Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi

A Dictionary of World History | Date: 2000

Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919–1980) Shah of Iran (1941–79). The son of Reza PAHLAVI, he succeeded on the abdication of his father. After the fall of MUSSADEGH in 1953 he gained supreme power and with the aid of greatly increased oil revenues, embarked upon a policy of rapid social reform and economic development, while maintaining a regime of harsh repression. In 1962 he introduced a land reform programme to break landlord power. In 1979 he was deposed by a revolution led by the Islamic clergy, notably Ayatollah KHOMEINI, whose supporters were bitterly opposed to the pro-western regime of the Shah. He died in exile in Egypt.


© A Dictionary of World History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000.

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