152

The Pahlawīs

1344–98/1925–79

Persia

Riḍā Khān was a soldier in the Persian army who had participated in the coup d’état of 1921 which began the process of the ousting of the Qājārs (see above, no. 151). In December 1925, the Majlis or National Assembly voted him in as Shāh in succession to Aḥmad Qājār, who had left the country two years previously; Riḍā had already assumed the family name of Pahlawī, redolent of ancient Persian glories.

Riḍā’s sixteen-year rule in many ways resembled other military dictatorships which emerged in both the Middle East (such as that of Muṣṭafā Kemāl Atatürk in Turkey) and Europe. His driving aim was the modernisation of his country so that it could stand on its own feet against outside pressures, and this involved the centralisation of power and the bureaucratisation of many aspects of Persian life. During his reign, the country made immense strides in industrialisation, the provision of modern communications and the introduction of modern, secular educational and legal systems; but all this was at the price of individual liberty and freedom of expression. Riḍā Shāh’s pro-German stance in the early part of the Second World War led to his deposition under British and Russian pressure and his replacement by his son Muḥammad. Muḥammad wished to continue his father’s policies, but was involved in disputes with his Majlis and with both nationalist and communist factions. Educational and land reforms were nevertheless successful while Persia was benefiting from rising oil revenues, but after 1975 lower oil prices brought inflation and economic hardship to the country. Popular discontent was utilised by a wide spectrum of opposition forces, including the Shī‘ī clergy, and, unwilling to use military force against his own people, the Shāh, already very sick, left his throne for exile in January 1979. The Pahlawī monarchy was then replaced by an Islamic Republic hostile to virtually everything which the Pahlawīs had sought to achieve.

EI² ‘Muḥammad Riḍā Shāh Pahlawī’ (R. M. Savory), ‘Riḍā Shāh’ (G. R. G. Hambly).

Gavin R. G. Hambly, ‘The Pahlavī autocracy: Rizā Shāh, 1921–1941’, idem, ‘The Pahlavī autocracy: Muḥammad Rizā Shāh, 1941–1979’, in The Cambridge History of Iran, VII, 213–93.