Hour 13:58 01 Sep 25

Khalavat, meaning “private quarters,” refers to areas where no one else was allowed access except for those closest to the king or members of the royal court. The inner quarters (andaruni) of the Jahan-Nama Palace were located to the north of the compound and north of the Jahan-Nama Palace itself. The southern section of the Jahan-Nama Palace was a sloped terrain, and the palace itself — which formed the outer part of the Niavaran summer retreat — was positioned on top this slope in such a way that it offered a panoramic view over the plains of Tehran and the Dar al-Khalafe (the capital). When the Shah stood on the palace's terrace, he could look down and observe Tehran spread out beneath him. The name “Jahan-Nama” (“World-Viewer”) for this palace was derived precisely from this visual function.
Down in the lower southern grounds (towards the south, southeast, and southwest of the palace), temporary tents were sometimes set up for groups of courtiers who did not own summer residences in Shemiran, but were required to remain nearby in case the Shah needed their presence for matters of governance. This architectural planning naturally made the northern grounds of the Jahan-Nama Palace the ideal location for the “Royal Private Quarters” (Khalvat-e Homayuni).
 
Royal Private Quarters of Niavaran
This northern private area corresponds today to the space just beyond the short wall that currently separates the ticket office entrance, the Jahan-Nama Museum, and the Sahebqaraniyeh Palace from the contemporary Pahlavi-era palaces. This terrain, being less steep than the southern slope, allowed the women of the harem to have a vantage point over the rest while remaining safe from prying eyes. The only men who might have had a glimpse of them were the villagers of Niavaran, passing through the lands above the area. This was the reason why the Shah, or the grounds planner Haj Ali Khan Hajeb al-Dowleh, or someone else involved in the design, forcibly relocated these villagers from their original residences to the Bou Ali enclosure (currently home to the Niavaran Cultural Center and its surrounding lands).
With the villagers displaced, more land became available to expand the palace grounds eastward. Naturally, this expansion provoked the Shah's desire to utulise the surrounding lands—after all, this was his mother’s ancestral estate and her exclusive property. As a result, the inner royal quarters extended in the east of the Jahan-Nama Palace, an area that today hosts some eastern buildings of the Niavaran Cultural-Historical Complex. At the time, this space housed facilities such as bathhouses, kitchens, stables for horses and livestock, fodder storage, and equipment for hunting expeditions. However, the main stables and horse sheds were located further downslope, roughly around the area where Niavaran Park and today’s Atlas Mall now stand. 
The most significant building in the private quarters was the mansion and garden of the Shah’s mother, Mahd-e Olia. One of the most influential political figures during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah was Mohammad Hassan Khan Etemad al-Saltaneh, son of Haj Ali Khan Hajeb al-Dowleh—the architect of the Jahan-Nama complex and its surrounding structures. Educated in Paris, he had mastered both French and English, and upon his return to Tehran, he was appointed by the Shah as the head of the Royal Translation Office, personal translator to the Shah, and Minister of Publications. A literary and skilled Persian writer, Etemad al-Saltaneh left behind a firsthand, authentic account of court life during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah. From his reports, we learn that Mahd-e Olia had her own private and luxurious “gardens” and “residences” in the Royal Private Quarters.
Mahd-e Olia was in charge of the inner royal court and the harem, as well as duties like receiving visiting noblewomen. After her, this position and rank were passed on to Fatemeh Khanum, known as “Anis al-Dowleh” and “Hazrat-e Qodsieh,” who was Naser al-Din Shah’s beloved wife and the favored consort of the royal harem. The Shah met Anis al-Dowleh during one of his hunting trips near the village of Emameh in the Varjin area (present-day Rudbar-e Qasran). He encountered a shepherd girl, spoke with her without revealing his identity, and was charmed by her eloquence. He brought her back to Tehran and fell in love with her. After the death of Jeyran Khatun, the Shah’s famous former lover, Anis al-Dowleh became his new beloved, and the love that grew between them inspired many tales and marvels.
 
Anis al-Dowleh
After Naser al-Din Shah was assassinated, when Ali Asghar Khan Atabak-e A’zam, the Prime Minister during the latter part of his reign, sent a bundle of banknotes to the Shah’s widow as a pension, Anis al-Dowleh, upon seeing the Shah’s image on the notes, had a stroke and died. Dr. Jean-Baptiste Feuvrier, the Shah’s French physician during the latter part of his reign, wrote in his memoirs: “Anis al-Dowleh’s residence [in Niavaran] consisted of several buildings originally built for Mahd-e Olia, the Shah’s mother.”
Following the construction of the Jahan-Nama Palace and the surrounding prestigious buildings within the Royal Private Quarters, Naser al-Din Shah and his harem would spend most of the summer in Niavaran each year. Accompanying him were courtiers, relatives, government officials, foreign diplomats, and even some ordinary citizens who would leave Tehran for Shemiran. Foreign diplomats, such as those from Britain and Russia, stayed in summer villas in Qolhak and Zargandeh (located above Shariati Street today), the Ottomans in Saraasiab (present-day Pol-e Rumi), and the French in Tajrish. Their wives occasionally visited the Shah’s harem in the Royal Private Quarters of Niavaran, where they were welcomed by the royal women—likely with elaborate banquets and all-female gatherings organized by the head of the private quarters during their stay.
 
Royal Private Quarters of Niavaran
The Royal Private Quarters north of the Jahan-Nama Palace lasted far longer than the palace itself. Even after the Jahan-Nama was destroyed, its gardens and buildings remained in use and later formed part of the Royal Private Quarters of the Sahebqaraniyeh Palace, continuing as residences and retreats for the Qajar-era royal women and their guests. Sadly, time has cast a dusty veil over the lives of those who once resided in those gardens and villas. And because of the sanctity of the harem, its women refrained from recounting their stories. Otherwise, volumes could have been written and poems of love and longing could have been composed about the events and affairs that unfolded within those Royal Private Quarters. Many artistic women had painted the nature in those gardens practiced calligraphy, and played music with delicacy. Of them, we know almost nothing. History, behind the walls of seclusion, comes to a halt—and silence prevails.
 
Royal Private Quarters of Niavaran