Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi

Mohammad Reza became shah in 1941 in an occupied country. Yarshater writes that in these years he followed the Majles’ vote in choosing prime ministers, and that freedom was “unprecedented”.

In 1946 Soviet troops left Azarbaijan. In 1949, after an attempt on the shah’s life, the Tudeh party was outlawed and the shah gained the power to dissolve the Majles.

Yarshater also describes the same period as one of Majles factionalism and ineffective government. We give both sides from the same author.

This is our reading: 1941 to 1953 was the only part of this reign in which the Majles and the press truly competed with the court; arguments about it are still alive.

In April 1951 Mosaddeq became prime minister and the oil industry was nationalised. Britain boycotted Iranian oil, and in 1952 Mosaddeq broke off relations with Britain.

In August 1953 the shah dismissed Mosaddeq, Mosaddeq refused to go and the shah left the country. On 19 August Mosaddeq was overthrown in a coup and the shah returned. In 1954 the consortium agreement was signed.

Iranica’s articles describe the roles of foreign powers and the shah in different words (see the note on the event). Yarshater writes that intellectuals were largely marginalised after the coup.

This is our reading: 19 August 1953 is still one of the most contested days in modern Iranian history, and each reader’s view of it is often tied to their judgement of the whole reign.

The Iranica chronology says that from 1951 the shah returned most of the lands Reza Shah had taken in Mazandaran to their original owners at a low price.

The White Revolution (1963) gave farmland to the peasants. In these decades oil was nationalised, and after 1973 its revenue multiplied. In 1978 the prime minister, Sharif-Emami, was head of the Pahlavi Foundation.

This is our reading: property was redivided twice in this reign: oil passed from a foreign company to the state, and land from large owners to peasants. But the oil revenue stayed with a state that did not answer to the Majles.

Yarshater writes that the gap between rich and poor widened, and that this strengthened the Islamic protest movement.

This is our reading: the question of whom the oil wealth belongs to, and who decides about it, remained open after 1979.

SAVAK was formed in 1957 with American advice. In 1971 the 2,500-year celebrations were held at Persepolis, in 1975 Iran became a one-party state, and in 1976 the imperial calendar was introduced.

The Iranica chronology says nationalists praised the new calendar and the clergy resented it. The same year Amnesty International criticised the treatment of political prisoners.

Yarshater writes that the huge purchases of American arms let opponents call the shah a stooge of the United States. That is the opponents’ judgement as he reports it, not his own.

This is our reading: linking the monarchy to the Achaemenids, at Persepolis and in the calendar, was an attempt to draw legitimacy from ancient history; many people did not accept it.

From Qom in January 1978 to the oil strike in the autumn, protest lasted a year. The shah left Iran on 16 January 1979, Khomeini returned on 1 February, and on 11 February the army declared itself neutral.

The shah died in Cairo in 1980. The Iranica chronology says he had kept his cancer secret from the Iranian people.

Yarshater writes that fear of the shah had disappeared and soldiers refused to shoot. The death toll of Black Friday and who set the Rex cinema fire remain disputed (see the event notes).

This is our reading: judgement of Mohammad Reza Shah is still divided today; we have set out the events and the judgements with their sources and leave the final verdict to the reader.