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Iran-Persia debacle was part of Allied propaganda in WW II because of Reza Shah's refusal to allow for usage of Iranian territory for Arms shipments and support to russia. |
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{{Short description|Shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941}}
{{distinguish|text=[[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], his son, or [[Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran]], his grandson}}
{{Redirect-multi|2|Reza Khan|Shah Reza}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name = Reza Shah Pahlavi
| image = Reza shah uniform.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Reza Shah in uniform, {{circa|1931}}
| succession = [[List of monarchs of Iran|Shah of Iran]]
| reign = 15 December 1925 – 16 September 1941<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Reza-Shah-Pahlavi|title=Reza Shah Pahlavi | Biography|date=29 May 2023 }}</ref>
| coronation = 25 April 1926<ref>{{cite book|last=Rahnema|first=Ali|date=2011|title=Superstition as Ideology in Iranian Politics: From Majlesi to Ahmadinejad|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=115|isbn=9781139495622}}</ref>
| predecessor = [[Ahmad Shah Qajar]]
| successor = [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]]
{{Collapsed infobox section begin |last = yes |Pre-royal positions
| titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder
| embed = yes
| office1 = [[List of prime ministers of Iran|16th Prime Minister of Persia]]
| monarch1 = [[Ahmad Shah Qajar]]
| monarch2 = [[Ahmad Shah Qajar]]
| primeminister2 = [[Zia ol Din Tabatabaee]] <br /> [[Ahmad Qavam]] <br /> [[Hassan Pirnia]] <br /> [[Mostowfi ol-Mamalek]] <br /> Himself
| term_start1 = 28 October 1923
| term_end1 = 1 November 1925
| predecessor1 = [[Hassan Pirnia]]
| successor1 = [[Mohammad Ali Foroughi]] (Acting)<br />[[Mostowfi ol-Mamalek]]
| office2 = [[Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (Iran)|Minister of War]]
| term_start2 = 24 April 1921
| term_end2 = 1 November 1925
| predecessor2 = Masoud Kayhan
| successor2 = [[Amir Abdollah Tahmasebi]]{{Collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
| full name = ''Reza Pahlavi''<br />{{langx|fa|رضا پهلوی}}|
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Maryam Savadkoohi|1895|1911|reason=died}}
* {{marriage|[[Tadj ol-Molouk|Tadj ol-Molouk Ayromlu]]|1916}}
* {{marriage|[[Turan Amirsoleimani]]|1922|1923|reason=div}}
* {{marriage|[[Esmat Dowlatshahi]]|1923|}}
}}
| issue = [[Hamdam al-Saltaneh Pahlavi|Princess Hamdam al-Saltaneh]]<br />[[Shams Pahlavi|Princess Shams]]<br />[[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Mohammad Reza Shah]]<br />[[Ashraf Pahlavi|Princess Ashraf]]<br />[[Ali Reza Pahlavi (born 1922)|Prince Ali Reza]]<br />[[Gholam Reza Pahlavi|Prince Gholam Reza]]<br />[[Abdul Reza Pahlavi|Prince Abdul Reza]]<br />[[Ahmad Reza Pahlavi|Prince Ahmad Reza]]<br />[[Mahmoud Reza Pahlavi|Prince Mahmoud Reza]]<br />[[Fatemeh Pahlavi|Princess Fatemeh]]<br />[[Hamid Reza Pahlavi|Prince Hamid Reza]]
| house = [[House of Pahlavi|Pahlavi]]
| father = Abbas-Ali Khan
| mother = Noush-Afarin
| religion = [[Twelver Shi'ism|Twelver Shiʿa]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1878|03|15}}
| birth_place = [[Alasht]], [[Savadkuh]], [[Mazandaran]], [[Qajar Iran|Sublime State of Iran]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1944|07|26|1878|03|16}}
| death_place = [[Johannesburg]], [[Union of South Africa]]
| burial_date = 1944
| burial_place = [[Al-Rifa'i Mosque]], [[Cairo]], Egypt;<br />7 May 1950<br />[[Mausoleum of Reza Shah]], [[Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine]], [[Rey, Iran|Rey]], [[Pahlavi Iran|Iran]]
| signature = Reza Khan signature.svg
| module = {{Infobox officeholder
| embed = yes
| allegiance = {{flagicon|Qajar Iran}} [[Sublime State of Iran]]<br />(1894–1925)<br />{{flagicon|Imperial State of Iran}} [[Imperial State of Iran]]<br />(1925–1941)
| branch =* in [[Persian Cossack Brigade]] from 1894 to 1925
*in Imperial Army of Iran from 1921 to 1941
| serviceyears = 1894–1941
| battles = {{Tree list}}
* [[Persian Constitutional Revolution]]
* [[First World War]]
** [[Persian campaign (World War I)|Persian campaign]]
*** [[Jungle Movement of Gilan]]
* [[Kurdish separatism in Iran]]
** [[Simko Shikak revolt (1918–1922)]]
*** [[Lakestan incident]]
*** [[Battle of Miandoab]]
** [[Simko Shikak revolt (1926)]]
* [[Mohammad Khiabani's uprising]]
* [[1921 Persian coup d'état]]
* [[Arab separatism in Khuzestan]]
** [[Sheikh Khazal rebellion]]
* [[Goharshad Mosque rebellion]]
* [[Second World War]]
** [[Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran]]
*** [[Operation Long Jump]]
{{tree list/end}}
| rank =* [[Brigadier General]] from 1921 to 1925
* [[Commander-in-Chief|Sardar Sepah (Commander-in-Chief)]] from 1925 to 1941
| commands = }}
}}
'''Reza Shah Pahlavi'''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Historic Personalities of Iran: Reza Shah Pahlavi|url=https://www.iranchamber.com/history/reza_shah/reza_shah.php|access-date=9 April 2021|website=iranchamber.com}}</ref>{{efn|{{langx|fa|رضاشاه پهلوی}} {{IPA|fa|ɾeˈzɒː ˈʃɒːhe pʰæɦlæˈviː|}}}} (previously '''Reza Khan''';<ref name="b101"/> 15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was an Iranian military officer and monarch who was the founder of the [[Pahlavi dynasty]] and [[Shah of Iran]] from 1925 to 1941. Originally an army officer, he became a politician, serving as minister of war and [[Prime Minister of Iran|prime minister]] of [[Iran]], and was elected [[shah]] following the deposition of the last monarch of the [[Qajar dynasty]]. In order to reduce foreign influence by Britain and Russia, he partnered with Germany and used German expertise to modernize Iran's infrastructure during the 1920s and 1930s. Reza Shah's reign ended when he was forced to abdicate after the [[Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran]] in 1941, during the [[World War II|Second World War]]; he was succeeded by his eldest son, [[Mohammad Reza Shah]]. A modernizer, Reza Shah clashed with the [[Shia clergy]] and introduced social, economic, and political reforms during his reign, ultimately laying the foundations of the [[History of Iran#Late modern period|modern Iranian state]]. Therefore, he is regarded by many as the founder of modern Iran, though the [[Pahlavi dynasty]] he established was later overthrown in the [[Iranian Revolution]] in 1979.<ref>{{Cite news|title=ظهور رضا شاه از دروازه نوسازی قاجارها|url=https://www.radiofarda.com/a/31115549.html|access-date=9 April 2021|website=رادیو فردا|date=24 February 2021 |language=fa|last1=افشاری |first1=علی }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=dsi.co.ir|date=3 October 2018 |title=همه مردان رضاشاه|url=http://www.iichs.ir/News-6103/همه-مردان-رضاشاه/?id=6103|access-date=9 April 2021|website=iichs.ir}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=لندن|first=کیهان|title=بزرگداشت رضاشاه بزرگ، بنیانگذار ایران نوین، در لندن|url=https://kayhan.london/fa/1398/01/06/%d8%a8%d8%b2%d8%b1%da%af%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%b4%d8%aa-%d8%b1%d8%b6%d8%a7%d8%b4%d8%a7%d9%87-%d8%a8%d8%b2%d8%b1%da%af%d8%8c-%d8%a8%d9%86%db%8c%d8%a7%d9%86%da%af%d8%b0%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d8%a7%db%8c%d8%b1%d8%a7|language=fa-IR|access-date=9 April 2021}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |author-link=Cyrus Ghani |title=Ghani, Cyrus. (1998), Iran and the rise of Reza Shah : from Qajar collapse to Pahlavi rule. Tauris publisher, London.}}</ref>
At the age of 14, Reza Khan joined the Persian Cossack Brigade. He rose through the ranks, becoming a brigadier-general by 1921.<ref>{{cite web |title=Reza Shah Pahlavi |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Reza-Shah-Pahlavi |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=March 13, 2025}}</ref>
In 1911, he was promoted to first lieutenant; he was elevated to the rank of captain by 1912, and he became a colonel by 1915. In February 1921, as leader of the entire Cossack Brigade based in [[Qazvin province]], he marched towards [[Tehran]] and [[1921 Persian coup d'état|seized the capital]]. He forced the dissolution of the government and installed [[Zia ol Din Tabatabaee]] as the new prime minister. Reza Khan's first role in the new government was commander-in-chief of the army and the minister of war.<ref name=":2" />
Two years after the coup, Seyyed Zia appointed Reza Pahlavi as Iran's prime minister, backed by the compliant national assembly of Iran. In 1925, the constituent assembly deposed [[Ahmad Shah Qajar]], the last Qajar shah, and amended Iran's 1906 constitution to allow the [[Elective Monarchy|election]] of Reza Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran. He founded the Pahlavi dynasty that lasted until it was overthrown in 1979 by the [[Iranian Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fXXgDwAAQBAJ|title=SINCONA Auction 49: The Kian Collection (Machine Struck Coins and Medals of the Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasties|publisher=SINCONA Swiss International Coin Auction AG}}</ref> In the spring of 1950, he was posthumously named as '''Reza Shah the Great''' ({{lang|fa|رضا شاه بزرگ}}) by Iran's [[National Consultative Assembly]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Steele|first=Robert|date=22 March 2021 |title=Crowning the "Sun of the Aryans": Mohammad Reza Shah's Coronation and Monarchical Spectacle in Pahlavi Iran|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=53|issue=2|language=en|pages=175–193|doi=10.1017/S002074382000121X|issn=0020-7438|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">''تاریخ بیست ساله ایران''، حسین مکی، نشر ناشر، ۱۳۶۳ تهران</ref><ref name="ReferenceC">نجفقلی پسیان و خسرو معتضد، ''از سوادکوه تا ژوهانسبورگ: زندگی رضاشاه پهلوی''، نشر ثالث، ۷۸۶ صفحه، چاپ سوم، ۱۳۸۲، ویژه:منابع کتاب/ {{ISBN|964-6404-20-0}}</ref>
His legacy remains controversial to this day. His defenders say that he was an essential reunifying and modernising force for Iran, while his detractors (particularly the Islamic Republic of Iran) assert that his reign was often despotic, with his failure to modernise Iran's large peasant population eventually sowing the seeds for the [[Iranian Revolution]] nearly four decades later, which ended over [[Iranian monarchy|2,500 years of Iranian monarchy]].<ref>Abrahamian, ''History of Modern Iran'', (2008), p. 91</ref><ref>Roger Homan. (Autumn 1980) "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2618173 The Origins of the Iranian Revolution]," ''International Affairs'' 56/4: 673–677.</ref> Moreover, his insistence on [[Iranian peoples|ethnic]] [[Iranian nationalism|nationalism]] and cultural unitarism, along with forced detribalisation and [[sedentarization|sedentarisation]], resulted in the suppression of several ethnic and social groups. Although he was of Iranian [[Mazanderani people|Mazanderani]] descent,<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |url=http://ensani.ir/file/download/article/20101205103251-0%20(51).pdf |title=سندی نویافته از نیای رضاشاه |publisher=پرتال جامع علوم انسانی }}</ref><ref name="تاج های زنانه">{{cite book|last1=معتضد |first1=خسرو |title=تاج های زنانه |date=1387 |publisher=نشر البرز |___location=تهران |isbn=9789644425974 |pages=46–51 جلد اول |edition=چاپ اول}}</ref><ref name="رضاشاه از تولد تا سلطنت">{{cite book |last1=نیازمند |first1=رضا |title=رضاشاه از تولد تا سلطنت |date=1387 |publisher=حکایت قلم نوین |___location=تهران |isbn=9645925460 |pages=15–16, 21–33, 39–40, 43–45 |edition=چاپ ششم}}</ref><ref name="رضاشاه">{{cite book |last1=زیباکلام |first1=صادق |title=رضاشاه |date=1398 |publisher=روزنه،لندن:اچ انداس |___location=تهران |isbn=9781780837628 |pages=61–62 |edition=اول}}</ref> his government carried out an extensive policy of [[Persianization]] trying to create a single, united and largely homogeneous nation, similar to [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]]'s policy of [[Turkification]] in [[Turkey]] after the fall of the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Abrahamian|first=Ervand|author-link=Ervand Abrahamian|title=[[Iran Between Two Revolutions]]|year=1982|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|___location=Princeton, New Jersey|pages=123–163|isbn=9780691053424|oclc=7975938}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=omo3DwAAQBAJ |title = Iran: A Modern History|isbn = 9780300231465|last1 = Amanat|first1 = Abbas|date = 2017| publisher=Yale University Press }}</ref>
==Early life==
[[File:Museum of Reza Shah Pahlavi.jpg|thumb|left|Museum of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the house where he was born, in [[Alasht]]]]
{{Contains special characters|Perso-Arabic}}
Reza Khan<ref name="b101">{{cite book | last=Abate | first=Frank R. | title=The Oxford Desk Dictionary of People and Places | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=1999 | isbn=978-0-19-513872-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6xxYAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA290| page=290}}</ref> was born on 15 March 1878 in the town of [[Alasht]] in [[Savadkuh County]], [[Mazandaran province]], to [[Major (rank)|Major]] Abbas-Ali Khan and his wife Noush-Afarin.<ref name="Afkhami2008">{{cite book|author=Gholam Reza Afkhami|title=The Life and Times of the Shah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pTVSPmyvtkAC&pg=PP2|access-date=2 November 2012|date=27 October 2008|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25328-5|page=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Zirinsky|first=Michael P.|title=Imperial power and dictatorship: Britain and the rise of Reza Shah, 1921–1926|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|year=1992|volume=24|issue=4|pages=639–663|url=http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=history_facpubs&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fscholar%3Fstart%3D20%26q%3Dlife%2Bof%2Bshah%2Bmohammed%2Breza%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D0%2C5#search=%22life%20shah%20mohammed%20reza%22|access-date=2 November 2012|doi=10.1017/s0020743800022388|s2cid=159878744 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Reza Shah Pahlavi |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Reza-Shah-Pahlavi |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=13 March 2025}}</ref>
His mother, Noush-Afarin [[Ayrums|Ayromlu]], was an immigrant from [[Caucasus Viceroyalty (1801–1917)|Georgia]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Afkhami|first1=Gholam Reza|url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimesshah00afkh|title=The Life and Times of the Shah|date=2009|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520253285|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifetimesshah00afkh/page/n22 4]|quote=(..) His mother, who was of Georgian origin, died not long after, leaving Reza in her brother's care in Tehran. (...)|url-access=limited}}</ref> or [[Yerevan]]<ref name= "Amanat">{{Cite book |last=Amanat |first=Abbas |title=Iran: A Modern History |date=2017 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-11254-2 |___location=New Haven London |pages=419 |quote=Born around 1877 to a soldiering family from the Palani clan in the remote village of Alasht in the mountainous Savadkuh district of the Caspian province of Mazandaran, Reza Khan’s father and grandfather had served in the Qajar army. His mother was the daughter of a Muslim émigré (mohajer) from Iravan who had settled in Tehran after the population exchange at the conclusion of the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828. Reza’s father died while he was still an infant, so his destitute mother took her son to Tehran, where she lived with her brothers, one of them a soldier in the newly established Cossack Division. Reza had lost his mother at the age of six, and his childhood and early youth were filled with forlorn neglect and virtually no education.}}</ref> (then part of the [[Russian Empire]]), whose family had emigrated to [[Qajar Iran]] when it was forced to cede all of its territories in the [[Caucasus]] following the [[Russo-Persian Wars]] several decades prior to Reza Shah's birth.<ref name= "Amanat"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Katouzian|first=Homa|author-link=Homa Katouzian|title=State and Society in Iran: The Eclipse of the Qajars and the Emergence of the Pahlavis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FzVANM0p29kC&pg=PA269|year=2006|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-1-84511-272-1|page=269}}</ref> His father was a [[Mazanderani people|Mazanderani]],<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.alef.ir/news/3991125074.html?show=text | title=پاسخهای دکتر رحیم پور ازغدی به پرسشهایی درباره حکومت رضا پهلوی| language=fa | trans-title=Dr. Rahim Pour Azghadi's answers to questions about Reza Pahlavi's rule | website=www.alef.ir}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title=شهر آلاشت · سفرنویس {{!}} SafarNevis | url=https://safarnevis.com/sayer/shahr/%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%B1-%D8%A2%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%AA/ | access-date=2025-07-30 | website=safarnevis.com}}</ref><ref name="auto"/><ref name="تاج های زنانه"/><ref name="رضاشاه از تولد تا سلطنت"/><ref name="رضاشاه"/> and a member of the Palani clan,<ref name= "Amanat"/> who was commissioned in the 7th Savadkuh [[Regiment]], and served in the [[Second Herat War]] of 1856.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ghani|first=Cyrus|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9780755612079|title=Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah|date=1998|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-258-6|pages=161|doi=10.5040/9780755612079}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Niazmand|first=Seyed Reza|title=Reza Shah az Tavalod ta Saltanat|publisher=Hekayat Ghalam Novin|year=2002|isbn=9789645925466|___location=Tehran|pages=31|language=fa}}</ref>
Abbas-Ali died suddenly on 26 November 1878, when Reza was 8 months old. Upon his father's death, Reza and his mother moved to her brother's house in Tehran. She remarried in 1879 and left Reza to the care of his uncle. In 1882, his uncle in turn sent Reza to a family friend, Amir Tuman Kazim Khan, an officer in the Persian Cossack Brigade, in whose home he had a room of his own and a chance to study with Kazim Khan's children with the tutors who came to the house.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cry of the Peacock|last=Nahai|first=Gina B.|year=2000|publisher=Simon and Schuster |___location=New York |isbn=0-7434-0337-1|pages=180–181|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDGmJD-ADqQC&pg=PA180|access-date=31 October 2010}}</ref> When Reza was sixteen years old, he joined the [[Persian Cossack Brigade]]. In 1903, when he was 25 years old, he is reported to have been guard and servant to the Dutch consul general [[Fridolin Marinus Knobel]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Martine Gosselink and Dirk J. Tang|title=Iran and the Netherlands; interwoven through the ages|publisher=Barjesteh van Waalwijk van Doorn & Co's Uitgeversmaatschappij. Initiated by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Tehran|year=2009|isbn=9789056130985|___location=Gronsveld and Rotterdam|pages=254–256|language=fa, en}}</ref> Maurits Wagenvoort, who met and spoke to Reza at a meeting of the "Babi-circle of Hadsji Achont" in Tehran in 1903, in a publication from 1926 speaks of him as the "gholam of His Presence the Dutch Consul" and noted his very keen interest in Western politics.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Maurits Wagenvoort|title=Karavaanreis door Zuid-Perzië|publisher=C.A. Mees|year=1926|___location=Santpoort|pages=84|language=nl}}</ref>
[[File:Reza Shah.png|thumb|Reza Shah and Fridolin Marinus Knobel, Dutch Consul General in Tehran]]
Reza served in the [[Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces#Qajar era|Imperial Army]]. His initial career started as a private under Qajar Prince [[Abdol-Hossein Farman Farma]]'s command. Farman Farma noted that Reza had potential and sent him to military school where he gained the rank of gunnery sergeant. In 1911, he gave a good account of himself in later campaigns and was promoted to First Lieutenant. His proficiency in handling machine guns elevated him to the rank equivalent to captain in 1912. By 1915, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranchamber.com/history/reza_shah/reza_shah.php#sthash.67ALAeXC.dpuf|title=History of Iran : Reza Shah Pahlavi – Reza Shah Kabir (Reza Shah The Great)|publisher=Iran Chamber Society|access-date=10 April 2016}}</ref> His record of military service eventually led him to a commission as a [[brigadier general]] in the [[Persian Cossack Brigade]]. In November 1919, he chose the last name [[Pahlavi dynasty|Pahlavi]], which later became the name of the dynasty he founded.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chehabi|first=H. E.|title=Onomastic Reforms: Family Names and State-Building in Iran|year=2020|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674248199|url=https://twitter.com/rob_steele1/status/1386385708844142592|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426101528/https://twitter.com/rob_steele1/status/1386385708844142592|archive-date=26 April 2021}}</ref>
==Rise to power==
{{See also|Iranian Constitutional Revolution}}
===1921 coup===
{{Main|1921 Persian coup d'état}}
[[File:رضا خان پشت مسلسل.jpg|thumb|left|Reza Pahlavi behind a machine gun]]
In the aftermath of the [[Russian Revolution]], Persia had become a battleground. In 1917, Britain used Iran as the springboard to launch an expedition into Russia as part of their [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|intervention]] in the [[Russian Civil War]] on the side of the [[White movement]]. The [[Soviet Union]] responded by annexing portions of northern Persia, creating the [[Persian Socialist Soviet Republic]]. The Soviets extracted ever more humiliating concessions from the Qajar government, whose ministers [[Ahmad Shah Qajar|Ahmad Shah]] was often unable to control. By 1920, the government had lost virtually all power outside its capital: British and Soviet forces exercised control over most of the Iranian mainland. In late 1920, the Soviets in [[Rasht]] prepared to march on Tehran with "a guerrilla force of 1,500 [[Jungle Movement of Gilan|Jangalis]], [[Kurdish people|Kurds]], [[Armenians]], and [[Azerbaijanis]]", reinforced by the Soviet [[Red Army]]. This, along with various other unrest in the country, created "an acute political crisis in the capital".<ref>Abrahamian, Ervand, ''Iran Between Two Revolutions'', (1982), pp. 116–117.</ref>
[[File:Reza Khan.jpg|thumb|Reza Pahlavi portrait during his time as war minister]]
On 14 January 1921, the commander of the British Forces in Iran, General [[Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside|Edmund "Tiny" Ironside]], promoted Reza Khan, who had been leading the Tabriz battalion, to lead the entire brigade.<ref name="GhaniGhanī2001">{{cite book|author1=Cyrus Ghani|author2=Sīrūs Ghanī|title=Iran and the Rise of the Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VGZItY9kL0AC&pg=PA147|year=2001|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-629-4|pages=147–}}</ref> About a month later, under British direction, Reza Khan led his 3,000-4,000 strong detachment of the Cossack Brigade, based in [[Niyarak]], Qazvin, and Hamadan, to [[Mehrabad, Tehran|Mehrabad]] (then on the outskirts of Tehran). As negotiations with the Qajar representatives broke down and the Cossacks advanced toward the capital, [[Ghassem Khan Vali, Sardar Homayoun|Sardar Homayoun]] ordered the artillery units to fire on the approaching forces in an attempt to halt the uprising. A young officer named [[Mahmud Mir-Djalali]], who was serving as the artillery unit commander at the old gates of Tehran, controlling access to the city, made the ultimate decision to disobey these orders. Instead of opening fire on the Cossacks, he commanded that the gates of Tehran be opened, allowing Reza Khan and his forces to enter the city unchallenged and [[1921 Persian coup d'état|seize the capital]]. Additionally, Mir-Djalali personally had two cannon rounds fired over [[Golestan Palace]], serving as a signal that the coup had reached the heart of the city. The sound of the cannon fire reportedly terrified [[Ahmad Shah Qajar]], breaking his already wavering resolve to resist. He retreated to the Farahabad Palace, where he ultimately surrendered to Reza Khan.{{sfn|Alirezaijan|2025|p=63}}
He forced the dissolution of the previous government and demanded that [[Zia ol Din Tabatabaee]] be appointed prime minister.<ref name="pahlera">{{cite web |url=http://www.sedona.net/pahlavi/pahlera.html |title=The Pahlavi Era of Iran |access-date=4 August 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991113081051/http://www.sedona.net/pahlavi/pahlera.html |archive-date=13 November 1999 }} para. 2, 3</ref> Reza Khan's first role in the new government was as commander of the Iranian Army, which he combined with the post of [[Ministry of Defense (Iran)|Minister of War]]. He took the title '''Sardar Sepah''' ({{langx|fa|سردار سپاه}}), or Commander-in-Chief of the Army, by which he was known until he became Shah. While Reza Khan and his Cossack brigade secured Tehran, the Persian envoy in Moscow negotiated a treaty with the [[Bolshevik]]s for the removal of Soviet troops from Persia. Article IV of the [[Russo-Persian Treaty of Friendship (1921)|Russo-Persian Treaty of Friendship]] allowed the Soviets to invade and occupy Persia, should they believe foreign troops were using it as a staging area for an invasion of Soviet territory.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Iran and the rise of Reza Shah : from Qajar collapse to Pahlavi rule|last=Ghanī, Sīrūs.|date=2000|publisher=I.B. Tauris Publishers|isbn=1860646298|___location=London|oclc=47177045}}</ref>
The [[1921 Persian coup d'état|coup d'état of 1921]] was partially assisted by the British government, which wished to halt the Bolsheviks' penetration of Iran, particularly because of the threat it posed to the [[British Raj]]. It is thought that the British provided "ammunition, supplies and pay" for Reza's troops. On 8 June 1932, a British Embassy report states that the British were interested in helping Reza Shah create a centralizing power.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://talash-online.com/neshrye/matn_23_2_122.html|title=Shojaeddin Shafa|work=Talash-online|access-date=17 January 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120718035257/http://talash-online.com/neshrye/matn_23_2_122.html|archive-date=18 July 2012}}</ref> [[Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside|General Ironside]] gave a situation report to the British War Office saying that a capable Persian officer was in command of the Cossacks and this "would solve many difficulties and enable us to depart in peace and honour".<ref>Report dated 8 December 1920. Richard H. Ullman, ''The Anglo-Soviet Accord'', vol. 3, p. 384</ref><ref>Ansari, Ali M. ''Modern Iran since 1921'' (Longman, 2003: {{ISBN|0-582-35685-7}}), pp. 26–31.</ref><ref>For fine discussions of this period and Ironside's key role, see R. H. Ullman, ''Anglo-Soviet Relations 1917–1921'', 3 (Princeton, 1972)</ref><ref>D. Wright, ''The English amongst the Persians'' (London, 1977), pp. 180–184. Ironside's diary is the main document.</ref> Reza Khan spent the rest of 1921 securing Iran's interior, responding to a number of revolts that erupted against the new government.<ref>Makki Hossein, ''The History of Twenty Years'', Vol. 2, ''Preparations For Change of Monarchy'' (Mohammad-Ali Elmi Press, 1945), pp. 87–90, 358–451.</ref> Among the greatest threats to the new administration were the Persian Soviet Socialist Republic, which had been established in [[Gilan]], and the [[Kurds]] of [[Khorasan Province|Khorasan]].<ref>Cottam, ''Nationalism in Iran''.</ref>{{verify source|date=October 2011}}
==Overthrow of the Qajar dynasty==
[[File:Reza Kahn behind Ahmad Shah jpg.jpg|thumb|upright|Reza Khan behind [[Ahmad Shah Qajar]], with [[Abdol-Hossein Farman Farma]] to the left of Reza Khan]]
[[File:Militaryparadetehran.jpg|thumb|left|Military parade in [[Tehran]] on the occasion of the coronation of Reza Shah, 1926]]
From the beginning of the appointment of Reza Khan as the minister of war, there was ever increasing tension with [[Zia ol Din Tabatabaee]], who was prime minister at the time.<ref name=":0" /> Zia ol Din Tabatabaee wrongly calculated that when Reza Khan was appointed as the minister of war, he would relinquish his post as the head of the [[Persian Cossack Brigade]], and that Reza Khan would wear civilian clothing instead of the military attire.<ref name=":0" /> This erroneous calculation by Zia ol Din Tabatabaee backfired and instead it was apparent to people who observed Reza Khan, including members of parliament, that he (and not Zia ol Din Tabatabaee) was the one who wielded power.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hayat Yahya (The Life of Yahya)|last=Dowlatabadi|first=Yahya|volume=4|pages=246}}</ref>
By 1923, Reza Khan had largely succeeded in securing Iran's interior from any remaining domestic and foreign threats. Upon his return to the capital he was appointed prime minister, which prompted Ahmad Shah to leave Iran for Europe, where he would remain (at first voluntarily, and later in exile) until his death.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://talash-online.com/neshrye/matn_20_2_268.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090324085533/http://www.talash-online.com/neshrye/matn_20_2_268.html|url-status=dead|title=Bahman Amir Hosseini|archive-date=24 March 2009|access-date=29 July 2020}}</ref> It induced the Parliament to grant Reza Khan dictatorial powers, who in turn assumed the symbolic and honorific styles of ''[[Janab]]-i-Ashraf'' (His Serene Highness) and ''[[Hadrat|Hazrat]]-i-Ashraf'' on 28 October 1923. He quickly established a political cabinet in Tehran to help organize his plans for modernization and reform.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aftab.ir/articles/view/politics/plitical_history/c1c1226571501_rezashah_p1.php/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B4%D9%86%D9%81%DA%A9%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A2%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%86-%D8%B1%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%87|title=Political history. Mahrzad Brujerdi |work=Aftab|date=13 November 2008|access-date=17 January 2013}}</ref>
By October 1925, Reza Khan succeeded in pressuring the [[Majlis]] to depose and formally exile Ahmad Shah, and instate him as the next Shah of Iran. Initially, he had planned to declare the country a [[republic]], as his contemporary Atatürk had done in Turkey, but abandoned the idea in the face of British and clerical opposition.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Curtis|first1=Glenn E.|last2=Hooglund|first2=Eric|author-link2=Eric Hooglund|title=Iran: A Country Study: A Country Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yPf_f7skJUYC&pg=PA27|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-8444-1187-3|page=27}}</ref> The Majlis, convening as a [[constituent assembly]], declared him the [[Shah]] (King) of Iran on 12 December 1925, pursuant to the [[Persian Constitution of 1906]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ajoudani.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=27|title=Mashallah Ajudani|work=Ajoudani|access-date=17 January 2013|archive-date=22 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022170922/http://ajoudani.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=27|url-status=dead}}</ref> Three days later, on 15 December, he took his imperial oath and thus became the first shah of the [[Pahlavi dynasty]]. Reza Shah's [[coronation]] took place much later, on 25 April 1926. It was at that time that his son, [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], was proclaimed [[crown prince]].<ref name="bbc">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/806268.stm|title=Timeline: Iran; A chronology of key events|work=BBC|date=22 January 2007|access-date=4 February 2007}}</ref>
==Rule as the Shah==
[[File:Reza shah coronation.jpg|thumb|Coronation of Reza Shah Pahlavi]]
While the Shah left behind no major thesis, or speeches giving an overarching policy, his reforms indicated a striving for an Iran which—according to scholar [[Ervand Abrahamian]]—would be "free of clerical influence, nomadic uprisings, and ethnic differences", on the one hand, and on the other hand would contain "European-style educational institutions, Westernized women active outside the home, and modern economic structures with state factories, communication networks, investment banks, and department stores."<ref>Abrahamian, ''Iran Between Two Revolutions'', 1982, p. 140</ref> Reza is said to have avoided political participation and consultation with politicians or political personalities, instead embracing the slogan "every country has its own ruling system and ours is a one man system". He is also said to have preferred punishment to reward in dealing with subordinates or citizens.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=jRZ227eqm4sC&dq=Pahlavi+dynasty+%22ours+is+a+one+man+system%22&pg=PA15 Pahlavi Dynasty: An Entry from Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam] (ed.) Gholamali Haddad Adel, Mohammad Jafar Elmi, Hassan Taromi-Rad, p. 15</ref>
Reza Shah's reign has been said to have consisted of "two distinct periods". From 1925 to 1933, figures such as [[Abdolhossein Teymourtash]], [[Firouz Nosrat-ed-Dowleh III|Nosrat ol Dowleh Firouz]], and [[Ali-Akbar Davar]] and many other western-educated Iranians emerged to implement modernist plans, such as the construction of railways, a modern judiciary and educational system, and the imposition of changes in traditional attire, and traditional and religious customs and mores. In the second half of his reign (1933–1941), which the Shah described as "one-man rule", strong personalities like Davar and Teymourtash were removed, and secularist and Western policies and plans initiated earlier were implemented.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=jRZ227eqm4sC&q=dictatorship "Pahlavi Dynasty": An Entry from ''Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam''] p. 32</ref>
===Modernization===
[[File:OpeningCeremony-TehranUMedicine.jpg|thumb|left|Reza Shah at the opening ceremony of the [[University of Tehran]]'s Faculty of Medicine.]]
During Reza Shah's sixteen years of rule, major developments, such as large road construction projects and the [[Trans-Iranian Railway]] were built, modern education was introduced and the [[University of Tehran]], the first Iranian university, was established.<ref>''[http://www.tufts.edu/as/stu-org/persian/irannew.html Iran] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304100039/http://www.tufts.edu/as/stu-org/persian/irannew.html |date=4 March 2016 }}'': Recent History, The Education System</ref> The number of modern industrial plants increased 17-fold under Reza Shah (excluding oil installations), and the number of miles of highway increased from 2,000 to 14,000.<ref>Abrahamian, Ervand, ''Iran Between Two Revolutions'', 1982, p. 146.</ref> He founded a 100,000 man army (previously, the shah had relied on tribal forces who were rewarded with plunder from the enemy)<ref name=IB2R>{{cite book |title=Iran Between Two Revolutions |author= Ervand Abrahamian|page=51}}</ref> and a 90,000 man civil service. He set up free, compulsory education for both males and females and shut down private religious schools—Islamic, Christian, Jewish, etc.<ref>Mackey, ''The Iranians'', (1996) p. 179</ref> He confiscated land and real estate from the wealthy shrine endowments at Mashhad and Qom, etc. In Mashhad, the revenues of the sanctuary of Imam Reza helped finance secular education, build a modern hospital, improve the water supply of the city, and underwrite industrial enterprises."<ref>Mackey, Sandra ''The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation'', New York: Dutton, c 1996. p. 180</ref>
[[File:RezaShahBozorgRailway.jpg|thumb|Reza Shah opening a railway station]]
In 1923, Reza Khan, then Sardar Sepah (Commander in Chief), visited [[Susa]], the main site of French excavation in Iran. Enraged by the sight of a large European castle with a French flag, he remarked, "Did they intend to position an army there up on the hill?" He also received multiple reports of French looting of Susa's antiquities and taking them to France. When Reza Khan ascended the throne in 1925, his court minister, [[Abdolhossein Teymourtash|Teymourtash]], suggested ending the French monopoly on excavation granted by Qajar government and appointing a Frenchman as the director of a new archaeological institute. Consequently, the French monopoly was abolished in 1927, and [[André Godard]] was appointed director of the archaeological service as a compromise. The Iranian Parliament voted on 29 April 1928, to hire Godard for five years starting from 18 November 1928.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Salari Sardari |first=Mohadeseh |date=2024-03-04 |title=Andre Godard and Maxime Siroux: Disentangling the Narrative of French Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Iran |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=57 |issue=2 |language=en |pages=265–293 |doi=10.1017/irn.2024.10 |issn=0021-0862|doi-access=free }}{{Creative Commons text attribution notice|cc=by4|from this source=yes}}</ref> Reza Shah preferred Iranian architects. When his favorite daughter, [[Shams Pahlavi|Princess Shams]], wanted a garden, she chose a design by French architect André Godard; however, the shah's approval was required for construction within the royal compound. Upon seeing a Latin name on the plans, Reza Shah became visibly angry. Despite assurances that Godard had lived in Iran long enough to be considered virtually Iranian, the shah tore up the plans and insisted that an Iranian architect design the garden.<ref name=":1" />
Along with the modernization of the nation, Reza Shah was the ruler during the time of the Women's Awakening (1936–1941). This movement sought the elimination of the [[chador]] from Iranian working society. Supporters held that the veil impeded physical exercise and the ability of women to enter society and contribute to the progress of the nation. This move met opposition from the Mullahs from the religious establishment. The unveiling issue and the Women's Awakening are linked to the Marriage Law of 1931 and the [[Women's rights movement in Iran|Second Congress of Eastern Women in Tehran]] in 1932. Reza Shah was the first Iranian Monarch in 1400 years who paid respect to the [[Jews]] by praying in the synagogue when visiting the Jewish community of [[Isfahan]]; an act that boosted the self-esteem of the [[Iranian Jews]] and made Reza Shah their second most respected Iranian leader after [[Cyrus the Great]]. Reza Shah's reforms opened new occupations to Jews and allowed them to leave the [[ghetto]].<ref>{{cite web |title=(Link is down, needs verification) A Brief History of Iranian Jews |url=http://www.iranonline.com/History/jews-history/4.html |access-date=17 January 2013 |work=Iran Online}}</ref> Contradicting this are claims that he was behind anti-Jewish incidents in parts of Tehran during September 1922.<ref>Mohammad Gholi Majd, ''Great Britain and Reza Shah'', University Press of Florida, 2001, p. 169</ref> He forbade photographing aspects of Iran he considered backwards such as camels, and he banned clerical dress and chadors in favor of Western dress.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://talash-online.com/neshrye/matn_23_2_134.html|title=Guel Kohan|work=Talash-online|access-date=17 January 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717055031/http://talash-online.com/neshrye/matn_23_2_134.html|archive-date=17 July 2012}}</ref>
===Parliament and ministers===
[[File:RezaShahOpeningMajlis.jpg|thumb|Reza Shah addressing Iranian parliament, 1939]]
Parliamentary elections during the Shah's reign were not democratic.<ref>Amin, ''A Rich Record: The Cultural, Political and Social Transformation of Iran Under the Pahlavis'', Tehran, 2005, p. 15.</ref> The general practice was to "draw up, with the help of the police chief, a list of parliamentary candidates for the interior minister. The interior minister then passed the same names onto the provincial governor-general. ... [who] handed down the list to the supervisory electoral councils that were packed by the Interior Ministry to oversee the ballots. Parliament ceased to be a meaningful institution, and instead became a decorative garb covering the nakedness of military rule."<ref>Abrahamian, ''Iran Between Two Revolutions'' 1982, p. 138</ref>
Reza Shah discredited and eliminated a number of his ministers. His minister of Imperial Court, [[Abdolhossein Teymourtash]], was accused and convicted of corruption, bribery, misuse of foreign currency regulations, and plans to overthrow the Shah. He was removed as the minister of court in 1932 and died under suspicious circumstances while in prison in September 1933. The minister of finance, Prince [[Firouz Nosrat-ed-Dowleh III]], who played an important role in the first three years of his reign, was convicted on similar charges in May 1930, and also died in prison, in January 1938. [[Ali-Akbar Davar]], his minister of justice, was suspected of similar charges and committed suicide in February 1937. The elimination of these ministers "deprived" Iran "of her most dynamic figures ... and the burden of government fell heavily on Reza Shah" according to historian Cyrus Ghani.<ref>''Cyrus Ghani, Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah'', I.B. Tauris, {{ISBN|1-86064-629-8}}, 2000 p. 403</ref><ref>Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ''Mission for My Country''.</ref>
Mirza Ali Asghar Khan Hekmat funded the construction of key cultural and educational sites in Iran, including the University of Tehran, the Ancient Iran Museum (later the Iran National Museum), and the tombs of [[Ferdowsi]], [[Hafez]], and [[Saadi Shirazi|Saadi]]. His account of building the university and the medical school's first dissection hall reveals the cultural challenges faced during Iran's modernization. In a 1934 ministerial meeting, Hekmat pointed out that Tehran lacked a university. Reza Shah immediately tasked Hekmat with establishing one, allocating a budget of 250,000 Toman. Before, Shah had ordered ten students annually to study in Europe and the United States. Reza Shah advised against sending more students abroad, suggesting the establishment of a university in Tehran instead. From 1937, the University of Tehran admitted both men and women to study law, medicine, pharmacology, and literature.<ref name=":1" />
[[Ali-Asghar Hekmat|Ali Asghar Hekmat]] enlisted Godard to design the University of Tehran, using the 200,000-square-meter Jalaliyah Garden for the project. In 1935, the Ebne Sina Medical School opened first, adorned with calligraphy from [[Nizami Ganjavi|Nezami]]'s poems praising knowledge. Despite strong opposition from conservative clerics who opposed the dissection hall, efforts by figures like Hekmat ensured the school's opening. Dr. Bakhtiar, a surgeon and deputy, had to discreetly visit hospitals, retrieve corpses, load them into his car, and transport them to the dissection hall.<ref name=":1" />
===Replacement of ''Persia'' with ''Iran''===
[[File:RezaShahBozorgTakhteJamshid32.jpg|thumb|Reza Shah at [[Persepolis]]]]
In the [[Western world]], Persia (or its cognates) was historically the common name for [[Iran]]. In 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates and [[League of Nations]] to use the term Iran ("Land of the [[Aryans]]"), the endonym of the country, used by its native people, in formal correspondence. Since then, the use of the word "Iran" has become more common in the Western world. This also changed the usage of the names for the Iranian nationality, and the common adjective for citizens of Iran changed from Persian to Iranian. In 1959, the government of [[Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], Reza Shah Pahlavi's son and successor, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably, nonetheless use of "Iran" continued to supplant "Persia", especially in the West. Although the predominant and official language of the country was the [[Persian language]], many did not consider themselves [[Persian people|ethnic Persians]], whereas "Iranians" made for a much more neutral and unifying reference to all the [[Ethnicities in Iran|ethnic groups of Iran]]; furthermore, "Persia" (locally known as [[Fars province|Pars]]) was geographically confusing at times as it was also the name of one of Iran's significant cultural provinces.<ref name="yarshater1">Yarshater, Ehsan [http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-article5.htm Persia or Iran, Persian or Farsi] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101024033230/http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-article5.htm |date=24 October 2010 }}, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989)</ref> Although internally the country had been referred to as Iran throughout much of its history since the [[Sasanian Empire]], many countries including the [[English-speaking world]] knew the country as Persia, largely a legacy of the Ancient [[Greeks]]’ name for the [[Achaemenid Empire]].<ref>Encarta: Reza Shah Pahlavi</ref>
===Support and opposition===
Support for the Shah came principally from three sources. The central "pillar" was the military, where the shah had begun his career. The annual defense budget of Iran "increased more than fivefold from 1926 to 1941." Officers were paid more than other salaried employees. The new modern and expanded state bureaucracy of Iran was another source of support. Its ten civilian ministries employed 90,000 full-time government workers.<ref>Abrahamian, ''Iran Between Two Revolutions'' 1982, p. 136</ref> Patronage controlled by the Shah's royal court served as the third "pillar". This was financed by the Shah's considerable personal wealth which had been built up by forced sales and confiscations of estates, making him "the richest man in Iran". On his abdication Reza Shah "left to his heir a bank account of some three million pounds sterling and estates totaling over 3 million acres".<ref>Abrahamian, ''Iran Between Two Revolutions'' 1982, p. 137</ref>
Although the landed aristocracy lost most of their influence during Reza Shah's reign, his regime aroused opposition not from them or the [[gentry]] but from Iran's "tribes, the clergy, and the young generation of the new intelligentsia. The tribes bore the brunt of the new order."<ref>Abrahamian, ''History of Modern Iran'', p. 92.</ref> Among the tribes forcibly settled where the Bakhtiari, Qashqai, Lur, Kurd, Baluchi. According to Sandra Mackey, the settling "shattered tribal economic and undermined the traditional social structure. ... people and herds, ill adapted to a sedentary lifestyle and dependent for hygiene and health on moving campsites from time to time, died in terrible numbers. None have forgotten."<ref name="Mackey-173-4"/>
===Clash with the clergy===
As his reign became more secure, Reza Shah clashed with Iran's clergy and devout Muslims on many issues. In March 1928, he violated the sanctuary of [[Qom]]'s [[Fatima Masumeh Shrine]] to beat a cleric who had angrily admonished Reza Shah's wife for temporarily exposing her face a day earlier while on pilgrimage to Qom.<ref>Mackey, Sandra ''The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation'', New York: Dutton, c 1996. p. 181</ref> In December of that year he instituted a law requiring everyone (except Shia jurisconsults who had passed a special qualifying examination) to wear Western clothes.<ref>Mackey, ''The Iranians'', (1996) p. 184</ref> This angered devout Muslims because it included a hat with a brim which prevented the devout from touching their foreheads on the ground during [[salat]] as required by Islamic law.<ref name="Abrahamian-pp. 93–4">Abrahamian, ''History of Modern Iran'', (2008), pp. 93–94</ref> The Shah also encouraged women to discard [[hijab]]. He announced that female teachers could no longer come to school with head coverings. One of his daughters reviewed a girls' athletic event with an uncovered head.<ref name="Abrahamian-pp. 93–4"/>Reza Shah confiscated some religious madrasas from clerics. [[Esmail Merat|Esmail Meraat]], the Minister of Culture, converted the Marvi Madrasa into a new art college (Honar Kadeh) in Tehran, where [[André Godard|Andre Godard]] and [[Maxime Siroux]] were among the teachers; however, the second Pahlavi king, [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Mohammad Reza Shah]], later relocated the art college to the basement of the faculty of engineering at the [[University of Tehran]], returning the [[madrasa]] to the clerics.<ref name=":1" />
[[File:Abolitionofveil.jpg|thumb|Military commanders of the Iranian armed forces, government officials, and their wives commemorating the abolition of the [[chador]]s in 1936]]
The devout were also angered by policies that allowed [[Sex segregation and Islam|mixing of the sexes]]. Women were allowed to study in the colleges of law and medicine,<ref name="Abrahamian-pp. 93–4"/> and in 1934 a law set heavy fines for cinemas, restaurant, and hotels that did not open their doors to both sexes.<ref>Mackey, ''The Iranians'', (1996) p. 182</ref> Doctors were permitted to dissect human bodies, in defiance of the Quranic ban on necropsy (the Shah even forced his cabinet members to "accompany him to the university's pathology lab to view two cadavers in a vat").<ref name="Mackey-179">{{cite book |last1=Mackey |first1=Sandra |title=The Iranians : Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation |date=1996 |publisher=Dutton |___location=New York |page=179}}</ref> He restricted public [[Mourning of Muharram|mourning observances]] to one day,<ref name=Abrahamian-94/> banned self-flagellation during Ashura,<ref name="Mackey-184">{{cite book |last1=Mackey |first1=Sandra |title=The Iranians : Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation |date=1996 |publisher=Dutton |___location=New York |page=184}}</ref> and required mosques to use chairs instead of the traditional sitting on the floors of mosques.<ref name=Abrahamian-94>Abrahamian, ''History of Modern Iran'', (2008), p. 94</ref> By the mid-1930s, Reza Shah's rule had caused intense dissatisfaction of the [[Shia clergy]] throughout Iran.<ref>Rajaee, Farhang, ''[http://webstorage1.mcpa.virginia.edu/library/mc/forums/published/americanvalues13.pdf Islamic Values and World View: Farhang Khomeyni on Man, the State and International Politics, Volume XIII] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326213807/http://webstorage1.mcpa.virginia.edu/library/mc/forums/published/americanvalues13.pdf |date=26 March 2009 }}'' (PDF), University Press of America. {{ISBN|0-8191-3578-X}}</ref> In 1935, a [[Goharshad Mosque rebellion|rebellion]] erupted in the [[Imam Reza Shrine]] in [[Mashhad]]. Responding to a cleric who denounced the Shah's "heretical" innovations, corruption and heavy consumer taxes, many bazaaris and villagers took refuge in the shrine, chanting slogans such as "The Shah is a new [[Yazid I|Yezid]]". For four full days local police and army refused to violate the shrine. The standoff was ended when troops from [[Iranian Azerbaijan]] arrived and broke into the shrine,<ref>Ervand, ''History of Modern Iran'', (2008), p. 94</ref> killing dozens and injuring hundreds, and marking a final rupture between the clergy and the Shah.<ref>Bakhash, Shaul, ''Reign of the Ayatollahs : Iran and the Islamic Revolution'' by Shaul, Bakhash, Basic Books, c 1984, p. 22</ref> Some of the Mashed clergy even left their jobs, such as the Keeper of the Keys of the shrine Hassan Mazloumi, later named Barjesteh, who stated he did not want to listen to the orders of a dog.{{cn|date=January 2025}} From 1925 to 1941, enrollment of "theology students in the traditional madresehs"—roughly the equivalent in age level of secondary schools—declined from 5,984 to 785.<ref>''Iran Between Two Revolutions'' by Ervand Abrahamian, p. 145</ref> The Shah also intensified his controversial changes following the incident with the ''[[Kashf-e hijab]]'' decree, banning the [[chador]] and ordering all citizens, rich and poor, to bring their wives to public functions without head coverings.<ref>Ervand, ''History of Modern Iran'', (2008), p. 95</ref>
===Foreign affairs and influence===
[[File:Reza Shah and Atatürk.jpg|thumb|Reza Shah with president [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] of [[Turkey]]]]
Reza Shah initiated change in foreign affairs as well. He worked to balance British influence with other foreigners and generally to diminish foreign influence in Iran. One of the first acts of the new government after the 1921 entrance into Tehran was to tear up the treaty with the [[Soviet Union]]. In 1934, he made an official state visit to [[Turkey]] and met Turkish President [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]]. During their meeting Reza Shah spoke in [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], and Atatürk in [[Turkish language|Turkish]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Reza-Shah-Historic-Footage-with-Soundtrack | title=Reza Shah – Historic Footage with Soundtrack}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am21y-aeHfU| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211107/Am21y-aeHfU| archive-date=7 November 2021 | url-status=live|title=Reza Shah of Iran meets Ataturk of Turkey |website=youtube.com| date=8 September 2007}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="Yelda2012">{{cite book|author=Rami Yelda|title=A Persian Odyssey: Iran Revisited|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Kbj21wrwwEC&q=reza+shah+spoke+turkish+ataturk&pg=PT33|date=2012|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=978-1-4772-0291-3|pages=33–}}</ref> In 1931, Reza Shah refused to allow [[Imperial Airways]] to fly in Persian airspace, instead giving the concession to German-owned [[Deutsche Luft Hansa|Lufthansa Airlines]]. The next year, 1932, he surprised the British by unilaterally canceling the oil concession awarded to [[William Knox D'Arcy]] (and the [[Anglo-Persian Oil Company]]), which was slated to expire in 1961. The concession granted Persia 16% of the net profits from APOC oil operations. The Shah wanted 21%. The British took the dispute before the [[League of Nations]]. Before a decision was made by the League, the company and Iran compromised and a new concession was signed on 26 April 1933.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,849450,00.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120918034118/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,849450,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 September 2012|magazine=Time|title=Persian Paradox|date=8 September 1941}}</ref>
Reza Shah previously hired American consultants to develop and implement Western-style financial and administrative systems. Among them was U.S. economist [[Arthur Millspaugh]], who acted as the nation's finance minister. Reza Shah also purchased ships from Italy and hired Italians to teach his troops the intricacies of naval warfare. He also imported hundreds of German technicians and advisors for various projects. Mindful of Persia's long period of subservience to British and Russian authority, Reza Shah was careful to avoid giving any one foreign nation too much control. He also insisted that foreign advisors be employed by the Persian government, so that they would not be answerable to foreign powers. This was based upon his experience with Anglo-Persian, which was owned and operated by the <!--http://ejdtm.ir/detail/ielts/-->British government. In his campaign against foreign influence, he annulled the 19th-century capitulations to Europeans in 1928. Under these, Europeans in Iran had enjoyed the privilege of being subject to their own consular courts rather than to the Iranian judiciary. The right to print money was moved from the [[Imperial Bank of Persia|British Imperial Bank]] to his [[National Bank of Iran]] (Bank-i Melli Iran), as was the administration of the telegraph system, from the [[Siemens Communications|Indo-European Telegraph Company]] to the Iranian government, in addition to the collection of customs by Belgian officials. He eventually fired Millspaugh, and prohibited foreigners from administering schools, owning land or traveling in the provinces without police permission.<ref>Abrahamian, Ervand, ''Iran Between Two Revolutions'', pp. 143–144.</ref>
[[File:Signed Photograph of Adolf Hitler and His Best Wishes for Reza Shah Pahlavi - Sahebgharanie Palace - Niavaran Palace.JPG|thumb|left|This photograph's inscription reads "His Imperial Majesty{{snd}}Reza Shah Pahlavi{{snd}}Shahanshah of Iran{{snd}}With the Best Wishes{{snd}}Berlin, 12 March 1936{{snd}}[[Adolf Hitler]]".]]
Not all observers agree that the Shah minimized foreign influence. Reza Shah built a 1392 km-long rail line connecting the Persian Gulf with the Caspian Sea, using foreign technicians from countries with no historic interest in Iran—principally Germany, Scandinavia, and the United States—and not using foreign loans.<ref name="Mackey-173-4">{{cite book |last1=Mackey |first1=Sandra |title= The Iranians : Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation |date=c. 1996 |publisher=Dutton |___location=New York |pages=173–174}}</ref> According to Makki Hossein, this north–south railway line was uneconomical, only serving the British, who had a military presence in the south of Iran and desired the ability to transfer their troops north to Russia, as part of their strategic defence plan. Instead, the Shah's government should have developed what critics believe was an economically justifiable east–west railway system.<ref name="makki">{{cite book|author=Makki Hossein|title=History of Iran in Twenty Years, Vol. II, Preparation for the Change of Monarchy|publisher=Nasher Publication|___location=Tehran|year=1945|pages=484–485}}</ref> In the decades that followed and continuing into the present, north-south transit is considered far more economically vital in comparison to west–east transit.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.pmo.ir/en/cargoandpassenger/advantages | title=Iran's Transit Importance}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rmto.ir/TranzitReport/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%8A%20%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%AF%20%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%84%20%D9%88%20%D9%86%D9%82%D9%84%20%D8%AF%D8%B1%20%D8%B2%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%87%20%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%AA%20%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%20(%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%201394)%E2%80%8F%20%E2%80%8F%E2%80%8F/%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%87%20%DA%AF%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B4%20%DA%A9%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C%20%D8%B9%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B1%DB%8C%20%D8%A7%D8%B2%20%DA%A9%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%B1%20%D8%B7%D9%8A%2012%20%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%87%20%20%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%2094.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806174628/https://www.rmto.ir/TranzitReport/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%8A%20%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%AF%20%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%84%20%D9%88%20%D9%86%D9%82%D9%84%20%D8%AF%D8%B1%20%D8%B2%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%87%20%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%AA%20%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%20(%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%201394)%E2%80%8F%20%E2%80%8F%E2%80%8F/%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%87%20%DA%AF%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B4%20%DA%A9%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C%20%D8%B9%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B1%DB%8C%20%D8%A7%D8%B2%20%DA%A9%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%B1%20%D8%B7%D9%8A%2012%20%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%87%20%20%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%2094.pdf |archive-date=6 August 2020 |trans-title=Summary report of road transit goods from the country |quote=<!-- Title given here seems to be the quote: The statistics of transit of goods from the country and the amount of transit goods show the role and importance of the north and south corridors in the transit of the country, which will increase greatly with the completion of the necessary infrastructure. The West is still weak in the country --> |title=آمار ترانزیت کالا از کشور و میزان کالاهاى عبورى نشان دهنده نقش و اهمیت کریدور شمال و جنـوب درترانزیت کشور است که با کامل شدن زیرساخت هاى لازم این نقش به مراتب افزایش خواهد یافت.ولى بـا دقـت در ایـن آمارها مشاهده مى شود که نقش کریدور شرق به غرب در کشور، همچنان کمرنگ و بى رونق است}}</ref>
On 21 March 1935, Reza Shah issued a decree asking foreign delegates to use the term ''Iran'' in formal correspondence, as ''Persia'' is a term used for a country identified as ''Iran'' in the [[Persian language]]. It was attributed more to the Iranian people than others, as ''Iran'' means "Land of the Aryans". This wisdom of this decision [[Name of Iran#Recent debate|continues to be debated]]. Tired of the opportunistic policies of both Britain and the [[Soviet Union]], the Shah circumscribed contacts with foreign embassies. Relations with the Soviet Union had already deteriorated because of that country's commercial policies, which in the 1920s and 1930s adversely affected Iran. In 1932, the Shah cancelled the agreement under which the Anglo-Persian Oil Company produced and exported Iran's oil. Although a new and improved agreement was eventually signed, it did not satisfy Iran's demands and left bad feeling on both sides. Unlike the British and Soviets, Germany was always in good terms with Iran. On the eve of [[World War II]], Germany was Iran's largest ally and trading partner.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.parstimes.com/history/historicalsetting.html |title=Historical Setting|work=Parstimes|access-date=17 January 2013}}</ref> The Germans agreed to give the Shah the steel factory he coveted and considered a ''sine qua non'' of progress and modernity. They began to form a stronger alliance as Iran started helping the Axis forces and [[Adolf Hitler]]'s cabinet declared Iranians to be immune to the [[Nuremberg Laws]], as they were considered to be the only people besides Germans to be "pure Aryans".<ref>''Russia and the West in Iran 1918-1948.'' George Lenczowski. 1949. pp. 160-161.</ref> In 1939, Hitler provided Iran with their German Scientific Library, which contained over 7,500 books on [[eugenics]] "to convince the Persians of the kinship between Germans and the Persians, the modern Aryans and the ancient Aryans".<ref>Lenczowski. 1944, p. 161</ref> In various pro-Nazi publications, lectures, speeches, and ceremonies, parallels were drawn between the Shah and Hitler, and praises were given to the charisma and the virtue of the ''[[Führerprinzip]]''.<ref>Rezun. 1982, p. 29</ref>
Reza Shah's foreign policy, which had consisted largely on playing the Soviet Union off against the United Kingdom, failed when the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, resulted in those two powers becoming sudden allies in the fight against the Axis powers. Seeking to scold this new Axis ally, and to guarantee the continued supply for the United Kingdom and in order to secure a route of supply to provide Soviet forces with war material, the two allies jointly launched a [[Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran|surprise invasion in August 1941]]. Caught off guard, out gunned, and diplomatically isolated, Reza Shah was defeated by the Anglo-Soviet invasion, ordering his forces to surrender to prevent the world war from reaching Iran, and was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of his son. Reza Shah then was banished into exile while Iran would remain under Allied occupation until 1946.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-6144/Reza-Shah-Pahlavi Reza Shah Pahlavi: Policies as Shah], Britannica Online Encyclopedia.</ref>
===Later years of reign===
[[File:RezaShahBozorg1.jpg|thumb|Reza Shah in his office (Green Palace) at [[Saadabad Palace]] complex, 1941]]
The Shah's reign is sometimes divided into periods. All the efforts of Reza Shah's reign were either completed or conceived in the 1925–1938 period. Abdolhossein [[Teymourtash]] assisted by [[Abdol-Hossein Farman Farma|Farman Farma]], [[Ali-Akbar Davar]] and a large number of modern educated Iranians, proved adept at masterminding the implementation of many reforms demanded since the failed constitutional revolution of 1905–1911. The preservation and promotion of the country's historic heritage, the provision of public education, construction of a national railway, abolition of capitulation agreements, and the establishment of a national bank had all been advocated by intellectuals since the tumult of the constitutional revolution. The later years of his reign were dedicated to institutionalizing the educational system of Iran and also to the industrialization of the country. He knew that the system of the constitutional monarchy in Iran after him had to stand on a solid basis of the collective participation of all Iranians, and that it was indispensable to create educational centers all over Iran. Reza Shah attempted to forge a regional alliance with Iran's Middle Eastern neighbors, particularly [[Turkey]]. The death of [[Kemal Atatürk|Ataturk]] in 1938, followed by the start of [[Second World War|World War II]] shortly thereafter, prevented these projects from being realized.<ref>[[Saeed Nafisi]], Iran in the epoch of Pahlavi the first.</ref>
[[File:RCEG.jpg|thumb|left|Reza Shah meeting officials in [[Saadabad Palace]], 1940]]
The parliament assented to his decrees,<ref>Barry Rubin, ''Paved with Good Intentions: The American Experience and Iran'' (Oxford University Press, 1980: {{ISBN|0-14-00-5964-4}}) and Cottam, ''Nationalism in Iran''.</ref> the free press was suppressed, and the swift incarceration of political leaders like Mossadegh, the murder of others such as Teymourtash, [[Sardar Asad]], Firouz, Modarres, [[Arbab Keikhosro]] and the suicide of Davar, ensured that any progress towards democratization was stillborn and organized opposition to the Shah, impossible. Reza Shah treated the urban middle class, the managers, and [[Technocracy (bureaucratic)|technocrats]] with an iron fist; as a result his state-owned industries remained underproductive and inefficient.<ref>Barry Rubin, ''Paved with Good Intentions'', pp. 14–15.</ref> The bureaucracy fell apart, since officials preferred sycophancy, when anyone could be whisked away to prison for even the whiff of disobeying his whims.<ref name="ReferenceA">Rubin, ''Paved with Good Intentions''.</ref> He confiscated land from the Qajars and from his rivals and into his own estates. The corruption continued under his rule and even became institutionalized. Progress toward modernization was spotty and isolated as it could only take place with Shah's approval.<ref name="Nikki R 1981">Nikki R. Keddie and [[Yann Richard]], ''Roots of Revolution'' (Yale University, 1981: {{ISBN|0-300-02606-4}}).</ref> Eventually, the Shah became totally dependent on the military and secret police to retain power; in return, these state organs regularly received funding up to 50 percent of available public revenue to ensure their loyalty.<ref name="ReferenceA" />
===World War II and forced abdication===
{{Main|Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran}}
[[File:Reza Shah train.jpg|thumb|Reza Shah and Crown Prince Mohammad Reza in a train]]
In August 1941 the [[Allies of World War II|Allied powers]] ([[United Kingdom]] and the [[Soviet Union]]) invaded and occupied [[neutral country|neutral]] Iran by a massive air, land, and naval assault without a [[declaration of war]]. By 28–29 August, the Iranian military situation was in complete chaos. The Allies had complete control over the skies of Iran, and large sections of the country were in their hands. Major Iranian cities (such as Tehran) were suffering repeated air raids. In Tehran itself, the casualties had been light, but the Soviet Air Force dropped leaflets over city, warning the population of an upcoming massive bombing raid and urging them to surrender before they suffered imminent destruction. Tehran's water and food supply had faced shortages, and soldiers fled in fear of the Soviets killing them upon capture. Faced with total collapse, the royal family (except the Shah and the Crown Prince) fled to [[Isfahan]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Iran at War: 1500–1988 |isbn=9781299584235 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BW10PgAACAAJ |last1=Farrokh |first1=Kaveh |date=2011|publisher=Bloomsbury USA }}</ref> The collapse of the army that Reza Shah had spent so much time and effort creating was humiliating. Many Iranian commanders behaved incompetently, others secretly sympathized with the British and sabotaged Iranian resistance. The army generals met in secret to discuss surrender options. When the Shah learned of the generals' actions, he beat armed forces chief General Ahmad Nakhjavan with a cane and physically stripped him of his rank. Nakhjavan was nearly shot by the Shah on the spot, but at the insistence of the Crown Prince, he was sent to prison instead.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Shah |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9781403971937 |url=https://archive.org/details/shah0000mila |url-access=registration |last1=Milani |first1=Abbas |date= 2011 |page=[https://archive.org/details/shah0000mila/page/n88 79]}}</ref>
[[File:رضا شاه در ژوهانسبورگ.gif|thumb|left|Reza Shah in exile]]
The Shah ordered pro-British [[Prime Minister]] [[Ali Mansur]], whom he blamed for demoralising the military, to resign,<ref name=Milani /> replacing him with former prime minister [[Mohammad Ali Foroughi]]. Within days, Reza Shah ordered the military to cease resistance and entered into negotiations with the British and Soviets.<ref>Milani, ''The Shah''</ref> Foroughi was disobliged towards Reza Shah, having been previously forced into retirement years earlier for political reasons with his daughter's father in-law being executed by firing squad. When he entered into negotiations with the British, instead of negotiating a favorable settlement, Foroughi implied that both he and the Iranian people wanted to be "liberated" from the Shah's rule.<ref name="Milani" /> The British and Foroughi agreed that for the Allies to withdraw, Iran would have to expel the German minister and his staff should leave Tehran; the German, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian [[legation]]s would be closed; and all remaining German nationals (including all families) would be handed over to the British and Soviet authorities. The last order would mean almost certain imprisonment or, in the case of those handed to the Soviets, possible death. Reza Shah stalled on the last demand, choosing instead to secretly evacuate German nationals from the country. By 18 September, most of the German nationals had escaped via the Turkish border.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fouman.com/history/Iranian_History_1941.html|title=The Iranian History 1941 AD|website=fouman.com|access-date=29 July 2020|archive-date=10 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130710082148/http://fouman.com/history/Iranian_History_1941.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In response to the Shah's defiance, the Red Army on 16 September moved to occupy Tehran. Fearing execution by the Communists, many people (especially the wealthy) fled the city. Reza Shah, in a letter handwritten by Foroughi, announced his [[abdication]], as the Soviets entered the city on 17 September. The British wanted to restore the Qajar dynasty to power, but the heir to [[Ahmad Shah Qajar]] since that last Qajar Shah's death in 1930, [[Hamid Hassan Mirza]], was a [[British subject]] who spoke no [[Persian language|Persian]]. Instead (with the help of Foroughi), [[Crown Prince]] Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took the oath to become the Shah of Iran.<ref name=Milani />
The British left the Shah a face-saving way out: "Would His Highness kindly abdicate in favor of his son, the heir to the throne? We have a high opinion of him and will ensure his position. But His Highness should not think there is any other solution."<ref name="shahofshahs">{{cite book |last=Kapuscinski |first=Ryszard |author-link=Ryszard Kapuscinski |title=Shah of Shahs |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |page=25 |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-14-118804-1}}</ref> The Anglo-Soviet invasion was instigated in response to Reza for having denied the request to remove the German residents, who could threaten the Abadan refinery. Reza Shah further refused the Allies' requests to expel German nationals residing in Iran and denied the use of the railway to the Allies. According to the British embassy reports from Tehran in 1940, the total number of German citizens in Iran from technicians to spies was no more than one thousand.<ref name="iranian.com">{{cite web |author=Abbas Milani |url=http://www.iranian.com/AbbasMilani/2006/February/Black/index.html |title=Iran, Jews and the Holocaust: An answer to Mr. Black |work=Iranian.com |date=February 2006 |access-date=17 January 2013}}</ref> Because of its strategic importance to the Allies, Iran was subsequently called "The Bridge of Victory" by [[Winston Churchill]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Country name calling: the case of Iran vs. Persia |url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6583215/Country-name-calling-the-case.html}} Retrieved 4 May 2008</ref> Reza Shah was forced by the invading British to [[Abdication|abdicate]] in favor of his son [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]] who replaced his father as Shah on the throne on 16 September 1941.
[[File:Shah's Legs statue.JPG|thumb|Reza Shah's legs statue after the original statue was destroyed after [[1979 Revolution]]]]
===Critics and defenders===
Reza Shah's main critics were the "new intelligentsia", often educated in Europe, for whom the Shah "was not a state-builder<ref name="Parcham, 16 August 1942">Parcham, 16 August 1942</ref> but an 'oriental despot' ... not a reformer but a plutocrat strengthening the landed upper class; not a real nationalist but a jack-booted [[Cossack]] trained by the [[Tsarist]]s and brought to power by British imperialists."<ref>Abrahamian, ''A History of Modern Iran'' (2008), p. 96</ref> His defenders included [[Ahmad Kasravi]], a contemporary intellectual and historian of constitutional movement, who had strongly criticized participation of Reza Shah in the [[1909 siege of Tabriz]].<ref>Ahmad Kasravi, Tarikhe-Mashrothe Iran (The history of constitutional movement of Iran), pp. 825, 855.</ref> When he accepted the unpleasant responsibility of acting as defense attorney for a group of officers accused of torturing political prisoners, he stated: "Our young intellectuals cannot possibly understand and cannot judge the reign of Reza Shah. They cannot because they were too young to remember the chaotic and desperate conditions out of which arose the autocrat named Reza Shah."<ref>A.Kasravi, The case or the defense of the accused, ''Parcham'', 16 August 1942.</ref><ref>''Ervand Abrahamian'', ''Iran Between Two Revolutions'', 1982, Princeton University Press, p. 154</ref>
[[Clarmont Skrine]], a British civil servant who accompanied Reza Shah on his 1941 journey to [[British Mauritius]], writes in his book ''World War in Iran'': "Reza Shah Pahlavi, posthumously entitled 'The Great' in the annals of his country was indeed, if not the greatest, at any rate one of the strongest and ablest men Iran has produced in all the two and a half milleniums of her history."<ref>[[Skrine, Clarmont]] (1962). ''World War in Iran''. Constable & Company, Ltd, pp. 86–87.</ref>
==Death==
[[File:Reza Shah Pahlavi after abdication in South Africa.jpg|thumb|Reza Shah Pahlavi after abdication in South Africa]]
Like his son after him, Reza Shah died in exile. After the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Iran on 25 August 1941, the British offered to keep his family in power if Reza Shah agreed to a life of exile. Reza Shah abdicated and the British forces quickly took him and his children to [[Mauritius]],<ref>Mohammad Gholi Majd, August 1941: The Anglo-Russian Occupation of Iran and Change of Shahs, University Press of America, 2012, p. 12.</ref> where he lived at ''Château Val Ory'' on Bois-Cheri Road in the village of [[Moka]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ahmed Khan |first1=Iqbal |title=Diplomacy: what lies behind the Iran-Mauritius thaw? |date=20 March 2023 |url=https://lexpress.mu/node/420404 |publisher=L'Express |access-date=2023-03-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Reza Shah's Residence For Sale|url=https://en.radiofarda.com/a/reza-shah-s-residence-for-sale/29212666.html|access-date=4 October 2021|website=RFE/RL|date=7 May 2018 |language=en}}</ref> The Chateau Val Ory is still an Iranian property, albeit in a decrepitated state with the Iranian government refusing to sell it to the [[Mauritius|Mauritian government]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Khan|first=Iqbal Ahmed|title=Diplomacy: what lies behind the Iran-Mauritius thaw?|work=L'express|date=20 March 2023|url=https://lexpress.mu/node/420404|language=fr|access-date=16 August 2023}}</ref> Subsequently, he was sent to [[Durban]] and then to a house at 41 Young Avenue in the [[Parktown]] neighborhood of [[Johannesburg]], South Africa,<ref>{{Cite web|date=17 September 2010|title=Royal Jo'burg|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2010-09-17-royal-joburg/|access-date=4 October 2021|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref> where he died at the age of sixty-six on 26 July 1944 of a [[cardiovascular disease|heart ailment]] about which he had been complaining for many years. His personal doctor had boosted the King's morale in exile by telling him that he was suffering from chronic indigestion and not heart ailment. He lived on a diet of plain rice and boiled chicken in the last years of his life.<ref name=Historical_Iranian_Sites_and_People>[http://historicaliran.blogspot.nl/2010/12/reza-shah.html Historical Iranian Sites and People]. 12 December 2010</ref>
After his death, his body was carried to [[Egypt]], where it was embalmed and kept at the royal [[Al-Rifa'i Mosque]] in [[Cairo]] (also the future burial place of his son, the exiled [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]]).<ref name=Historical_Iranian_Sites_and_People/> In May 1950, the remains were flown back to Iran<ref>{{cite news|title=Shah's body returned |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Tx01AAAAIBAJ&pg=3478,6124426&dq=pahlavi&hl=en|access-date=8 August 2013|newspaper=Eugene Register Guard|date=7 May 1950|agency=AP|___location=Tehran}}</ref> where the embalming was removed, and buried in a [[Reza Shah's mausoleum|mausoleum built in his honor]] in the town of [[Ray, Iran|Ray]], in the southern suburbs of the capital, Tehran. [[File:RezaShahBozorgFuneralTehran8.jpg|thumb|left|Reza Shah's funeral in Tehran]]
[[File:RezaShahBozorgTombRay1.jpg|thumb|[[Mausoleum of Reza Shah]] in [[Ray, Iran|Ray]], [[Tehran]], Iran]]The Iranian parliament (Majlis) later designated the title "the Great" to be added to his name. There were reports that on 14 January 1979, shortly before the [[Iranian Revolution]], the remains were moved back to Egypt and buried in the Al-Rifa'i Mosque in Cairo.<ref name=Historical_Iranian_Sites_and_People/> In a 2015 documentary ''From Tehran to Cairo'', his daughter-in-law, [[Farah Pahlavi|Empress Farah]], claimed that the remains of the late Reza Shah remain in the town of Ray. After the 1979 revolution and during the period of the [[Interim Government of Iran (1979)|Interim Government of Iran]], Iran faced a series of rampages at the hand of an extremist mob led by the cleric [[Sadeq Khalkhali]]. During this rampage, happening all over the nation, any construction depicting or even citing the name of the Shah and his family was destroyed. This included the destruction of Reza Shah's mausoleum but were unable to find his dead body.<ref>"[http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000632print.html Obituary: Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061014182242/http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000632print.html |date=14 October 2006 }}{{spaced ndash}}Hardline cleric known as the "hanging judge" of Iran", Adel Darwish, ''[[The Independent]]'', 29 November 2003.</ref> In 2018, a mummified body believed to be Reza Shah's was found in the vicinity of his former mausoleum site in Tehran.<ref>{{cite news|title=Iranian officials discover body of Reza Shah Pahlavi|url=https://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2018/04/23/iranian-officials-discover-body-of-reza-shah-pahlavi|newspaper=The Daily Sabah|date=23 April 2018|access-date=24 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Hignett|first1=Katherine|title=Iran Unearths Mummy That Could Belong to One of its Last Royal Leaders|url=http://www.newsweek.com/iran-mummy-reza-shah-pahlavi-mystery-shah-899257|newspaper=Newsweek|date=24 April 2018|access-date=24 April 2018}}</ref> An official said that the body belonged to Reza Shah and was buried in the same area.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran-44195311|title=عضو شورای شهر پایتخت ایران: جسد مومیایی شده متعلق به رضاشاه بود و دوباره دفن شد|work=BBC Persian|language=fa|date=21 May 2018|accessdate=7 March 2023}}</ref>
==Accomplishments==
{{more citations needed|section|date=September 2018}}<!--citations needed for anything not already cited in article-->
[[File:500 Rials banknote Reza Shah.JPG|thumb|500 Rials Iranian banknote depicting Reza Shah]]
Under Reza Shah's reign, a number of new concepts were introduced between 1923 and 1941. Some of these significant changes, achievements, concepts, and laws included:
* Successful suppression of separatist movements and [[Sheikh Khazal rebellion|reunification of Iran]] under a powerful central government.
* Foundation of the first [[judicial system of Iran]].
* Foundation of the first [[health care in Iran|national health care system]] and public hospitals across the country.
* Reestablishment of [[Iranian Gendarmerie]] and [[Shahrbani]] in order to enforce law and order.
* Foundation of [[Trans-Iranian Railway]] which connected [[Caspian Sea]] to [[Persian Gulf]].<ref>JMohammad A. Chaichia, ''Town and Country in the Middle East: Iran and Egypt in the Transition to Globalization'', Lexington Books 2009, p. 71</ref>
* Nationalizing Iranian forests and jungles.
* Creation of an Iranian modern military.
* Creation of [[Communications in Iran|Iran's first radio]] stations.
* Founding of the [[national Museum of Iran]].
* Rebuilding Iran's historical sites, including the tombs [[Tomb of Ferdowsi|of Ferdowsi]] and [[Tomb of Hafez|Hafez]].
* Organizing the [[Ferdowsi Millenary Celebration]]s to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of [[Ferdowsi]]'s birth as the savior of [[Persian language]] and Iranian identity.
* Creation of Iran's [[Academy of Persian Language and Literature]] in order to protect Iran's official language.
* The first scientific excavations at [[Persepolis]], the ancient capital of the [[Achaemenid Empire]], were carried out by the initiative of Reza Shah. [[Ernst Herzfeld]] and [[Erich Schmidt (archaeologist)|Erich Schmidt]] representing the Oriental Institute of the [[University of Chicago]] conducted excavations for eight seasons, beginning in 1930, and included other nearby sites.
* Creation of the Iran's first national bank known as [[Bank Melli Iran]] (with German advice) and other Iranian banks such as [[Bank Sepah]] and [[Keshavarzi Bank]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Kinzer|first=Stephen|title=Inside Iran's Fury|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/iran-fury.html?c=y&page=2|archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20091015025529/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people%2Dplaces/iran%2Dfury.html?c%3Dy%26page%3D2|archive-date=15 October 2009|url-status=dead|access-date=9 August 2013|work=Smithsonian Magazine|date=October 2008}}</ref><ref name="Townson">Townson, Duncan, ''The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern History 1789–1945 (2nd ed.)'', Penguin, 2001, p. 459 {{ISBN|0140514902}}</ref>
* Creation of the first university in Iran which is known as [[University of Tehran]].
* Transferring and providing full [[scholarships]] for the Iranian students to [[European countries]] for studying abroad.
* Ordering all educational institutions in Iran to admit women.<ref name="Townson"/>
* Eradication of corruption of civil servants, paying wages on time so people did not have to rely on bribes.
* Creation of the first [[Education in Iran|national school system]] and schoolbooks in Iran; before Reza Shah Pahlavi, the [[Islam]]ic madreseh and [[Quran]] was the only form of schooling available.
* Establishment of the first Iranian kindergarten and school for deaf people.
* Creation of the [[Iran Scout Organization]].
* Creation of birth certificates and Identification cards for all Iranians.<ref>Dilip Hiro, ''The Iranian Labyrinth: Journeys Through Theocratic Iran and Its Furies'', Nation Books, 2005, p. 91</ref>
* Creation of the first Iranian airplane factory with buying license from [[Junkers]].
* Building the first Iranian airport known as [[Mehrabad International Airport|Mehrabad airport]].
* Changing Iranian currency from [[Iranian toman|Toman]] to [[Iranian rial|Rial]].
* Restoring [[Persian calendar]] and making it the official calendar of Iran.
* Ordering all men other than ''ulama'' to wear Western clothes.<ref name="Townson"/>
* [[Kashf-e hijab]] (''Unveiling''). On 8 January 1936, Reza Shah issued a decree banning all [[Hijab|veils]] ([[headscarf]] and [[chador]]), an edict that was swiftly and forcefully implemented.<ref name="Hoodfar">[[Homa Hoodfar|Hoodfar, Homa]] (fall 1993). ''The Veil in Their Minds and on Our Heads: The Persistence of Colonial Images of Muslim Women'', Resources for feminist research (RFR) / Documentation sur la recherche féministe (DRF), Vol. 22, n. 3/4, pp. 5–18, Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE), {{ISSN|0707-8412}}</ref><ref name="Milani">Milani, Farzaneh (1992). ''Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers'', Syracuse, New York: [[Syracuse University Press]], pp. 19, 34–37, {{ISBN|9780815602668}}</ref><ref name="Paidar">Paidar, Parvin (1995): ''Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran'', Cambridge Middle East studies, Vol. 1, Cambridge, UK; New York: [[Cambridge University Press]], pp. 106–107, 214–215, 218–220, {{ISBN|9780521473408}}</ref><ref name="Majd">Majd, Mohammad Gholi (2001). ''Great Britain and Reza Shah: The Plunder of Iran, 1921–1941'', Gainesville: [[University Press of Florida]], pp. 209–213, 217–218, {{ISBN|9780813021119}}</ref><ref name="CurtisHooglund">Curtis, Glenn E.; Hooglund, Eric (2008). ''Iran: A Country Study'', 5th ed, Area handbook series, Washington, DC: [[Federal Research Division]], [[Library of Congress]], pp. 28, 116–117, {{ISBN|9780844411873}}</ref> The government also banned many types of male traditional clothing.<ref name="Katouzian3">Katouzian, Homa (2003). "2. Riza Shah's Political Legitimacy and Social Base, 1921–1941" in Cronin, Stephanie: ''The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921–1941'', pp. 15–37, London; New York: [[Routledge]]; [[Taylor & Francis]], {{ISBN|9780415302845}}</ref><ref name="Katouzian4">Katouzian, Homa (2004). "1. State and Society under Reza Shah" in Atabaki, Touraj; [[Erik-Jan Zürcher|Zürcher, Erik-Jan]]: ''Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernisation in Turkey and Iran, 1918–1942'', pp. 13–43, London; New York: [[I.B. Tauris]], {{ISBN|9781860644269}}
</ref><ref name="Katouzian6">
Katouzian, Homa (2006). ''State and Society in Iran: The Eclipse of the Qajars and the Emergence of the Pahlavis'', 2nd ed, Library of modern Middle East studies, Vol. 28, London; New York: [[I.B. Tauris]], pp. 33–34, 335–336, {{ISBN|9781845112721}}
</ref>
* In the Western world, [[Name of Iran|Persia (or one of its cognates)]] was historically the common name for Iran. In 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates to use the term Iran, the historical name of the country, used by its native people, in formal correspondence.
* Reconstruction of old cities.
* [[Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom|Abolition of slavery]].
* Abolition of the [[harem]].
==Family and personal life==
[[File:رضا خان و فرزندانش.jpg|thumb|Reza Shah and his children (from left to right: Mohammad Reza, Shams, and Ashraf), 1920s]]
Reza Shah married, for the first time, [[Maryam Savadkoohi]], who was his cousin, in 1895. The marriage lasted until Maryam's death in 1911, the couple had a daughter:
* Princess [[Hamdam al-Saltaneh Pahlavi]] (1903–1992)
Reza Shah's second wife was Nimtaj Ayromlou, later [[Tadj ol-Molouk]] (1896–1982). The couple married in 1916 and when Reza Khan became king, Queen Tadj ol-Molouk was his official wife. They had four children together:
* Princess [[Shams Pahlavi]] (1917–1996)
* [[Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi]] (1919–1980)
* Princess [[Ashraf Pahlavi]] (1919–2016)
* Prince [[Ali Reza Pahlavi (born 1922)|Ali Reza Pahlavi]] (1922–1954).
The third wife of Reza Shah was [[Turan Amirsoleimani]] (1905–1994), who was from the [[Qajar dynasty]]. The couple married in 1922 but divorced in 1923 and together they had a son:
* Prince [[Gholam Reza Pahlavi]] (1923–2017)
Reza Shah's fourth and last wife, [[Esmat Dowlatshahi]] (1905–1995), was a member of the Qajar dynasty. She married Reza Shah in 1923 and accompanied him to his exile. Esmat was Reza Shah's favorite wife, who resided at [[Marble Palace (Tehran)|Marble Palace]]. The couple had five children:
* Prince [[Abdul Reza Pahlavi]] (1924–2004)
* Prince [[Ahmad Reza Pahlavi]] (1925–1981)
* Prince [[Mahmoud Reza Pahlavi]] (1926–2001)
* Princess [[Fatemeh Pahlavi]] (1928–1987)<ref>{{cite news|title=Iranian princess dies at age 58|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=INlGAAAAIBAJ&pg=1479,167212&dq=reza+shah+and+his+children&hl=en|access-date=4 November 2012|newspaper=The Lewiston Journal|date=2 June 1987}}</ref>
* Prince [[Hamid Reza Pahlavi]] (1932–1992).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130608020326/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/keyword/hamid-reza Hamid Reza] ''Orlando Sentinel'', 15 July 1992</ref>
==List of prime ministers==
* [[Mohammad Ali Foroughi]] (first term, 1 November 1925 – 13 June 1926), was a close colleague and friend of Reza Shah before he became king who was probably also Reza Shah's favorite prime minister
* [[Mostowfi ol-Mamalek]] (sixth term, 13 June 1926 – 2 June 1927)
* [[Mehdi Qoli Hedayat]] (2 June 1927 – 18 September 1933)
* Mohammad Ali Foroughi (second term, 18 September 1933 – 3 December 1935)
* [[Mahmoud Jam]] (3 December 1935 – 26 October 1939), Mahmoud Jam's son [[Fereydoun Djam|Fereydoun Jam]] marries Reza Shah's daughter, [[Shams Pahlavi|Princess Shams]]. 1937
* [[Ahmad Matin-Daftari]] (26 October 1939 – 26 June 1940). Reza Shah removed him from office and imprisoned him in 1940 for spying on the UK and [[Winston Churchill]] on behalf of [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Nazi Germany]].
* [[Ali Mansur]] (26 June 1940 – 27 August 1941)
==Titles, styles, and honours==
Following the overthrow of the Qajar dynasty and becoming the Shahanshah of Iran, he commanded all offices of Iran to address him with his surname and title, "Reza Shah Pahlavi".<ref>lbrecht Schnabel and Amin Saikal (2003), Democratization in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggles, Challenges, and Modernization. [https://books.google.com/books?id=qFhU3kWXLvEC&q=Reza+surnames URL] pp9</ref> In the spring of 1950, after the foundation of the [[National Consultative Assembly]], he was given the title "Reza Shah the Great".<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="ReferenceC"/>
===Honours===
* Czechoslovakia: Collar 1st Class of the [[Order of the White Lion]], 1935.<ref>[http://www.vyznamenani.net/?p=1053 "Kolana Řádu Bílého lva aneb hlavy států v řetězech"] (in Czech), ''Czech Medals and Orders Society''. Retrieved 9 August 2018.</ref>
* Denmark: Knight of the [[Order of the Elephant]], 20 January 1937.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jørgen Pedersen|title=Riddere af Elefantordenen, 1559–2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glw-AQAAIAAJ|year=2009|publisher=Syddansk Universitetsforlag|language=da|isbn=978-87-7674-434-2|page=466}}</ref>
* Sweden: Knight of the [[Royal Order of the Seraphim]], 10 November 1934.<ref>{{citation|title=Sveriges statskalender|year=1940|volume=II|page=8|url=https://runeberg.org/statskal/1940bih/0008.html|via=runeberg.org|access-date=6 January 2018|language=sv}}</ref>
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
=== Books ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Alirezaijan |first=Reza |title='Škodovy závody Teherán:Českoslovenští architekti v říši perského šáha, 1932–1948' |publisher=Books & Pipes Brno |year=2025 |isbn=978-80-7485-302-9 | url=https://www.bookspipes.cz/skodovy-zavody-teheran}}
{{Refend}}
==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*{{Wikiquote-inline}}
*[http://www.irannotes.com IRANNOTES.com] — High quality Iranian banknotes and coins
*{{PM20|FID=pe/014461}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[List of kings of Persia|Shah of Iran]]|years=15 December 1925 – 16 September 1941}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Prime Ministers of Iran|Prime Minister of Iran]]|years=28 October 1923 – 1 November 1925}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (Iran)|Minister of War]]|years=24 April 1921 – 13 June 1926}}
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{{s-ttl|title=Commander of the [[Persian Cossack Brigade]]|years=1920–1921}}
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{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the [[Iranian Red Crescent Society|Iranian Red Lion and Sun Society]]|years=1931–1941}}
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{{s-end}}
{{Pahlavi Dynasty}}
{{Prime Ministers of Iran}}
{{Commanders-in-Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shah, Reza}}
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[[Category:Monarchs who abdicated]]
[[Category:Collars of the Order of the White Lion]]
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[[Category:Imperial Iranian Army brigadier generals]]
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[[Category:Exiled politicians]]
[[Category:Iranian people of Azerbaijani descent]]
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