The Iranian Revolution ••• 371ruler's authority was legitimate, save that of the missing twelfth imam. Un¬
til this imam returns, the lawmakers for Shi'i Islam were the mujtahids
(highly trained ulama). Their schools and mosques worked apart from
(and often in opposition to) the secular rulers. The ulama, along with the
bazaar merchant guilds and the athletic clubs, opposed the Qajar shahs
during the 1892 tobacco boycott and the 1906 constitutionalist movement.
Their stance toward the Pahlavi dynasty was inconsistent, supporting its
opposition to the USSR and the procommunist Tudeh (Workers) Party but
resisting its secularizing reforms. Naturally, they opposed the shah's at¬
tempts to seize their endowed lands and to ally Iran with the Western pow¬
ers, notably the US. The Western press stressed the ulama's opposition to
such features of the shah's White Revolution as women's suffrage. Inas¬
much as neither women nor men could elect their representatives during
most of the shah's reign, this press attack missed its mark. Muslim obser¬
vance is so central in most Iranians' lives that you can be sure the ulama
knew the people's feelings better than the shah and his ministers.
The Monarchy
The Pahlavi dynasty ruled from 1925 to 1979. It consisted of two shahs:
Reza Khan and his son, Mohammad Reza. They (along with their burgeon¬
ing family) took over a vast share of Iran's land, houses, shops, hotels, and
factories (how vast no one knows, but the assets of the Pahlavi Foundation
alone were estimated in 1977 at some $3 billion). Around them swarmed a
cadre of bureaucrats, landlords, military officers, and professional people
who tied their lives and fortunes to the Pahlavi kite. Some were patriotic
Iranians who believed that the shah's policies would benefit their country;
others were crafty opportunists who enriched themselves by exploiting the
government. Reza Shah, discussed in Chapter 14, was a dictator who ad¬
mired and emulated Ataturk. His son, Mohammad, was more complex. He
could be ruthless in his pursuit of power and in imposing his westernizing
reforms against the wishes of powerful and entrenched groups in Iran, or
he could court popularity. At times he shrank from wielding power. Early
in his reign he left Iran's government to his ministers and let the tribal and
local leaders regain powers they had lost under his father. Later he was
eclipsed by a popular premier, Mohammad Mosaddiq, who nationalized
the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1951.
After the shah was restored to power by a CIA-backed army coup in
1953, he seemed overshadowed by his US and military advisers. Because of
its location between the USSR and the Persian Gulf, Iran played a strategic