	Hossein Ala's father, Prince Mohammad-Ali Ala' os-Saltaneh (1838–1917), Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and diplomat, was married to Homa Khanom Azemat od-Dowleh, the daughter of the renowned intellectual, Majd ol-Molk Sinaki, four of whose grandsons were to become Prime Ministers: Qavam os-Saltaneh, Vosuq od-Dowleh, Hossein Ala and Ali Amini. Fereydoun Ala's mother Fatemeh, was the only daughter of Abolqasem Khan Gharagozlou Naser ol-Molk (1856–1927), the first Iranian Oxonian (Balliol College, Oxford), sometime Prime Minister and later Regent (1910–1914) while the future Ahmad Shah Qajar was still a minor. He had been raised by his grandfather, Mahmoud Khan Naser ol-Molk Qaragozlou Farmanfarma, who married the daughter of Crown Prince Abbas Mirza, the combative son of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. During his retirement in Paris, Abolqasem Khan translated two of Shakespeare's plays (Othello and The Merchant of Venice) into lapidary Persian – the first time works of the famous Bard of Avon had been rendered in that language.