A PROFILE OF AN IRANIAN STATESMAN: SEPAHDAR RASHTI’S ROLE IN THE TWO KEY EVENTS THAT HELPED SHAPE MODERN IRAN

Goli Akbar Kashani | Washington D. C.
Abstract In 1906, the Constitutional Revolution established Iran’s first parliamentary democracy. In 1921, a coup d’état eventually brought a new monarch to power. These two events have shaped the history of modern Iran, with repercussions still felt today in Iran and beyond.
A key player in these developments in Iran in the years before and after the First World War was Fathollah Khan Akbar, Sepahdar Rashti, the prime minister of the Qajar monarchy at the time of the 1921 coup. By the 1880s, Fathollah Khan Akbar had inherited enormous wealth from his uncle, and had added to it from running the Gilan and Mazandaran customs administrations. He was an important provincial landowner who on several occasions had hosted Mozaffar al-Din Shah. However, as the Constitutional Revolution started to take shape and protests hit home, he became involved in national politics and came out in support of the cause and the Majles (parliament). Over his forty-year political career, during which he witnessed the rule of five monarchs, Sepahdar experienced setbacks such as imprisonment and kidnapping, as well as victories such as the 1909 “Triumph of Tehran,” which he personally financed while exiled from the city by the shah. Throughout these ups and downs, and while Iran had been divided into zones of Russian and British influence, Sepahdar played all sides while maintaining a strong sense of patriotism and independence. During both his short premierships, he repeatedly defied British authorities when Iran’s interests were at risk.
In the IFI International Guest Lecture, Goli Akbar Kashani, granddaughter of Fathollah Khan Akbar and author of Sepahdar: Fathollah Khan Akbar, A Biography (Washington D.C.: Mage Publishers 2024), will offer new perspectives on this crucial historical period through a rich portrait of a consequential player in the political history of Iran in the first quarter of the twentieth century.
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