The Pahlavi Dynasty: Shahs of Iran

The Pahlavi dynasty is an Iranian royal dynasty that produced two monarchs of Persia/Iran. It was founded in 1925, when Reza Khan — a former Brigadier-General of the Persian Cossack Brigade — deposed the Qajar dynasty and declared himself Shah, adopting the dynastic name of Pahlavi, which recalls the Middle Persian language of the Sasanian Empire. Reza Shah was forced by the invading British to abdicate in favor of his son the Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who replaced his father as Shah on the throne on 16 September 1941. As a result of the Islamic Revolution, he left for exile on 17 January 1979.

On his death, his son Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi succeeded him in absentia as heir apparent to the Pahlavi dynasty. Reza Pahlavi and his wife live in the United States in Potomac, Maryland, with three daughters. As of 2013, Reza Pahlavi established the National Council of Iran in Paris that serves his government in exile in order to reclaim the former throne after overthrowing the current Islamic Republic government. More recently, in February 2019, Pahlavi launched an initiative called the Phoenix Project of Iran. According to the National Interest, this is "designed to bring the various strains of the opposition closer to a common vision for a post-clerical Iran." (This temporary text has been reproduced from this article and will be replaced with our own text soon.)