Fonds SC60 - Letters of Fath-Ali Shah and Abbas Mirza to Sir Gore Ouseley

Sir Gore Ouseley, 1st Baronet GCH, PC (24 June 1770 – 18 November 1844), was a British entrepreneur, linguist and diplomat. He was born in Ireland and educated at home. Whilst serving the British Government and posted in Lucknow he became a friend of the local Nawab Saadat Ali Khan and was responsible for building a palace called Dilkusha Kothi on the banks of the Gomti near Lucknow. This palace, a copy of the English Baroque stately home of Seaton Delaval Hall, stood for about fifty years until it was damaged in the Siege of Lucknow. Ouseley was made a baronet in 1808 with the recommendation of Lord Wellesley.
From 1810 Ouseley served as ambassador to Persia, the first ambassador since the time of Charles I. Ouseley was involved in negotiating treaties with Persia and Russia including the Treaty of Gulistan. He left Persia in 1814, stopping off in St Petersburg. While in Russia, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Russian Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.
Ouseley spent his final years in England and in 1835, he served as the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire. He died in 1844 died at Hall Barn Park, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (May 1769 – 24 October 1834) was the second Shah of Qajar Iran. He reigned from 17 June 1797 until his death on 24 October 1834. His reign saw the irrevocable ceding of Iran's northern territories in the Caucasus, comprising what is nowadays Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, to the Russian Empire following the Russo-Persian Wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 and the resulting treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay.

At the end of his reign, economic and military problems took Iran to the verge of governmental disintegration, which was quickened by a consequent struggle for the throne after his death.

Fath-Ali Shah had many visual portrayals of himself and his court created. These include rock reliefs next to the ones erected under the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire (224–651) in Ray, Fars and Kermanshah. Fath Ali also employed writers and painters to make the Shahanshahnama, a book about his wars with Russia, inspired by the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi.

Abbas Mirza (August 26, 1789 – October 25, 1833)[1] was a Qajar crown prince of Iran. He developed a reputation as a military commander during the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 and the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828, as well as through the Ottoman–Persian War of 1821–1823. He helped modernize Persia's armed forces and institutions.

In October 1813, with Abbas Mirza as commander-in-chief, Persia was compelled to make a severely disadvantageous peace known as the Treaty of Gulistan, irrevocably ceding swaths of its territory in the Caucasus, comprising present-day Georgia, Dagestan, and most of Azerbaijan.

The drastic losses suffered by his forces made him realize that he needed to train Persia's military in the European style of war, and he started sending his students to Europe for military training. Influenced by Sultan Selim III's reforms, Abbas Mirza set out to create an Iranian version of the Ottoman Nizam-ı Cedid, and reduce the Qajar dependence on tribal and provincial forces. In 1811 and 1815, two groups were sent to Britain, and in 1812 a printing press was finished in Tabriz, as a means to reproduce European military handbooks, as well as a gunpowder factory and a munitions depot. The training continued with constant drilling by British advisers, with a focus on the infantry and artillery.

His newly reformed military was tested in the Ottoman–Persian War (1821–1823) began, and gained several victories resulting in a peace treaty signed in 1823 after the Battle of Erzurum.
In 1833, he sought to restore order in Khorasan province, which was nominally under Persian supremacy, and while engaged in the task died at Mashhad.