Abdullah Entezam

1 Biography:
2 Career:
3 Patronage & Freemasonry:
4 Sufism:
5 End of life:
6 references
- 6.1 External links

Biography:

Abdullah Entezam Iranian Diplomat (alternatively: Seyed Abdollah Entezam), son of Seyed Mohamad also known as "Binesh Ali", leader of Safih Ali Shahi order of dervishes in Iran. His father was also a diplomat. Older brother of Nasrollah Entezam, also a career diplomat and Iranian minister of Health (spelt Nasrullah by Iranian biographer Abbas Milani). His son was Hume Horan, US ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Born in Tehran 1895 (1274)

According to Abbas Milani: "Both diplomacy and Sufism became inseparable parts of Abdullah’s character and career." ^[1]

He was educated in Tehran at the German Technical School, Dar al-Funun and the School of Political Science.

Career:

Iran's ambassador to France 1927,

Presented Iran’s case against Britain to the League of Nations in 1933,

Iran's ambassador to West Germany,

Minister of Finance under Mohammad Reza Shah, then Foreign Minister 1953-56,

Negotiated the resumption of diplomatic relations with Britain and the oil contracts after Mossadegh.

Chairman of the board of directors and Managing Director of NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) 1957-63.

Dismissed by the Shah after the uprisings of 1963, for suggesting that the pace of reforms should be slowed down.

Marvin Zonis wrote on this subject in the The Political Elite of Iran. p.63 Dealing with the counter elite. ^[2]

Patronage & Freemasonry:

According to Abbas Milani's book 'The Persian Sphinx', he was the mentor of the Prime Minister Amir-Abbas Hoveida. Hoveida referred to him as arbab (the boss).

Milani said in the The Persian Sphinx (page 115):

"In the mid 1950s when the Shah began to demand absolute obedience from all those around him, and as a token of this submission expected everyone to kiss the royal hand at each audience, Entezam was one of very few people in government who refused to comply."

He was also a Freemason, and in 1960, apparently at his behest, Hoveida (spelt Hoveyda by Milani) joined the Foroughi Lodge, newly created in 1960 with Entezam as its grand master.

In Ismail Raeen's (also spelt Ra'in) book on Freemasonry in Iran, Faramooshkhaneh va Faramasonery dar Iran Vol3, p505, Hoveida is listed as a Freemason and Entezam as the grand master of the Independent Grand Lodge of Iran.^[3]

In Religion and politics in modern Iran : a reader, Lloyd V J Ridgeon on p.150 states that "several Masonic Iranian Lodges connected to the United Grand Lodges of Germany operated from the premises of the Safi Ali Shahi Brotherhood Society in Tehran and Entezam had been a founder member in Tehran since 1960 of one of these, the Mehr Lodge and also guided another, the Safa Lodge, which had been established in 1962 ". ^[4]

According to Mahmoud Toloie ^[5] "although Entezam was a founder member of these Iranian lodges, he gave up on them after the death of Seyed Hassan Taghizadeh in 1970 and did attend their meetings anymore".

Sufism:

Upon the death of his father he became the leader of the Safih Ali Shahi order of dervishes in Iran.
There is an article on this subject and Entezam's Sufi writing entitled: A New Perspective on Mysticism and Sufism: Abdollah Entezam , Introduced and translated by Matthijs van der Bos. ^[6]

End of life:

During the Iranian revolution, in 1978 the 86-year-old Entezam was offered the role of Prime minister by the Shah, but was said to have turned it down on health grounds.^[7]
Some might have said he was imprisoned by the new Islamist regime and released before his death in spring 1983. ^[8] However in the Farsi Wikipedia page on him, it is stated that unlike his brother Nasrollah, he was not imprisoned or tortured and that even Ayatollah Khomeini did not want him to be arrested. ^[9]

His obituary appeared in the Times by Sir Denis Wright on 23 April 1983, in which he said: "Untainted by corruption, he was, in the words of a British ambassador who knew him well, a “man of charm, modesty, and considerable ability, . . . spoke excellent English, French, and German, . . . shunned high society and lacked ambition but had a great capacity for friendship and was respected by all who knew him. The Shah would never have lost his throne had he listened to and made full use of men such as Abdullah ^[10]