Pahlavi dynasty


The Pahlavi dynasty was an Iranian royal dynasty that was the last to rule Iran before the country's monarchy was overthrown by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. It was founded in 1925 by Reza Shah Pahlavi, born Reza Khan, a non-aristocratic Iranian soldier of Mazanderani origin, who took on the name of the Pahlavi scripts of the Middle Persian language from the Sasanian Empire of pre-Islamic Iran. The dynasty largely espoused this form of Iranian nationalism rooted in the pre-Islamic era during its time in power, especially under its last Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
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. About a month later, under British direction, Reza Khan's 3,000–4,000 strong detachment of the Cossack Brigade reached Tehran. 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 Shah of Iran on 12 December 1925, pursuant to the Persian Constitution of 1906. Initially, Pahlavi had planned to declare the country a republic, as his contemporary Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had done in Turkey, but he abandoned the idea in the face of British and clerical opposition.
The dynasty ruled Iran as an autocratic monarchy, with a brief pluralistic period from 1941 to 1953, when Mohammed Mossadegh was overthrown, returning to authoritarianism, with a brief one party state period until the dynasty was removed from power in 1979.

Family background

In 1878, Reza Khan was born at the village of Alasht in Savadkuh County, Mazandaran Province. His parents were Abbas Ali Khan and Noushafarin Ayromlou. His mother was a Muslim immigrant from Georgia whose family had emigrated to mainland Qajar Iran after Iran was forced to cede all of its territories in the Caucasus following the Russo-Persian Wars several decades prior to Reza's birth. His father was a Mazandarani, commissioned in the 7th Savadkuh Regiment, and served in the Anglo-Persian War in 1856.

Pahlavi monarchs, regents, and heads of the house

Reign of Pahlavi monarchs and tenure of later pretenders; and their lifespan

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Consorts

Heirs

The 1906 constitution of Iran specifically provided that only a male who was not descended from the Qajar dynasty could become the heir apparent. This made all half-brothers of Mohammad Reza ineligible to become heirs to the throne. Until his death in 1954, the Shah's only full brother Ali Reza was his heir presumptive. The constitution also required the Shah to be of Iranian descent, meaning that his father and mother are Iranian.

Line of succession in February 1979

Royal jewels

Monuments

Use of titles

  • Shâh: Emperor, followed by Shâhanshâh of Iran, with style His Imperial Majesty
  • Shahbânu: Shahbânu or Empress, followed by first name, followed by "of Iran", with style Her Imperial Majesty
  • Valiahd: Crown Prince of Iran, with style His Imperial Highness
  • Younger sons: Prince, followed by first name and surname, and style His Imperial Highness.
  • Daughters: Princess, followed by first name and surname, and style Her Imperial Highness.
  • Children of the monarch's daughter/s use another version of Prince or Princess, which indicate descent in the second generation through the female line, and use the styles His Highness or Her Highness. This is then followed by first name and father's surname, whether he was royal or a commoner. However, the children by the last Shah's sister Fatemeh, who married an American businessman as her first husband, are surnamed Pahlavi Hillyer and do not use any titles.