The Austro-Hungarian military mission in Persia was a military assistance mission sent by Austria-Hungary to Qajar Persia starting in 1879 to aid Naser al-Din Shah in his efforts to establish a standing army in Persia. The mission's objective was to create a modern corps-sized military force.
Establishment
The Austro-Hungarian Army Corps mission was part of the modernization of Persian forces, implemented with the assistance of Austrian military experts. Due to the good relations of Naser al-Din Shah's first interpreter (Armenian Mirza Davood (David) Khan), the Austrian court in Vienna, and the connections of his former personal physician, Jakob Eduard Polak, Naser al-Din Shah recruited Austrian officers to reorganize the Persian army during his second trip to Europe.
The arrival of Naser al-Din Shah in Vienna on 5 July 1878 was organized like a festival. Johann Strauss II was commissioned by the Viennese court to compose a Persian national anthem to honor the royal guest. Naser al-Din Shah first visited the Viennese Arsenal to witness a demonstration of the guns developed by Major General Uchatius, the ordnance expert and master artillery specialist, member of the Viennese Academy of Sciences, Knight Commander and recipient of the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen. The Shah was apparently so impressed that he immediately ordered 12 guns. He also purchased 26,000 rifles and came to an agreement with the Austrian government for the deployment of a military mission to Persia.
Colonel Adalbert Schönowsky von Schönwies, serving as head of mission, departed with 30 other officers for Tehran on 29 October 1878. On 12 November 1878, the mission arrived in Tarnopol, where it was joined by retired military bandmaster Julius Gebauer, who had purchase instruments in Vienna for a Persian military band. Fourteen mission participants then traveled with 2.4 tons of luggage by train to Odessa, by ship to Poti, again by train to Tbilisi, from there to Baku and finally via the Caspian Sea to Rasht. The mission arrived in Tehran in January 1879. It was accompanied by Albert Joseph Gasteiger, who had already served in Persia several years.
The Austro-Hungarian mission's objective was to reorganize the Persian army on the model of the imperial Austrian army. First to be established was a corps of 7,000 men, including a military musical unit. Training of the soldiers was completed in March 1881. The Austrians were able to ensure that Persian soldiers of the Corps were better paid than other soldiers, and that their salary was paid regularly. Despite attacks by Persian clergy against those they perceived as infidels, the corps was created and an esprit de corps soon developed in the unit. On 22 May 1879, Naser al-Din Shah visited to take his first look at the corps set up by the mission. He listened to the Radetzky March, took in a parade and visited the barracks of Abd ol-Azim, which he had never seen in such pristine condition.
The high spirits of the Austrian officers were marred by the arrival in May 1879 of Russian officers to establish a Persian Cossack Brigade. Ultimately, the Cossack Brigade outdid the Austrians Corps and later formed the nucleus of the Imperial Iranian Army. Despite this, the Austro-Hungarian military mission was still considered successful. At the end of July 1879, the corps had 90 officers and 1,400 men. In January 1880, the head of mission and Schönowsky were dismissed by Colonel Schemel von Kühnritt, a former commander of the "Friedrich Leopold of Prussia" Hussars regiment No. 2. In May, the corps was composed of 2,000 men, equipped with Austrian uniforms and weapons. In April 1880, there were already 260 officers and 6,000 men serving in the Austrian Corps service.
Plans for the Persian army called for a corps with the total strength of 7,000 men, organized as follows: 6 infantry battalions, each with 800 men 1 battalion of 800 men with hunters 3 artillery batteries with 200 men 1 pioneers with 200 men 3 music bands with 50 men