The Great "Reza Shah Pahlavi"

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• published: 05 Oct 2008
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The Greatest Iranian Man of The 20 Century.My Tribute to Father of Modern Iran - Reza Shah The Great. Remixed by Bahramerad. Rezā Shāh, also Rezā Shāh Pahlavi (Persian: رضا شاه پهلوی, pronounced [rezɑː-ʃɑːh-e pæhlæviː]), (March 15, 1878 July 26, 1944), was the Shah of Iran[1] from December 15, 1925 until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in September 16, 1941. Reza Shah overthrew Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last Shah of the Qajar dynasty, and founded the Pahlavi Dynasty. He was later designated by parliament as "Reza Shah the Great". He established an authoritarian government that valued nationalism, militarism, secularism and anti-communism combined with strict censorship and state propaganda. [2] He was known as being highly intelligent, without any formal education [3] Reza Shah introduced many socio-economic reforms, reorganizing the army, government administration, and finances.In the early stages of his life, Reza Shah was known as Reza Savad-Koohi, because of his birth place (see below). Later on, when he gained territory with his own army, he entitled himself Reza Khan, and later as Reza Khan Mirpanj (Persian: رضا خان میرپنج), his full military title at the time. Upon becoming minister of war, he was known as Reza Khan Sardar Sepah, which in Persian roughly means Reza Khan, head of the armed forces. Upon securing his position as the Shah of Persia, he chose the surname Pahlavi (surnames did not exist in Persia before this date, and were introduced as one of the modernization measures during his reign.Reza Pahlavi was born in the village of Alasht in Savad Kooh county, Mazandaran in 1878. His father, Abbas Ali (1815-26 November 1878), and his mother Zehra were ethnic Mazanderani. Abbas Ali was a member of the regional army. When Reza was sixteen years old, he joined the Persian Cossack Brigade, in which, years later, he would rise to the rank of Brigadier. He also served in the Iranian Army, where he gained the rank of gunnery sergeant under Qajar Prince Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma's command. He rose through the ranks, eventually holding a commission as a Brigadier General in the Persian Cossack Brigade. He was the last and only Iranian commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade. He was also one of the last individuals to become an officer of the Neshan-e Aqdas prior to the collapse of the Qajar dynasty in 1925.In August 1941, the Allied powers United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, occupied Iran by a massive air, land, and naval assault subsequently forcing Reza Shah to abdicate in favour of his son (see also Persian Corridor). The Shah received with disbelief, as a personal humiliation and defeat, news that fifteen Iranian divisions had surrendered without much resistance. Some of his troops dispersed and went home, while others were locked up in their barracks by the Allies. The British left the Shah a face-saving way out:[45] Would His Highness kindly abdicate in favour 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. The invasion was allegedly in fear that Reza Shah was about to align his petroleum-rich country with Nazi Germany during the war: However, Reza Shah's earlier Declaration of Neutrality and refusal to allow Iranian territory to be used to train, supply, and act as a transport corridor to ship arms to Russia for its war effort against Germany, was the strongest motive for the allied invasion of Iran. Because of its importance in the allied victory, Iran was subsequently called "The Bridge of Victory" by Winston Churchill.[46] The Shah's son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, officially replaced his father on the throne on September 16, 1941. Reza Shah was soon forced into exile in British territories, first to Mauritius, then to Durban thence Johannesburg, South Africa, where he died on July 26, 1944, of heart ailment from 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) He was sixty-six years old at the time of his death. After his passing, his body was carried to Egypt, where his body was embalmed and kept at the royal Al Rifa'i Mosque in Cairo (poignantly, the future burial place of his son, the exiled Muhammad Reza Shah). Many years later, the remains were flown back to Iran, where the embalming were removed (Islamic laws do not allow for embalmment of the dead), and buried in a beautifully designed and decorated mausoleum built in his honor at the Shia shrine town of Ray/Shah-Abdol-Azim, in the southern suburbs of the capital, Tehran. The Iranian parliament (Majlis) later designated the title "the Great" to be added to his name.