Top 10 Amazing Facts about Rezā Shāh

A hand-coloured photograph of Reza shah.Author ColorizePhotoOfIran. Wikimedia

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Rezā Shāh

Reza Shah was an Iranian military officer and politician. He was the first shah of the House of Pahlavi of the Imperial State of Iran.

 He reigned from 15 December 1925 until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran on 16 September 1941. Reza Shah introduced many social, economic, and political reforms during his reign.

He ultimately laid the foundation of the modern Iranian state. Therefore, he is regarded as the founder of modern Iran.

Reza Shah Pahlavi was born in 1878. In the city of Alasht in Savadkuh County, Mazandaran Province, in 1878

To the son of Major Abbas-Ali Khan and his wife Noush-Afarin. However, he lost his father when he was barely 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 in 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.

Let’s learn the Top 10 Amazing Facts about Rezā Shāh

1. Joined the Persian Cossack Brigade at a Young Age

Reza joined the Persian Cossack Brigade at the age of 16. In 1903, at the age of 25, he was the guard and servant to the Dutch consul general Fridolin Marinus Knobel.

2. He Served in the Imperial Army

Reza Shah. Unknown author. WIKIMEDIA

After Reza served in the Imperial army, his initial career started as a private. This was under Qajar Prince Abdol-Hossein Farman Farma’s command.

Farman Farma noted that Reza had potential. He 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. This led him to be promoted to First Lieutenant.

His proficiency in handling machine guns elevated him to the rank equivalent to captain in 1912. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel by 1915.

Additionally, he served as a brigadier general in the Persian Cossack Brigade. Amazingly, he was the last commanding officer of the Brigade. Furthermore, the only Iranian commander in its history.

3. Patriotic Character by Finding a Solution to End Foreign Power Dominance in Iran

Iran went through centuries of misrule by its former rulers. It also suffered from the ravages of the war waged by foreign belligerents from 1914 to 1919.

Iran was ruined and depilated in 1921. The last shah of the Qājār dynasty, Ahmad Shah was young and incompetent. His cabinet was weak and corrupt.

Foreign powers such as Britain and Russia had outraged the patriotism and nationalist elements of Iran. This led Reza to decide on a way of ending the chaos.

 This was by taking over power and forming a strong government. Reza enlisted young progressive Iranian elements. Furthermore, he received support and encouragement from British diplomats.

4. He was Appointed as the Minister of War

Reza Shah. Unknown Author. WIKIMEDIA

After finding a solution to end the dominance of the foreign power. On February 21, 1921, under British direction, Reza Khan led his 3,000-4,000 strong detachment of the Cossack Brigade, based in Niyarak, Qazvin, and Hamadan, to Tehran and seized the capital.

He forced the dissolution of the previous government. Reza demanded that Seyyed Zia’eddin Tabatabaee be appointed Prime Minister.

 Reza took command of all the military forces. He was also appointed minister of war a few weeks after.

5. Reza became the Prime Minister of Iran

When Reza was appointed as the minister of war. There was ever-increasing tension with Zia ol Din Tabatabae. Zia was the Prime Minister at the time.

 Zia ol Din Tabatabaee wrongly calculated that when Reza was appointed as the minister of war. He would relinquish his post as the head of the Persian Cossack Brigade.

Zia also thought that Reza Khan would wear civilian clothing instead of military attire. However, this erroneous calculation by Zia ol Din Tabatabaee backfired.

 Instead, it was apparent to people who observed Reza as the one who wielded power. By 1923, Reza Khan had largely succeeded in securing Iran’s interior.

He secured Iran’s interior from any remaining domestic and foreign threats. This led him to be appointed Prime Minister.

6. First King of the House of Pahlavi

Reza Shah. Unknown author. Wikimedia

After being appointed as the prime minister, this led Ahmad Shah left Iran for Europe. This induced the parliament to grant Reza dictatorial powers.

Reza quickly established a political cabinet in Tehran. This was to help him to organize his plans for modernization and reform.

Interestingly, By October 1925, he succeeded in pressuring the Majlis to depose and formally exile Ahmad Shah. Furthermore, instate him as the next Shah of Iran.

Initially, he had planned to declare the country a republic. However, Reza abandoned the idea in the face of British and clerical opposition.

The Majlis, convening as a constituent assembly, declared him the Shah (King) of Iran. He was declared on 12 December 1925.

7. He Replaced  Persia with Iran

Persia was historically the common name for Iran in the Western World. In 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates and the League of Nations to use the term Iran.

Since then, in the Western World, the use of the word “Iran” has become more common. This also changed the usage of the names for the Iranian nationality. The common adjective for citizens of Iran changed from Persian to Iranian.

8. Reza Shah Initiated Change in Foreign Affairs

Reza Shah worked to balance British influence with other foreigners. He also worked to diminish foreign influence in Iran.

In 1931, he refused to allow Imperial Airways to fly in Persian airspace. Instead, he gave a concession to German-owned Lufthansa Airlines.

In 1932, he surprised the British. This was by cancelling the oil concession awarded to William Knox D’Arcy, 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.

 However, before a decision was made by the League. The company and Iran compromised and a new concession was signed on 26 April 1933.

He previously hired American consultants to develop and implement Western-style finances. Moreover, administrative systems.

Reza Shah also purchased ships from Italy. He hired Italians to teach his troops the intricacies of naval warfare. He also imported hundreds of German technicians and advisors for various projects.

9. Support for the Shah Came Principally from Three Sources

The military was the central “pillar”. This was where Shah began his career. The annual defence budget of Iran “increased more than fivefold from 1926 to 1941.” Officers were paid more than other salaried employees.

Another source of support was the new modern and expanded state bureaucracy of Iran. Its ten civilian ministries employed 90,000 full-time government workers.

The third pillar was Patronage. That was controlled by the Shah’s royal court. This was financed by the Shah’s considerable personal wealth which had been built up by forced sales and confiscations of estates.

This made 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 totalling over 3 million acres.”

10. He Discredited and Eliminated a Number of His Ministers

The minister of the Imperial Court, Abdolhossein Teymourtash, was removed in 1932. He was accused convicted of corruption and bribery.

Additionally, he was convicted of misuse of foreign currency regulations and plans to overthrow the Shah. He died under suspicious circumstances while in prison in September 1933.

The minister of finance, Prince Firouz Nosrat-ed-Dowleh III, was convicted on similar charges in May 1930, and also died in prison, in January 1938. He played an important role in the first three years of Shah’s reign.

 Ali-Akbar Davar, his minister of justice, was suspected of similar charges. He committed suicide in February 1937.