Ahmad Qavam

Ahmad Qavam (2 January 1873 – 23 July 1955; Persian: احمد قوام), also known as Qavam os-Saltaneh (Persian: قوام السلطنه), was an Iranian politician who served as Prime Minister of Iran five times.

Qavam was born in 1873 to the prominent Iranian Qavam family. His uncle, Amin Aldoleh, was a Prime Minister of Iran. Hasan Vossug, who also served as Iran's Prime Minister twice, was his older brother. Qavam served in the court of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar early in his career and obtained the title os-Saltaneh during the Constitutional Revolution of Iran in 1909. The letter signed by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar in acceptance of the Constitutional Revolution was written by Qavam, who had the title of Dabir-e Hozoor (Private Secretary) at the time. Qavam became Prime Minister several times during both the Qajar and Pahlavi eras. Twice he played a significant role in preventing the Soviet Union from annexing Iran's northern provinces.

Qavam was appointed governor of Khorasan province in 1918, during which time he responded to the ongoing famine and the Spanish flu pandemic. He was a hardliner administrator and banned some of the newspapers which had been published in the region.

In 1921, during the coup d'état of Tehran against the Qajar government, Tabatabaee ordered Colonel Pessian to arrest many of the opposition, among them Ahmad Qavam.

However, with the fall of Tabatabaee's government and the refusal by Mostowfi ol-Mamalek and others to accept the position of Prime Minister due to the unstable political situation, Qavam, just released from the Ishratabad prison of Tehran, was offered the position. He accepted and became Prime Minister in circumstances so unusual that Iraj Mirza wrote the following verses:

یکی را افکند امروز در بند
کند روز دیگر او را خداوند

"One day in prison he is thrown,
another day the King's chair he'll own"

Qavam in fact ordered the arrest of Seyyed Zia'eddin Tabatabaee in an incident 25 years later. He also ordered the crackdown on the revolt of Colonel Pessian which he crushed with the aid of Reza Pahlavi.