Shah of Iran 1925–41

Reza Shah Pahlavi, also spelled Riza Shah Pahlevi, original name Reza Khan, (born March 15, 1878, Alasht, Mazanderan province, Iran—died July 26, 1944, Johannesburg, South Africa), Iranian army officer who rose through army ranks to become shah of Iran (1925–41) and began the regeneration of his country.

Early Career

After the death of his father, Maj. Abbas Ali Khan, Reza’s mother took him to Tehrān, where he eventually enlisted as a private in an Iranian military unit under Russian instructors. Tall and powerfully built, the young soldier, from the beginning, showed an uncommonly strong will, remarkable intelligence, and a capacity for leadership. He was highly regarded by his seniors.

Coup Of 1921

After centuries of misrule by its former rulers and the ravages of the war waged by foreign belligerents on its soil from 1914 to 1919, Iran in 1921 was prostrate, ruined, and on the verge of disintegration. The last of the shahs of the Qājār dynasty, Aḥmad Shah, was young and incompetent, and the cabinet was weak and corrupt. Patriotic and nationalist elements had long been outraged at the domination of Iran by foreign powers, especially Great Britain and Russia, both of which had strong commercial and strategic interest in the country. This situation led Reza Khan to decide on an attempt at putting an end to the chaos by taking over power and forming a strong government, bolstered by an effective and disciplined military force. He enlisted some young progressive Iranian elements and also received some encouragement from British diplomats for the endeavour. On February 21, 1921, he occupied Tehrān at the head of 1,200 men. A young journalist, Sayyid Zia al-Din Tabatabaʾi, became prime minister, while Reza Khan took command of all the military forces and was appointed minister of war a few weeks after.

Reza Khan cherished the idea of regenerating the Iranian nation and leading it on the path of progress. Many had imagined that Reza Khan, whom they took to be an unsophisticated regimental officer, would be content with a high-sounding title and a sword of honour given by the shah. But he was not about to step aside to allow a mixed group of inexperienced though sincere idealists and foreign-influenced opportunists to rule the country. His progress toward supreme power was extraordinarily rapid. Of a forbidding appearance, he talked very little and never revealed his intentions. Displaying great political talent against his opponents, he divided and weakened them. He also understood that to reach his ultimate objective he had to have complete control over a military force and that that required money. Able to levy some taxes, he built up the army with the proceeds and then used the army to collect more taxes, until finally he had gained control over the entire country. As war minister, he was the real power behind several prime ministers in succession until 1923, when he became prime minister himself.

The sovereign, Aḥmad Shah, was ill and undergoing a lengthy cure in Europe. In spite of the entreaties of Reza Khan and the speaker of the Majles (Iranian parliament), the shah refused to return to Iran. Reza Khan then considered proclaiming a republic but was dissuaded by the strong opposition to the idea by the majority of the people. In 1925 the Majles deposed the absentee monarch, and a constituent assembly elected Reza Khan as shah, vesting sovereignty in the new Pahlavi dynasty.

Policies As Shah

After his coronation in April 1926, Reza Shah continued the radical reforms he had embarked on while prime minister. He broke the power of the tribes, which had been a turbulent element in the nation, disarming and partly settling them. In 1928 he put an end to the one-sided agreements and treaties with foreign powers, abolishing all special privileges. He built the Trans-Iranian Railway and started branch lines toward the principal cities (1927–38). He emancipated women and required them to discard their veils (1935). He took control of the country’s finances and communications, which up to then had been virtually in foreign hands. He built roads, schools, and hospitals and opened the first university (1934). His measures were directed at the same time toward the democratization of the country and its emancipation from foreign interference.

His foreign policy, which had consisted essentially of playing the Soviet Union off against Great Britain, failed when those two powers joined in 1941 to fight the Germans. To supply the Soviet forces with war material through Iran, the two allies jointly occupied the country in August 1941.

Reza Shah then decided to abdicate, to allow his son and heir, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to adopt a policy appropriate to the new situation, and to preserve his dynasty. He wanted to go to Canada, but the British government sent him first to Mauritius and then to Johannesburg, where he died in July 1944.

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A mummified body discovered near the site of a former royal mausoleum in Iran may be the remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and the father of the country’s last shah.

The recent find of the gauze-wrapped body — and the speculation it triggered — puts new hurdles in the way of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to fully erase the country’s dynastic past, which includes the jack-hammered destruction of the autocrat’s tomb immediately after the 1979 revolution.

Yet, as disaffection and economic problems grow ahead of the Islamic Revolution’s 40th anniversary, mystique around Iran’s age of monarchies persists even with its own history of abuses.

Reza Shah’s grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, already tweeted about it as forensic experts in Iran try to determine whose body they found.

Construction workers discovered the mummified remains while working at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim, whose minarets once rose behind Reza Shah’s own mausoleum. A digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Pictures of the body, as well as construction workers posing with it, quickly ricocheted across social media in Iran.

A spokesman for the shrine dismissed the idea of a mummy being found there. However, Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency on Monday that it’s “possible” the mummy is the body of Reza Shah.

Authorities say they’ll need to conduct DNA tests to confirm whose body it is.

State television has yet to report on the find, likely due to complications that mentioning the Pahlavis can entail.

State media typically refer to the Persian dynasties, including the Pahlavis, as “despotic,” focusing on the abuses of the monarchy’s feared SAVAK intelligence agency and their once-lavish lifestyles.

Reza Shah’s own rise gave birth to modern Iran itself, then still called Persia until he ordered foreign diplomats to cease using the name. He came to power in 1925, ruling as an absolute autocrat who used taxes and the country’s burgeoning oil revenues to rapidly modernize the nation.

His decisions echo today, particularly his 1936 decree banning women from wearing long, flowing black robes known as chadors. He ordered men to wear Western clothes and bring their wives to public functions with their hair uncovered, borrowing from the secularization of Turkey’s first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a contemporary.

The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country. Shiite clerics, angry over his secular beliefs, purges and mass arrests of opponents, held grudges that would foment the coming revolution. Controversies over the chador and hijab persist in Iran today .

Iran’s strong trade ties with Germany, Reza Shah’s push for neutrality amid the coming of World War II and Western fears over its oil supplies falling to the Nazis ultimately sparked a Russian-British invasion of the country in 1941. Reza Shah abdicated in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at the insistence of the occupying British forces.

Reza Shah ended up in South Africa, dying there in 1944. His body was taken to Cairo, mummified and held for years before returning to Iran. A grand mausoleum near Tehran held his body for years, which then-President Richard Nixon visited in 1972.

After 1979, however, Islamists viewed the mausoleum as an affront.

Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, who ordered the executions of hundreds after the revolution, led a mob of supporters who used sledgehammers, jack hammers and other tools to demolish the mausoleum.

Khalkhali later would write in his memoirs that he believed the shah’s family took Reza Shah’s body when they fled the country. The shah’s family, however, maintained the body remained in Iran. His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was buried in Cairo after dying of cancer in 1980.

Today, Iran’s youth remain fascinated by the time before the revolution. Television period pieces have focused on the Pahlavi dynasty, including the recent state TV series “The Enigma of the Shah,” the most expensive series ever produced to air in the country. While incorporating romances or mobsters into the tales, all shows uniformly criticize the royal court.

Reza Shah’s grandson, Reza Pahlavi, has seen his profile rise following the election of President Donald Trump, who appears to hold the future of the Iran nuclear deal in the balance. From exile, the crown prince has agitated for an end to Iran’s theocracy — though gauging national sentiment about restoring the monarchy remains impossible.

Pahlavi took to Twitter on Monday night to tell Iranian officials he is watching what they will do next with the body.

“I warn the responsible authorities not to hide anything,” he wrote.