Asadollah Alam ( fa, اسدالله علم; 24 July 1919 – 14 April 1978) was an Iranian politician who was prime minister during the Shah's regime from 1962 to 1964. He was also

minister of Royal Court The Ministry of the Royal Court ( fa, وزارت دربار شاهنشاهی) was an organization in Iran that acted as an intermediary between the Shah of Iran and government branches, including the cabinet and the parliament. It was extensively p ...

, president of

Pahlavi University Shiraz University ( fa, دانشگاه شیراز ''Dāneshgāh-e-Shirāz'', formerly known as Pahlavi University دانشگاه پهلوی ''Dāneshgāh-e Pahlavi'') is a public university located in Shiraz, Fars, Iran, established in 1946. ...

and governor of Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

Early life

Alam was born on 24 July 1919 in

Birjand Birjand ( fa, بیرجند , also Romanized as Bīrjand and Birdjand) is the capital of the Iranian province of South Khorasan. The city is known for its saffron, barberry, jujube, and handmade carpet exports. Birjand had a population of 187,0 ...

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 deposing the

Qajar dynasty The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic peoples ...

, 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 Baluchestan 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. YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

dedication."The Reformer's Lot"
'' Time'', 27 July 1962 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. Amir Asadollah Alam was the longest serving minister of the Pahlavi era. The title '' amir'' (also transliterated "emir") is Arabic for ruler or governor. The name ''Alam'' 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.

Premiership

In 1953, Alam helped organize the coup (also known as the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

and MI6 backed Operation Ajax) that overthrew Dr.

Mohammad Mossadegh Mohammad Mosaddegh ( fa, محمد مصدق, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, after appointment by the 16th Majlis. He was a member of ...

. Alam was subsequently made the director of the Pahlavi 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 became prime minister at the age of 43. As prime minister, 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, and 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."No Longer for the Corrupt"
''Time'', 24 May 1963. In May 1963, Alam's anti-corruption drive was in full swing. In Tehran, a military tribunal sentenced General Abdullah Hedayat, Iran's first four-star general and once a close advisor 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.

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 decisions and urged their followers to "protect your religion". Small-scale riots, led by

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

, quickly broke out in the clerical capital of

Qum Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its popul ...

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."Progress at a Price"
''Time'', 14 June 1963. Screaming "Down with the Shah", 10,000 people, swept through the capital, carrying pictures of Khomeini. Though the whereabouts of the Shah was kept secret, rows of white-helmeted troops, backed by tanks, immediately sealed off access to royal palaces in the city and suburbs. In the heart of town green, they fired for 40 minutes. 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. Nearly 7,000 troops were called out by Alam's government to restore peace, albeit an uneasy one, 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 gravesides, the real number remained unknown. In his memoirs, Alam notes the number of the dead to be about 200, saying that he immediately arranged for their families to receive a pension from the government. 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.

Minister of the Royal Court

In 1964, he was appointed as chancellor of Shiraz University and a few years later served host to the King of Belgium in his visit to Fars Province. Beginning in December 1966 he was the minister of court for many years. Furthermore, he was the head and bursar of the Pahlavi Foundation. 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 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 posthumously, are exceptionally detailed documents on the life and the deeds of the Shah as perceived by an insider.

List of positions held

As written by Alam himself in his memoirs in 1972. # Manager of

Imam Reza Ali ibn Musa al-Rida ( ar, عَلِيّ ٱبْن مُوسَىٰ ٱلرِّضَا, Alī ibn Mūsā al-Riḍā, 1 January 766 – 6 June 818), also known as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Thānī, was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the e ...

's shrine in Mashad, AKA "Aastaan-e Qods-e Razavi" # The Shah's inspector of all universities # Chairman of the board of trustees of the

# Chairman of the board of trustees of the

Aryamehr University Sharif University of Technology (SUT; fa, دانشگاه صنعتی شریف) is a public research university in Tehran, Iran. It is widely considered as the nation's most prestigious and leading institution for science, technology, engineering, ...

# Chairman of the board of trustees of the Pars School for Higher Education (Madreseye Aalyi-e Pars) # The Shah's special liaison with foreign ambassadors (for issues too confidential to pass through the Foreign Ministry) # Head of the board of trustees of the Mashad University # Indispensable member of the board of trustees of the University of Tehran # Indispensable member of the board of trustees of the University of Tabriz # Chairman of the

Royal Horse Institute Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a cit ...

(Crown Prince

Reza Pahlavi Reza Pahlavi may refer to: * Reza Shah (1878–1944), Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Iran from 1925 until 1941 * Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980), Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979, son of Reza Shah * Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pah ...

was the honorary head) # Chairman of the royal institute of the Rural Culture Houses (Crown Prince

was the honorary head) # Chairman of the National Scouts Committee # Head of Kaanun-e Kaar (Labor Institute) # Deputy chairman of the (IOSS) (Princess Ashraf Pahlavi was the head) # Deputy chairman of the

Red Lion and Sun Society The Red Lion and Sun Society of Iran ( fa, انجمن شیر و خورشید سرخ ایران) was established in 1922 and admitted to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in 1923. However, some report the symbol was introduced ...

(Princess Shams Pahlavi was the head) # Chairman of the Council for Support of Mothers and Infants # 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) # Direct chief of the

Legion of Service to Humanity Legion may refer to: Military * Roman legion, the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army * Spanish Legion, an elite military unit within the Spanish Army * Legion of the United States, a reorganization of the United States Army from 1 ...

# Person in charge of the construction in the island of Kish # Head of the board of trustees of the Pahlavi Foundation # Deputy chairman of the

Iranian Culture Foundation Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian ...

(for research and publication of classic Persian texts) # In charge of the Shah's personal and monetary affairs # Minister of court # Cooperation in establishing

University of Birjand The University of Birjand ( fa, دانشگاه بیرجند) is the largest and oldest public university in the east of Iran. In 2018, the university was ranked 300–350 in Asia University Ranking and +1000 in World University Ranking by Times H ...

Illness and death

Asadollah Alam was diagnosed with cancer in the late 1960s. He died at

New York University Hospital NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...

in New York City in 1978, less than a year before the Revolution in Iran.

References

External links

*
Harvard's Iranian Oral History Project: Fatemeh PakravanAlam's bio on BBC Persian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alam, Asadollah Iranian governors Prime Ministers of Iran People from Birjand 1919 births 1978 deaths Scouting in Iran Iranian Arab politicians Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit Rastakhiz Party politicians Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Iranian memoirists People's Party (Iran) Secretaries-General 20th-century memoirists Governors of Sistan and Baluchestan Province Interior Ministers of Iran Burials at Imam Reza Shrine