The people of Tehran would talk a lot about the clock of Shams Ol-Emareh, in the past; the story of a male and female owl nested in the clock, or about its sound that was heard from miles away. Whether it was true or not, who knows; but, the two side clock of Shams Ol-Emareh was the oldest city clock in Tehran and was installed in the tallest building of the city. It was a gift from Queen Victoria to Nasser Eddin Shah during his trip to Europe.
No one knows where the story of the pair of owls nesting in the clock of Shams Ol-Emareh came from. Was it superstition? Was it the imagination of people who had never seen such a large clock or heard its bell ringing? But, somehow, they believed that if two owls come out of their next together, something significant would happen: one king is overthrown and another takes his place! It is quoted of the people of Tehran of that time that one day when two evil owls came out of their next and ding dong, the clock struck, three days later Nasser Eddin Shah was assassinated!
The people again refreshed their imagination and said that the owls roamed about in the city between the days 16 to 19 Shahrivar of 1320 (1941) and then returned to their nest. One day later, on 20 Shahrivar, Reza Shah was forced to leave the country and go on exile. It is unbelievable, but the people of Tehran go on making up stories, in the previous decades, about Shahms Ol-Emareh clock.
Shams-ol-Emareh building in the eastern part of Golestan Palace was built in May 1284 and was the tallest structure in Tehran at that time, with a height of 35 meters. Six years later, Nasser al-Din Shah and many high-ranking courtiers and special servants traveled to France. They crossed the Russian border from Bandar Anzali and, after touring, went to Germany and Belgium, then boarded a ship and arrived on the British Isles. This was Nasser Eddin Shah’s first trip to Europe. After that, he made two more trips to Europe.
When the Qajar king stepped off the ship on his first voyage, the second and third sons of Queen Victoria and the foreign minister came to greet the King and his entourage. He was welcomed on behalf of the Queen and hosted for three days until the king could visit the 77 years old British queen in her royal palace. The cunning English men who knew in and out of the Qajar king, knew that he had a strange fascination for clocks, and his eyes would bulge out at every clock that he saw. Nasser eddin Shah kept about 30 clocks of different kinds in Golestan Palace. This is why, on his trip to england, the Queen presented him with the most remarkable clock that the Qajar king had ever seen; the same clock that was placed on Shams Ol-Emareh building upon his return.
When Nasser Eddin Shah arrived in Britain, Europe was in the peak of its industrial revolution and the tremendous social, economic and technological developments. But the King and his companions did not pay the slightest attention to these things and were engaged in their daily recreation and entertainment. The only thing that benefited the Iranian people from that trip was the enormous amount of money spent from the treasury and had no benefit for the country and the people.
Shams Ol-Emareh clock and the complaints of the courtiers
Let us go back to the gift clock. The Qajar Shah returned to Tehran with his entourage and the famous clock. They immediately installed the 70 kgm clock on the roof of Shams Ol-Emareh’s chamber on the eastern wing. To reach that part of the building, they had to climb 120 steps.
They tuned up the gift clock and waited for the first bell to ring. Finally, the clock of Shams-ol-Emareh bell rang; what a sound! It had such a horrible sound that it frightened the courtiers and they started running to hide somewhere! It was said that the sound could be heard from 8 miles away. They may have been exaggerating, but it was true that the ringing of the bell could be heard all over the city.
Slowly, the courtiers of the palace started expressing their dissatisfaction with the loud sound of the clock. They kept on saying “What a gift it was”! The Shah, who did not like his temper changing, ordered that the bell of the clock be tuned down. A few climbed the stairs and started fidgeting with the screws and bolts, but however they tried the sound did not change. This was done several times, each time damaging one part of the clock.
Finally, the king found a solution. He ordered to wrap felt around the clock! Everyone praised the intelligence and wisdom of Shah. They went up the stairs again and wrapping up the clock as much as possible. It looked as though the clock felt cold and needed to be kept warm. But this royal solution, like all its other solutions, was ineffective, and again the sound of the clock could be heard from the felts! The king’s tolerance was over and he ordered to quieten the clock with whatever means they could. This is how Queen Victoria’s gift clock stopped ringing for good. But the clock itself worked until the end of the Qajar dynasty. Until in the time of Reza Shah, on one of the days of 1304 solar, when its hands were standing at 6 and 10 minutes, it stopped working, and did not wake up from its deep sleep for several decades after.
Reconstruction of Shams-ol-Emareh clock
In 1390 (2011) the guardians of Golestan Palace decided to start the clock once again. One of the skilled masters in clock repair, by the name of Mohammad Saatchi, was asked to work on the clock and get it started again. He worked day and night for eighteen months to finally overcome many difficulties and started the clock again. By the time the watchmaker began repair work, nearly 40 of the clock’s gears were missing, leaving only four gears. In the meantime, other countries have repeatedly offered to buy the clock from the Cultural Heritage Organization, but fortunately, it was opposed. But, on the other hand, maintaining this clock costs 15 million tomans monthly. It needed constant care and had to be tuned regularly. This was not done, and the clock stopped working again. Until this month, on Monday, Farvardin 23, 1400, the clock started again, and the bell rang.
* Using: Parnian Soltani’s report on the website of “Hamshahri” newspaper; the book “History of Tehran” by Amir Hossein Zakerzadeh (1388).
