The telegraph was introduced to Iran by the British in the 1860s as a means of improving their communications with their newest, and what would be their most important, colony, India. The line initially connected Tehran and Tabriz. Then it was gradually expanded to the other provincial capitals. Naser od-Din Shah developed a fondness for the device, to the extent that he had a unit set up in his palace so he could more easily receive and send messages. The telegraph, naturally, improved the government’s ability to communicate with the provinces. That was exemplified in the fall of 1880 when a large Kurdish tribal force invaded the Iranian province of Azerbaijan from Ottoman Anatolia. That became one of the most important events during his long reign. The shah, although situated in Tehran, which lay over 600 kilometers away from Tabriz, and even father from the western portions of the province where the incursion occurred, was involved in regular, and sometimes daily, telegraphic exchanges with his officials in the province. This paper will employ newly available primary Persian documents consisting of the telegraphic messages exchanged between the shah and officials in the province of Azerbaijan and elsewhere in Iran will look at those telegraphic with the aim of examining how the shah employed the device to enact government policy toward defeating the incursion. It will subsequently also show how he reacted to the incursion and the nature of his involvement.