Pahlavi, Muhammad Reza Shah

Pahlavi, Muhammad Reza Shah (1919-1980), shah of Iran (1941-1979), whose ‘White Revolution’ of rapid modern development, combined with grandiose military build-up and dictatorial rule, eventually led to his downfall.

Muhammad Reza Pahlavi was born in Tehran on October 26, 1919, the son of Reza Shah Pahlavi, and was educated in Switzerland and at the Tehran Military College. He became shah in 1941, when the Allies of World War II forced the abdication of his father. In the early post-war period his reign was marked by political unrest generated by communist and nationalist movements; an attempt was made on his life in 1949. In August 1953 he briefly fled the country following a power seizure by the newly deposed premier, Muhammad Mossadegh, but he was restored to his throne with covert United States aid.

Having begun the distribution of royal lands to tenant farmers in 1951, the shah in 1962 ordered large private landholdings to be broken up to allow peasant ownership. The following year he revealed his White Revolution programme of socio-economic reforms. He meanwhile delayed his coronation until 1967.

As the power of the oil-exporting nations grew in the 1970s, the shah became an increasingly important world leader, and Iran became the pre-eminent military power of the Middle East. At the same time, strong opposition to his autocratic rule developed, especially among the group of conservative Muslims led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In 1979 a revolution fomented by the Ayatollah forced the shah and his family into exile. The shah died in Cairo on July 27, 1980.