Villa Danesh
Mystery solved: Prince Arfa's house in Monte Carlo
November 21, 2003
The Iranian
Mirza Reza Khan Arfa'-ed-Dowleh, a.k.a.
Prince Arfa', was born in 1846 to Mirza Hassan Khan, son of Mirza
Ibrahim Khan
chief minister of the Khan of Erivan before the second Russo-Persian
campaign. With the occupation of Russia of the former Persian territories
north of the Aras River, Mirza Hassan Khan left Erivan for Tabriz
where he settled and raised a family.
Mirza Hassan Khan was a learned man and his son
Reza also achieved fame for, among many other things, his knowledge
of languages and
his erudition. His diplomatic and political achievements aside,
Mirza Reza Khan is remembered for having invented a reformed alphabet
which he had named "Rushdiyeh" complementing and adapting
the Arabic alphabet to better suit the Persian language. For this
achievement, Mirza Reza Khan was given the title Khan by then crown
Prince Mozaffar-ed-Din Mirza and given the honorary function of
"Adjutant of the Crown Prince" as well as receiving the order of
the
Lion and Sun, fifth class, from Mozaffar-ed-Din Mirza.
 Mirza Reza Khan went on to become official representative
of the Persian government, First Secretary and later Consul-General
of
all the Caucasian region, and finally Ambassador Plenipotentiary
for the government of Persia to the Sublime Porte. He received
the title "Prince" from Mozaffar-ed-Din Shah, one among
a handful of individuals during the Qajar era to receive such
a title without himself being of royal blood, and he served loyally
four Qajar shahs from Nasser-ed-Din Shah to Soltan Ahmad Shah
Qajar
in various capacities from advisor to ambassador to minister.
Prince Arfa's son, General Hassan Arfa' relates
the story of his father and that of his own life in his book Under
Five Shahs (John Murray, London, 1964) from which the above
information is partly culled. We can turn to General Arfa's account
in
that book also to solve the "mystery" of the house
in Monte Carlo mentioned in Faryar Mansouri's photo essay,
"Home
of the unknown".
While relating the events of his childhood and youth,
General Arfa' writes:
"In the autumn [of 1909], according to my father's
wish, my mother took me to Paris, and I was sent to private school
in
the Passy district not far from the Bois de Boulogne, where several
Iranian students were already studying so that I met young Iranians
of my own age for the first time. ... It was at this time that
my father, after having served for ten years as Ambassador in
Turkey,
decided to retire to a villa
he had built in the Principality of Monaco on the lower slopes of Mont Turbie on a site dominating
the whole Principality and the coast of the Riviera to Bordighera
in Italy. ... In December 1910 I arrived at the Villa
Dan[e]shgah,
which means the House of Dan[e]sh [Learning], this being the
pen
name of my father . ...
 I entered the Monaco College, situated on the rock
in the old town between the Prince's palace and the Oceanographic
museum,
to which I had to walk twice a day from our villa down the steep
steps to the low-lying district of la Condamine and then climbing
up the rock and back. I was young and it was good exercise.
I liked to stroll on the terraces behind the Casino
and sit at the Café de Paris, listening to Frantz Lehar's
Viennese waltzes played by tziganes and watching the endless
procession
of people of all nationalities and the gorgeously dressed,
beautiful ladies. At that time the visitors to Monte Carlo
were chiefly Russian
Grand Dukes and aristocrats, petty German rulers, Britons and
a few Americans. The German Emperor and king Gustav of Sweden
were
frequent visitors and played baccarat at the Sporting Club.
This kind of atmosphere was not very suitable for a schoolboy,
and I
often missed classes under one pretext or another, and sometimes
without any pretext at all. My father was not very strict nor
did he take much notice of me. He kept open house, and usually
we had
Iranian or Turkish house guests from Istanbul, Iran or Tiflis
staying at the villa" (pp. 22-25 [Brackets mine])
 Prince Arfa' is shown in this picture (below) in
1902 at the height of his career as ambassador in Istanbul with
the uniform and decorations
of high Qajar officials:
In
this rare picture (below) taken at funeral procession of Mohammad
Ali Shah Qajar in San Remo, April 1925. Prince Arfa' ed-Dowleh,
visibly aged, stands behind and in between Soltan Ahmad Shah (from
the left, first person, front row) and Soltan Ahmad Shah's brother Soltan Madjid Mirza (second person, front row).
Prince Arfa' ed-Dowleh was a trusted companion of Soltan Ahmad
Shah during some of the most crucial times of Soltan Ahmad Shah's
exile, including of course the above scene at the funeral of his
father, Mohammad Ali Shah. Prince Arfa' ed-Dowleh's was also present
at the historic meeting in Geneva in 1925 where the return of Soltan
Ahmad Shah to Tehran was discussed in light of a telegram sent
to him by Mustafa Kemal together with a guarantee of troops and
assistance if Soltan Ahmad Shah wished to invoke the help of Turkey.
This meeting is, among others, attested to by Ambassador Anoushiravan
Sepahbody in his notes published by his son Ambassador Farhad Sepahbody.
(See my earlier article on Soltan Ahmad Shah, "Persia's
Honor:
Remembering Soltan Ahmad Shah.")
Prince Arfa' ed-Dowleh's son, General Hassan Arfa',
did not have the same connection or loyalty to the Qajars as his
father had.
He felt that he owed his career to the Pahlavis, to whom he became
and remained a most loyal and devoted subject. His views on the
matter are expressed eloquently in his autobiography quoted above.
General Arfa' also published a short biographical note on Reza
Shah for the Encyclopedia Britannica, which shows the
extent of his dedication to the first Pahlavi king in particular.
Mansouri's photo essay on the Villa
Danesh is especially poignant . A year or so ago I became aware
of a news story that
this very villa was to be sold and razed to the ground to make
room for a modern structure. At the time I felt a huge sense
of loss because of the historic meaning of this place in light
of
everything I have tried to relate here.
Although the building remains intact today, I cannot
rest
assured that it will not be brought down and replaced with
a modern structure. At any rate, much gratitude is owed to Mansouri
for preserving the memory of this unusual fantaisie orientale in
the
midst of all the occidental splendor that is
Monte Carlo,
at
a time when so much else of that time has already disappeared
and is barely a faint memory in the minds of only a handful
aged
survivors
who can still bear personal witness to that Ancient regime.
Author
Manoutchehr Eskandari-Qajar is professor of Political
Science and Middle East Studies at SBCC. He is
also President and
Founder of the International Qajar Studies Association
(IQSA) and President
of the Kadjar Family Association (KFA).
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