Reza Shah Pahlavi

Born Mar. 16, 1878, in Mazandaran; died July 26, 1944, in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa; buried in the town of Rey, near Tehran. Shah of Iran (1925–41). Founder of the Pahlavi Dynasty.

Reza Shah Pahlavi was the son of an officer, a petty landowner from Mazandaran. He began his military service in the lower ranks of the Persian cossack brigade. He commanded the cossack brigade that carried out the coup d’etat (Third Hut) on Feb. 21, 1921. From 1921 to 1923 he served as minister of war, and from October 1923 to the end of 1925, as prime minister. On Dec. 12, 1925, after the overthrow of the Qajar dynasty (Oct. 31, 1925), the Constituent Assembly proclaimed him shah of Iran.

In carrying out the centralization of the country, Reza Shah Pahlavi had to struggle against the separatism of the feudal khans. He introduced judicial, military, and educational reforms, along with measures to strengthen political sovereignty and to protect the state’s economic interests, for example, the abolition of the system of capitulations (1928) and the introduction of an autonomous customs system (1928). During the years of Reza Shah Pahlavi’s rule democratic organizations and the press were harshly persecuted. In the mid-1930’s fascist Germany began to penetrate Iran. After the entrance of Soviet and British troops into Iran in August 1941, Reza Shah Pahlavi abdicated in favor of his son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, and left Iran.