Mirza Abdul Wahab Khan Asif al-Dawlah and Rebellion of Mashhad

The rebellion of the people of Mashhad was one of the prominent events of the Naseri period and the governorate of Mirza Abdul Wahhab-Khan Shirazi in Khorasan. Recognizing the factors and reasons behind this rebellion can better and more accurately explain the political position of Asef al-Dawlah Shirazi, the reason for this insurgency, as well as factors of security instability in this sensitive state in Ghajar era. This study makes an attempt to explain reasons and factors behind the rebellion as well as the reasons for selecting Asef al-Dawlah Shirazi in the province of Khorasan via a descriptive-analytic method and by utilizing the sources and the printed documents. The findings of this study indicated that the reliability, competence, apprenticeship, and organizational capability of Asif al-Dawlah, and also his loyalty to the Qajar dynasty played important role in his governance of the Khorasan. Despite some of his valuable political, cultural, and developmental actions of Asif al-Dawlah in Khorasan, a number of movements, conspiracies, avarice, unbridle demands of the power branches, and his politics and severity, such as: the exile of "Sarache" people, as well as the compulsory withdrawal of Abu al-ghasem-e khan ghara'i in the holy shrine of Razavi, caused the rebellion of the Mashhad and his deposal from Khorasan.