Under Five Shahs

Under Five Shahs

Hassan Arfa

William Morrow & Co.

The structure and political institutions of Iran at the beginning of the nineteenth century did not differ much from what they had been under the Safavi dynasty which reigned from 1502 to 1736, and there was little change up to the First World War and the appearance of Reza Shah.

Administration did not exist, the towns and provinces were ruled by Governors, s~ .hereditary, some sent from the capital, whose and arbitrary power was only limited by that, more absolute and more arbitrary, of the Shah in Teheran...