court

“Court” means house and mansion, the court of kings, as well as the royal palace but the term refers to an organization that kings create for rituals, ceremonies, entertainment, and anything related to the personal and political domain of the Shah. The age of the court is the same as that of the kings. At the time of the Qajar Dynasty, those in charge of the court were called “Hajeb al-Dawla.” In the Pahlavi government, the court organization known as the Ministry of the Court continued to grow in size and width. Initially, parts such as wardrobes, ceremonies, guns, palaces, barns, kitchens, and headstones were all components of the court but forty years later, the organization came to such an extent that its officials were: minister, Chief of Staff, Director General of the Ceremonial Secretariat, General Manager of Formalities, Chief of the Shah’s Office, Chief of the Shah’s Wife’s Office, Deputy Chief of Court, five deputy chiefs, fifteen adjutants, four Chiefs of Office for the Shah’s Brothers and Sisters, one foreman for the Shah’s wife and hundreds of workers, labourers etc. Although the highest official in the court was the Minister of the Court, he was not a member of the cabinet like the rest of the ministers, his working relationship was not with the Prime Minister but with the Shah himself, and it can be said that he had a higher position than the other ministers. Abdul-Hoseyn Teymourtash, the first minister of Reza Shah’s court, was one of the most famous courtiers of the Pahlavi government. Ali Quli Ardalan is the last minister of the court of Iranian history.

The court was the closest place to power and at its head was the Shah. Therefore, those who sought to gain office, wealth, fame, and power did not do anything to bring themselves to this area. We know that if there is no monitoring of power (monitoring people, representatives of the people and the press), it will soon become corrupted. Since there was no supervision of the power concentrated in the court, there was illicit political and economic intercourse with the court, making it one of the most anti-state institutions in the country. It may not be the most corrupt court of imperial history in Iran but news and reports published in the books and press after the fall of the Pahlavi regime show that one of the most polluted courts was the court of Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi. The Shah and his close companions use the privileges usually enjoyed by the power holders (rents) in export and import, trading and brokering, banking and in the form of various construction, industrial and agricultural companies, as well as hotels, amusement clubs, casinos, etc., they were earning a living. While groups of Iranians were in poverty, almost all court food was imported from overseas, including sauces to goose liver and from cigarettes to alcoholic beverages. The excesses in the ceremonies had brought the Shah’s court to the place where he had set up a pheasant breeding organization. The organization, which was run at a great cost, was welcoming guests to the court with pheasant meat. It is no exaggeration to say that all the children of Iran were provided with free education and health at the expense of the precious objects at the court, including jewellery and antiques, as well as the current expenses of the court.

Ritual Greetings at the Court (October 26, 1975)

As the days of the victory of the Islamic Revolution approached, the courtiers removed their property from Iran. Foreign currency transfers were the easiest way out of capital, but antiques, jewellery, and other precious portable goods also became luggage and went to Europe and the United States. Ahmad Ali Masoud Ansari from Farah Diba’s relatives (the Shah’s wife) and aware of the court, has spoken openly of the court’s wealth after the collapse. “When leaving the country, the Shah and his family brought a large amount of jewellery,” he says. The Shah, along with his luggage, brought four jewellery boxes, which Shahbazi, who accompanied Farideh Qotbi, Farah’s mother, to bring the jewellery to the Swiss bank for lending, told me the jewellery was in four large boxes, each half the size of a human being. These jewels belonged to the Shah and Farah himself. The royal highness had brought their jewels separately, especially Ashraf, who had left Iran before the height of the revolution and had the opportunity to withdraw her jewellery from Iran. The Queen Mother, who had arrived in London about a year before the revolution, had also brought most of her jewellery at the same time.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Imam Khomeyni on 28 February 1979, on a mission to the Revolutionary Council, they demanded the confiscation of all movable and immovable property of the Pahlavi dynasty in favour of the indigents, the poor workers and employees. But the remaining palaces also became museums a few years later, and now the most famous are

Niavaran and the Saadabad Palace.

All those who have investigated the cause of the collapse of the monarchical system and the collapse of the Pahlavi regime in Iran have identified as one of the main causes of corruption in the court. Among the adjectives used for the Shah’s court were the “Movie Cemetery” and the “House of Vipers.”