Pahlavi dynasty

Imperial State of Irana کشور شاهنشاهی ایران Keshvar-e Shāhanshāhi-ye Irān
1925–1979
State flag (1964–1979) Coat of arms
Anthem: سرود شاهنشاهی ایران Sorude Šâhanšâhiye Irân (English: "Imperial Salute of Iran")
Capital	Tehran
Common languages	Persian
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy (de jure)  • Under a single-party state (1975–1978)
Shah
• 1925–41	Reza Shah Pahlavi
• 1941–79	Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
Prime minister
• 1925–26 (first)	Mohammad-Ali Foroughi
• 1979 (last)	Shapour Bakhtiar
Legislature	Deliberative assembly
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	National Consultative Assembly
Historical era	20th century
• Constituent Assembly voted formation of Pahlavi dynasty	15 December 1925 1925
• Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran	25 August – 17 September 1941
• Admitted to the United Nations	24 October 1945
• Coup d'etat	19 August 1953
• White Revolution	26 January 1963
• Iranian Revolution	11 February 1979
• Islamic Republic established	31 March 1979
Area
1979	1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi)
Population
• 1955	19,293,999
• 1965	24,955,115
• 1979	37,252,629
Currency	Rial
ISO 3166 code	IR
Preceded by Succeeded by Qajar dynasty Interim Government of Iran
Today part of	Bahrain  Iran
^ From 1935 to 1979. From 1925 to 1935 it was known officially as the Imperial State of Persia.

Pahlavi
Country	Iran
Ethnicity	Persian
Founded	15 December 1925
Founder	Rezā Shāh
Current head	Reza Pahlavi
Final ruler	Mohammad Reza Shah
Titles	Aryamehr Shahanshah Shahzadeh
Deposition	11 February 1979

The Pahlavi dynasty (Persian: دودمان پهلوی‎) was the ruling house of the imperial state of Iran from 1925 until 1979, when the 2,500 years of continuous Persian monarchy was overthrown and abolished as a result of the Iranian Revolution. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925, a former brigadier-general of the Persian Cossack Brigade, whose reign lasted until 1941 when he was forced to abdicate by the Allies after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. He was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.

The Pahlavis came to power after Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty, proved unable to stop British and Soviet encroachment on Iranian sovereignty, had his position extremely weakened by a military coup, and was removed from power by the parliament while in France. The National Senate, known as the Majlis, convening as a Constituent Assembly on 12 December 1925, deposed the young Ahmad Shah Qajar, and declared Reza Khan the new King (Shah) of the Imperial State of Persia. In 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates to use the endonym Iran in formal correspondence and the official name the Imperial State of Iran (Persian: کشور شاهنشاهی ایران‎ Keshvar-e Shāhanshāhi-ye Irān) was adopted.

Following the coup d'état in 1953 supported by United Kingdom and the United States, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's rule became more autocratic and was aligned with the Western Bloc during the Cold War. Faced with growing public discontent and popular rebellion throughout 1978 and after declaring surrender and officially resigning, the second Pahlavi went into exile with his family in January 1979, sparking a series of events that quickly led to the end of the state and the beginning of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 11 February 1979, officially ending the 2,500-year-old Persian monarchy.^[1]

Origins

The Pahlavi dynasty originated in Mazandaran province. In 1878 Reza Shah Pahlavi was born into Major family of Abbas Ali Khan and Noushafarin Ayromlou at the village of Alasht located in Savadkuh County, Māzandarān Province.^[2][3] His mother was a Muslim immigrant from Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire),^[4][5] whose family had emigrated to mainland Persia after Persia was forced to cede all of its territories in the Caucasus following the Russo-Persian Wars several decades prior to Reza Shah's birth.^[6] His father was commissioned in the 7th Savadkuh Regiment, and served in the Anglo-Persian War in 1856. Mazanderani was the native language of Reza Shah.

Establishment

In 1925, Reza Khan, a former Brigadier-General of the Persian Cossack Brigade, deposed the Qajar dynasty and declared himself king (shah), adopting the dynastic name of Pahlavi, which recalls the Middle Persian language of the Sasanian Empire.^[7] By the mid-1930s, Rezā Shāh's strong secular rule caused dissatisfaction among some groups, particularly the clergy, who opposed his reforms, but the middle and upper-middle class of Iran liked what Rezā Shāh did. In 1935, Rezā Shāh issued a decree asking foreign delegates to use the term Iran in formal correspondence, in accordance with the fact that "Persia" was a term used by Western peoples for the country called "Iran" in Persian. His successor, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, announced in 1959 that both Persia and Iran were acceptable and could be used interchangeably.

Reza Shah tried to avoid involvement with the UK and the Soviet Union. Though many of his development projects required foreign technical expertise, he avoided awarding contracts to British and Soviet companies because of dissatisfaction during the Qajar Dynasty between Persia, the UK, and the Soviets. Although the UK, through its ownership of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, controlled all of Iran's oil resources, Rezā Shāh preferred to obtain technical assistance from Germany, France, Italy and other European countries. This created problems for Iran after 1939, when Germany and Britain became enemies in World War II. Rezā Shāh proclaimed Iran as a neutral country, but Britain insisted that German engineers and technicians in Iran were spies with missions to sabotage British oil facilities in southwestern Iran. Britain demanded that Iran expel all German citizens, but Rezā Shāh refused, claiming this would adversely affect his development projects.

World War II

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History of Iran
Mythological history Pishdadian dynasty Kayanian dynasty
Ancient period BC Prehistory of Iran Ancient Times–4000 Kura–Araxes culture 3400–2000 Proto-Elamite 3200–2700 Jiroft culture c. 3100 – c. 2200 Elam 2700–539 Akkadian Empire 2400–2150 Kassites c. 1500 – c. 1155 Neo-Assyrian Empire 911–609 Urartu 860–590 Mannaeans 850–616
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Early modern period Safavid dynasty 1501–1736 (Hotak dynasty) 1722–1729 Afsharid dynasty 1736–1796 Talysh Khanate 1747–1826 Zand dynasty 1751–1794 Qajar dynasty 1789–1925
Modern period Pahlavi dynasty 1925–1979 Interim Government 1979 Islamic Republic 1979–present
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On 13 September 1943 the Allies reassured the Iranians that all foreign troops would leave by 2 March 1946.^[8] At the time, the Tudeh Party of Iran, a communist party that was already influential and had parliamentary representation, was becoming increasingly militant, especially in the North. This promoted actions from the side of the government, including attempts of the Iranian armed forces to restore order in the Northern provinces. While the Tudeh headquarters in Tehran were occupied and the Isfahan branch crushed, the Soviet troops present in the Northern parts of the country prevented the Iranian forces from entering. Thus, by November 1945 Azerbaijan had become an autonomous state helped by the Tudeh party.^[8][9] This puppet government of the Soviet Union only lasted until November 1946.

Cold War

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi replaced his father on the throne on 16 September 1941. He wanted to continue the reform policies of his father, but a contest for control of the government soon erupted between him and an older professional politician, the nationalistic Mohammad Mosaddegh.

In 1951, the Majlis (the Parliament of Iran) named Mohammad Mossadegh as new prime minister by a vote of 79–12, who shortly after nationalized the British-owned oil industry (see Abadan Crisis). Mossadegh was opposed by the Shah who feared a resulting oil embargo imposed by the West would leave Iran in economic ruin. The Shah fled Iran but returned when the United Kingdom and the United States staged a coup against Mossadegh in August 1953 (see Operation Ajax). Mossadegh was then arrested by pro-Shah army forces.

Major plans to build Iran's infrastructure were undertaken, a new middle class began flourishing and in less than two decades Iran became the indisputable major economic and military power of the Middle East.

Collapse of the dynasty

The Shah's government suppressed its opponents with the help of Iran's security and intelligence secret police, SAVAK. Such opponents included leftists and Islamists.

By the mid-1970s, relying on increased oil revenues, Mohammad Reza began a series of even more ambitious and bolder plans for the progress of his country and the march toward the "White Revolution". But his socioeconomic advances increasingly irritated the clergy. Islamic leaders, particularly the exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, were able to focus this discontent with an ideology tied to Islamic principles that called for the overthrow of the Shah and the return to Islamic traditions, called the Islamic revolution. The Pahlavi regime collapsed following widespread uprisings in 1978 and 1979. The Islamic Revolution dissolved the SAVAK and replaced it with the SAVAMA. It was run after the revolution, according to U.S. sources and Iranian exile sources in the US and in Paris, by Gen. Hossein Fardoust, who was deputy chief of SAVAK under Mohammad Reza's reign, and a friend from boyhood of the deposed monarch.

Mohammad Reza fled the country, seeking medical treatment in Egypt, Mexico, the United States, and Panama, and finally resettled with his family in Egypt as a guest of Anwar Sadat. On his death, his son Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi succeeded him in absentia as heir apparent to the Pahlavi dynasty. Reza Pahlavi and his wife live in the United States in Potomac, Maryland, with three daughters.^[10]

Legacy

Under the Qajar dynasty the Persian character of Iran was not very explicit. Although the country was referred to as Persia by westerners, and the dominant language in court and administration was Persian the dichotomy between pure Persian and Turkic elements had remained obvious until 1925. The Pahlavi rule was instrumental in Iran's nationalisation in line with Persian culture and language which, amongst other ways, was achieved through the official ban on the use minority languages such as Azerbaijani and successful suppression of separatist movements. Reza Shah Pahlavi is credited for reunification of Iran under a powerful central government. The use of minority languages in schools and newspapers was not tolerated. The succeeding regime – the Islamic Republic of Iran – has adopted a more inclusive approach in relation to the use of ethnic minorities and their language, however the issues as to Azeris, the Iran's largest ethnic minority, remain and pose considerable challenges for the unity and territorial integrity of Iran.^[11]

Pahlavi Shahs of Persia

Name		Portrait	Family relations	Lifespan	Entered office	Left office
Shahs of Iran
1	Reza Shah		Son of Abbas Ali	1878–1944	15 December 1925	16 September 1941
2	Mohammad Reza Pahlavi		Son of Reza Shah	1919–1980	16 September 1941	11 February 1979
Line of Succession
1	Mohammad Reza Pahlavi		Son of Reza Pahlavi I	1919–1980	11 February 1979	27 July 1980
2	Reza Pahlavi		Son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi	1960–	27 July 1980	Incumbent

Use of titles

• Shah: Emperor, followed by Shahanshah of Iran, with style His Imperial Majesty
• Shahbanu: Shahbanu or Empress, followed by first name, followed by "of Iran", with style Her Imperial Majesty
• Valiahd: Crown Prince of Iran, with style His Imperial Highness
• Younger sons: Prince (Shahpur, or King's Son), followed by first name and surname (Pahlavi), and style His Imperial Highness.
• Daughters: Princess (Shahdokht, or King's Daughter), followed by first name and surname (Pahlavi), and style Her Imperial Highness.
• Children of the monarch's daughter/s use another version of Prince (Vala Gohar) or Princess (Vala Gohari), which indicate descent in the second generation through the female line, and use the styles His Highness or Her Highness. This is then followed by first name and father's surname, whether he was royal or a commoner. However, the children by the last Shah's sister Fatemeh, who married an American businessman as her first husband, are surnamed Pahlavi Hillyer and do not use any titles.

Human rights

Corruption

As Ganji writes, the group submitted at least 30 solid reports within 13 years on a corruption of high-ranking officials and the royal circle, but Shah called the reports "false rumors and fabrications". Parviz Sabeti, a high-ranking official of SAVAK believed that the one important reason for success of regime's opposition is corruption.^[12]

See also

Part of a series on the History of Tabaristan
Prehistoric archaeology Huto and Kamarband Caves Gomeyshan Cave Gohar Tepe
Early inhabitants Amardians Derbices Tapurians
Early Sasanian houses House of Ispahbudhan House of Karen House of Mihran
Last Sasanian rulers Karenvand dynasty (550s–11th-century) Dabuyid dynasty (642–760) Bavand dynasty (651–1349) Masmughans of Damavand (651–760) Paduspanids (655–1598)
Early Shia rulers Alids (864–900, 914–928) Asfar ibn Shiruya (928–930) Ziyarid dynasty (930–1090) Buyid dynasty (934–1062) Nizari Ismaili state (1090–1256) Sarbadars (1337–1381) Afrasiyab dynasty (1349–1504) Jalalid dynasty (1349–1359) Marashis (1359–1596) Ruzafzun (1518–?)
Modern period Pahlavi dynasty Mazandaran Province
Tabaristan portal Iran portal

• Abdolhossein Teymourtash
• Abdul Reza Pahlavi
• Ey Iran
• Fajr decade
• Gholam Reza Pahlavi
• Kamal Habibollahi
• Kashf-e hijab
• Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr.
• Persian Corridor
• Sorood-e Shahanshahi Iran
• Tehran Conference
• Trans-Iranian Railway
• List of Shi'a Muslims dynasties

Notes and references

Further reading

• The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran, by Andrew Scott Cooper (Henry Holt and Company, 2016) ISBN 9780805098983.
• What Really Happed to the Shah of Iran, Payvand News, 10 March 2006.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pahlavi.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Imperial State of Iran

• Pahlavi dyasty at Iran Chamber
• The Pahlavi Dynasty coins and insignia