Reza Shah Pahlavi

Shah of Iran (r. 1925-1941)

• Born: March 15, 1878
• Birthplace: Alasht, Iran
• Died: July 26, 1944
• Place of death: Johannesburg, South Africa

Reza laid the foundation for modern Iran by instituting radical policies aimed at economic transformation, political centralization, nationalism, militarism, secularization, and Westernization. Consequently, he created a backlash to rapid change, which ultimately led to the seizure of power by traditionalist forces.

Early Life

Reza Shah Pahlavi (REH-za shah pah-luh-VEE) was born into a military family. His mother was Noush-Afrin and his father, Abbas Ali Khan, was a major in the Māzandarān provincial army. Abbas died while Reza was still an infant, so Reza was raised with the help of his maternal uncle, who was an officer in the Persian Cossack brigade in Tehran.

Although Reza did not receive a formal education, he was blessed with a keen intelligence. Tall and powerfully built, the fifteen-year-old Reza was steered by his uncle to join the Cossack brigade. Under the command of Russian instructors, Reza rose through the ranks. By 1918, in the middle of a campaign against tribal warlords in the Kāshān region, he was promoted to brigadier general.

World War I dramatically weakened the inept and corrupt Qājār Dynasty (1796-1925), which, since the early 1870’s, had granted monopolistic concessions to foreign investors in an effort to spur modernization. Such efforts to circumvent resistance by the powerful traditionalist Shia ulema (clergy) resulted in a Russian sphere of influence in northern Iran and in a British sphere in the south. During World War I, Russian forces occupied northern Iran while British troops battled to maintain control of the oil-rich south.

Following World War I, Bolshevik Russian troops were sent into the northern regions of Gīlān and Azerbaijan in support of separatist movements. Early in 1921, as Russia prepared to evacuate from Iran, Reza led a successful revolt to purge the Persian Cossack brigade of all Russian officers. On February 21, Reza’s twelve-hundred-man Cossack brigade seized control of strategic points in Tehran and toppled the existing ministry. This successful coup resulted in Reza’s command of the Persian army and the establishment of a new ministry under an idealistic reformer and writer, Sayyid Zia od-Din Tabatabaՙi. Within three months, Zia was succeeded by a line of even weaker ministers. The young Qājār ruler, Ahmad Shah Qājār (r. 1909-1925), spent much of his time in Europe, allegedly undergoing treatment for health problems.

Life’s Work

Three weeks after the 1921 coup, Reza became minister of war. He used his position to collect emergency taxes to better equip and increase the size of the army. The army was used to suppress insurrections by regional warlords and for the collection of more taxes.

An inevitable second coup occurred on October 26, 1923, as Reza seized control of Iran by forcing the Majlis (Persian parliament) to depose the shah and send him into permanent exile. Reza was appointed prime minister. Three days after the coup, Atatürk established the Turkish Republic. Such a move seemed logical to Reza as well, but Persia (Iran) was not Turkey and such an idea proved to be anathema to both Shia traditionalists and large landholders. Instead, on December 12, 1925, the Majlis declared Reza the new shah. At ceremonies held four months later, Reza crowned himself and proclaimed his young son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, heir to the throne.

Aware that his rise from commoner to shah was based on military power, one of Reza’s first acts in 1926 was to impose a two-year universal military draft. Military education was considered a means of promoting secular nationalism, basic literacy, and physical fitness, in addition to its role in aiding political centralization and providing security. Officers were held responsible for reading, writing, and the mathematical skills of their troops.

By 1927 work began on the Trans-Iranian Railway, planned to stretch from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea and with branch lines linked to major cities. Work also began on a secular civil code of law, new tax laws, civil service codes, and a national system for registration of births. Work also began on highways and on school buildings, which would house a national system of secular primary and secondary education. The National Bank of Iran was created to fund transformation of the infrastructure, while other banks, communications, and utilities were placed under government control. To gain increased national revenues and to foster Iranian nationalism, all capitulations and special privileges to foreign nations were terminated in 1928. A new agreement was reached with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1931 for an increased share in oil revenues.

Political and economic transformations were accompanied by sociocultural changes, producing a backlash in a tradition-oriented culture. Like Atatürk before him, the shah abolished all titles and forced Persians to adopt family names. The Iranian parliament (Majlis) passed the Uniform Dress Law (1928), which made the wearing of Western clothes compulsory. Women first were pressured to discard their veils, but by 1936 they were prohibited from wearing veils, or chadors (a head-to-foot black cloth covering everything but the face). Women were permitted to work in most jobs, and schooling was coeducational, including classes held at the University of Tehran, Persia’s first major university (opened 1934). It would take another thirty years, however, for women to be able to vote and hold public office.

Flouting Muslim traditionalism, the shah freely allowed news photographers to take pictures of him drinking beer and wine in public. However, photographing traditional Persian life, ranging from camels to chadors, was forbidden. Dramatically showing his break with tradition on March 21, 1935, Persia officially became Iran (land of the Aryans).

In the authoritarian Western-oriented regime established by the shah, protests by conservative Muslims, usually staged near mosques, were met by repressive military action, mass arrests, and the long-term jailing of religious leaders. At a protest held at the Shrine of Imam Reza in 1936 in Mashhad, dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured. Tribal leaders who opposed the shah’s policies were executed. Nomadic tribes that wanted to continue their traditional migrations were forced to settle in one place or be liquidated.

The shah also had critics on the secular-oriented left. They became alienated by the ever increasing censorship of news sources and the increasing personal wealth of the shah who became Iran’s biggest landowner and the transfer of wealth to his intimate associates. The modernization of Iran did not include an increased standard of living for either urban workers or rural farmers. Even the new middle class and bureaucratic intelligentsia, created by the modernization process, worried about the shah’s arrest and execution of leading government ministers who had helped steer Iranian modernization.

It was not Reza’s decreasing popularity but rather his increasingly close relations with Nazi Germany that ultimately resulted in his removal from power. German investors, entrepreneurs, and government agents focused their efforts on Iran. By the outbreak of World War II, Germany became Iran’s leading trading partner. The shah was flattered by Nazi theories about the superiority of the Aryan race, but more importantly, he welcomed the opportunity to displace British interests and gain full control of Iranian oil resources. Fearful of Reza’s plans, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran in August, 1941. An agreement was soon made to preserve the Pahlavi Dynasty.

Reza abdicated and was officially replaced by his son on September 16. Reza went into exile in Mauritius but was soon transferred by the British to South Africa. He died in Johannesburg on July 26, 1944.

Significance

More than any single individual, Reza laid the foundation of modern Iran. He modernized the infrastructure and fanned the flames of an Iranian nationalism directed toward removal of dominating foreign interests. Under his authoritarian rule, Iran moved from a state of near anarchy to one of political centralization. To accomplish this he created and left as a legacy a large army and secret police force. His dramatic efforts at secularization created Western-oriented professional and business classes along with a large urban working class removed from rural traditionalism. Gender inequalities, particularly in urban areas, were significantly reduced. Most of Reza’s policies were continued by his son, and most of the shortcomings continued as well.

Inequalities in wealth and land ownership continued to grow, leaving the overwhelming majority of the population with little economic stake in the Pahlavi Dynasty. In spite of repression, the power of the ulema remained strong. The message continued that the shah was under evil Western influences and that his political power was illegitimate. For secular reformers the regime appeared as a repressive dictatorship deaf to the cries for real political and economic reforms. Rapid modernization, instead of alleviating hostility, served only to aggravate it. A storm of protest began in September, 1978, which led first to the removal of the shah from power in January, 1979, and then to a state dominated by the ulema in February, which would be headed by Ayatollah Khomeini.

Bibliography

Ansari, Ali. A History of Modern Iran Since 1921: The Pahlavis and After. Harlow, England: Longman, 2003. An interpretive analysis of Iran’s historical development, considering development as both revolutionary and reformist responses to challenges posed by Western influence. Select bibliography and index.

Cronin, Stephanie, ed. The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society Under Reza Shah, 1921-1941. New York: Routledge, 2003. A collection of scholarly essays on Reza dealing with the new state, international relations, culture and ideology, women, and tribal relations.

Ghani, Cyrus. Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2001. A scholarly analysis using extensive archival sources that bring into focus the individuals, events, and policies that influenced the development of twentieth century Iran. Bibliographic references and index.

Keddie, Nikki R. Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003. An excellent and readable history of modern Iran by a noted scholar in the field. Illustrations, footnotes, select bibliography, and index.

Pollack, Kenneth M. The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America. New York: Random House, 2004. An examination of the ongoing animosity between the United States and Iran, with a focus on reasons for the conflict. Annotated maps, notes, bibliography, index, photographs.