Reza Shah’s transformative reign in Iran has been well documented in books and scholarly articles, but the circumstances of his forced abdication and years of unhappy exile in British hands have to date been neglected. This book covers these final years, based on archival sources and memoirs.It is of course well known that the Anglo-Soviet invasion in 1941 resulted in Reza Shah’s abdication, but the details of his forced abdication are not; nor is it is well known, even among scholars, that the British briefly, but seriously, toyed with the idea of doing away altogether with the ruling Pahlavi dynasty. Drawing on previously unutilized material from the British archives the author reveals for the first time that the British considered reinstalling on the throne a little-regretted previous dynasty.The book charts Reza Shah’s final journey through Iran and into his unhappy exile; his life in exile, his reminiscences; his testy relationship with the British in Mauritius and Johannesburg; and the circumstances of his death. Additionally, it covers the immense fortune Reza Shah amassed during his years in power, his finances in exile, and the drawn-out dispute over the settlement of his estate after his death.A significant contribution to the literature on Reza Shah and British imperialism as it played out in the case of one critical country during World War II, the book reveals the fraught relationship between a once powerful ruler in his final days and the British government at a critical moment in recent history.

The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile, and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder PDF

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