Encyclopedia of Islam

Mohammedanism

  

477  J

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Further reading: Richard King, Orientalism and Religion

(New York: Routledge, 1999); Edward Said, Orientalism

(New York: Vintage Books, 1979).

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

 

(1919–1980)  

the second and last shah of the Iranian Pahlavi 

dynasty

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi succeeded his father 

Reza Khan in 1941 and reigned until 1979, 

when he was overthrown in the popular revolu-

tion that ultimately led to the creation of the 

Islamic Republic of i

ran

. As crown prince of 

Iran, Mohammad Reza lived a life of luxury that 

was very dissimilar to the ascetic habits of his 

father,  r

eza

  s

hah

  p

ahlavi

 (1878–1944). Though 

forced through military school in Iran and given 

a university 

edUcation

 in Switzerland, the young 

prince failed to display any leadership qualities 

and, as a result, was routinely reproached by 

his intimidating father as cowardly and weak. 

Nevertheless, after Reza Shah was compelled by 

the Allied forces to abdicate his throne in 1941, 

Mohammad Reza became the second shah of the 

Pahlavi dynasty.

Obliged to rely on the support of the United 

States and Britain to secure his 

aUthority

,

Mohammad Reza continued the Western-inspired 

socioeconomic reforms of his father. At the same 

time, he retracted many of the religious restric-

tions—such as the outlawing of the 

veil

—that 

had been imposed on Iran, and allowed the 

Ulama

greater religious freedom. Building on the massive 

accumulation of wealth that resulted from Iran’s 

sale of 

oil

 and natural gas, the new shah instituted 

a development and land distribution program he 

called the White Revolution in the 1960s, which 

not only privatized businesses and nationalized 

forests, but also for the first time gave 

Women

 the 

right to vote.

Yet, because of his reliance on Western powers, 

Iran was increasingly required to comply with the 

political, strategic, and economic demands of its 

British and U.S. allies. When the shah unilaterally 

sold the rights to a quarter of the world’s proven 

oil supply to the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Com-

pany, he unwittingly unleashed a resurgence of 

nationalist sentiment led by Iran’s prime minister 

Muhammad Musaddiq (also spelled Mosaddeq, d. 

1967) and his National Front Party. In 1953, rid-

ing a wave of anti-imperialist sentiment, Musad-

diq’s party forced Muhammad Reza Shah into exile 

and assumed control over the state. However, 

when Musaddiq moved ahead with his plans to 

nationalize Iran’s oil, he was forcefully removed 

from power under a secret CIA (U.S./Central 

Intelligence Agency) operation codenamed AJAX, 

which reinstated Muhammad Reza as shah.

By the 1970s Mohammad Reza Shah, now 

propped up on the throne by the United States, 

had abolished the country’s party system and 

effectively annulled its 

constitUtion

. The lack of 

political participation in the state, as well as the 

loss of national and religious identity in the face of 

Western cultural hegemony, led to waves of pro-

tests throughout the country, to which the shah 

responded ruthlessly through his dreaded secret 

police force, SAVAK (Organization for Intelligence 

and National Security). These repressive policies 

ultimately led to an alliance between Iran’s clergy, 

its intellectuals, and its merchant class, headed 

by the shah’s most vociferous critic, the Ayatollah 

r

Uhollah

 k

homeini

 (d. 1989).

Although sent into exile in 1964, Khomeini 

continued promoting anti-imperialist activities 

against the monarchy until January 1979, when 

the shah was once again ousted from power. The 

political vacuum left behind by his departure was 

filled by Khomeini (r. 1979–89), who employed 

the language and symbolism of Iran’s state reli-

gion,  s

hiism

, to implement his ideology of the 

wilayat-i faqih (the guardianship of the jurist), 

and inaugurate the Islamic Republic of Iran. One 

year later, in 1980, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi died 

in exile in Egypt.

See also 

colonialism

;  i

ranian

  r

evolUtion

 

oF

1978–1979; 

politics

 

and

 i

slam

; 

secUlarism

.

Reza Aslan

K  478