Asadollah Alam
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Amir Asadollah Alam (1919 - April 14, 1978) was a Prime Minister of Iran.
Amir Asadollah Alam was the longest serving minister of the Pahlavi era. The title Amir is Arabic and means ruler resp. governor. The name Alam is means a banner or a flag in Arabic. Alam's father Amir Ebrahim Alam (AKA Shokat ol-molk) was the governor of the region of Qa'enaat. In the era of Reza Shah Pahlavi he was the minister of telecommunications.
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[edit] Early life
Alam was born in 1919 in Birjand and was educated at a British school in Iran. By a royal order from Reza Shah, Alam married Malektaj, the daughter of Qavam Al-Molk Shirazi. The son of Qavam ol-molk was then married to a sister of the Shah, Ashraf Pahlavi. Shortly after desposing of the Qajar dynasty, Reza Shah intended to unite Iran's non-Qajar nobility through inter-marriage.
At the age of 26 he was appointed governor of Sistan and Baluchistan province. At the age of 29 he became Minister of Agriculture in the cabinet of Mohammad Sa'ed.He early displayed what an American acquaintance describes as a combination of native toughness and Y.M.C.A. dedication.[1]
Assadollah Alam became the main landowner of Birjand after his father's death. He was one of Iran's first big landowners to distribute his holdings to the peasants, insisting that his servants eat the same food as his family. Once, when a would-be assassin was nabbed outside his door, Alam gave the man $40, then had him thrashed and sent into the street without his pants.[2].
[edit] Priemiership
In 1953, Alam helped organize the counterrevolution that overthrew Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh. Alam was the director of the Pahlevi Foundation, a charitable trust worth at least $133 million, set up by the Shah to finance social-welfare plans out of the profits from royal holdings in banks, industries, hotels. In 1962, he served as Prime Minister at the age of 43.
As premier Assadollah Alam pledged to undertake "an anticorruption campaign with great diligence and all severity." Though the cynical snickered, Alam got free rein from the Shah, carefully began building airtight cases against suspected grafters among Iran's leading bureaucrats and government leaders. His first major target was General Mohammed Ali Khazai, the Iranian army's chief of ordnance, who had parlayed his $6,000 salary into three houses in the suburbs of Tehran, four apartment houses in France, five automobiles, $100,000 in European banks and $200,000 in cash. A military court convicted Khazai of taking a cut out of government contracts and sentenced him to five years of solitary confinement.[3]
In May 1963 Alam's anticorruption drive was in full swing. In Tehran, a military tribunal sentenced General Abdullah Hedayat, Iran's first four-star general and once a close adviser of the Shah, to two years in prison for embezzling money on military housing contracts, brushed aside his plea for appeal with the brusque explanation that "more charges are pending." The former boss of the Tehran Electricity Board was in solitary confinement for five years; cases were in preparation against an ex-War Minister and twelve other generals for graft.[4]
[edit] Riots of 1963
The most important event in Alam's premiership were the riots that took place in June 1963 in response to some of the reforms enforced by the Shah and Alam. It was the clerics who triggered the riots during the Muharram holy days. As the faithful jammed the mosques, the clerics assailed "illegal" Cabinet decision, urged their followers to "protect your religion." Small-scale riots quickly broke out in the clerical capital of Qum, led by Ayatullah Rouhollah Khomeini, and in several other cities. Police struck back, arrested Khomeini and some 15 other ringleaders. With that, both sides declared open war and the battle was on.[5]
Screaming " Down with the Shah," 10,000 people, swept through the capital, carrying pictures of Khomeini. Though the whereabouts of the Shah was kept secrets, rows of white-helmeted troops, backed by tanks, immediately sealed off access to royal places in the city and suburbs. In the heart of town green their fire for 40 minute. When the mobs entered government buildings, the troops opened up at point-blank range. The crowd fell back in confusion, regrouped, and raced down main avenues.[6]
Nearly 7,000 troops were called out by Alam's government to restore uneasy peace in Tehran; by then damage was estimated in the millions, at least 1,000 were injured, and the officially reported death toll was 86. It was undoubtedly higher, but since the public cemetery was closed and under heavy guard to prevent further clashes at the gravesides, the real number remained unknown.[7] In his memoirs, Alam notes the number of the dead to be about 200, saying that he immediately arranged for their families to recive a pension from the government.[8] For the first time in a decade, martial law was imposed on the city, along with a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Hoping to preserve quiet for a while, Alam also announced that troops would remain on emergency duty. Their orders: shoot to kill.
[edit] Minister of the royal court
In 1964, he was appointed as Chancellor of Shiraz University and served host to the King of Belgium in his visit to Fars Province a few years later. Afterwards he was the minister of court for many years. Furthermore he was the head of the Pahlavi Foundation and bursar. He was also a supporter of the campaign of Richard Nixon, during the United States presidential elections.
As the minister of the royal court he was the closest man to the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who now ran the country autocratically. Therefore Alam became the channel through which most of the daily affairs of the country passed. Alam's memoirs, published posthoumously, are exceptionally detailed documents on the life and the deeds of the Shah as perceived by an insider.
[edit] List of positions held
As written by Alam himself in his memoirs[9] in 1972.
1. Direct chief of Imam Reza's shirne in Mashad, AKA "Aastaan-e Qods-e Razavi"
2. The Shah's inspector of all universities
3. Chairman of the board of trusties of the Pahlavi Univeristy
4. Chairman of the board of trusties of the Aryamehr University
5. Chairman of the board of trusties of the Pars school for higher education (Madreseye Aalyi-e Pars)
6. The shah's special liaison with foreign ambassadors (for issues too confidential to pass through the foreign ministry)
7. Head of the board of trusties of the Mashad University
8. Indispensable member of the board of trusties of the University of Tehran
9. Indispensable member of the board of trusties of the University of Tabriz
10. Chairman of the Royal horse institute (The crown prince Reza Pahlavi was the honorary head)
11. Chairman of the royal institute of the rural culture houses (The crown prince Reza Pahlavi was the honorary head)
12. Chairman of the national scouts committee
13. Head of "Kaanun-e Kaar" (Labor institute(?))
14. Deputy chairman of the Imperial Organization of Social Services (Princess Ashraf Pahlavi was the head)
15. Deputy chairman of the Red Lion and Sun Society (Princess Shams Pahlavi was the head)
16. Chairman of the Council for support of mothers and infants
17. Deputy chairman of the Kaanun-e Parvaresh-e Fekri-e Kudakaan va nojavaanaan (Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults). Empress Farah Pahlavi was the head)
18. Direct chief of the Legion of serivce to humanity
19. Person in charge of the construction in the island of Kish
20. Head of the board of trustees of the Pahlavi Foundation
21. Deputy chairman of the Iranian Culture Foundation (for research and publication of classic Persian texts)
22. In charge of the shah's personal and monetary affairs.
23. last but not least, the ministry of court.
[edit] Illness, death and legacy
Asadollah Alam died of cancer in 1978.
Amir Hossein Khozeimé-Alam was a cousin of his.
[edit] References
- ^ – The Reformer's Lot, Time (magazine), Friday, Jul. 27, 1962
- ^ – The Reformer's Lot, Time (magazine), Friday, Jul. 27, 1962
- ^ – No Longer for the Corrupt, Time (magazine), Friday, May. 24, 1963
- ^ – No Longer for the Corrupt, Time (magazine), Friday, May. 24, 1963
- ^ – Progress at a Price, Time (magazine), Friday, Jun. 14, 1963
- ^ – Progress at a Price, Time (magazine), Friday, Jun. 14, 1963
- ^ – Progress at a Price, Time (magazine), Friday, Jun. 14, 1963
- ^ [– Yaddasht-haye Amir Assadollah-e Alam], Tehran, 2003
- ^ [– Yaddasht-haye Amir Assadollah-e Alam], , edited by Alinaqi Alikhani, Vol. 2, P. 398 ISBN 964-5643-39-2,Tehran, 2003
- Avsati, Alireza, Iran in the last 3 Centuries, Published Tehran, 2003. Vol1 ISBN 964-93406-6-1 Vol2 ISBN 964-93406-5-3.
[edit] See also
| Preceded by Ali Amini |
Prime Minister of Iran 1962 – 1964 |
Succeeded by Hassan Ali Mansour |
[edit] External links
- Benador Associates article by Amir Taheri
- A Russian dinner (Author Farhad Sepahbody was Iran's last ambassador to Morocco under the Pahlavi Dynasty.)
- Harvard's Iranian Oral History Project: Fatemeh Pakravan
- Alam's bio on BBC Persian
