soon died of cholera; with his defeat, the other rebel princes surrendered their claims and recognized Mohammad as the king of Iran.

Early years
Mohammad Shah appointed Qa'em-Maqam as his grand vizier. Qa'em-Maqam's efforts in budgeting and his disdain for the courtiers made him an unpopular figure in the court. As soon as he became the grand vizier, Qa'em-Maqam had the royal princes swear an oath of fealty to Mohammad, otherwise he had them imprisoned, a fate that befell many Qajar princes such as Mahmud Mirza, the governor of Kashan, who refused to relinquish his claim and thus lost his title and wealth. Soon, Qa'em-Maqam was attacked by rivals, the most prominent being Allahyar Khan Asef ol-Dowleh—Mohammad Shah's uncle from the Davallu tribe—and a coalition led by Aqasi. Qa'em-Maqam's adversaries soon extended to British envoy John Campbell, who expected grand privileges for his contribution to Mohammad's enthronement but was refused by Qa'em-Maqam. To lessen British influence over the court, Qa'em-Maqam tried to improve Iran's relations with the Ottoman Empire. His rivals, with slanderous accusations, urged Mohammad to have Qa'em-Maqam ousted from his position and Mohammad eventually agreed to do so. On 22 June 1835, he arrested and imprisoned Qa'em-Maqam in Negarestan Palace and four days later, he ordered Qa'em-Maqam's execution.

Mohammad Shah then spent a few month without a grand vizier. Campbell expressed his support for Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi while his courtiers supported Abdollah Amin al-Dowleh, an erstwhile grand vizier of Fath-Ali Shah, but Mohammad chose Aqasi, who filled this position for most of Mohammad's reign. By this time, Mohammad's health had become a concern for the kingdom's future and the four-year-old Naser al-Din Mirza was appointed the crown prince. Mohammad Shah granted the governorship of Azarbaijan, which the Qajar kings bestowed upon the heir apparent, to his firstborn son and appointed his brother Ghahreman Mirza as Naser al-Din's regent. Ghahreman Mirza was in close contact with the Russian government; when he died in 1839, Mohammad replaced him with his last-surviving full-brother, Bahman Mirza.

In 1837, a rebellion broke out in Kerman, led by Hassan Ali Shah, better known as Agha Khan I, the leader of Nizari Ismailis The Nizari Muslims, though few in number, lived in Iran under the leadership of Hassan Ali Shah, who asserted his place by marrying Fath-Ali Shah's daughter Sarveh Jahan Khanum and acquiring the title Aga Khan. When Mohammad Shah ascended the throne, on the advice of Qa'em Maqam, he appointed Agha Khan the governor of Kerman, a rebellious state that was governed by Shoja al-Saltanah, a brother of Hossein Ali Mirza. Agha Khan pacified the state but his governorship was short-lived; in 1837, he was recalled to Tehran and was replaced with Firouz Mirza, the shah's brother. Agha Khan declared a rebellion against the shah, and withdrew with his forces to Bam. Mohammad Shah sent an army under the command of Sourab Khan; they besieged Bam and took the severely injured brother of Agha Khan prisoner. After eight months, Agha Khan surrendered and was imprisoned; his belongings were plundered and he was not allowed to receive his religious due sent from India, Khurasan and Badakhshan. Agha Khan was a prisoner of the shah until 1838, when he was allowed to retreat to his familial lands in Mahallat.

Herat campaign
After asserting his authority, Mohammad Shah's main objective was to annex Herat. This alarmed Kamran Shah and prompted him to attempt to gather neighboring tribes such as the Jamshidi, Tumani and Hazara in Herat to resist Mohammad in the event of a military campaign. These mobilizations alarmed the British government, which sent Alexander Burnes and Eldred Pottinger to Kabul and Herat respectively. Among Britain's concerns was Article 11 of the Treaty of Turkmenchay, which allowed Russia to establish consulates and trade missions with up to ten members throughout Iranian territory, implanting influence on Afghanistan and therefore becoming a threat to British India. The UK accused the Russian government of encouraging Iran to invade Herat. Iran wanted to retake of Herat partly because of Mohammad's desire to unite the Persian-speaking tribes of the Afghan highlands with Iran, and because wanted to free Iranian prisoners who were taken by Sunni tribes who lived near Khorasan. Conquest of Herat was also the first step in a plan to extend Iran's influence up to Amu Darya. In late 1836, Mohammad ordered his army to be mustered for the following spring. This gave John McNeill, the British envoy in Iran, time to arrange a treaty in which Herat would resume paying tributes. Yar Mohammad Khan, however, would not tolerate Iranian sovereignty and Mohammad Shah would not withdraw unless the city was conquered.

In 1837, Mohammad Shah marched on Herat. British officers were expelled from the Iranian army and the British embassy was closed. Mohammad took personal command of Iran's 80,000 troops whereas Kamran Shah had gathered a few thousand poorly equipped soldiers. The ruler of Herat had little hope of resisting Mohammad Shah because the city's population, who had been terrorized by their overlord and dispirited by economic decline, and were unlikely to put up any fight; also, the crumbling fortification of the city's walls were in poor repair and would not withstand an assault. Kamran Shah's only source of hope was the support of Sher Mohammad Khan Hazara, the Amir of Qala e Naw, who vowed a fight to death for Kamran Shah, and brought about 4,000 foot soldiers and numerous horsemen to Herat's army. Sher Mohammad Khan Hazara also organized an alliance between Aimaq, Uzbek and Turkman tribes under the banner of Sunni Islam. Thus, with the leadership of Sher Mohammad and Kamran Shah's son Nader Mirza, ten-to-twelve-thousand horsemen assembled around Qala-e Naw and threatened to attack Iran's borders.

On 28 October, Mohammad Shah camped at Torbat-e Jam, where to counteract, he ordered 12,000 of his best soldiers under the command of Mohammad Khan Asef al-Dowleh, the governor of Khorasan, to march to Qala e Naw. By the middle of November, he had seized the city and its surrounds, dividing Sher Mohammad's army in two; one part was camped in Kushk under the command of Mohammad Zaman Jamshidi and the other was already retreating to Herat. The Jamshidi army faced Asef al-Dowleh's men and were scattered in a desperate fight; two-or-three-hundred men were killed and as many taken prisoner. Despite their victory, the Iranian army faced a difficult time, suffering the winter cold that reached the mountains much earlier than it reached Herat and a shortage of supplies that could only be purchased at high prices. Eventually, Asaf al-Dowleh and his men marched through the mountains to Bala Murghab and from there to Maymana, where he defeated another host of the Afghan army under the command of Sher Mohammad Khan. After this victory, Asaf al-Dowleh sent an ambassador to his opponent's camp, and promised them freedom and wealth if they surrendered to Mohammad Shah. His offer was received positively and Sher Mohammad agreed to send two of his sons to Herat to proffer their submission to Mohammad Shah.

On 23 November, Mohammad Shah with a part of his army reached the outskirts of Herat, where they faced fierce resistance from the defenders but eventually forced them to retreat behind the city walls. Mohammad Shah set up his camp south-east of Herat and began a long siege of the city. The Iranian army had a dilemma; Aqasi wanted to wait for Russian aid whereas Mirza Aqa Khan Nuri argued for crushing the city walls. Mohammad Shah faced problems feeding his men; his army quickly ran out of supplies, and the lines back to Mashhad were insecure and often impassable. The fields around Herat were already harvested by the residents and the remains had been destroyed. The problem was only solved after the spring of 1838, when Mohammad Shah ordered his men to plant their crops.

In March 1838, John McNiell arrived at Mohammad Shah's camp as the British representative; he failed to dissuade Mohammad and thus on 7 June 1838, he withdrew from Herat. Ten days later, the British Indian fleet from Bombay occupied Kharg Island and threatened further military actions. Under pressure to end the campaign, Mohammad Shah ordered a full-scale assault of Herat, which failed with many casualties. The British sent an ultimatum threatening war if the siege continued. The Russians abandoned Mohammad Shah's cause and withdrew their support. These, along with news of rebellions, led Mohammad Shah to give up his campaign and end the siege. Although he failed to conquer Herat, Mohammad's army still occupied Ghurian and other forts; a number of Afghan warlords such as Kohendil Khan of Kandahar would remain loyal to Mohammad Shah.

Rebellion in Isfahan
Mohammad Bagher Shafti was one of the most distinguished religious figures of the time; with a fortune of two-and-a-half million francs. Shafti rebelled against Mohammad Shah in 1834, when he tried to seize the city Isfahan from its Prince-Governor Sayf ol-Dowleh. Over four years, Shafti took control of the city's Luti population and in 1838, he raised against the governor of the city, Gholam Hossein Khan Sepahdar, and therefore Mohammad Shah. Shafti's men, who were known for their acts of murder, robbery and rape, looted the city and took the booty to Jameh Mosque of Isfahan. There, Shafti declared their leader Ramazan as Ramazan Shah and ordered the striking of coins in his name. The roots of this revolt lay in a letter from McNiell to Shafti, in which he implied the cause of the war in Herat was the Shah's warmongering and obduracy. The rebellion was supported by a Safavid descendant called Nawab Safavi, which further encouraged the rebels to kill the city's deputy governor.

As a result, between 1838 and 1840, Isfahan was in the hands of rebels, especially the Lutis, whose numbers were increasing because the city's poor people were joining the Lutis' and Shafti's cause. To end their rebellion, Mohammad Shah went to Isfahan with 60,000 troops on the return journey from Herat. It was unprecedented for the shah to take arms against the state's clergy, especially Shafi, who was considered a clergy leader and Isfahan was regarded as the religious capital of Iran. Modern historian Homa Nategh noted this act as a "coup d'état".

Upon reaching the city, Mohammad Shah ordered the cannons to bombard Isfahan. Shafti, fearing great losses, opened the city's northern gate and the Lutis deserted from the southern gate. Mohammad Shah triumphantly entered the city and instantly ordered the execution of the remaining Lutis. He could not charge Shafti in any extreme measures but exiled his son to Astrabad. The Luti leader Ramazan Shah died while under torture and of his men, 240 were killed and 400 were arrested. Mohammad Shah ordered a court to be set up so that the people could recount Lutis' crimes. Mohammad took the lands and properties Shafti and the Lutis had usurped, and made them part of his demesne lands. Harsh penalties were made to ensure stability and fear, and to prevent future rebellions. Mohammad Shah celebrated his victory greatly, trying to erase the memory of his failure in Herat. To declare Shafti's cause blasphemy, Mohammad Shah adopted the title Ghazi (the warrior of Islam), which was previously given to him for the war with the Russian empire.

The Second Treaty of Erzurum

Hostilities with the Ottomans and tensions over the borderlands of the two empires were unresolved by the treaty of Erzurum and later led to incidents during Mohammad Shah's reign that pushed him to start a war, such as the sack of Khorramshahr by Ali Reza Pasha, the governor of Baghdad, in 1837. In the early 1840s, peace in the frontier of Iran and the Ottoman Empire became a prioritized European project. Negotiations between the two nations began in 1842 in Erzurum, a sizeable frontier town. The Iranian commission included Mirza Taqi Khan Farahani, later known as Amir Kabir, whose involvement in the treaty brought him to attention in political circles. On the Ottoman side was Enveri Sadullah Efendi, a member of the Supreme Council of Justice whose arrogance and occasional undiplomatic language created so many problems that he was considered to be replaced. Negotiations began on 15 May 1843; Mohammad Shah had demanded the Iranian plenipotentiaries to resolve the negotiations quickly or he would raise arms against the Ottoman Empire. Negotiations lasted for four years, mostly because of delays caused by political and military crises such as the Ottoman massacre of 22,000 Shi'i Iranian pilgrims on the road to Karbala that caused the suspension of the negotiations for three months.

Negotiations were resumed by British and Russian mediators. Territorial restitution were confined to the cities Khorramshahr, Zohab and Sulaymaniyah, and the Iranian dominance over the Shatt al-Arab. Ownership of Zohab was a heated argument between negotiators; the town, which was insignificant in itself, was captured by Mohamad Ali Mirza Dowlatshah, the firstborn son of Fath-Ali Shah, during the Ottoman-Persian war of 1821 and Iran retained sovereignty over it even though in the First Treaty of Erzurum, had agreed to return it. Farahani suggested Zohab to be divided between the two nations but the Iranian party later agreed to return sovereignty of the town to the Ottomans who, in return, would forsake their desire to dominant the Shatt al-Arab's trade route. When the commissioners began discussing Khorramshahr, Farahani declared the town has always been part of Khuzistan and demanded £1 million in compensation for the 1837 sack of the city. Despite the Ottoman protests and arguments, Khorramshahr was stated as a part of Iran after Farahani's firm efforts.

In May 1846, the first drafts of the treaty were written. Russia and Britain were to draw up a map of the border areas, and both parties would accept it. In the meantime, Farahani fell ill and a riot broke out in Erzurum, his house was looted and two of his companions were torn to pieces by rebels. Negotiations were suspended for several months. The Ottoman government formally apologized to Iran, imprisoned 300 rioters and paid 15,000 tomans in compensation. Afterwards, negotiations resumed and resulted in a treaty with nine articles. The Ottoman party, however, were unsatisfied with the outcome and threatened to leave the negotiations. The mediators, determined to avoid such results, secretly gave assurance to the Ottomans. On 31 May 1847, Farahani and Efendi signed the treaty and left Erzurum, and on 26 June, Mohammad Shah also ratified the treaty.

While the tensions seemed to be resolved, the Ottoman government secretly added three more articles to the treaty with the support of British and Russian ambassadors. Based on these articles, Iran's rights on the Shatt al-Arab were revoked and those on Khorramshahr were reduced. Contrary to the agreements, control of Shatt al-Arab, except for a few islands, was handed to the Ottoman Empire. At the end of January 1848, Mirza Javad, a courier from Tehran, arrived in Istanbul with Mohammad Shah's ratified copies of the treaty; the Ottoman government insisted they would not ratify the treaty unless the shah agreed to the new articles. Not wanting to raise Mohammad Shah's suspicion, the British and Russian ambassadors persuaded Mirza Mohammad-Ali Khan Shirazi, Iran's envoy to France who was in Istanbul at the time, to ratify the new articles, alternatively called the "Explanatory Note". Mirza Mohammad-Ali agreed, only if the ambassadors signed an official statement on which they informed Mohammad Shah the new articles were necessary for maintaining the treaty. Mohammad Shah did not accept the new terms and declared the treaty false and invalid. The tensions between Iran and the Ottomans persisted even after the fall of the Ottoman Empire when the newly established country, Iraq inherited the Ottoman claims against Iran.

Abolition of slavery in the Persian Gulf
In the 1840s, an estimated four-to-five-thousand slaves were sold in the Persian Gulf each year. When Justin Sheil succeeded John McNiel as the envoy to Iran in 1844, he and his wife decided to act against the slavery. He sent a letter to Aqasi and pleaded for an abolition. Mohammad Shah, however, did not respond to this diplomatic pressure so Sheil brought up the moral aspect of slavery, emphasizing its negative impacts on the African population. Mohammad Shah remained unmoved and said abolition would contradict the Islamic tradition. Sheil further argued his points but Mohammad responded such interference would undermine diplomatic relations between the two nations.

In late 1847, Sheil was recalled to London and replaced with Colonel Francis Farrant, who also negotiated for abolition with Aqasi. Farrant was more successful, especially for the newly signed treaty of Erzurum that put him a good light for the grand vizier. Farrant argued if the Ottoman Empire could abolish slavery in their nation, Iranians could do the same. The argument appealed to Aqasi, who suggested it to Mohammad Shah. Mohammad wrote this to Farrant regarding the abolition of slavery in the Ottoman Empire:

"Between the religions of Europe and our religion there is great distinction and difference, and we cannot observe or join in matters which are in accordance with their religion and in opposition to ours, why we wrote that the exalted English government should make enquiries of the Turkish government on this subject, was because that government being a Mahomedan state and in that country the traffic in slaves being much more extensive than any where else, we might observe what answer it will give, that then we may give a reply which should not be opposed to tenets of the Mahomedan faith."

Mohammad Shah agreed to the abolition of the slave trade through the Persian Gulf but having slaves and trading them over land was still allowed. On Mohammad's behest, Aqasi sent three letters to the governors of Fars, Kerman, and Isfahan, ordering the governors not to partake in the slave trade in the Persian Gulf. (In the same letters, he expressed his concerns for the shah's health). On the advice of both Sheil and Farrant, Aqasi also approached the major ulama of Tehran to ask their consent should the slave traders accuse them of blasphemy. The results were unfavorable; most of the ulama regarded slavers as legal according to Mohammedan law. Sheil, however, was successful in obtaining a fatwa in support of the shah's decision.

Last years and death

Throughout his life, Mohammad Shah suffered from gout and endured its recurrent attacks. He also suffered pain from the medicines given to him by his Jewish doctor, who was assigned to Mohammad when Aqasi dismissed the British and French doctors. The Jewish doctor's traditional remedies resulted to a severe paroxysm of Mohammad Shah's illness, upon which Mohammad became so weak that his death was rumoured throughout Tehran. He recovered but lost the use of one leg. Aqasi, however, refused to let any foreign-trained physician, especially English ones, approach Mohammad; only a French doctor named Labat was allowed to treat him. Under Labat's care, Mohammad recovered somewhat but was still so feeble he could only move with the help of two persons. Becoming infirm and debilitated, Mohammad lost the will to rule; he turned the government to Aqasi, leading to political and social turmoil.

Mohammad's dire health prompted the foreign powers to declare their support for Mohammad's eldest son Naser al-Din Mirza in February 1842. Bahman Mirza, who served as regent for Naser al-Din Mirza, however, began mobilizing forces at Tabriz, in hopes of becoming Naser al-Din's regent after Mohammad's death. Bahman Mirza had support from the Count Medem and John McNiel, the Russian and British envoys respectively, but the British withdrew their support when Shiel succeeded McNiel; the Russians considered him Mohammad's successor. To counteract the Russians, in 1845, Aqasi arranged a marriage for Naser al-Din Mirza with the daughter of Ahmad Ali Mirza, a son of Fath-Ali Shah. This wedding brought the young prince into the political spectrum. Mohammad's health slightly improved, and the realm and its succession seemed stable and secure. Rebellions, however, broke out in Khorasan, one of which Hasan Khan Salar led in support of Bahman Mirza's claim; another was led by Allah-Qoli Khan Ilkhani, a grandson of Fath-Ali Shah through his mother and a protégé of Aqasi to press his own claim. Both rebellions continued after Mohammad's death into the early years of Naser al-Din Shah.

After Mohammad ceased his role in the government, Aqasi increased influence on him. Aqasi, now Iran's most powerful figure, was also becoming avaricious of his position and was less inclined to govern because his mind was affected by opium. Mohammad, thinking highly of Aqasi, was happy to let him govern as he liked. In mid-to-late 1848, Mohammad suffered a combination of gout and erysipelas, from which it was clear he would not recover. Mohammad Shah Qajar died at around 21:00 on 4 September 1848. He was buried in Fatima Masumeh Shrine located in Qom and his tomb was placed near the shrine's sanctuary.

Religion

In his patronage of Sufism, Mohammad Shah was compared to Ismail I, the Safavid shah who made Twelverism Shia the official religion of Iran. Mohammad denoted Sufi Islam as the rival of Shi'ia and the ulama. The Sufis, who were persecuted during Fath-Ali Shah's reign, could now freely promote their beliefs. Mohammad was very dependent on his Sufi teacher Aqasi and gave court positions to Aqasi's Sufi friends such as Mirza Mahdi Khui, who became chief scribe of the court. Concurrent with their new patronage, Sufis took the idea of the Hidden Imam from the Shi'ia and connected it to their Sufi saints. Figures such as Safi-ad-din Ardabili became messengers of the Hidden Imam and the Sufi murshids (spiritual guides) were the only knowledgeable people who could read these communications, often through dreaming. The Sufis despised acts of torture and violence; when Aqasi became the grand vizier, he pleaded for their reduction. Mohammad would not accept it in his early years, arguing a culprit does not deserve sympathy, but as he aged and grew weaker from gout, he ordered the complete abolition of torture.

Mohammad's approach to the Shi'ia clergy was one of hostility and conflict. He abandoned Fath-Ali Shah's attempts to meet the demands of clergy. He never asked for a theoretical acknowledgment of his coronation and was more inclined to search his spiritual guide with the dervishes and Sufis than with the ulama of the state. On 24 November 1842, Mohammad issued a firman abolishing the rights of taking shelter in sanctuaries. He would constantly try to undermine the orthodox ulama position with the promotion of Sufism, and with the rise of Báb and Bábism. When Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi first claimed to be the Báb (gateway to the Hidden Imam), the ulama declared a fatwa saying he must be killed. Mohammad, however, called Báb to Tehran and promised him shelter. This alarmed Aqasi, who had the Báb sent to Maku in Azerbaijan, where he was kept under confinement. Facing dissent from Mohammad, however, he took no drastic measures against the Báb and his followers.

Although Mohammad had no enmity towards any branches of Christianity, he preferred to allow the French Lazarist missionaries into Iran rather than the English Anglicans. In hope of bringing modern education to the nation, he issued an edict that allowed missionaries to open schools. The head of the Lazarists was Eugène Boré, who in 1839 opened a school in Tabriz with both Christian and Muslim students. Boré's school provoked unrest among ulama of Tabriz but under the protection of Mohammad, they could not harm Boré.

Education
During his tenure as the governor of Azerbaijan, Abbas Mirza sent several students to France, mainly with the goal of improving the military. Mohammad Shah took his father's path and sent seven students of noble birth to Europe, among whom were Mirza Hosein Khan Sepahsalar, the future grand vizier of Naser al-Din Shah; and Mirza Malkam Khan, a prominent figure in the Iranian Enlightenment. These students were to master skills in military, painting, medicine, and geometry. Another 10 people were to be sent to France in 1847 but it is uncertain they were sent.

In 1837, on the orders of Mohammad, Mirza Saleh Shirazi published the first Iranian newspaper in Tehran. This newspaper was untitled and was referred to as Kaghaz-e Akhbar (literary news-paper). It lasted only for one issue but Mirza Saleh's determination led to him publishing another newspaper called Akhbar-i Vaqa-a which became Iran's first regular newspaper. Many lithographic printing presses were established in Tehran, Urmia, Tabriz and Isfahan on the orders of Mohammad.

Administration
As a result of various wars and the continual unrest throughout Iran, Mohammad Shah's treasury was virtually empty. In hope of improving financial conditions, he sought to revive barren fields that were burned in the wars with Russia and the local insurgencies. He asked the French foreign minister for a French irrigation expert but nothing came of it. With Mohammad's efforts, however, 1,438 villages—who were part of the royal domain—were made habitable. Mohammad inherited many domain lands from Fath-Ali Shah and Agha Mohammad Khan, and he greatly increased the amount. He confiscated properties of Aqasi and through revoking the lands of Hossein Ali Mirza, gained ownership over Fars and Persian Iraq. He also confiscated properties seized by the Lutis during the Isfahan rebellion, which was disliked by major landowners. On his orders, the number of the royal domains were recorded in the Raqabat-e Mohammadshahi, which also included all previous inventories.

Most of these domains were given to the villagers and the nomads who wanted a settlement. A part of Nader Shah's personal domains were returned to the Afshar tribe, who had inherited the claim to these lands once the Afsharid dynasty died out. Despite granting two crores of land per person, many of these lands still belonged to the crown and under the purposeful maladministration of the contemporary Mostowfi ol-Mamalek (royal treasurer), Mohammad was unable to return more of them and his successor, Naser al-Din Shah, completely ignored the Afshar people's pleads and petitions. The same Mostowfi ol-Mamalek secretly extorted money and forced villagers to pay taxes.

Mohammad reinstated governmental positions that had once been part of the Safavid bureaucracy. They bore mixed results; they improved the state's efficiency but led to a corrupt administration that reached its peak in Naser al-Din Shah's reign. Positions such as Mostowfi ol-Mamalek became hereditary and many holders of these offices accepted bribery for the lack of a regular salary. Aqasi enlarged governmental titles and promoted his kinsmen so the once-rudimentary bureaucracy of Agha Mohammad Khan became filled with positions with the same duties but under different names.

Military

Mohammad Shah continued the military reforms his father had started; these included abolishing tribal cavalry and modeling it on Frederick the Great's cavalry using Western military technology on a very small scale with Abbas Mirza's personal army of 1,000 regular infantry and 500 regular cavalry.

When Mohammad Shah ascended the throne, the Iranian army was disorganized, undisciplined and rigidly hierarchical. Mohammad could hardly muster more than 20,000 men, and those were in poor shape. Instead of carts and wagons, transportation took place by mules, camels and horses. Other than Abbas Mirza's cavalry, the army was filled with tribal cavalry who recognized only their tribal chief. To counter these problems, Mohammad Shah put forth a three-staged plan in which he would centralize the command, create arsenals, and recover from the losses suffered in the wars with Russia. He consolidated power upon himself and Aqasi to centralize the military. To create arsenals, he founded the Tehran foundry, which provided his army with 600 bronze cannons, 200 mortars; and rifles, muskets and Zamburaks.

At Mohammad's request, Henry Rawlinson was sent to Kermanshah in April 1835 to train Bahram Mirza's troops in the style of the Nezam-e Jadid. The Italian F. Colombari was also sent to Iran; he reformed the Zamburak units of the Iranian army with the new cannon saddles and new falconets he designed for them.

Diplomacy
Despite his short reign, Mohammad Shah left a lasting mark on Iran's foreign policy. He had resentment towards Russia and Britain, even though both nations supported him for the succession. The threat of Russian military bordering Azerbaijan and their navy anchoring in the port of Anzali Lagoon put Mohammad Shah in a state of paranoia at the thought of another war. The Russians argued that per the Treaty of Turkmenchay they were free to anchor their ships in the Caspian Sea but neither Mohammad nor Aqasi counted Anzali as part of the sea. To keep the Russian navy away, Mohammad ordered the army of Anzali to shoot at the Russians if they approached. These events led to Nicholas I exchanging letters with Mohammad. In a diplomatic sense, Mohammad allowed the Russian navy to anchor in Anzali. Another source of tension was Russian merchants in Tabriz and Tehran who owed money to Iranians but would not pay them in full. In 1843, Mohammad issued a firman ordering full payments of the debts to prevent fraudulent bankruptcies.

During his reign, various matters disturbed Anglo-Iranian relations, the most troublesome of which was Mohammad's campaign to Herat which led the British, for the first time in their relation with Iran, to invade Iran's southern islands in the Persian Gulf. In 1841, Mohammad signed a treaty with the British ambassador under which Britain could reopen their consulates in Tehran, Tabriz and Bushehr but had to withdraw from Kharg Island. This treaty was not ideal for either side; the British did not have the right to reside outside the three cities and their goal was to establish a consulate in Gilan near the Russian border. For Mohammad, the treaty was considered shameful and a surrender to his enemy's demand. After the signing of the agreement, inexpensive British goods entered Iran through the Tabriz-Trabzon trade zone and filled the country's markets, causing the bankruptcy of a number of Iranian businessmen in Tabriz. In 1844, Iranian merchants petitioned to Mohammad to prohibit the importing of European merchandise. In the following year, traders from Kashan implored Mohammad to defend their manufacturers against European merchandise. Both cases were rejected.

Mohammad Shah was an avid Francophile and most excited to build diplomatic relations with France in lieu of Britain and Russia. As a child, Mohammad learned French from Madame de la Marininere, a tutor in the court of Abbas Mirza. He denoted French as the diplomatic language of Iran and ensured diplomats and ambassadors from other nations were fluent in French. In 1839, to resume political relations with France, Mohammad sent Mirza Hossein Khan to Paris, where Hossein Khan was brought before King of France Louis Philippe I. The Iranian delegation took with them numerous gifts, including a translation of Shahnameh and the portrait of Mohammad, which is now kept in Louvre Museum. With Mohammad's insistence, the France embassy in Iran was reopened and France–Iran relations resumed, resulting in Iran sending students to France, a tradition that continued throughout modern Iranian history.

Family

Mohammad Shah had a large harem, although his harem was smaller than that of other Qajar kings, either from disliking sex with women or because of his severe illness. By the time he died, he had seven wives, with whom he sired four sons and five daughters. Of his consorts, a woman named Khadija was Mohammad's favourite; they had his best-loved son Abbas Mirza III, who was named after Mohammad's father Abbas Mirza and a deceased son of the same name. Mohammad, however, never showed fatherly affection to his son with Malek Jahan Khanom or the future king Naser al-Din. In 1839, Mohammad summoned the Naser al-Din to Tehran and treated him coldly. For most of his early childhood, Naser al-Din was no more than a nuisance for Mohammad and his grand vizier.

Of Mohammad Shah's seven wives, three of them are known to history:
 * Malek Jahan Khanom (26 February 1805 – 2 April 1873); mother of Naser al-Din Shah and Malek Zadeh Khanum.
 * Bolour Khanum Zandieh, the granddaughter of Karim Khan Zand. Mother of two daughters.
 * Khadija, daughter of a Naqshbandi chief. Mother of Abbas Mirza III.

He had four sons:
 * Naser al-Din Shah (16 July 1831 – 1 May 1896); Shah of Iran (r. 1848 – 1896)
 * Abbas Mirza II, died in childhood.
 * Abbas Mirza III (November 27, 1839 – April 13, 1897); known as Mulk Ara.
 * Mohammad Taqi Mirza (d. 1901); known as Rokn ed-Dowleh, governor of several provinces.
 * Abdol-samad Mirza (May 1843 – 21 October 1929); known as Ezz ed-Dowleh.

He had five daughters, four of whom are known:
 * Malek Zadeh Khanum, (1834-35 – 27 June 1905); known as Ezzat ed-Dowleh, married four times, and was the grandmother of Mohammad Ali Shah.
 * Ozra, daughter of Bolour Khanum Zandieh.
 * Effat al-Dowleh, daughter of Bolour Khanum Zandieh.
 * Aziz ol-Dowleh, married Fath-Ali Khan Saheb Divan.

Historiography and personality
Mohammad Shah's 14-year reign resembles an interregnum between the reigns of Fath-Ali Shah and Naser al-Din Shah. During his reign, the ulama possessed little influence over the crown. Mohammad was heavily influenced by Sufi theology as a result of his close friendship and reliance on Aqasi. His corresponding negligence of relations with the Shi'ia ulama was the most lasting aspect of his reign. Mohammad had a passive character, was withdrawn from everyday life, and most of the time was physically unwell; he relied on Aqasi to govern while taking a ceremonial role himself. The extent of Aqasi's influence over Mohammad increased in Mohammad's last years, when he became very dependent on his grand vizier; Aqasi, however, proved a poor ruler, and mismanaged the economy and the military. Mohammed's reign saw costly wars and maladministration, and by the end of it Iran suffered from instability, turmoil, and chaos.

Most historians present Mohammad as sedentary and aloof from governmental matters, an image that is accurate when applied to his later years. In his youth, though, Mohammad was an active soldier like his father and his grandfather. He was more Europeanised than his ancestors; Mohammad's dress contrasted the more traditional appearance of Fath-Ali Shah, who wore Persian ornamented long robes, high heels and a long beard. Mohammed wore semi-Europeanised dress and maintained a short beard. Travel writer James Baillie Fraser, who met Mohammad in 1834, described him as "the worthiest of all the numerous descendants of Fath-Ali Shah, particularly in the points of moral and private character". Mohammad was the last Qajar shah to lead his army into war. He was praised for his bravery; the contemporaneous historian Mohammad Taqi Sepehr wrote: "Until now, in Shiʿite realms, I never heard about a sovereign endowed with such a pure nature and so perfect manners and natural perfection. Bravery and firmness perfectly appeared in his demeanours." Still, most contemporary historians were unimpressed with his rulership and character. Some British writers accused him of being a Russian pawn for his instigation of the First Herat War.

Coinage and titles

On his seal is the text "al-Sultan ibn al-Sultan Mohammad Shah Ghazi" and on a portrait that was painted between 1836 and 1837, he is identified as "al-Sultan b. al-Sultan b. al-Sultan b. al-Sultan", an effort to legitimate his right of rule by remarking on his lineage. Mohammad used the titles "Khaqan son of Khaqan", a Turko-Mongol title; and Shahanshah, an ancient Iranian title, to follow the styles of Fath-Ali Shah, who used both Khaqan and Shahanshah.

His coins bear the inscription "Mohammad, Shahanshah-i Anbiya" (Mohammad, King of the Prophets). Mohammad Shah's coins display artistic aestheticism that is different to the coins of Fath-Ali and Naser al-Din, both of whom developed a love for glitter.

title: Mohammad Shah Qajar


text:
BAP (German band)

BAP is a German rock band. With thirteen albums reaching the number one in the German record charts, BAP is one of the most successful rock acts in their home country.

Nearly all of BAP's lyrics are written in Kölsch, the dialect of Cologne, or more precisely in a Kölsch-influenced derivation of Eifelplatt, a regional variant of the Ripuarian language spoken in the nearby rural Eifel. Niedecken's most prominent musical influences, especially early in his career, were Bob Dylan, the Kinks, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Wolfgang Ambros.

History

The group was founded in 1976 under the name Wolfgang Niedecken's BAP in Cologne by Wolfgang Niedecken and Hans Heres. In 1981, they released their most famous song "Verdamp lang her" (Damn long time ago), in which Niedecken describes regrets he has about his relationship with his then recently deceased father. The band's name "BAP" derived from "BAPP", both, a play-on-words on the Kölsch word "Papp" (related to the German word dad), but pronounced differently, and Niedecken's then-nickname.

Niedecken translated a collection of Bob Dylan's lyrics to German for his 1995 solo album Leopardefell.

Current members
(Information valid for 2024)

 * Wolfgang "Maître" Niedecken – singer (1976–present)
 * Werner Kopal – bass (1996–present)
 * Michael Nass – keyboards (1999–present)
 * Ulrich "Uli" Rode – guitar (2014–present)
 * Sönke Reich – drums (2014–present)
 * Anne de Wolff – violin, viola, cello, percussion, guitar, trombone (2014–present, as guest 2006–2014)
 * Axel Müller – saxophone, guitar, duduk, flutes (2018–present)
 * Franz Johannes Goltz – trombone (2018–present)
 * Benny Brown (musician) – trumpet, flügelhorn (2022–present)

Former members

 * "Afro" Bauermann – percussion (1976–1977)
 * Rainer "Saxello" Gulich – saxophone (1976–1977)
 * Hans "Honçe" Heres – guitar (1976–1980)
 * Klaus Hogrefe – bass (1976–1978)
 * Wolfgang "Wolli" Boecker – drums (1976–1983)
 * Manfred "Schmal" Boecker – percussion (1976–1995)
 * Wolfgang "Gröön" Klever – bass (1978–1980)
 * Bernd Odenthal – keyboards (1978–1980)
 * Fritz Kullmann – saxophone (1980)
 * "Steve Borg" (Stephan Kriegeskorte) – bass (1980–1995)
 * Klaus "Major" Heuser – guitar (1980–1999)
 * Hans "Fonz" Wollrath – sounds (1980–1999)
 * Alexander (Axel) "Tschaikägo" "Effendi" Büchel – keyboards (1981–1999)
 * Jan Dix – drums (1983–1985)
 * Pete King – drums (1986)
 * Jürgen Zöller – drums (1987–2014)
 * Mario Argandoña – percussion (1996–1997)
 * Jens Streifling – saxophone (1996–2002)
 * Sheryl Hackett – percussion (1999–2003)
 * Helmut Krumminga – guitar (1999–2014)
 * Rhani Krija – percussion (2014–2016, as guest 2008–2014)
 * Christoph Moschberger – trumpet (2018–2022)

Albums

 * 1979: Wolfgang Niedecken's BAP rockt andere kölsche Leeder [Wolfgang Niedecken's BAP rocks different Colognian songs]
 * 1980: Affjetaut [Defrosted]
 * 1981: Für usszeschnigge! [For cutout]
 * 1982: Vun drinne noh drusse [From the inside to the outside]
 * 1983: Live – bess demnähx... [Live – So long...]
 * 1984: Zwesche Salzjebäck un Bier [Between pretzels and beer]
 * 1985: Kristallnacht [Crystal night] (UK Sampler)
 * 1986: Ahl Männer, aalglatt [Old slick men]
 * 1988: Da Capo (album)
 * 1990: X für 'e U [Putting something over on someone]
 * 1991: ...affrocke!! (Live) [Rocking...]
 * 1993: Pik Sibbe [Seven of Spades]
 * 1995: Wahnsinn – Die Hits von 79–95 [Frenzy – The hits of 1979–1995]
 * 1996: Amerika (BAP album) [America]
 * 1999: Comics & Pin-Ups
 * 1999: Tonfilm [Talking movie]
 * 2001: Aff un zo [Every now and then]
 * 2002: Övverall (Live) [Everywhere]
 * 2004: Sonx [Songs]
 * 2005: Dreimal zehn Jahre [Thrice ten years]
 * 2008: Radio Pandora (plugged + unplugged)
 * 2009: Live und in Farbe (Live) [Live and in color]
 * 2011: Halv su wild [No big deal; literally: Half as wild]
 * 2011: Volles Programm (Live) [Full programme]
 * 2014: Das Märchen vom gezogenen Stecker [The tale of the unplugged plug]
 * 2016: Lebenslänglich (BAP album) [Lifelong]
 * 2016: Die beliebtesten Lieder 1976–2016 [The most popular songs 1976–2016]
 * 2016: Niedeckens BAP: Lebenslänglich im Heimathafen Neukölln [Lifelong at Heimathafen Neukölln]
 * 2018: Niedeckens BAP: Live und deutlich [Live and pronounced]
 * 2020: Alles fließt (album) [Everything flows]
 * 2024: Niedeckens BAP: Zeitreise / Live im Sartory [Time travel / Live at the Sartory]

Singles

 * 1980: "Chauvi Rock" [Chauvinist rock] / "Wahnsinn" [Frenzy]
 * 1981: "Jupp" [Joe] / "Frau, ich freu mich" [Woman, I'm glad]
 * 1981: "Verdamp lang her" [Damn long time ago] / "Waschsalon" [Laundromat café]
 * 1982: "Kristallnaach" [undefinedKristallnachtundefined] / "Wellenreiter" [Fashion surfer]
 * 1982: "Do kanns zaubre" [You can charm; literally: You can do the magic]
 * 1983: "Nemm mich met" [Take me with you] / "Ahn' ner Leitplank" [Alongside a guardrail]
 * 1984: "Drei Wünsch frei" [Three wishes free] / "Sendeschluss" [Sign-off]
 * 1984: "Alexandra, nit nur do" [Alexandra, not only you] / "Zofall un e janz klei bessje Glöck" [By accident with a little bit of luck]
 * 1985: "Bunte Trümmer" [Coloured ruins] / "Lisa"
 * 1986: "Endlich allein" [Alone at last] / "Almanya" [Almanya = Germany in Turkish]
 * 1986: "Time Is Cash, Time Is Money" / "Vun mir uss Kitsch (live)" [Sob stuff, if you want (live)]
 * 1988: "Fortsetzung folgt" [To be continued] / "Sandino"
 * 1988: "Saison der Container" [Container season]
 * 1988: "Dat däät joot" [This felt good] / "Op dä Deckel vum Clown" [Taking it on the clown's credit]
 * 1989: "Shanghai" / "Rääts un links vum Bahndamm" [To the right and left of the railway embankment]
 * 1990: "Alles em Lot" [Everything's alright] / "Domohls" [Back then]
 * 1991: "Vis à Vis" [Face to face] / "Griefbar noh" [In close reach]
 * 1991: "Sie määt süchtig" [She's addictive] / "Happy End"
 * 1991: "Verdamp lang her (Live)" [Damn long time ago] / "Ne schöne Jrooß (Live)" [Best regards (Live)]
 * 1993: "Widderlich" [Disgusting] / "Blonde Mohikaner" [Blond Mohikans]
 * 1993: "Wie die Sichel vum Mohnd" [Like the moon's crescent]
 * 1993: "Paar Daach fröher" [A few days earlier]
 * 1995: "Ich danz met dir" [I dance with you]
 * 1996: "Lass se doch reden" [Let them talk]
 * 1996: "Nix wie bessher" [Nothing as it was before]
 * 1996: "Weihnachtnaach (feat. Nina Hagen)" [Christmas night] (This is a German-language version of Fairytale of New York by The Pogues)
 * 1998: "Lena"
 * 1999: "Ahnunfürsich" [In and of itself]
 * 1999: "Rita"
 * 1999: "Mayday"
 * 2000: "FC, jeff Jas! (Aufstiegsversion)" [undefinedFC, step on it! (Promotion version)]
 * 2001: "Aff un zo" [Every now and then]
 * 2001: "Shoeshine"
 * 2002: "Schluss, aus, okay" [End, over, okay]
 * 2003: "FC, jeff Jas! (Die dritte Version)" [FC, step on it! (the third version)]
 * 2004: "Wann immer du nit wiggerweiss" [Whenever you don't know what to do]
 * 2004: "Für Maria" [For Maria]
 * 2005: "Frau, ich freu mich" [Woman, I'm glad]
 * 2006: "Verdamp lang her (Die verdammt lange Single)" [A damn long time ago (The damn long single)]
 * 2006: "Time Is Cash, Time Is Money (feat. Culcha Candela)"
 * 2008: "Morje fröh doheim" [Home tomorrow morning]
 * 2011: "Halv su wild" [No big deal; literally: Half as wild]
 * 2012: "All die Augenblicke [feat. Clueso]" [All the moments]

Related projects

 * 1983: Book BAP övver BAP [BAP about BAP]
 * 1987: Album Schlagzeiten [Hit times] (Wolfgang Niedecken solo-album)
 * 1989: Book BAP övver China (about their Chinese tour)
 * 1992: Album Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander [Get up and speak out; literally: Ass up, teeth apart] (various bands from Cologne, live concert against racism and neo-fascism)
 * 1995: Album Leopardefell [Leopard's skin] (Wolfgang Niedecken solo-album with translated Dylan lyrics)
 * 2002: Film Vill passiert [A lot has happened] (film by Wim Wenders about BAP)
 * 2011: Book Für 'ne Moment [For a moment] (autobiography by Wolfgang Niedecken & Oliver Kobold)
 * 2022: Album Dylanreise [Dylan travel] (Wolfgang Niedecken solo-album)

title: BAP (German band)


text:
User:AlanBarrett

 * My talk
 * My contributions

title: User:AlanBarrett


text:
David Teniers the Elder

David Teniers the Elder (1582 – 29 July 1649), Flemish painter, was born at Antwerp.

Biography
Having received his first training in the painter's art from his brother Juliaen, he studied under Rubens in Antwerp, and subsequently under Elsheimer in Rome; he became a member of the Antwerp guild of painters in 1606.

Though his ambition led him at times to try his skill in large religious, historical and mythological compositions, his claim to fame depends chiefly on his landscapes and paintings of peasants carousing, of kermesse scenes and the like, which are marked by a healthy sense of humour, and which are not infrequently confused with the early works of his son David.

There is a large painting by the elder Teniers at St. Paul's church in Antwerp, representing the Works of Charity. At the Vienna Gallery are four landscapes painted by Teniers under the influence of Elsheimer, and four small mythological subjects, among them Vertumnus and Pomona, and Juno, Jupiter and Io. The National Gallery has a characteristic scene of village life, Playing at Bowls, a Conversation of three men and a woman, and a large Rocky Landscape. Other examples of his work are to be found at the galleries of St Petersburg, Madrid, Brussels, Munich, Dresden and Berlin (The Temptation of St Anthony).

Teniers also achieved success as a picture dealer, and is known to have attended the fair of St Germain in Paris in 1635, with a large number of paintings by himself and by his four sons. He died at Antwerp in 1649.

title: David Teniers the Elder


text:
RFB protocol

RFB ("remote framebuffer") is an open simple protocol for remote access to graphical user interfaces. Because it works at the framebuffer level it is applicable to all windowing systems and applications, including Microsoft Windows, macOS, the X Window System and Wayland. RFB is the protocol used in Virtual Network Computing (VNC) and its derivatives.

Description
By default, a viewer/client uses TCP port 5900 to connect to a server (or 5800 for browser access), but can also be set to use any other port. Alternatively, a server can connect to a viewer in "listening mode" (by default on port 5500). One advantage of listening mode is that the server site does not have to configure its firewall/NAT to allow access on the specified ports; the burden is on the viewer, which is useful if the server site has no computer expertise, while the viewer user would be expected to be more knowledgeable.

Although RFB started as a relatively simple protocol, it has been enhanced with additional features (such as file transfers) and more sophisticated compression and security techniques as it has developed. To maintain seamless cross-compatibility between the many different VNC client and server implementations, the clients and servers negotiate a connection using the best RFB version, and the most appropriate compression and security options that they can both support.

History
RFB was originally developed at Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) as a remote display technology to be used by a simple thin client with Asynchronous Transfer Mode connectivity called a Videotile. In order to keep the device as simple as possible, RFB was developed and used in preference to any of the existing remote display technologies.

RFB found a second and more enduring use when VNC was developed. VNC was released as open source software and the RFB specification published on the web. Since then RFB has been a free protocol which anybody can use.

When ORL was closed in 2002 some of the key people behind VNC and RFB formed RealVNC, Ltd., in order to continue development of VNC and to maintain the RFB protocol. The current RFB protocol is published on the RealVNC website.

Protocol versions
Published versions of the RFB protocol are as follows:

Developers are free to add additional encoding and security types but they must book unique identification numbers for these with the maintainers of the protocol so that the numbers do not clash. Clashing type numbers would cause confusion when handshaking a connection and break cross-compatibility between implementations. The list of encoding and security types was maintained by RealVNC Ltd and is separate from the protocol specification so that new types can be added without requiring the specification to be reissued. Since December 2012, the list went to IANA.

A community version of the RFB protocol specification which aims to document all existing extensions is hosted by the TigerVNC project.

Encoding types
Since encodings are part of the negotiation, some of the encodings below are pseudo-encodings used to advertise the ability to handle a certain extension.

Of the publicly-defined picture-based encodings, the most efficient ones are the Tight encoding types. Two types of encodings are defined by TightVNC:
 * Tight Encoding, a mixture of rectangle, palette and gradient filling with zlib and JPEG, plus a Zlib-plus-filter "basic compression".
 * Tight PNG Encoding, Tight encoding with basic compression replaced with PNG data.

H.264 has been researched for encoding RFB data, but the preliminary results (using Open H.264 format) were described as lackluster by a TurboVNC developer. It does become more efficient with fewer I-frames (keyframes), but CPU utilization remains a problem.

Limitations
In terms of transferring clipboard data, "there is currently no way to transfer text outside the Latin-1 character set". A common pseudo-encoding extension solves the problem by using UTF-8 in an extended format.

The VNC protocol is pixel based. Although this leads to great flexibility (i.e. any type of desktop can be displayed), it is often less efficient than solutions that have a better understanding of the underlying graphic layout like X11 or desktop such as RDP. Those protocols send graphic primitives or high level commands in a simpler form (e.g. open window), whereas RFB just sends the raw pixel data, albeit compressed.

The VNC protocol expresses mouse button state in a single byte, as binary up/down. This limits the number of mouse buttons to eight (effectively 7 given convention of button 0 meaning "disabled"). Many modern mice enumerate 9 or more buttons, leading to forward/back buttons having no effect over RFB. A "GII" extension solves this problem.

There is no standard to transfer sound data at all, with the sole exception that the server may signal a bell (audible beep, notification sound) should be played by the client.

title: RFB protocol


text:
Traprain Law

Traprain Law is a hill 6 km east of Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. It is the site of a hill fort or possibly oppidum, which covered at its maximum extent about 16 ha. It is the site of the Traprain Law Treasure, the largest Roman silver hoard from anywhere outside the Roman Empire which included exquisite silver artefacts.

The hill, about 220 m above MSL, was already a place of burial by around 1500 BC, and showed evidence of occupation and signs of ramparts after 1000 BC. The ramparts were rebuilt and realigned many times in the following centuries. Excavations have shown it was occupied in the Late Iron Age from about AD 40 until the last quarter of the 2nd century (about the time that the Antonine Wall was manned).

In the 1st century AD the Romans recorded the Votadini as a British tribe in the area, and Traprain Law is generally thought to have been one of their major settlements, named Curia by Ptolemy. They emerged as a kingdom under the Brythonic version of their name Gododdin and Traprain Law is thought to have been their capital before moving to Din Eidyn (Castle Rock in modern Edinburgh).

In 1938 an area of the hill was leased to the district council for use as a quarry for road stone, causing substantial disfigurement to the landscape.

Name history
This hill was only known as Traprain Law from the late 18th century, taking its name from a local hamlet. This is etymologically a Cumbric name cognate with Welsh tref 'farm' and either pren 'tree' or bryn 'hill'. Law comes from the Old English word hlāw, meaning a hill.

Before that, it is found on old maps as Dunpendyrlaw. This name appears on a map printed in 1630. An alternative spelling 'Dounprenderlaw' was used in 1547, when a signal beacon was placed on the hill to warn of an English invasion.

Locally, and particularly amongst fishermen who use it as a landmark, it is still referred to as Dunpelder. This name seems also to be etymologically Cumbric, cognate with Welsh din 'fort' and pelydr 'spear shafts', thus meaning 'fort of the spear shafts'. Dun may also be derived from the Scottish Gaelic word dùn meaning 'fort'. It is as 'Dunpeldyr', the capital of King Lot of Lothian, that Traprain Law appears in Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy.

Archaeology
A team led by Curle and Cree began the first excavations in 1914 and continued them until 1923, finding layers of fragmentary stone and timber houses under the turf.

Traprain Law Treasure
In 1919, Alexander Ormiston Curle recovered a hoard of silver plate. The hoard is known as the Traprain Treasure, or Traprain Law Treasure. Consisting of over 53 lb of sliced-up Roman-era silver, the discovery was made in a pit within the boundary of the settlement earlier uncovered. Four Gallic coins were discovered with the hoard; one of the emperor Valens (reigned 364–378), three of Arcadius (reigned 383–408) and one of Honorius (reigned 393–423), which dates the find to some point in the fifth century AD after the Romans had left Britain. The quality of some of the items suggests that they may have come from as far afield as Rome, Ravenna, or possibly Antioch or Constantinople.

Most objects had been crushed and hacked to pieces, and only some were left intact. A great deal of the find was table silver, but there were also early Christian items and remnants from a Roman officer's uniform.

It had originally been thought that the objects had been brought back from a raid abroad, as the objects had been split up ready for division. Later finds such as the Mildenhall Treasure found at Mildenhall, Suffolk and the Hoxne Hoard from Suffolk, showed that silverware of this nature was certainly in use in Roman Britain. A further suggestion is that it had been brought back on a raid by the Votadini across Hadrian's Wall. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the silver was in payment for mercenary service to protect weaker tribes from the inroads of the Scots, Picts, and Angles, the silver being split up as bullion due to lack of adequate coinage.

Further excavations were made in 1939 by Cruden and in 1947 by Bersu.

The collection was restored where appropriate and sent to the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh and now is in the care of the National Museum of Scotland.

Folklore
In legend, Traprain Law was the cliff from which Thenaw, the mother of Saint Mungo, was thrown when her father, King Lot or Leudonus, discovered she was pregnant by Owain mab Urien. Saved by divine providence, she was transported by boat to Saint Serf's community in Culross, where she gave birth to Kentigern, later also known as Mungo.

Geodesy
Up to 1891 Traprain Law was the origin (meridian) of the 6-inch and 1:2500 Ordnance Survey maps of East Lothian. After that year the East Lothian maps were drawn according to the meridian of The Buck in Aberdeenshire.

Geology
Traprain Law, together with nearby Berwick Law and Bass Rock, is an example of the unusual rock type Phonolite. It was intruded around 350 million years ago as a laccolith into sandstones, siltstones and dolomitic limestones of the Ballagan Formation of the Carboniferous period. During quarrying, large xenoliths of sandstone and shale have been found and recorded in detail. Detailed optical and chemical analysis have revealed the presence of small quantities of Sodalite, Olivine and Apatite.

title: Traprain Law


text:
David Teniers

David Teniers may refer to three Flemish artists, father, son, and grandson:
 * David Teniers the Elder (1582–1649), turned from large religious paintings to landscapes and genre scenes
 * David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690), the most famous of the three, especially noted for genre scenes of peasant life
 * David Teniers III (1638–1685), who painted scenes similar to his father's

title: David Teniers


text:
Great Western Tiers

The Great Western Tiers (Palawa kani: Kooparoona Niara) are a collection of mountain bluffs that form the northern edge of the Central Highlands plateau in Tasmania, Australia. The bluffs are contained within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Site.

The bluffs stretch northwest to southeast over 100 km from the 1420 m Western Bluff near the town of Mole Creek to the 1210 m Millers Bluff, approximately 25 km west of Campbell Town. During the late 19th century the Tiers were known as the Great Western Range.

Features
The Central Highlands, or Tasmanian central plateau, was uplifted from the lower Meander Valley, most probably in the Eocene epoch though possibly earlier, forming the Tiers' escarpment. The plateau's north-east boundary, which ranges from 760 m–1500 m, originated in extensive Tertiary faulting.

This escarpment divides the high, rocky, sparsely inhabited central plateau from the fertile lower land of the Meander Valley and the northern midlands. The edge of the tiers have prominent cliffs and columns of Jurassic dolerite. The highest peak in the tiers is the 1444 m Ironstone Mountain. Unlike most of the bluffs this mountain is not visible from the Meander Valley, but is south of the escarpment. The escarpment has a distinct concave profile. Cliffs and scree slopes are common features. The dolerite is so prominent as the older rocks that overlay them are softer and have been eroded away. In places dolerite columns have collapsed into scree slopes.

The face of the tiers has been eroded and retreated approximately 4 mi since their formation, leaving the mountain Quamby Bluff as a solitary outlier. The central plateau's landform has been changed by glaciation. Valleys under the tiers are filled with talus, mostly bounders with a 25% mix of soil formed from boulder weathering.

Peaks
The peaks and bluffs of the Great Western Tiers include:
 * Brady's lookout, at 1371 m. Named after the bushranger Matthew Brady.
 * Billop Bluff
 * Dry's Bluff at 1298 m. Origin of the Liffey River.
 * Ironstone Mountain, at 1444 m
 * Millers Bluff, at 1210 m
 * Mother Cummings Peak, at 1255 m
 * Mount Blackwood
 * Mount Parmeener
 * Neals Bluff
 * Panorama Hill
 * Projection Bluff
 * Quamby Bluff, at 1227 m
 * Western Bluff, at 1420 m

title: Great Western Tiers


text:
Gardens in the Republic of Ireland

List of gardens in Ireland open to the public:
 * Achill Secret Garden,
 * Avondale House,
 * Altamont Gardens,
 * Bay Garden, (Closed indefinitely as of 2022)
 * Belvedere House and Gardens,
 * Birr Castle,
 * Camas Park,
 * Coolaught Gardens,
 * Coolwater Garden
 * Dillon Garden, (Closed indefinitely as of 2022)
 * Derreen Garden,
 * Emo Court,
 * Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens, Clonakilty, Co. Cork
 * Fernhill Park and Gardens, Dublin,
 * Glenveagh,
 * Glebe House and Gallery,
 * Huntingbrook Gardens,
 * Huntington Castle Gardens,
 * Ilnacullin (Garinish or Garnish Island)
 * Irish National Botanic Gardens
 * Irish National War Memorial Gardens
 * Japanese Gardens,
 * John F. Kennedy Arboretum,
 * Johnstown Castle,
 * June Blake's Garden,
 * Kells Bay Gardens,
 * Kilfane,
 * Kilmokea,
 * Killruddery,
 * Kilmacurragh,
 * Knockpatrick Gardens, Foynes, Co. Limerick,
 * Larchill,
 * Lissadell,
 * Lodge Park, Straffan,
 * Loftus Hall walled gardens,
 * Mount Congreve Garden,
 * Mount Usher Gardens,
 * Muckross,
 * National Garden Exhibition Centre,
 * Newtownbarry House Gardens,
 * Oakfield Park,
 * Powerscourt Estate,
 * Ram House Gardens,
 * Rathmichael Lodge,
 * Talbot Gardens, Malahide,
 * Terra Nova Garden,
 * Tombrick Garden,

title: Gardens in the Republic of Ireland