Zia ol Din Tabatabaee

Coup d'état of 1921. Zia (center left), Reza Khan (far left)

Zia came to power in a coup d'état on February 22, 1921 (3 Esfand 1299) with the help of Reza Khan Mirpanj, who later became the Shah of Persia.

Zia gave a fierce speech in parliament against the corrupt political class that tenaciously defended its privileges from the pre-parliamentary period which had brought Persia to the brink of ruin. The emperor, Ahmad Shah Qajar, appointed the thirty-three year old as the Prime Minister of Persia.

Within hours of taking power, the new government immediately declared a new order, which included, "all the residents of the city of Tehran must keep quiet. . . . The state of siege is established . . . all newspapers and prints will be stopped . . . public meetings in the houses and in different places are stopped . . . all shops where wines and spirits are sold, as well as theaters, cinemas and clubs, where gambling goes on, must be closed."[5] Zia and Reza Khan, arrested some four hundred rich people and aristocrats who had inherited wealth and power over the span of ten to twenty years while the country experienced poverty, corruption, famine, instability and chaos. Their cabinets changed every six or seven months and could hardly manage the country's daily affairs.[6] According to Zia, these "few hundred nobles, who hold the reins of power by inheritance, sucked, leech-like, the blood of the people".[7]

Zia Tabataba'i, circa 1921

Zia declared that his cabinet's program included far-reaching measures such as the "formation of an army...eventual abolition of the capitulations...establishment of friendly ties with the Soviet Union." At the same time, he tried to implement a truly impressive number of changes in the capital itself—from ordering new rules of hygiene for stores that handled foodstuffs to bringing street lights to the city's notoriously dark roads. He talked of land reform, making him one of the early champions of the idea in modern Iran. He talked of making education available to every Iranian.[8] His political reform program envisaged that the entire legal system of Iran should be modernized and aligned with European standards. He set up a reform commission headed by Iranian intellectual, Mohammad Ali Foroughi. The Ministry of Finance was initially closed in order to fundamentally reform the tax and finance system, which had essentially collapsed.[3]

However, the necessary funds were simply not available to stimulate the economy or to invest in infrastructure. The abolition of the rights of surrender for the British and Russians also made no headway. Moreover, some of his decisions such as ordering a ban on alcohol, bars, and casinos, as well as, closing shops on Fridays and on religious holidays, angered merchants. It was also not long before the families of those arrested organized a political campaign against Zia, calling his administration "the black cabinet", which resulted in constant unrest. Zia informed the families that the arrested would be released if they paid four million toman in arrears in taxes, to which the families refused.

There was nothing short of hubris in Zia's behavior. With every passing day, the rank of his enemies swelled and his days in office seemed numbered. Foremost among his enemies was the king himself. Ahmad Shah Qajar, who no longer wanted to support Zia's radical reform program. But above all he wanted the release of the arrested nobles. Zia's last meeting with Ahmad Shah took place only hours before his dismissal and days before his exile. He had always been defiantly oblivious to the court's solemnities and the rules of etiquette for a royal audience. He was even known to have spent one whole meeting sitting on a windowsill, as the king had refused to put chairs in the room. That day, he walked into the king's office, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, and continued to walk around as he talked. Ahmad Shah was incensed and practically threw Zia out of the office; hours later he arranged for his dismissal.[7]

After consulting Ahmad Shah, Reza Khan asked Zia on May 23, 1921 to resign and leave the country. Reza Khan offered him any sum he deemed necessary from the treasury. Zia took twenty-five thousand toman to cover his travel expenses—by no measure a large sum—and left the country. All political prisoners were released on May 24.[7] Although the reign of Seyyed Zia lasted only 93 days, this short period marked the beginning of an important period in the contemporary history of Iran, the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Despite his opponents being mainly Qajar supporters and aristocrats, Zia had the support of many Iranians including intellectuals such as Aref Qazvini and Mirzadeh Eshghi. Aref was so fascinated by Zia that after he left Iran, he composed a famous poem in praise of him: (...ای دست حق پشت و پناهت بازآ / چشم آرزومند نگاهت بازآ / وی توده ی ملت سپاهت بازآ / قربان کابینه سیاهت بازآ). A few years later Mirzadeh Eshghi in his ode of the fourth parliament wrote: "It is not enough as much we admire Zia, we won't afford it....I say something but he was something else....".[6]

Zia spent the next few years traveling throughout Europe. For a while he sold Persian carpets in Berlin; then he moved to Geneva, where he tried, unsuccessfully, to write a book with the help of his friend Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh, the famous exiled Iranian writer. He then settled in Montreux, where he continued his carpet business. After about seventeen years of nomadic life in Europe, he went to Palestine and spent the next six years there. In December 1931, he was elected Secretary General of the World Islamic Congress in Jerusalem. In this role, he developed plans to establish an Islamic University (the Al-Aqsa University). Accordingly, the university would have three faculties, one for theology and Islamic law, one for medicine and pharmacy, and one for engineering. In order to make this work, Zia traveled with Amin al-Husseini to Iraq and India to collect donations. However, they were unsuccessful in attaining enough funds, and therefore were not able to establish the university.[9] Zia then settled on becoming a farmer in Palestine. He developed a special affinity for alfalfa and became notorious for his belief that it was the panacea for everything. He even developed a veritable alfalfa cookbook. Among his contributions to Iranian agriculture was the introduction of strawberries to the country.[7]

Late Zia Tabataba'i

His life of exile ended in 1943 when he was encouraged to return to Iran. In Iran, Zia was elected as the governor of Yazd. Subsequently, Zia attained a central position on the political stage. Everyone was either for or against him. During the last fifteen years of his life, Zia became an advisor and conduit to the shah, who was hesitant at first, but preferred him over Ahmad Qavam, with whom he had a fall out with. Zia would meet regularly with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and by all accounts talked to him frankly and honestly. On the afternoon of April 10, 1965 (21 Farvardin 1344), when the shah was the subject of an assassination attempt, Zia went to the court and insisted on taking the shah on a tour of the city. Everywhere they went people showed their enthusiastic support for the monarch. The excursion, according to Zia, did much to improve the mood of the understandably shattered shah. Zia also claimed to have told the shah that "a king can't fly around his capital in a helicopter, but must mingle with the masses".[7]