Book Two – Ep.6: Triumvirate (2)

Murder, Banishment and Suicide.

As Reza Shah’s rule becomes more authoritarian, the alliance that put him in power comes to a bitter end.

Listen to part one here.

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Episode Summary

Firuz, a Qajar prince and veteran statesman, had once held top roles across Iranian governments, including Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance, and Justice. After falling out of favor, he was banished to Semnan, where he lived under surveillance. In April 1937, agents stormed his home. After forcing him to draft a will at gunpoint, they killed him. The death was quietly ruled a heart attack.

This wasn’t an isolated event—it was the end of a political alliance that had begun two decades earlier. In the 1920s, Firuz joined forces with Teymourtash and Davar to form the Revival Party, a secular, progressive movement aimed at modernizing Iran. Ali Akbar Davar, a lawyer educated in Geneva, was the intellectual engine. He backed Reza Khan in abolishing the Qajar dynasty and forming the Pahlavi monarchy.

As a reward, Davar took over the Ministry of Justice. Davar used the opportunity to dismantle Iran’s fragmented legal system. He shut down the courts, purged corrupt staff, and created a centralized judiciary based on modern secular codes.

But the stability they built soon turned on them. Reza Shah’s rule entered a second, more repressive phase in the mid-1930s. Surveillance intensified under police chief Mohammad Hossein Ayrom, who created a vast network of spies and informants. Fabricated charges, secret files, and political prosecutions became tools of control. Teymourtash was arrested and died under suspicious circumstances in Qasr Prison. Firuz was detained and then killed in exile.

By 1937, Davar was serving as Minister of Finance and had led successful trade negotiations with Germany and the Soviet Union. Yet he too, sensed the shift. Reza Shah, increasingly paranoid and authoritarian, publicly humiliated him during a meeting. Davar, knowing the machine he built could now be used against him, chose to act first. He resigned from his post, returned home, wrote two final letters—to his wife and the Shah—and took his own life.

Music

• Kai Engel – August Summer Nights
• Trevor Kowalski – Down to Seconds
• Franz-Schubert – Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 100: Andante
• Piotr Hummel – Demons
• J.S. Bach – Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004
• J.S. Bach – Concerto in D minor, BWV 974: II. Adagio

The post Book Two – Ep.6: Triumvirate (2) appeared first on The Lion and The Sun Podcast.