Iran

E

The Safavids

Ismail’s reign marked the advent of modern Iran, the greatest Shiite state. Recognized as an imam, Ismail owed fealty to no caliph, and ruled Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Kurdish cultural region, parts of Afghanistan, and other territories. His armies soon overran large parts of Iraq and Turkey, including Baghdad and Mosul, but in 1514 he lost Diyarbakır to the Ottomans. His successors lost Baghdad and Tabrīz in 1534 to the great Ottoman sultan, Suleiman I (the Magnificent), and the Safavid capital had to be moved to Qazvīn. Meanwhile, Uzbeks seized territories in the north-east.

On his accession in 1588, Shah Abbas I, greatest of the Safavid rulers, gave up lands to both opponents, buying time to organize a European-style standing army with the help of English experts. He used this to expel Portuguese traders from the island of Hormuz in 1602, to defeat the Turks in 1603, and to take Baghdad in 1623. He won back all the territory lost to the Turks, and extended his dominion eastwards through Afghanistan and northern India as far as the Indus valley. Abbas made Eşfahān his capital and reformed the bureaucracy and economy; his reign is also notable for the commencement of trade with the English East India Company. However, his successors were far weaker figures. During the century following his reign, Iran steadily declined. In 1722 the country was conquered by a rebel Afghan army under Mir Mahmud and the Safavids were overthrown.

F

Nadir Shah and European Intervention

Two years later Russia and Turkey, taking advantage of the confusion within Iran, concluded an agreement for its dismemberment. Within those provinces not seized by these two powers, an Iranian national army was formed under a Turkoman warrior chief who drove out the Afghans in 1729. At first he installed surviving Safavids as puppets, becoming governor of eastern Iran and then regent in 1732. However, after a series of victories he ascended the throne himself in 1736 as Nadir Shah. Two years later, driven by lack of money, he invaded Afghanistan and India, capturing and sacking Delhi in 1739. The plunder seized from the Mughal Empire was so rich that Nadir stopped taxation in Iran for three years. Russia, meanwhile, had given up its Iranian conquests; Nadir later succeeded in freeing Iran from all foreign occupation by driving out the Turks. However, he grew increasingly cruel and unstable, and was finally assassinated in 1747.

His empire fragmented after his death, but for southern Iran there followed a period of relative peace and prosperity under the Zand dynasty, regents for another Safavid puppet. Karim Khan, the greatest Zand ruler, died in 1779. On his death Agha Muhammad Khan, the eunuch chief of the dominant Qajar clan of northern Iran, escaped from Shīrāz where he had been held hostage. Making Tehran his capital, he hunted down the remaining Zands; after his final victory in 1794 he proclaimed himself Shah and founded the Qajar dynasty (1794-1925). A cruel ruler whose actions at Kermān were among his most infamous crimes, Agha Muhammad Khan subjugated Christian Georgia but was finally assassinated. He was succeeded in 1797 by his nephew Fath Ali Shah, during whose reign (1797-1834) the British were allowed to extend their influence over Iranian trade and finances.

In 1840 Aga Khan I, head of the Ismaili sect and Governor of Kermān, fled to India after a failed rebellion against the shah. However, the 19th century was chiefly marked by the struggle between Britain and Russia for hegemony in Iran. The British fought and defeated the Iranians in 1856 and 1857, and compelled them to evacuate Afghanistan and to recognize its independence. During the 1880s the Russians gradually established a sphere of influence in northern Iran, while Britain gained control in the Persian Gulf area. Between 1900 and 1902 the Russian government made substantial loans to Iran, receiving as security all the country’s customs receipts except those of the Gulf ports. In 1901 the British were granted a 60-year concession to exploit the newly discovered oil resources of Iran.

G

Nationalism and Constitutional Government

The rise of foreign influence in Iran and the weakness and corruption of the country’s rulers led early in the 20th century to the development of a nationalist movement that demanded the establishment of a constitutional government. In 1906 the reigning shah, Muzaffar al-Din, was forced by popular demand to convene the first Majlis, or national assembly, which drew up a liberal constitution. His son and successor, Muhammad Ali, attempted to destroy the constitutional movement by force, but was defeated and deposed. His 12-year-old son was placed on the throne as Ahmad Shah and a regency was established. In 1911 the American financier William Morgan Shuster arrived in Iran at the invitation of the Majlis and was given full power to reorganize the national finances. His reforms were, however, frustrated by the hostility of Russia; Shuster was dismissed and Russian power subsequently became dominant in Iran.

H

Rise of the Pahlavi Dynasty

During World War I Iran was neutral, but was the scene of several battles for control of the oilfields between the British and Russian allies and the Turks. In 1919 the government signed an agreement whereby Britain was to exercise a controlling influence in Iranian affairs, but the Majlis refused to ratify it. Two years later the British began to withdraw their forces from the country. Soon afterwards Reza Khan, commander of an Iranian cossack force, led a coup d’état and established a new independent government, with himself as Minister of War. He became Prime Minister in 1923; two years later he was elected Shah by the Majlis, which had deposed Ahmad Shah, the last of the Qajar dynasty. Initially a republican, he came to feel that the monarchy was the most likely force to unite Iran; he chose the dynastic surname of Pahlavi.

During his reign the judiciary was modernized, transport and communication facilities were improved, and a broad programme of Westernization was begun. One decree ordered all men to wear European-style hats and clothes. New civil codes accorded women more rights. Most of the population obeyed without protest but there were intermittent riots, mostly led by Muslim clergy in the shrine cities. There were fatalities when troops quelled the riots. Early in 1936 the shah’s wife and daughters appeared in public without veils, breaking the ancient tradition of the country. Thereafter, most Iranian women gradually stopped wearing their veils. The government next abolished all feudal titles and began a long-range programme for the economic modernization of the country. Despite superficially successful economic and social reform Reza Shah Pahlavi’s rule became increasingly autocratic and the centralization of power was achieved by ruthless measures to crush ethnic rebellion. In 1936 Iran signed a treaty of friendship and non-aggression with Iraq, Turkey, and Afghanistan.

I

World War II

At the beginning of World War II, Germany, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) attempted unsuccessfully to form alliances with Iran. In 1941, however, both the United Kingdom and the USSR occupied areas of the country to protect the oilfields from possible German seizure. As a result of the Allied invasion, all nationals of the Axis powers were expelled and all Axis consulates and legations were closed. The Allies assumed control of all Iranian communication facilities, and Reza Shah Pahlavi, who had been friendly to Axis interests, was forced to abdicate.

The shah’s 22-year-old son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, adopted a pro-Allied policy when he succeeded his father and granted the parliament’s demand for liberal reforms. In January 1942, Iran, the United Kingdom, and the USSR signed a treaty guaranteeing Anglo-Soviet respect for Iranian territorial integrity and military aid to fulfil this pledge. The Allies also agreed to consult the Iranian government on all economic, political, and military measures affecting the domestic policy of the country, to withdraw the occupation forces as soon as possible, and to provide economic assistance.

By 1943 the USSR and the United Kingdom, with the assistance of US military forces and lend-lease funds, had made extensive improvements to Iran’s transport facilities in order to strengthen the country’s usefulness in the transfer of military supplies to the Soviet front. Iran complained, however, that the USSR had completely isolated its occupation zone from outside contact. The Soviet government defended its action by explaining that it was protecting itself against possible Anglo-American expansion in Iran. This dispute was resolved in November 1943 at the Tehran Conference attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, premier of the Soviet Union. The Declaration on Iran, produced by this conference, and issued on December 1, stated that the three governments were “at one with the government of Iran in their desire for the maintenance of the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Iran”.

By the early months of 1945 it became safe for Allied shipping to use the Bosporus and the Dardanelles to send war matériel to the USSR, eliminating the need for an overland route through Iran. In May the government of Iran requested the occupying countries to withdraw their troops. The United States agreed, but neither the USSR nor the United Kingdom would consent. After prolonged negotiations the two Allied powers agreed to withdraw from Iran by March 2, 1946. The Iranian government nevertheless became increasingly concerned over the Soviet occupation. Iranian officials claimed that they were not permitted to enter Soviet-occupied Azerbaijan and Kurdish regions to quell anti-Iranian disturbances provoked by pro-Soviet forces.

By mid-November, Azerbaijan was the site of an independence movement supported by Soviet authorities. This movement led to the establishment of two quasi-autonomous city-states, one in Russian-occupied Tabrīz, the other the Kurdish Repubic of Mahabad to the south of the Soviet zone. In less than a year both “republics” fell to Iranian troops, following the Soviet troop withdrawal.