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

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.