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The Man who Would be King: The Rise of Rezā Khān (1921–25)

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 37; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03087298.2012.712001

2150-7295

Reza Sheikh, Farid Fadaizadeh,

Turkey's Politics and Society

Abstract Following the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, Iran entered two decades of turmoil and deteriorating conditions that endangered the very existence of the country as a sovereign state. The coup d'état of 1921 set the stage for a rapid transition into a new era that was signified by the end of the ruling Qajar Dynasty. The central and catalysing agent was the Cossack officer Rezā Khān, who later became the first monarch of the Pahlavi Dynasty. This article addresses the last years of the Qajar era, from the coup to the official annulment of the one hundred and thirty year old dynasty. In the wake of World War I and the undesired entry of Iran into the feud between the Ottomans, Russians and the British, and with a weak central government, the country was on the verge of disintegration. Photography had found new venues of manifestation during the Revolution and was finding more clients among what was to be the nucleus of a future urban middle class (ca. 1910), but it remained elitist. A number of photographic projects of the last four years of the Qajar era have survived in the form of commissioned photo-albums. This article examines three albums and sheds light upon the agenda that may have been behind such projects. Postcards, posters, banners and photographically illustrated books published during this period are also examined. Keywords: Rezā Khān Sardar Sepah (1921–25)Rezā Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925–41)image-building of Rezā Khān Notes 1 – On this topic, see Iran and the First World War: Battleground of the Great Powers, ed. Touraj Atabaki, London: I. B. Tauris 2006. 2 – Pirouz Mojtahed-zadeh, The Amirs of the Borderlands and Eastern Iranian Borders, Urosevic Foundation Publication 2, London: Urosevic Research Foundation 1995, 311–450. 3 – Habibollah Mokhtari, Tārikh-e bidāri-ye irāniān, Tehran: Chāp-e dāneshgāh 1947, 12–17. 4 – The journalist was Seyyed Zia'eddin Tabatabai (1888–1969). For a detailed account of the coup, see Cyrus Ghani, Iran and the Rise of the Rezā Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power, London: I. B. Tauris 2000. 5 – Rezā Khān joined the Persian Cossack Brigade when he was sixteen. He also served in the Iranian Army, where he gained the rank of gunnery sergeant. He became a Brigadier General in the Persian Cossack Brigade. He was the last and only Iranian commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade. For the rise of Rezā Khān from a simple soldier to coronation, see Rezā Niazmand, Rezā Shah az tavvalod tā saltanat, Tehran: Jame'e-ye irāniān 2002. The individual who has been often quoted as the British link is Brigadier Edmond Ironside, head of the British Northern Persian Forces. For excerpts from Ironside's diary, see D. Wright, The English Amongst the Persians, London: William Heineman 1977, 180–4. For additional references on the coup, see M. P. Zirinsk, ‘Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the Rise of Rezā Shah 1921–1926’, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 24:4 (1992), 639–63. 6 – The short-lived Soviet Republic of Gilan (northern province of Iran bordering the Caspian Sea), officially known as the Persian Socialist Soviet Republic, came into being in May 1920, created by the socialist partisans, and came to an end by September 1921. See Cosroe Chaqueri, The Soviet Socialist Republic of Iran, 1920–21: Birth of the Trauma, Pittsburgh and London: University of Pittsburgh Press 1995.The phrase is borrowed from the title of Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Refashioning Iran: Orientalism, Occidentalism, and Historiography, New York: Palgrave 2001. 7 – Two main archives in Iran can be suggested: The Iranian National Archives and the Archives of the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies. 8 – Extensive conclusions cannot be drawn from this observation. Four years is a short period of time. Our ninety years distance from that period can efface many footprints. Furthermore, two regime changes during this time may have had the effect of deliberate discarding of photographic records of affluent families trying to protect themselves in the face of changing times or state confiscation of their properties; or perhaps little interest was shown in taking pictures in the face of political turmoil. 9 – The medal was known as Neshān-e medāl-e aqdas, which was given only to royalty. The King wore a similar medal but with different colour ribbon and a few minor differences in the gems used. Mohammad Moshiri, Neshānhā va medālhā-ye irān, Tehran: Enteshārāt-e moassesse-ye sekeshenāsi-ye irān 1975, 53–4. 10 – For detailed biography, see Yahya Zoka, Tārikh-e ′akkāsi va ′akkāsān-e pishgām dar irān, Tehran: Sherkat enteshārāt-e ‘elmi farhangi 1997, 75–8, 113–16 and 172–3. 11 – Italics are as in the text. Other photographers active in Tehran in this period (from the coup until Rezā Khān's coronation) are: Gholamreza Economie and Māshālāh Khān Photographie. For biography, see ibid., 160–4 and 170–2. Later, Mohammad Jaffar Khādem, a photographer in Tehran who was an acquaintance of Rezā Khān, was eventually appointed his court photographer when he was crowned king. 12 – Habibollāh Nobakht, Shāhanshāh Pahlavi, Part One, Tehran: Majlis Publishing House 1925, 236–44. The full set of decrees issued between 1921 and 1925 has been published in ibid., 236–78. Darius was the Achaemenid King at the peak of power of the Persian Empire (550– 486 BC). 13 – Italics are direct translations of the expressions found by the authors in various contemporary references and later Pahlavi era history books. 14 – For references on the quelling of internal dissent by army in Iran during the time frame of this article, see Stephanie Cronin, The Army and the Creation of the Pahlavi State in Iran , 1910–1926, London: Tauris Academic Studies 1997. 15 – Nobakht, Shāhanshāh Pahlavi. Two parts: part one covers the first four years prior to coronation in winter 1925. Two other photographically illustrated history books were also written by military men: a book documenting events pertaining to change of dynasty written at the outset of Rezā Pahlavi's reign (‘Abdollāh Amirtahmasb, Tārikh-e shāhanshāhi-ye a′lāhazrat Rezā Shah-e Pahlavi, yā ′elal va natije-ye nehzat-e ′omumi-ye melli-ye ābān māh-e 1304, Tehran: Matba′e-ye Majlis 1926), and one written following the ousting of Rezā Shah from Iran at the end of World War II (Habibollah Mokhtari, Tārikh-e bidāri-ye irāniān). 16 – The Pahlavi language and alphabet was used by the Iranians prior to their defeat to the Muslim Arabs in CE 620. Following the invasion and over two centuries of Arab rule, the Zoroastrian religion was abandoned, while the Pahlavi language and alphabet fell out of use. Rezā Khān chose Pahlavi as his family name in 1922. Also Iranians have their own solar calendar. Prior to the Pahlavi era, the Arab lunar calendar had been mainly used. 17 – Nobakht, Shāhanshāh Pahlavi, 127. 18 – Habibollah Mokhtari, Tārikh-e bidāri-ye irāniān, 203. 19 – The authors have seen different copies of this photo-folio with different-coloured velvet and leather covers. 20 – The Chehelsotun (forty columns) Palace, named after the prominent twenty columns with their reflections in the pool. During this period this palace was the headquarters of the Southern Battalion (1921–25). 21 – Military men were among the earliest Iranian photographers, as many of the foreign military attachés of the 1850s were also teachers of photography. Yahya Zoka, Tārikh-e ′akkāsi va ′akkāsān-e pishgām, 18–23. 22 – ′Abdolkhālegh was the photographer to the court of Zel ol-soltān the son of Nāser ed-Din Shah who was the ruler of Isfahan and the southern provinces. He possessed a keen interest in photography. He had his own well-organised army and military photographer. For ′Abdolkhalegh's stamp depicting him as a photographer of the southern battalion and a short account of his move, see P. Damandan, Chehrenegārān-e isfahān, Tehran: Daftar-e pazhuyeshhā-ye farhangi 1999, 117. 23 – Yahya Dolatabadi, Hayāt-e Yahyā, Tehran: Rudaki 1982, four volumes. 24 – Rezā Sheikh, ‘National Identity and Photographs of the Constitutional Revolution’, in Iran's Constitutional Revolution – Popular Politics, Cultural Transformations, Transnational Connections, ed. H. E. Chehabi and V. Martin, London: I. B. Tauris 2010, 255–8. 25 – Yahya Dolatabadi, Hayāt-e Yahyā, vol. 4, 301–4. 26 – Ibid., 302. 28 – Nobakht, Shāhanshāh Pahlavi, 128–9. 27 – Ibid., 310–24. 29 – Various memoirs indicate that Rezā Khān was also in touch with anti-Republican elements at the same time, suggesting that he was basically interested in gaining full control of matters, president or king did not matter. Refer to Rezā Niazmand, Rezā Shah az tavvalod tā saltanat, 658. 30 – Yahya Dolatabadi, Hayāt-e Yahyā, 345–62; and Rezā Niazmand, Rezā Shah az tavvalod tā saltanat, 651–61. 31 – ‘Two thousand glass plate negatives of Sevruguin's photograph collection were confiscated on the orders of Rezā Shah as they represented old Iran’. Corien J. M. Vuurman and Theo H. Martens, ‘Early Photography in Iran and the Career of Antoin Sevruguin’, in Sevruguin and the Persian Image, ed. Frederick N. Bohrer, Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, University of Washington Press 1999, 29. Sevruguin's photographic career extends from ca. 1870 to 1905. For the special issue on Iran, see The National Geographic Magazine, 39:4 (April 1921). 32 – For ′Eshghi's biography and collection of poems, political satire and articles refer to: ′Aliakbar Moshir Salimi, Koliyyāt-e mossavar-e mirzāde ′eshghi, 7th edn, Tehran: Chāpkhān-ye Sepehr 1978. 33 – Name of poem: Jomhurināme (The Story of the Republic). Ibid., 285–94. The name of the newspaper was Twentieth Century (Qarn-e bistom), which began intermittent publication two months after the coup in 1921. He had hoped for his journal to be photographically illustrated. In a letter to a friend he had complained of the low-quality lithographic prints of photographs, hence he had not printed any photographs. Ibid., 167. 34 – Ibid., 281. British conspiracy behind the scenes is a recurrent theme in ′Eshghi's works. Other controversial poems with their own set of cartoons were: Jomhuri savār (The Rider of the Republic/connoting jumping the bandwagon of the republican drive), Nuhe-ye jomhuri (The Republic's Eulogy), Ārm-e jomhuri (The Coat of Arms of the Republic). Ibid., 102 and 277–84. 35 – Such water fountains were called saqqākhāne, mostly cloaked in religious aura. 36 – Yahya Dolatabadi, Hayāt-e Yahyā, 265–6. 37 – Convergence of diverse interests, ranging from anti-Rezā Khān MP's, pro-Qajar elements, and British interest in impeding American involvement in oil industry in Iran have been cited. Refer to Rezā Niazmand, Rezā Shah az tavvalod tā saltanat, 677–85. 38 – The British had a similar pact with the Bakhtiyari tribes of the southwest Iran. Stephanie Cronin, Tribal Politics in Iran: Rural Conflict and the New State 1921–41, New York: Routledge 2007, 133–60. 39 – In 1935 APOC was renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) and in 1954 became the British Petroleum Company (BP), one of the antecedents of the modern BP. For a brief history of the Anglo-Persian Oil Industry, refer to: Mostafa Fateh, Panjāh sāl naft-e irān, Tehran: Sherkat-e sahāmi-ye chehr 1956, 258–65. 40 – Rezā Khān's memoirs of this campaign have been published as: Safarnāme-ye khuzestān (Travelogue of Khuzestan). After the coronation, he travelled to his home province and published a similar memoir: Safarnāme-ye māzandarān (Travelogue of Mazandaran). 41 – For sporadic photographs of different political events depicting public gatherings in the city of Shiraz during the time frame of this article, refer to: Mansur Sane′, Beyād-e shirāz-′akshā-ye shirāz-e qadim, Tehran: Sāzmān-e Chāp va Enteshārāt-e vezārat-e farhang va ershād-e islami 2003. Two of Habibollāh Chegrenegār's photographs were used in the Lashgar-e jonub photo-folio presented above; depicting the cavalry victoriously posing in front of forts regained from nomadic tribes in separate battles in the province of Fars. 42 – Chehrenegār means portraitist in Persian. This was the family name he chose rather than ′Akkās, which means photographer. 43 – For a full account of the saga of the Chehrenegār family of photographers, refer to: Mansur Sane′, Peydāyesh-e ′akkāsi dar shirāz, Tehran: Sorush 1990; for Habibollāh Chegrenegār refer to pages 24–32. 44 – The exact self-depreciating line states: Kerdār-e aghal-le jānnesārān habibollāh ′akkās-e shirāzi (the work of the least [who is willing to sacrifice himself for you] Habibollāh the photographer from Shiraz). 46 – Persepolis and Naqshe-e Rustam (500 BC). 45 – In a sting operation, Sheikh Khaz'al was arrested on board his yacht in the Persian Gulf and sent to Tehran in April 1925, where he was kept in virtual house arrest until he died in 1936. 47 – The photo-album examined by the authors is similar to a photographer's mock book (prior to final format) with no manifest care for presentation (hence, the dedication page does not include the name of the addressee). A few have been selected by crosses pencilled out on the sides or on the photographs; perhaps to be used later for a separate project. The album, part of a private collection, includes a handwritten paper that appears to be the table of contents of photographs of an illustrated book that was to be worked on at a later date. 48 – The title of one of the first history books written after the change in dynasty was: ‘The History of the Monarchy of Rezā Shah Pahalvi or the Reasons and Results of the Popular National Movement of November 1924’. The author was from the original Cossack inner circle who had accompanied Rezā Khān since the 1921 coup: ′Abdullāh Amirtahmasb, Tārikh-e shāhanshāhi-ye a′lāhazrat Rezā Shah-e Pahlavi. 49 – The poster was printed in Mumbai by ′Ali Akbar Jahromi and Co. A sentence at the bottom of the poster states that the benefits from ‘the proceedings from the sale of these posters will be allocated to the advancement of education in the country’. 50 – The columns and the winged man are from Persepolis (500 BC) and Pasargadae (580 BC) outside Shiraz – from the Achaemenid era, the vault-shape building is the royal palace of the Sassanid dynasty named Eyvān-e madā’in also referred to as Tāqe Kasrā built in the city of Ctesiphon (near present-day Mosul, Iraq – ca. CE 240). 51 – Farvahar is the Zoroastrian emblem replete with symbolism, illustratively summarising all precepts of the religion. 52 – Imam ′Ali was the cousin of Prophet Mohammad. Particularly revered by Shiite Muslims. The majority of Iranians are Shiite. Ahmad Shah the last Qajar monarch left Iran for Europe, never to return, in 1923. 54 – Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi, Refashioning Iran, 122–3 and 113–35 for ‘vatan-centred discourse’ in Iranian political history. 53 – English literal translation of Bāstāngarāyi: returning to/gravitating towards the past. 55 – Called Tolu′-e sa′ādat-e irān (The Ascension of Iran's Prosperity), this statuette was given to Rezā Khān as a gift by the Northwest Battalion in commemoration of his victories against rebellious tribal figures in Azerbaijan. The image was printed in books and on postcards. For a picture see Nobakht, Shāhanshāh Pahlavi. 56 – This postcard was printed in India by Nasrollāh and Co. Mirzā Habibollāh had a brother named Nasrollāh who also apprenticed in India and ran his own photography studio in Shiraz. They therefore may be the same person. Mumbai has been a centre of Parsis who are Zoroastrians originating from Iran who escaped the persecutions of the Arabs after Iran fell to the invading Muslim army in CE 628. Yazd is a city in south central Iran home to many of the Zoroastrians who remained in the country. The postcard carries a poem by a gentleman from Yazd. 57 – The first copies of the opera were printed in ′Eshghi's journal Twentieth Century, second issue of the first year 1921. For detailed information on ′Eshghi's plays, refer to: ‘Ali Miransari, Namāyeshnāmehā-ye mirzāde ‘eshghi, Tehran: Enteshārāt-e Tahuri 2007. 58 – The opera had a total of twelve performances in Iran: Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Rasht, Tabriz, Babol and India: Mumbai. Ibid., 141–69. ′Eshghi's plays found widespread popularity among the Parsee (Zoroastrian) community in India. 60 – Muhammad Ali Sepanlu, Mohammad Taghi Malek ol-sho′arā-ye bahār, Tehran: Tarh-e no 2003, 38–40. This poem was published in the form of a secret pamphlet hand-delivered across the city during the celebrations following Sheikh Khaz'al's surrender. Bahār is playing with words: sardār in reference to Sardār Sepah, which means leader. With a slight change in pronunciation that is not reflected in Persian script, the word can be pronounced as sar-e dār, which means on top of a scaffold for hanging criminals. 59 – Refer to the anthology of his poems: Malek ol-sho′arā -ye Bahar, Divān-e Malek ol-sho′arā-ye bahār, Tehran: Moassesse-ye enteshārāt-e negāh 2008, 308. 61 – Habibollāh Nobakht, Shāhanshāh Pahlavi, front page.