Mirza Ebrahim Khan Rahmani (Akkas Bashi) (1874–1915) was the royal photographer of

Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar ( fa, مظفرالدین شاه قاجار, Mozaffar ad-Din Ŝāh-e Qājār; 23 March 1853 – 3 January 1907), was the fifth shah of Qajar Iran, reigning from 1896 until his death in 1907. He is often credited with t ...

, the

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. He brought photography to Persia. He later changed his last name to Mossavar-Rahmani. The first Persian film maker was Mirza Ebrahim Khan Akkas Bashi, the official photographer of the Shah at that time, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar. In July 1900, while he visited the Paris Exposition and saw the giant Lumière film exhibit, he recorded in his journal: "They erected a very large screen in the centre of the hall, turned off all electric lights and projected the picture of cinematograph on that large screen. Muzaffar Al-din Shah instructed Akkas Bashi to purchase all kinds of it and to bring it to Tehran so that he can make some there". Court photographer Akkas Bashi duly purchased the necessary equipment for the taking and projecting of film, and just one month later he was taking his first films, of the Festival of Flowers in Belgium, on the Shah's visit there. On the Shah's return to Tehran the films were shown to his inner circle of family, ministers and court servants.

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* 19th-century Iranian people Iranian cinematographers Iranian photographers 1874 births 1915 deaths 20th-century Iranian people People of Qajar Iran {{Photographer-stub

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