Career
Since his youth, Mohammad Vali had spent a great deal of time in Iranian Azarbaijan, where he owned considerable estates. Consequently, even in language, he preferred Azari Turkish to the nationally dominant Persian. His roots to Iranian Azarbaijan were revealed when at the age of 26, he earned a prominent position in the Majles (Iranian parliament) as the representative of Tabriz.
Working through the Majles, he invited American advisors to help reform the military, rural security system, gendarmerie, and public financial sector.
Many advisors came including Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf and Doctor Arthur Millspaugh who had previously been an advisor to Iran in the 1920s. Through his life, Mohammad Vali built a reputation for being a fair person and an excellent mediator.
Afterwards, he returned to live in virtual seclusion under Reza Shah. He died at the age of 92.
At the end of World War I, when the Russian Communists seized many properties in Azarbaijan, Mohammad Vali Mirza travelled to Moscow to settle accounts.
Disguised as a beggar, he crossed the mountain passes of Turkey on his way north but was captured by a Venezuelan general named Rafael de Nogales, who was fighting on the German side and almost shot him as a spy. After the 1979 revolution he left Iran for Geneva, Switzerland with his family and not to return to Iran until he died at the age of 92. Financial Agent at Tabriz, 1916–1917
Head of Finance Department at Tabriz, 1945–1946
Minister of Parliament in 4th, 5th, and 6th Majles from Tabriz
Minister of Parliament in 13th and 14th Majles from Sarab
Princess Saideh Farman-Farmaian
Princess Golnaz Farman-Farmaian.