Pahlavi Research Articles

An evaluation of Iran architecture during first Pahlavi Era: A transition from tradition to modernity

How to move from tradition to modernity and how to combine or control them in a society has a direct relationship with the culture and the culture, as the main tool of architecture, needs a transition. This transition was started to be appeared in Iran during first Pahlavi era, while the government was planning to develop this process. This research is a qualitative-descriptive one and it has a deductive style and the significance and aim of this research is to study the tradition and modernity in architecture and to see how the contemporary architecture of Iran tried to transit from tradition to modernity during first Pahlavi Era. In this paper, first we will have a quick review on Iran during first Pahlavi era and its contemporary social and political history and tradition and modernity in its architecture and then by studying the architecture of two famous foreign architects, Nikolai Markov and Andre Godard who were invited to the country by the government for reformation and modernization of architecture of the country, their modern architectural styles facing with traditional and national needs of the country and their solutions will be studied.

Identification of Coatings on Persian Lacquer Papier Mache Penboxes by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Luminescence Imaging

In this study, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and luminescence imaging were used to identify the coatings of seven Persian lacquer papier mache penboxes, of which two were contemporary, one was from the Pahlavi era, and four belonged to the Qajar era. First, FTIR was used to identify the nature of the coating. Then, UV-induced visible luminescence imaging at the spectral ranges of 420–680 nm (UVL), 425–495 nm (UVIBL), and 615–645 nm (UVIRL) was performed for further examination. The FTIR results showed that the coatings were made of alkyd resin, oil-resin varnish (Kaman oil), and shellac. In UV-induced visible luminescence images, synthetic alkyd resin showed no fluorescence, which made it distinguishable from the natural organic coatings. While it is slightly challenging to differentiate Kaman oil from shellac based on FTIR results, these two coatings can be easily distinguished by their fluorescence in UVL and UVIBL images. The results suggest that the combined use of spectroscopy and spectral imaging methods can provide substantial information about the organic coatings of historical objects.

The Military Performance of the First Pahlavi Government in Combating Contraband in Ilam: Analyzing Documents

ایلام دارای بیشترین مرز خشکی با کشور عراق است و این امر کنترل مرزهای ایلام را دشوار می‌کند. در دهه‌های اخیر مسئله مبارزه با قاچاق کالا به‌عنوان یکی از پدیده‌های مضر اقتصادی همواره از دغدغه‌های مهم حکومت مرکزی و نیروهای نظامی و انتظامی محلی بوده است. از همین رو پژوهش حاضر با رویکردی توصیفی ـ تحلیلی و با تکیه‌بر اسناد، درصدد پاسخ به این سؤال است که در عصر پهلوی اول، نیروهای نظامی و عوامل دخیل در امر مبارزه با قاچاق کالا از چه تدابیری برای مبارزه با قاچاق بهره برده­اند؟ و این تدابیر و اقدامات تا چه میزان موفقیت‌آمیز بوده‌ است؟ یافته­ها نشان می­دهد عملکرد حکومت مرکزی و نیروهای نظامی محلی در مبارزه با قاچاق کالا از کارآمدی لازم برخوردار نبود؛ به‌طوری‌که اصلی­ترین راهکار برای مبارزه با ورود کالاهای قاچاق به ایلام، یعنی مسلح نمودن همه­ی عوامل درگیر با مسئله قاچاق کالا در پاره‌ای از موارد درگیری­های ناخواسته را به وجود آورد و سبب ناآرامی‌هایی در منطقه شد. همچنین عدم آموزش صحیح نیروها، در برخی موارد خلع سلاح آن‌ها را در پی داشت و بعضاً قاچاقچیان با استفاده از همان سلاح­ها، اموال و اماکن دولتی را غارت می­کردند. استفاده از مخبرین یکی دیگر از راه­های مقابله با قاچاقچیان بود که این شیوه باوجود برخی ایرادات، از موفقیت بیشتری برخوردار بود.

Iran's Reconstruction Jihad—Rural Development and Regime Consolidation after 1979

Iran's Reconstruction Jihad—Rural Development and Regime Consolidation after 1979

Religious Modernism in Pre-University Schools: The Case of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s Iran

The advent of “modern” education in Iran and its acceptance by political and cultural elites dates to the Qajar era. But the elitist nature of state reforms prevented modern education from spreading throughout society until the Pahlavi era. Especially during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, modern education reached most segments of the population, including religious families from the middle classes. This research is based on Persian-language documents and informed by the English-language historiography. The article finds that the Islamic Education Society (Jāmeʿeh-ye taʿlimat-e eslāmi) propagated religious modernism through a national network of private schools beginning in the 1940s. In the 1950s and 1960s private cultural foundations used the Islamic Education Society’s model to establish the Alavi, Kamāl, and Refāh schools in Tehran. The network that supported them was a reflection of the revolutionary movement and a vehicle for its organization by the 1970s.

The Role of Structural Contexts of the Pahlavi Government and Shiite Political Islam in the Formation of the Iran Revolution in 1979

The present paper with an analytical-descriptive method is based on the theory of the collective behavior of Smelser in response to the question of how the Pahlavi government's structural background influenced the formation of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran. Before the Islamic Revolution, Iran, like other societies, was composed a set of structures. The actions of the Pahlavi discourse triggered the stressors within these structures and eventually created gaps and conflicts in them. In such circumstances, a kind of structural unbalance arose. As a result, it put pressure on social forces and made the situation unjust, inefficient, and retarded in the public’s view. These social forces were disintegrated and social groupings emerged, which created a volatile situation and, consequently, favorable conditions for collective movement in society. In this regard, ideas were formed that sought change and justice in Iran. Shiite political Islam was more effective than any other public belief and with the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini and with the accelerating factors towards the revolution; it provided the conditions for revolutionary developments in Iran and ultimately led to the formation of the Islamic Revolution of Iran.

Marcel Odenbach's Angels of History: Cross‐Racial Empathy, Racial Violence, and German Appropriation of Black History

Since the 1960s, identifying with African American struggles against oppression has been an important tool for white Germans to show that they are on the right side of history. This cross‐racial empathy is central to Marcel Odenbach's 1999 video installation, “Ach wie gut daß niemand weiß,” in which he juxtaposes two iconic scenes from the protest movements of the late 1960s: West German student Benno Ohnesorg being shot at the demonstration against the Shah of Iran and Martin Luther King Jr. marching in Selma, Alabama. When read through the lens of Walter Benjamin's “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” “Ach wie gut” has the potential to create a constellation of cultural moments that both promote a multidirectional approach to memory and comment on our present political moment by invoking Benjamin's warning about the violence of making history and the danger of taking a solely historicist perspective. Nevertheless, this potential is in danger of being undermined by Odenbach's failure to recognize his own white privilege and his role as implicated subject vis‐à‐vis these histories of struggle.

Introduction to Jalal AL-E Ahmad's “To Mohassess, For the Wall”

Abstract “To Mohassess, For the Wall” is an article written in 1964 by Jalal Al-e Ahmad, one of the most influential and charismatic Iranian intellectuals of the time. Three years before writing this article, Al-e Ahmad had published Weststruckness, discussing the Iranians’ cultural alienation caused by the dependence on the west. In “To Mohassess, For the Wall”, Al-e Ahmad shifts his analysis to Iranian painting, arguing that Iranian painters during the 1960s merely repeat Western cultural processes and strategies instead of constructing Iranian ones. The context for Al-e Ahmad's argument is the Pahlavi regime's radical program of rapid modernization, which in the area of the arts was systematically expanded. Critical, provocative or problematic, the article offers a crucial window into the adoption of Western-style modernism by Iranian painters during the 1960s and into how an “insider” intellectual such as Al-e Ahmad evaluated the modernization of Iranian art before the background of what he perceived as the critical neglect of Iranian traditions. The text is addressed to Bahman Mohassess, a painter whom Al-e Ahmad considered to be one of the few who had not been coopted by the cultural policies of the Shah's regime.

To Mohassess, For the Wall

Abstract “To Mohassess, For the Wall” is an article written in 1964 by Jalal Al-e Ahmad, one of the most influential and charismatic Iranian intellectuals of the time. Three years before writing this article, Al-e Ahmad had published Weststruckness, discussing the Iranians’ cultural alienation caused by the dependence on the west. In “To Mohassess, For the Wall”, Al-e Ahmad shifts his analysis to Iranian painting, arguing that Iranian painters during the 1960s merely repeat Western cultural processes and strategies instead of constructing Iranian ones. The context for Al-e Ahmad's argument is the Pahlavi regime's radical program of rapid modernization, which in the area of the arts was systematically expanded. Critical, provocative or problematic, the article offers a crucial window into the adoption of Western-style modernism by Iranian painters during the 1960s and into how an “insider” intellectual such as Al-e Ahmad evaluated the modernization of Iranian art before the background of what he perceived as the critical neglect of Iranian traditions. The text is addressed to Bahman Mohassess, a painter whom Al-e Ahmad considered to be one of the few who had not been coopted by the cultural policies of the Shah's regime.

Spatial Transformation of Tehran between two political upheavals (1953-1979); an analytical approach to making a middle eastern metropolitan region

ABSTRACT Tehran experienced a seismic shift in its physical and spatial growth during the second Pahlavi dynasty between two political upheavals, the 1953 coup and the 1979 revolution. Over this period, the city was transformed from a monocentric city into a sprawled metropolitan region. The root cause of this is one of the interesting research topics in Iranian urbanization history. By focusing on this specific period, this paper illuminates the role of socio-economic and political backgrounds and their outcomes in the spatial transformation of Tehran. To better understand the role of the main players and their policies and decisions in forming Tehran metropolitan region, actor-network theory was used to frame all the historical events in a big picture. The results showed that the transformation of Tehran into a sprawled and fragmented metropolitan region was brought about by two asymmetrical and opposite process from top-down and bottom-up socio-political streams in which on the one hand the Shah and various governments strategized urban development pattern and tried to manage and control the city growth, and on the other hand, poor migrants and overlooked citizens resisted the top-down policies and formed their own way of planning, making a regional dispersed landscape for Tehran.

Rocks and Hard Places: Gender, Satire, and Social Reproduction in Pre-Revolutionary Iran

AbstractThis article examines the ways that Iranian women have been situated in the nation-building exercise from the White Revolution of 1963 to the 1979 revolution and period of consolidation of clerical power. Social Reproduction Theory elucidates critical facets of both state control and spaces of counterhegemonic resistance. These spaces include publications like Tawfiq, a political satire magazine published in the Pahlavi era, which is featured in the analysis as a site of political contestation that could be utilized and expanded by other opposition groups. This paper argues that in contrast to the popularly accepted dichotomy between liberalized and regressive gender roles, this arena represented a critical failure on the part of the secular opposition, which enabled the clerical faction to co-opt and take control of narratives in which they cast themselves as protectors of women and other vulnerable groups.

Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran by Lior B. Sternfeld

Reviewed by: Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran by Lior B. Sternfeld Ariane Sadjed Lior B. Sternfeld . Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran . Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press , 2018 . 208 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009420000677 Lior Sternfeld refreshingly departs from mainstream accounts of modern Iranian Jewish history by pointing out the multiple ways through which the [End Page 213] Jewish community engaged with its broader Iranian environment. This makes it a very important voice in the sometimes-static discourse about Middle Eastern Jewish identities. Sternfeld focuses on the decades 1920–1980, during which massive transformations in social class and political agency unfolded in Iranian society, and among Jews as part of it. By assessing how Jews started to take part in the political life of modern Iran, the author refutes one-sided identity concepts that pit "Jewish" and "Iranian" identities against each other. Chapter 1 deals with demographic changes in Iran during and after World War II. Reza Shah (reigned 1925–1941) introduced new ideas of nationalism to Iran, and we learn about the country's ensuing struggle to remain neutral in the face of the emerging Second World War and the conflicting interests of the Great Powers. Sternfeld describes the arrival of Jewish refugees to Iran, mostly from Poland, in 1942–43. Together with the later influx of Iraqi Jews, who increasingly arrived in the 1950s, he portrays aspects of a diverse culture, in which many parallel and interacting worlds of "Jewishness" were possible. The second chapter discusses the Iranian political sphere after 1941 and the shaping of national identity. Sternfeld focuses on Jewish participation in the leftist Tudeh Party, including the different reasons that led Jews to join it, as a way to enter local society as patriots or to rebel against tradition, family, or religion. He is careful not to overemphasize communist ideology, as many leftist Jews supported local goals, decoupled from Marxist ideologies, and prioritized Iran's interest over Soviet ones "in order to become more Iranian" (46). Besides well-elaborated interviews with individuals who were members of the Tudeh Party, Sternfeld bases his analysis on two leftist Iranian Jewish newspapers: Nissan and Bani Adam . However, not enough context is provided about the newspapers and their readership to determine how representative they were. Both were published for a short period, and these publications' status within the broader Jewish community in Iran must be clarified. Chapter 3 deals with Zionism and Iran's relationship with Israel during the Pahlavi era in more detail. It is remarkable that Jews had "multiple identities" (65), that is, it was possible to be an Iranian nationalist, Jew, communist, and Zionist. Zionism was an opportunity to escape oppressive political and economic hardships, rather than an ideological commitment. This explains why predominantly poorer segments of the Jewish community moved to Israel, while those who had experienced upward mobility did not see any reason to leave Iran or chose other destinations for emigration. Sternfeld manages to describe the significance of Zionism and related patterns of migration in a nuanced way. The author concludes that in the 1950s, the image of the Jew in Iranian society was positive. Chapter 4 discusses the years leading up to the revolution in 1978/79. Sternfeld tackles the seeming contradiction between Jews having reached "full integration" in the public sphere under the Pahlavi monarchy, while they still "overwhelmingly did not appear to support the continuation of the monarchy" (93). Such generalized statements must be questioned, for neither can one speak of the same degree of integration among the different strata of Jewish society at the time, including the conflicts resulting from these differences, nor is there [End Page 214] sufficient evidence provided to describe the political inclinations of an overwhelming majority. The chapter introduces the Association of Jewish Iranian Intellectuals (AJII) as the main venue for Jewish leftist activities. The bylaws of the AJII mirror the political discourse of the time, envisioning a model society in which universal values of solidarity would yield a just and open community where Jews would be equal citizens. Sternfeld furthermore discusses the activities of the SAPIR hospital during the revolution of 1979 and argues that...

The Assessment of some Contextual Architecture Factors with an Approach to Culture and Identity in the State and Public Buildings of Pahlavi Era (Case Study: Oil Cinema, Oil Industry College and National Bank)

Important subjects in architecture is the design of buildings according to their contexts. This context can include his‌torical, physical, cultural- social, or climate aspects. Abadan is a city that its basic s‌tructure has been formed in the Pahlavi era. This city has been attracted to the local architecture in this period. Also, it has been influenced by the modern s‌tyle. The method of this research is applied and a survey one with an emphasis on the ques‌tionnaire. The main purpose of the present s‌tudy is to es‌timate the relationship between culture and identity factors of the contextual architecture of three important buildings of the Pahlavi era such as oil cinema(Taj), oil indus‌try college, national bank building in Abadan, and modern architecture of Europe. The research data has been gathered according to the ques‌tionnaire. Cronbach has been used to get the validity of the research. The number and the type of sampling are through the snowball method. SPSS, K.S, and the single tes‌t have been used for the research analysis in the present s‌tudy. The research results show that the amount of tes‌t level in all cases is less than 0/05. Therefore, the normal trend of data has been rejected. Moreover, there is no relationship between the building indicator with 3.87 and level of 0/000 and the plan indicator with 3.82 and the level of 0/000 in the aforementioned buildings. In this case, the use of the indicators of building and plan in the architecture of the Pahlavi era in comparison to European modernism has been less important.

Crowning the “Sun of the Aryans”: Mohammad Reza Shah's Coronation and Monarchical Spectacle in Pahlavi Iran

AbstractCoronations are commonly held at the beginning of a monarch's reign, symbolizing accession to the throne and the continuation of the dynasty. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's coronation ceremony of 1967, however, was held twenty-six years into his rule and was designed to draw attention to the renewed glory of Iranian monarchy and the successes of the Pahlavi shahs. This coronation ceremony and related events offer important insights into the Pahlavi ideologues’ conceptualization of monarchy and the strategies they employed to inculcate their ideology in a domestic and global audience. The shah and the monarchy were presented as revolutionary and reformist, and simultaneously as the ultimate defenders of tradition; as religious by nature, but also as proponents of the separation of church and state. This paper seeks to understand, using a range of underutilized primary source material, how the regime delivered these apparently contradictory notions, and what it sought to gain from holding the event in the way that it did.

An Analysis of the Settlement Policy of the Qashqai Tribe by the First Pahlavi Government

با به سلطنت رسیدن رضاشاه، برنامه‌های دولت پهلوی برای برقراری امنیت، تمرکزگرایی، اصلاحات، پیشرفت و نظم نوین در تعارض با زندگی ایلیاتی قرار گرفت. سیاست اسکان یکی از برنامه‌های دولت پهلوی برای ایلات بود؛ موضوعی که ایل قشقایی از آن مستثنی نبود. در مناسبات سیاسی‌اقتصادی ایل قشقایی با دولت پهلوی اول، مسئله این است که در ایل قشقایی برنامۀ اسکان با چه اهدافی و چگونه اجرا شد. بر مبنای این مسئله، پژوهش حاضر درصدد پاسخ‌گویی به دو پرسش است: سیاست اسکان در ایل قشقایی چگونه اجرا شد؟ سیاست اسکان در ایل قشقایی چه نتایجی داشت؟ پژوهش پیش رو با روش تاریخی و شیوۀ تدوین و نگارش توصیفی‌تحلیلی، مبتنی‌بر اسناد سازمان اسناد و کتابخانۀ ملی ج.ا.ا (ساکما)، با منشأ استانداری فارس و مکمل قرار دادن منابع کتابخانه‌ای نوشته شده است. نتایج پژوهش نشان می‌دهد اسکان ایل قشقایی را نظامیان و ادارۀ اسکان فارس اجرا کردند. با انتصاب کدخداها بر خانوارها، قشقایی‌ها در مناطق ییلاقی و قشلاقی، اسکان داده و به زراعت مشغول شدند؛ همچنین اغنام و احشام ایل قشقایی با صدور پروانۀ چوپانی (گله‌بنه) اجازۀ رفتن به ییلاق و قشلاق را پیدا کردند. سیاست اسکان ایل قشقایی به طور کامل موفقیت‌آمیز نبود؛ اما باعث شد پس از شهریور 1320ش/1941م، ایل قشقایی دیگر به وضعیت پیش از اجرای برنامۀ اسکان باز نگردد و ایل قشقایی از نظر میزان جمعیت و وسعت مالکیت ارضی و تعداد دام کاهش یابد. با این حال، پس از استعفای رضاشاه از سلطنت، بسیاری از قشقایی‌های اسکان‌شده به زندگی ایلی بازگشتند که مهم‌ترین علت این اقدام آنها اقتصادی، یعنی مرگ‌ومیر اغنام و احشام، بود. آشنانبودن به امر کشاورزی و روحیۀ ایلیاتی قشقایی‌ها و زورگویی و رشوه‌خواری نظامی‌ها و مأمورهای دولتی از دیگر عوامل بازگشت قشقایی‌ها به زندگی ایلی بودند.

‘Westoxication’ and resistance: the politics of dance in Iran #dancingisnotacrime

This study proposes an alternative analytical framework for the interpretation of the arrest of an Iranian teenage female social media star by regime authorities in May 2018. I argue that the regime’s reaction to the youngster’s dancing was a product of a complicated historical dialectic with the West, rather than an objection to dance as a performative category. While the Iranian regime may have inherited the predominantly negative perceptions of the solo female dancing body from the Pahlavi era, dancing is not a crime in post-revolutionary Iran. However, dance is ‘meaning in motion’, and it can be inscribed and re-inscribed with political, cultural and social markers – depending on the motives of the spectator. This paper argues that it was the meaning ascribed to the teen’s dancing by hardline authorities that led to her arrest, and not the act of dancing itself. By historicising and framing the arrest within the discourse of ‘Westoxication’, this study interprets the arrest as a form of state-centric cultural resistance. The site of cultural contestation, the youngster’s dancing body, became the discursive and ideological terrain on which the regime repudiated Western cultural norms in defence of its own post-revolutionary standards of decency and cultural authenticity.

Sven Günther. “Konstruierte Konituität. Die Münz- und Briefmarkenpropaganda zur 2500-Jahr-Feier der iranischen Monarchie 1971”

S. Günther discusses the use of Achamenid motives – particularly prominent were the Cyrus cylinder and the tomb of Cyrus – on coins and stamps during the final years of the Pahlavi dynasty. Mohammed Reza Pahlavi aimed at presenting his dynasty as protectors of Iran’s cultural heritage and as legitimate successors to the Achaemenids; a claim that was accepted rather uncritically by the world public.

“A spectacular irritant”: US–Iranian relations during the 1960s and the World’s Best Dressed Man

ABSTRACT In 1963, the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations received evidence alleging that US aid funds to Iran had been misappropriated and used to bribe prominent American and Iranian figures. Members of the Iranian royal family and high-profile American businessmen and diplomats were implicated in the emerging corruption scandal. The allegations were made by the Iranian businessman and self-proclaimed “World’s Best Dressed Man,” Khaibar Khan Gudarzian. While the US Senate would ultimately reject Gudarzian’s claims, the scandal amplified tensions between the United States and Iran. American efforts to strengthen ties with the Shah of Iran during the mid-1960s, who was becoming increasingly economically and politically independent, were hampered by the ongoing Gudarzian case. This case study demonstrates the delicate nature of US–Iranian relations and highlights how far the balance of power between the two countries had evolved since the beginning of the decade.

The Most Luxurious Royal Celebration in Modern History: Celebrating 2,500th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Persian Empire in Iran

The article describes a unique in terms of luxury and used resources celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, held near the ruins of the ancient Achaemenid capital on the initiative of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The author suggests that this inadequately expensive event was one of the reasons for the 1979 revolution and the flight of the Shah from the country.

НАРОДЫ СЕВЕРНОГО КАВКАЗА ВО ВНЕШНЕЙ ПОЛИТИКЕ РОССИИ В 40-50-Е ГГ. XIX В.

Based on documentary material and scientific literature, the article highlights the place of the North Caucasus in Russia's foreign policy at the time under review. The progressive decline of Shah's Iran and Sultan's Turkey, and the active entry of Peter's Russia into the international arena put the question of the fate of the Caucasus, in particular the North Caucasus, in the circle of important problems of world politics in the period under study. Having become one of the main sources of contradictions in relations between Russia, Persia and the Ottoman Porte, the Caucasus, due to its important geostrategic positions, attracted the attention of the European leading powers - Britain and France. In addition, the role of Ottoman and Western emissaries in Russia's foreign policy during the period under study is considered. Western States, along with the implementation of the "Eastern barrier" policy in Europe, incited the confrontation of Iran and Turkey with the Russian Empire in the Caucasus in order to prevent the advance of St. Petersburg to the Caspian and Black seas, and Russia's exit to the middle East. To this end, the European powers sought to use the support b ases of the Ottoman Sultan and the Crimean Khan, created on the approaches to the North Caucasus in the XVI-XVII centuries. The contradictions between Britain and France on European Affairs, on the one hand, and between Iran and Turkey, on the other, did not exclude the possibility of temporary compromises between the rival States, which was also facilitated by the obvious anti - Russian orientation of their policy in the Caucasus. The Pro-Russian attitude of the local population in the Crimean war and their active desire to fight on the side of the Russian troops are also shown.