History of Iran

Reza Shah Pahlavi

By Shapour Ghasemi 2004
Rivised 2013

Young Reza Khan, in Cossack uniform 1903

Reza Khan, later known as Reza Shah Pahlavi, was born in 1878 in the village of Alasht in the Savadkouh region of Mazandaran province. At the turn of the century, Alasht was a relatively isolated rural settlement with a population of approximately one thousand inhabitants. His father, Abbas Ali, served in the Savadkouh provincial regiment and is believed to have attained a rank roughly equivalent to that of major. Around 1877, Abbas Ali married his second wife, Noush Afarin, a Persian-speaking woman whose father had migrated to Iran from Erivan. Reza was born the following year, in 1878. Abbas Ali died within three to six months of his son’s birth, leaving the family in modest circumstances.

Following her husband’s death and amid tensions with his other wife and children, Noush Afarin relocated to Tehran at the urging of her younger brother. Reza thus spent much of his formative years in the capital, where he would eventually embark upon a military career.

At approximately sixteen years of age, Reza joined the Persian Cossack Brigade, 1893–94, a force that would later prove central to his political ascent. In 1903, at the age of twenty-five, he reportedly served as a guard, servant, and horse-groom to the Dutch consul general, Fridolin Marinus Knobel. Around the same time, he married Tajmah of Hamadan. The couple had one daughter, Fatemeh, later known as Hamdam al-Saltaneh, but the marriage ended in divorce shortly after the child’s birth.

Reza Khan as horse-groom and Fridolin Marinus Knobel, Dutch Consul General in Tehran 1903. Photographed by Monsieur Antoin Khan

Reza Khan’s advancement within the Cossack Brigade was gradual but steady. In 1911, serving under Abol Hossein Mirza Farman Farmaian, commonly known as Farman Farma, he participated in military operations against Salar al-Doleh, who sought to overthrow the government in Tehran and restore his brother, Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar, to the throne. Reza distinguished himself in these campaigns and was promoted to First Lieutenant. His proficiency in operating machine guns contributed to his elevation to a rank equivalent to Captain in 1912.

By 1915, he had acquired a reputation as a disciplined and capable officer and was selected for important military assignments by senior commanders. That same year, he attained the rank of colonel. His growing prominence within military circles brought him into contact with influential political figures in Tehran and the provinces.

In 1916, Reza married Nimtaj, Taj al-Molouk, daughter of Teymour Khan Ayromlou, a brigadier general in the regular army whose family had migrated from the Caucasus following the Russo-Persian War of 1828. This marriage strengthened Reza’s social and political connections. The couple had four children, including the future monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as well as Shams, Ashraf, the Shah’s twin sister, and Ali Reza.

Reza Khan, as War Minister 1921

By 1918, Reza Khan was referred to as a brigadier general during Cossack operations in the Kashan region against local insurgents. His decisive entry into national politics occurred in February 1921, when he led a coup d’état that resulted in the occupation of Tehran. Although British strategic interests facilitated the coup, Reza rapidly consolidated authority. He was appointed Minister of War and later oversaw negotiations for the withdrawal of Russian forces from Iranian territory.

In 1922, he married Turan, Qamar al-Molouk, Amir Soleimani, 1904–1995, daughter of Issa Majd al-Saltaneh, a prominent aristocrat. The marriage produced one son, Gholam Reza, before ending in divorce in 1923. That same year, Reza Khan became Prime Minister. He subsequently negotiated the evacuation of British forces stationed in Iran since the First World War.

Also in 1923, he married Esmat Dowlatshahi, daughter of Qajar prince Mojalal al-Doleh. This union produced five children: Abdol Reza, Ahmad Reza, Mahmoud Reza, Fatemeh, and Hamid Reza.

From the beginning of Reza Khan’s appointment as Minister of War, tensions developed between him and Prime Minister Zia-ol-Din Tabatabaee. By 1923, Reza Khan had largely succeeded in securing Iran’s interior from remaining domestic and foreign threats. Observers, including members of parliament, increasingly recognized that he, not Zia-ol-Din Tabatabaee, wielded effective political power. Upon his return to the capital, he was formally appointed Prime Minister. He quickly formed a cabinet in Tehran to implement his program of modernization and reform.

Reza Shah coronation in Golestan Palace, 1925

By October 1925, Reza Khan orchestrated the deposition of Ahmad Shah Qajar, thereby terminating the Qajar dynasty. Initially, he had planned to declare Iran a republic, following the example of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, but he abandoned the idea in the face of British opposition and resistance from the clergy.

The Majlis, convened as a constituent assembly, declared him Shah of Iran on 12 December 1925. He adopted the dynastic name “Pahlavi,” thereby founding a new ruling house; the Pahlavi Dynasty was thus established.

Reza Shah’s reign, 1925–1941, was characterized by an ambitious program of state-building and modernization. He declared that his rule would be free from excessive clerical influence, nomadic uprisings, and ethnic fragmentation, while promoting European-style educational institutions, expanded public roles for women, and modern economic structures that included state factories, communication networks, investment banks, and department stores. He reorganized the armed forces, centralized administrative authority, reformed fiscal structures, and curtailed foreign concessions that had previously limited Iranian sovereignty. Major infrastructure projects, including the Trans-Iranian Railway, were undertaken to promote economic integration and national consolidation. Educational reforms expanded secular schooling and culminated in the establishment of the University of Tehran in 1934. The state also sponsored the systematic dispatch of students to Europe for advanced study.

Despite these reforms, Reza Shah’s rule became increasingly authoritarian. Political dissent was suppressed, parliamentary authority was weakened, and power became concentrated within the monarchy. He discredited and removed a number of ministers. Abdolhossein Teymourtash, Minister of the Imperial Court, was accused of corruption and conspiracy, dismissed in 1932, and died under suspicious circumstances in prison in September 1933. Prince Firouz Nosrat-ed-Dowleh III, Minister of Finance and a key figure during the early years of his reign, was convicted on similar charges in May 1930 and died in prison in January 1938. Ali-Akbar Davar, Minister of Justice, faced similar suspicions and committed suicide in February 1937.

As his reign consolidated, Reza Shah increasingly confronted Iran’s clergy and segments of the devout Muslim population over religious and social policy. In March 1928, he entered the sanctuary of the Fatima Masoumeh Shrine in Qom and physically confronted a cleric who had reprimanded his wife the previous day for appearing with her face partially uncovered while on pilgrimage.

Reza Shah visited Turkey from June 16 to July 12, 1934, at the official invitation of President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

In December 1928, the government enacted a dress law requiring most men, except Shia jurisconsults who passed a qualifying examination, to wear Western-style clothing. The Shah also promoted changes in women’s dress, encouraging the abandonment of the hijab and prohibiting female teachers from wearing head coverings in schools. In addition, several religious madrasas were brought under state control. The Marvi Madrasa in Tehran was converted into an art college, “Honar Kadeh,” where André Godard and Maxime Siroux were among the instructors. During the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah, the second Pahlavi monarch, the art college was later relocated to the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tehran, and the Marvi Madrasa was returned to clerical administration.

Women were permitted to enroll in the faculties of law and medicine, and in 1934 legislation imposed fines on cinemas, restaurants, and hotels that refused service to both men and women. By the mid-1930s, these reforms had generated significant opposition among members of the Shia clergy.

Reza Shah in his office at Saadabad Palace, before going to exile in 1941.

In 1935, unrest occurred at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad following sermons criticizing the Shah’s reforms, state policies, and taxation measures. Groups of bazaar merchants and rural residents gathered in the shrine precinct, reportedly chanting slogans comparing the Shah to Yazid, a historical figure viewed negatively in Shia tradition. Local security forces initially refrained from entering the shrine. The confrontation ended when military units from Iranian Azerbaijan intervened, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. The incident marked a further deterioration in relations between the monarchy and segments of the clergy.

Subsequently, the government expanded its dress reforms through the Kashf-e hijab decree, which prohibited the chador and required women to appear in public without traditional head coverings.

On 21 March 1935, Reza Shah issued a decree requesting that foreign governments use the term “Iran” instead of “Persia” in formal correspondence, reflecting a broader nationalist orientation.

In 1938, Reza Shah completed a 1,392-kilometer railway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea. Constructed with foreign technical assistance, the project was economically costly and strategically controversial. Some critics argued that an east–west railway system would have been more economically and strategically justifiable.

On the eve of the Second World War, Germany had become Iran’s largest trading partner. The German government agreed to provide the steel factory that Reza Shah considered essential for modernization. However, part of the heavy machinery was seized by the Allies after the outbreak of war and never reached Iran.

Reza Shah in exile, Johannesburg, South Africa 1944

During World War II, Reza Shah’s limited rapprochement with Germany aroused suspicion among the Allied powers. In August 1941, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union invaded and occupied neutral Iran in a coordinated air, land, and naval assault without a formal declaration of war. Reza Shah ordered the resignation of Prime Minister Ali Mansur and replaced him with former Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Foroughi. Foroughi, who had previously been forced into retirement for political reasons, entered into negotiations with the British. Rather than seeking to preserve Reza Shah’s position, he signaled that political transition might facilitate Allied withdrawal.

The British and Foroughi agreed that, for Allied forces to withdraw, Iran would have to expel German diplomats and close Axis legations. Remaining German nationals were to be handed over to Allied authorities. Reza Shah resisted the final demand and instead arranged for the secret evacuation of many German nationals. By 18 September, most had escaped through the Turkish border.

In response to Reza Shah’s defiance, the Red Army advanced to occupy Tehran on 16 September. Fearing instability and possible reprisals, many residents, particularly members of the wealthy classes, fled the city. Reza Shah, in a letter prepared by Foroughi, announced his abdication. Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi subsequently took the oath as Shah of Iran.

Following his abdication, British forces transported Reza Shah and several members of his family to Mauritius. He was later transferred to Durban and subsequently to a residence in the Parktown district of Johannesburg, South Africa, where he died on 26 July 1944 at the age of sixty-six from a heart ailment.

Bibliography

• Abrahamian, Ervand. A History of Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Ansari, Ali M. Modern Iran Since 1921. London: Pearson Education, 2003.
• Cronin, Stephanie. The Army and the Creation of the Pahlavi State in Iran, 1910–1926. London: I.B. Tauris, 1997.
• Ghani, Cyrus. Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power. London: I.B. Tauris, 1998.
• Milani, Abbas. The Shah. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.