Shahs Of Iran Essay

Saudi Arabia and Iran are two countries that sit on opposite sides of the Sunni/Shiite divide, which can be argued as being the most prominent issue the Middle East faces today. Saudi Arabia is predominantly known to be a Sunni state, while Iran is largely inhabited by Shia Muslims. Both countries aspire to be the hegemonic powers of the region. Ethnically, Iran is known to be a Persian land, unlike Saudi Arabia that is known to be in the heart of the Arab world. These two countries are separated by the Arabian Gulf and throughout the twentieth century and up until today, the relationship between the two countries has been notoriously contentious. Within the past few years especially relationships between the two states have been very fragile with Saudi Arabia ending diplomatic ties early in 2016. The two states are strained over many issues of which are, interpretations of Islam, oil export policy and hegemonic regional leadership.

This type of suffering also occurred in 1722 with the Afghan tribesmen and yet again during the late eighteenth century and lasted until 1925. The Qajars, a Turkic tribe that was established near the Caspian Sea, conquered Iran this time. The kings who ruled under the Qajar Empire also were mainly responsible for the country’s poverty and resistance to modernity. The only difference between the Qajars and the Arabs is that now the people of Iran were not going to sit back and let these kings give foreigner powers the right to their country. The Qajars had “lost their right to rule, their farr. Armed with Shiite principle that endows the ordinary citizen with inherent power to overthrow despotism…Iranians rebelled in a way their forefathers never had” (28).

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was the King of Iran (1941-1979) . When his father, Reza Shah’s reign was over, he replaced him and started his reign. He went against his original vow of acting as a constitutional ruler by his involvement in governmental matters. The Shah’s main focus was on Iran’s relations with foreign power as well as modernizing Iran as quickly as possible. Although he was a clever and influential leader, he was known for his monocratic rule, corrupt government, forced westernization, and betraying his own people by use of the Savak. Mohammed Reza was thrown from power because he relied more on manipulation than on leadership.

The Shahs in post Islamic Iran needed to learn to establish legitimacy in a region where the people were disposing of Zoroastrian beliefs and converting to the Shī 'a ideology of Islam. The Shah that managed to merge traditional role of a Shah and the religious aspects of Islam was Shāh Ismāʿil. This Shah needed to establish his legitimacy and did so in two important and relevant ways. First, Shāh Ismāʿil used the “the ancient Persian concept of kingship which was expressed in the concept of the king being the ‘shadow of God on Earth” because he believed that he was divine and had the right to rule because of

By 1979, the shah of Iran, an ally of the United States, was in deep trouble. Many Iranians resented his regime’s widespread corruption and dictatorial tactics. In January 1979, revolution broke out. The Muslim religious leaderAyatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led the rebels in overthrowing the shah and establishing a religious state based on strict obedience to the Qur’an, the sacred book of Islam. Carter had supported the shah until the very end. In October 1979, the president allowed the shah to enter the United States for cancer treatment, though he had already fled Iran in January 1979.

The Iranian Revolution in 1979 was the events leading to the overthrow of the unfit leader Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The Shah came to power during World War II and became the last monarch in the House of Pahlavi. While ruling, he introduced policies like the White Revolution, which were political and economical reforms that claimed to be beneficial and grant women's suffrage, nationalization of some industries, and a way to make Iran a global power. But the Shah lost support first from the Shi’a muslims and the working class because of his strict ways in things like modernization and secularization. The Shah then lost all support and was overthrown on January 7th, 1979 and after, the monarchy was abolished leading to the Islamic Republic.

Iran had been ruled by Shahs, which were essentially absolute monarchies for countless years. The Pahlavi dynasty was the latest family to hold the throne. Of course, Shahs weren’t the only powerful figures in Iranian society. Iranians are a people who are firmly embedded in their religion and traditions. And Shia clerics are the respected leaders of the religious aspects of Iranian life. Looking back into the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is evident that the Shahs and Clerics often were at odds with one another.

For many centuries such as the early 1500’s, Iran has been an islamic state consisting of Shiites’ majority, ruled by the Qajar dynasty (1796-1925). However, in the early 1920’s during a time of instability in Iran, Reza Khan (1878-1944), an officer was able to overthrow the Qajar dynasty and crown himself as the shah in 1925. With it’s next door neighbor Turkey already modernized, Reza had ambitions for Iran; he wanted to modernize Iran as well , that being he wanted to bring change within the nation.

can be seen through the documented evidence left behind from the ancient civilisation that the Persian Empire [550BCE – 331BCE] was crafted with a combination of various attributes such as, strong standing armies that were prepared to fight through the worst of situations for their leaders, the assisstance of skillful leadership and the respectfulness of a kind and caring King, a tolerance and resilience towards various situations and problems that could arise, and an effective government. As it would appear, these qualities had a major impact on the lives of those that lived within the Persian Empire as without them, the empire started to crumble and dissolve. There were a magitude of factors that lead to the slow fall and decline of the

Now, my opinion comes in, do I think the Shah was good or bad for Iran? The way he worked around his citizens was often near the top of the list for worst governmental human rights violators, and his secret police and their torture chambers were very much feared by the people. It's safe to say that when the very anti-religion party and ultra religious groups are willing to work together to overthrow you, you are not doing your job very

It’s important to understand the background of how the Pahlavi family came into power. In the early 19th century, Iran was undergoing its Constitutional Revolution. The Shah at the time, Muzaffar al-Din Shah, was near death, and decided to allow the revolution. A constitution was written, and a new Shah, Mohammad Ali Shah, succeeded Muzaffar al-Din Shah (Balaghi). The new constitution organized a parliament which was quickly corrupted by Mohammad Ali Shah, in turn leading to another revolution in favor of his eleven year old son, Ahmad Shah Qajar, who was ineffective as a ruler and left a hole of power. This is when Reza Shah

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a very significant event in the development of the Iranian state. The Shah was universally reviled, and the revolt against his government brought together citizens of wildly different viewpoints. It was a revolution inspired by populist ideals, but led by a religious fundamentalist. The circumstances of revolution would also continue to influence the national identity of Iran for decades after the event, and is still affecting world politics today in the form of U.S. and Iranian relations.

Whilst the discontent that the Iranian citizens felt for their government and their economic situation was a contributing factor in the outbreak of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, it was the growing Western influence in Islamic culture that was the main cause for the revolution. The Iranian/Islamic Revolution refers to the events involving the deposing of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and pro-American government, and the replacement with an anti-Western authoritarian theocracy under the leader of the revolution, the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The revolution was mainly supported by various leftist Islamic organizations and Iranian student movements to firstly, protest against the increasing Westernization of Iran and secondly, it was in

Further, Atatürk worked much harder than the Shahs to create a democratic government, even though he still maintained dictatorial powers. Atatürk’s democratic government showed a positive side of Western, secular style government, and it made the Turkish people more favorable to the West than Persians. Throughout Turkey’s early history, Atatürk was always the president, and nothing more; Turkey had democratic elections through Atatürk’s rule, and Atatürk was simply so popular that he continued to win them over and over until his death. Contrarily, Reza Shah and his son, Mohammad Reza Shah, were both Shahs, meaning kings, and there was very little democracy in their governmental system. Although their parliamentary bodies were elected by the people, both Shahs greatly ignored them, and Mohammad Reza Shah even exiled Mohammad Mossadeq, a leading member of their parliamentary body. Further, Turkey’s Western-style concept of populism and democracy never made it as far East as Iran, and Persians did not have a say in their government. This lack of representation angered Persians, and they considered the Shahs (especially Mohammad Reza Shah) puppets of the West, so by extension they were angry with the West. It is probable that Persians would have liked Western-style government more, had the Shahs created a truly Western government, with democracy and representation. However, because their governments were so autocratic and dynastic, their people were never privy to true Western-style government, and therefore only saw the bad side of the West. Furthermore, the Shahs also created a very confusing identity for their country, as their policies contradicted each other. Reza Shah attempted to create a secular government, but he still wanted Shi’a Islam to be a major part of people’s lives: he neither

The shah quickly returned to Iran to assume dictatorial power. Mossadeq and other members of his government were arrested and tried for crimes against the monarchy by a military court. In the next two years, hundreds of shah's opponents were executed, given lone prison sentences, or driven into