by Karl Petrovich Beggrov, 1828 After the death of his father in 1821, Abol-Qasem succeeded him as the minister of the crown prince
Abbas Mirza (died 1833), whose broad-minded and progressive outlook appealed to Abol-Qasem. Serving the crown prince with much loyalty and determination, Abol-Qasem accompanied Abbas Mirza in his wars and was the architect behind his attempted reforms. In 1823, Abol-Qasem played a part in negotiating a peace treaty with the
Ottoman Empire, leading to the
Treaty of Erzurum. Later in the same year, Abol-Qasem was compelled to retire due to suspicions of friendship with the
Russian Empire. He was later restored to his former position in 1825, but soon fell out of favour with
shah (king)
Fath-Ali Shah Qajar () due to his opposition against a war with Russia. As a result, Abol-Qasem was exiled in
Mashhad during the entirety of the
Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828. He was eventually reinstated once again and assigned to negotiate a peace treaty with Russia, who had inflicted a crushing defeat on the Iranians during the war, occupying parts of the
Caucasus and most of
Azerbaijan (including its provincial capital
Tabriz). The almost total annihilation of the Iranian army and the taxing Russian demands caused further difficulties to Fath-Ali Shah and Abbas Mirza. Ali Mirza Shaja ol-Saltaneh, a son of Fath-Ali Shah and governor-general of
Khorasan, took advantage of the situation by forcing his father to acknowledge him as the new crown prince, albeit this lasted briefly. This made Abbas Mirza and Abol-Qasem speed up the peace negotiations with Russia, leading to the
Treaty of Turkmenchay. Most of Russia's demands were accepted, which included the cession of the Iranian provinces
Iravan,
Nakhjavan and
Talesh. Another term in the treaty was that Abbas Mirza was to become the indisputably legitimate heir to the Iranian throne. During the negotiations, Abol-Qasem had been determined to recover as much land as possibly, even agreeing to financially reimburse the Russians in order to keep Azerbaijan. The Iranian defeat changed Abol-Qasem's outlook on the Russians, as demonstrated in one of his
qasidehs, where he regrets the change of Iran's fortune. He had now acknowledged that it was no longer the Iranians who were the superior force in the region but the Russians. In the same year, Fath-Ali Shah appointed Abol-Qasem as the
atabak-e azam (the principal tutor or guardian) of one his favourite sons, Farrokh-Siyar Mirza. The Qajars had most likely been acquainted with this former
Safavid office through statesmen such as the Qa'em-Maqam family. The works of Abol-Qasem indicate that he saw the Persian vizier of the
Seljuk Empire,
Nizam al-Mulk (died 1092) as his rolemodel during his term as
atabak-e azam and later grand vizier. In 1833, Abbas Mirza died, which led to his eldest son Mohammad Mirza being declared the new heir to the throne. In 1834, Abol-Qasem was assigned to lead the besiegement of the
Afghan city of
Herat. After the death of Fath-Ali Shah later in the same year, Abol-Qasem assured Mohammad Mirza's (who became known as
Mohammad Shah Qajar) accession to the throne. In order to secure Mohammad Shah's accession, Abol-Qasem had five of his brothers jailed in the city of
Ardabil. A few months later, Abol-Qasem had the brothers
Khosrow Mirza and
Jahangir Mirza blinded due to suspicions of plotting against the
shah. Abol-Qasem became the first grand vizier of Mohammad Shah, but he had already started to gain additional adversaries as well lose his influence. He was already disliked by the British and Russian
legations due to his opposition to foreign and domestic pressure, and by the Davalu faction of the Qajars for his policy of centralization. Through the instigation of Mohammad Shah's tutor
Haji Mirza Aqasi (died 1849), the shah had Abol-Qasem strangled in the crypt of the Negarestan palace of Tehran on 26 June 1835. Aqasi was subsequently made the new grand vizier. The founder and editor of the weekly newspaper
Adab ("Culture"),
Adib al-Mamalek Farahani (died 1917), was a descendant of Abol-Qasem through both his parents. == Literary career ==