Mirza Hosein Khan Moshir od-Dowleh Sepahsalar () or simply Mirza Hosein Sepahsalar () (1828–1881) was the Grand Vizier (prime minister) of Iran (Persia) during the Qajar dynasty under King Naser al-Din Shah Qajar between 1871 and 1873.
After a successful career in the Iranian foreign service, serving in Tiflis, Mirza Hosein Khan was made ambassador to Istanbul during the great Ottoman reform period after 1856. He seems also to have been influenced by at least two reformist thinkers: Fatali Akhundov, whom he got to know well in Tiflis, and Mirza Malkam Khan, whom he met in Istanbul.
On becoming Grand vizier, Mirza Hosein persuaded the Shah to grant a concession for railroad construction—the Reuter concession—and other commercial development projects to Baron de Reuter. Opposition from bureaucratic factions and clerical leaders, however, forced the Shah to dismiss his Grand Vizier and cancel the concession.
See also
List of prime ministers of Iran
Prime Minister of Iran
Sepahsalar Mosque
References
The Cambridge History of Iran 7; Peter Avery; Cambridge University Press, 1991
The History of Iran (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations); Elton L. Daniel; 2000