Kashef as-Saltaneh

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Kashef as-Saltaneh, born Mohammad Mirza Qajar Qovanlu (March 21, 1865 – April 20, 1929), was an Iranian politician, diplomat, and constitutionalist. He is best known for introducing tea cultivation to Iran and for serving as Tehran’s first mayor. He had three daughters and one son.

He was the oldest child of Asadallah Mirza Nayeb al-Eyaleh and Jahan Ara Khanom, a granddaughter of Abbas Mirza. He studied at Dar ul Fonun, learned French, and worked in the foreign ministry as a secretary when he was just sixteen. In 1881 he went to Paris to study law at the Sorbonne, earning a baccalaureate and studying administrative law.

In 1889, during Nasir al-Din Shah’s visit to Europe, he served briefly as translator to the Shah’s French physician and then returned to Iran. He was appointed governor of Torbat-e Heydarieh and promoted parliamentary government, which led to his arrest by the Shah. He escaped first to Nishapur, then to the Russian and Ottoman Empires, and finally fled to France after the Shah’s assassination.

In France he became consul general of Iran in British India. While in Shimla he learned about tea cultivation. Tea was mostly imported to Iran, so he saw an opportunity for Iran to grow its own. He secretly studied tea, gathered tea seeds and 4,000 saplings, and brought them into Iran disguised as a French merchant.

Back in Iran, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah granted him a monopoly on tea production. He chose Lahijan in Gilan and Tonekabon in Mazandaran as starting points and gradually expanded tea farming. By 1903 there were about 300,000 tea plants in Lahijan. For his work he earned the title Kashef as-Saltaneh, meaning “Royal Discoverer.”

In December 1904 he went to France as chargé d’affaires for the Iranian embassy, staying for over three years. After returning, the Iranian Parliament asked him to establish a modern municipality for Tehran, a project he began but soon resigned from.

He died in a car accident on the road from Bushehr to Shiraz and was buried in Lahijan. A building was later built over his tomb, which now houses the national museum of tea and is a historic site in Lahijan.