Reza Shah

Reza Shah Pahlavi (previously Reza Khan; 15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) (Persian: رضاشاه پهلوی [ɾeˈzɒː ˈʃɒːhe pʰæɦlæˈviː]) 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, and was elected shah following the deposition of Ahmad Shah, the last monarch of the Qajar dynasty. Joining the Persian Cossack Brigade at age 14, he rose through the ranks, becoming a brigadier-general by 1921. In February 1921, as leader of the entire Cossack Brigade based in Qazvin province, he marched towards Tehran and 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. 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 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. In an effort to reduce British and Russian influence, Reza Shah initially sought partnerships with the United States and Weimar Germany until 1931. Thereafter, he turned to the First Republic of Czechoslovakia and Denmark, drawing on the Czech industrial firm Škoda Works and Scandinavian engineering consortium Kampsax to advance the development of Iran’s infrastructure, military, and industry during the 1930s. Reza Shah's reign ended when he was forced to abdicate after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, during the 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 modern Iranian state. Therefore, he is regarded by many as the founder of modern Iran. 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 2,500 years of Iranian monarchy. Moreover, his insistence on ethnic nationalism and cultural unitarism, along with forced detribalisation and sedentarisation, resulted in the suppression of several ethnic and social groups. Although he was of Iranian Mazanderani descent, 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. In the spring of 1950, he was posthumously named as Reza Shah the Great (رضا شاه بزرگ) by Iran's National Consultative Assembly.

Infobox

Reign

15 December 1925 – 16 September 1941

Coronation

25 April 1926

Predecessor

Ahmad Shah Qajar

Successor

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Pre-royal positions

Pre-royal positions 16th Prime Minister of PersiaIn office28 October 1923 – 1 November 1925MonarchAhmad Shah QajarPreceded byHassan PirniaSucceeded byMohammad Ali Foroughi (Acting)Mostowfi ol-MamalekMinister of WarIn office24 April 1921 – 1 November 1925MonarchAhmad Shah QajarPrime MinisterZia ol Din Tabatabaee Ahmad Qavam Hassan Pirnia Mostowfi ol-Mamalek HimselfPreceded byMasoud KayhanSucceeded byAmir Abdollah Tahmasebi

Monarch

Ahmad Shah Qajar

Preceded by

Masoud Kayhan

Succeeded by

Amir Abdollah Tahmasebi

Prime Minister

Zia ol Din Tabatabaee Ahmad Qavam Hassan Pirnia Mostowfi ol-Mamalek Himself

Born

(1878-03-15)15 March 1878Alasht, Savadkuh, Mazandaran, Sublime State of Iran

Died

26 July 1944(1944-07-26) (aged 66)Johannesburg, Union of South Africa

Burial

1944Al-Rifa'i Mosque, Cairo, Egypt;7 May 1950Mausoleum of Reza Shah, Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine, Rey, Iran

Spouse

mw- Maryam Savadkoohi (m. 1895; died 1911) Tadj ol-Molouk Ayromlu (m. 1916) Turan Amirsoleimani (m. 1922; div. 1923) Esmat Dowlatshahi (m. 1923)

Issue

Princess Hamdam al-SaltanehPrincess ShamsMohammad Reza ShahPrincess AshrafPrince Ali RezaPrince Gholam RezaPrince Abdul RezaPrince Ahmad RezaPrince Mahmoud RezaPrincess FatemehPrince Hamid Reza

Names

NamesReza PahlaviPersian: رضا پهلوی

House

Pahlavi

Father

Abbas-Ali Khan

Mother

Noush-Afarin

Religion

Twelver Shiʿa

Allegiance

Sublime State of Iran(1894–1925) Imperial State of Iran(1925–1941)

Branch/service

in Persian Cossack Brigade from 1894 to 1925 in Imperial Army of Iran from 1921 to 1941

Years of service

1894–1941

Rank

Brigadier General from 1921 to 1925 Sardar Sepah (Commander-in-Chief) from 1925 to 1941

Battles/wars

mw- li Persian Constitutional Revolution First World War 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