Asef al-Dowleh

Asef al-Dowleh
Portrait of Asef al-Dowleh
Prime Minister of Qajar Iran
In office 1824–1828
Monarch	Fath-Ali Shah Qajar
Preceded by	Abdollah Khan Amin ol-Dowleh
Succeeded by	Abdollah Khan Amin ol-Dowleh
Personal details
Children	Hasan Khan Salar
Parent	Mohammad Khan Devellu-Qajar (father)

Allahyar Khan Devellu-Qajar Asef al-Dowleh (Persian: الله‌یارخان آصف‌الدوله) was the prime minister of Qajar Iran under shah (king) Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797–1834) from 1824 to 1828.

Asef al-Dowleh was a hardline proponent of intensifying the Russo-Iranian War of 1826–1828, performed ineffectively on the battlefield, and was among the first to evacuate to the city of Tabriz. When the Russians captured Tabriz without an opposition, he was in charge of the men in the city's fortress. He was as a result placed under detention in his own house, and after being freed, so deeply outraged was Fath-Ali Shah at Asef al-Dowleh's conduct that he ordered that Asef al-Dowleh be publicly flogged for his "cowardly behavior". Asef al-Dowleh played a key role in inciting the population to oppose the Russian diplomat Alexander Griboyedov, which led to the slaughter of the Russian embassy staff in the Iranian capital of Tehran in 1829.