Prince Manucher Mirza was born in Tehran

Tehran

Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

 in 1917. He was the sixth son of Prince Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma

Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma

Prince Abdol-Hossein Mirza was one of the most prominent Qajar princes, and one of the most influential politicians of his time in Persia. He was born to Prince Nosrat Dowleh Firouz Mirza 1859, and died in November 1939 at the age of 80. He was the 16th grandson of the Qajar crown prince Abbas...

 and of Batoul Khanoum.

He studied petroleum engineering

Petroleum engineering

Petroleum engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. Subsurface activities are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry, which are the activities of...

 at Birmingham University in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 before returning to Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. On his return he joined the military rising to the rank of second lieutenant and left in the weeks surrounding January 1943.

He went on to work in the Ministry of Finance until he was appointed to become the director general of Petroleum, Concessions, and Mines in April 1949.

In 1958 he became the director of sales for the National Iranian Oil Company

National Iranian Oil Company

The National Iranian Oil Company , a government-owned corporation under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran, is an oil and natural gas producer and distributor headquartered in Tehran. It was established in 1948...

. A key signatory in the 1959 Cairo Agreement

Cairo agreement

The Cairo agreement or Cairo accord was an agreement reached on 2 November 1969 during talks between Yassir Arafat and the Lebanese army commander General Emile Bustani...

 that resulted in OPEC

OPEC

OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...

, he was Iran's first ambassador to Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

. In 1979 during the Iranian Revolution, Manucher escaped across the Iran-Turkey border with the help of Kurdish

Kurdish people

The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...

 smugglers. After fleeing from Ayatollah Khomeini's regime in the 1979 revolution, Manucher Mirza permanently relocated to Venezuela, establishing a new life and a new business (potato crisp manufacturer) for himself. In his later life he co-authored Blood and Oil: Memoirs of a Persian Prince with his daughter Roxane Farman Farmaian, which was published in 1997.

Publications

• Travels to Persia
• Considerations of the Problems of Oil
• Blood and Oil: Memoirs of a Persian Prince, Random House, New York, 1997.

Government Positions Held

• Director of Sales for the National Iranian Oil Company
  National Iranian Oil Company
  The National Iranian Oil Company , a government-owned corporation under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran, is an oil and natural gas producer and distributor headquartered in Tehran. It was established in 1948...
  
  
• Ambassador to Venezuela
  Venezuela
  Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
  
  

Offspring

• Roxane Farman Farmaian
• Alexander Farman Farmaian
• Teymour Farman Farmaian

See also

• Persia (Iran)
  Iran
  Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
  
  
• History of Iran (Persia)
  History of Iran
  The history of Iran has been intertwined with the history of a larger historical region, comprising the area from the Danube River in the west to the Indus River and Jaxartes in the east and from the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and Egypt...
  
  
• Qajar Dynasty
  Qajar dynasty
  The Qajar dynasty was an Iranian royal family of Turkic descent who ruled Persia from 1785 to 1925....
  
   of Iran (Persia)
• Iran-Venezuela relations
  Iran-Venezuela relations
  Iran–Venezuela relations have strengthened substantially in recent years. The current presidents of Venezuela and Iran, President Hugo Chavez and President Ahmadinejad, respectively, have both described themselves on the world stage as opposed to "US imperialism"...
  
  

Sources

• Blood and Oil: Memoirs of a Persian Prince; Manucher Mirza Farman Farmaian. Random House, New York, 1997.