Mosaddeq, Mohammad (1882–1967)

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MOSADDEQ, MOHAMMAD (1882–1967)

Mohammad Mosaddeq was an Iranian liberal-nationalist prime minister (1951–1953) overthrown by an Anglo-American-sponsored coup d'état. Born into a prominent family of notables and educated in Tehran, France, and Switzerland, where he gained a doctorate in law, Mosaddeq returned to Iran in 1914 where he taught, occupied various ministerial and other high-ranking posts, and achieved national prominence as a nationalist and constitutionalist parliamentarian. His opposition to the autocracy of Reza Khan (later shah) resulted in his exclusion from political life and virtual house arrest from 1936 onward.

Following Reza Shah's abdication in 1941, Mosaddeq returned to the political scene to represent Tehran twice in the parliament, receiving the highest number of votes cast in the capitol. The failure of negotiations to revise the British oil concession eventually resulted in the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The leadership of Mosaddeq and the National Front, formed by him in this process, led to his premiership in late April 1951.

Vehemently opposed to Mosaddeq and his oil policy, the British concentrated on destabilizing his government, while the shah refused to accept the role of constitutional monarch as defined by the premier. The relentless opposition of pro-British and royalist elements and the shah's refusal to transfer the War Ministry to the prime minister resulted in Mosaddeq's resignation in July 1952, but a popular uprising returned him to power a few days later. The intractable oil question continued, however, to aggravate the government's problems. Some of its supporters joined the opposition, while the activities of the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party enabled the government's opponents, including the religious forces, to claim that a communist takeover was imminent. The British and American secret services, aided by Mosaddeq's domestic opponents, eventually engineered his downfall in August 1953.

Following three years of imprisonment, Mosaddeq was confined for the rest of his life to his country home away from the capital. While cognizant of the place of Islam in the inherited culture of Iran, Mosaddeq was primarily a secular democrat and a civic nationalist, dedicated to promoting Iranian national sovereignty.

See alsoNationalism: Iranian .