Pahlavi dynasty

This article is about the Iranian royal dynasty. For the country under its rule, see Pahlavi Iran.

Pahlavi
Royal house
Arms of dominion of the Shahs, and therefore coat of arms, of Pahlavi Iran from 1932. The emblem of the dynasty is the mountain and sun in the blue circle in the middle.
CountryImperial State of Iran
Place of originMazandaran
Founded15 December 1925 (1925-12-15)
FounderReza Shah
Current headReza Pahlavi
Final rulerMohammad Reza Pahlavi
Connected familiesMuhammad Ali dynasty (1941–1948)
Mottoمرا داد فرمود و خود داور است
Marā dād farmud o Khod dāvar ast
(He (Allah or God) named me justice and he himself is the judge)
Deposition11 February 1979 (1979-02-11) (Iranian revolution)

The Pahlavi dynasty (Persian: دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty that ruled for roughly 53 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier[1] in modern times, who took on the name of the Pahlavi language spoken in the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire to strengthen his nationalist credentials.[2][3][4][5]

The dynasty replaced the Qajar dynasty in 1925 after the 1921 coup d'état, beginning on 14 January 1921 when 42-year-old soldier Reza Khan was promoted by British General Edmund Ironside to lead the British-run Persian Cossack Brigade.[6] About a month later, under British direction, Reza Khan's 3,000–4,000 strong detachment of the Cossack Brigade reached Tehran in what became known as the 1921 Persian coup d'état.[7][8] The rest of the country was taken by 1923, and by October 1925 the Majlis agreed to depose and formally exile Ahmad Shah Qajar. The Majlis declared Reza Pahlavi as the new Shah of Iran on 12 December 1925, pursuant to the Persian Constitution of 1906.[9] Initially, Pahlavi 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.[10]

The dynasty ruled Iran for 28 years as a form of constitutional monarchy from 1925 until 1953, and following the overthrow of the elected prime minister, for a further 26 years as a more autocratic monarchy until the dynasty was itself overthrown in 1979.

  1. ^ Aghaie, Kamran Scot (1 December 2011). The Martyrs of Karbala: Shi'i Symbols and Rituals in Modern Iran. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-80078-3.
  2. ^ کوروش, نوروز مرادی; نوری, مصطفی (1388). "سندی نویافته از نیای رضاشاه" (PDF). پیام بهارستان. د۲،س ۱،ش۴.
  3. ^ معتضد, خسرو (1387). تاج های زنانه (چاپ اول ed.). تهران: نشر البرز. pp. 46 47 48 49 50 51 جلد اول. ISBN 9789644425974.
  4. ^ نیازمند, رضا (1387). رضاشاه از تولد تا سلطنت (چاپ ششم ed.). تهران: حکایت قلم نوین. pp. 15 16 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 39 40 43 44 45. ISBN 9645925460.
  5. ^ زیباکلام, صادق (1398). رضاشاه (اول ed.). تهران: روزنه،لندن:اچ انداس. pp. 61, 62. ISBN 9781780837628.
  6. ^ Cyrus Ghani; Sīrūs Ghanī (6 January 2001). Iran and the Rise of the Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power. I.B.Tauris. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-1-86064-629-4.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Zirinsky was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Brysac, Shareen Blair. "A Very British Coup: How Reza Shah Won and Lost His Throne." World Policy Journal 24, no. 2 (2007): 90–103. Accessed 8 August 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40210096
  9. ^ "Mashallah Ajudani". Ajoudani. Archived from the original on 22 October 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  10. ^ Curtis, Glenn E.; Hooglund, Eric. Iran: A Country Study: A Country Study. Government Printing Office. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8444-1187-3.