¹ Naficy, S., “Le createur d'une civilisation,” Le Journal de Téhéran 1 (Tehran, March 15, 1935): 1Google Scholar; all quotations from this French language journal are translated by the author. H. Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh-e Anjoman-e Asar-e Melli: Az Aghaz ta 2535 Shahanshahi 1301–1355 Heji Shamsi [Activities of National Heritage Society from 1922 to 1976] (Tehran, 1355/1976/2535), 1; all quotations from the Karnameh is translated from Persian by the author. Various sources translate the name of the Society in different ways: National Heritage Foundation, Society for National Heritage, Institute of National Heritage, Institute for the Protection of National Heritage, Society for the Protection of National Monuments, Institute for National Masterpieces, and Committee for the Preservation of National Heritage. The French diplomatic records use l'Insitut des Œuvres Nationales and La Commission des Œuvres Nationales. Archives of the French ministry of foreign affairs, Direction des Affaires Politique et Commerciales Asie-Oceanie 19191929, Perse 66, Fouilles archeologique E387–3, 42, July 15, 1926, Tehran, Iran. This article is an extension of, and a further contribution to, a field which was first opened by Marefat, M. in her unpublished Ph.D. thesis, “Building to Power: Architecture of Tehran, 1921–1941” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988)Google Scholar.

² See Abrahamian, E., Iran between two Revolutions (Princeton, 1982), 120–123Google Scholar & 135–138. “New Iran” is widely used by various Pahlavi official sources and later historians. As will be elaborated below, “Iran-e Naw” was also the name of the political party organized by Reza Shah's court minister, Abdolhossein Teymurtash.

³ Since Iran's political system in the twentieth century, despite massive efforts to build modern institutions, remained essentially centered around the agency of powerful men, single individuals in their personalities and interactions were of primary importance to the political process. “In a political system where institutions are not paramount but where individuals in their interactions constitute the essence of the political process…their personalities are of primary importance.” Zonis, M., The Political Elite of Iran (Princeton, 1971), 10Google Scholar. In the 1920s, the agency of several men who formed the SNH redefined the cultural as well as political parameters of Iran.

⁴ US State Department Records, Charles Calmer Hart, “Teymourtache Dismissed and Great Was the Fall Thereof,” dispatch 1310, 891.44 Teymourtache, Abdol K.K./1, December 29, 1932, Tehran, Iran. Titled Sardar Mu'azzam, Teymurtash was a parliamentary deputy from the second to the sixth Majlis. During the premiership of Reza Khan, he twice occupied the position of the minister of works along with a number of other important posts. Finally, in early 1926 he resigned from the sixth Majlis when he was appointed the minister of imperial court by Reza Shah. He is reported to have known the details of each ministry better than the ministers themselves. According to Hart, “Teymourtache was the active head of the Persian Government. He took business out of the hands of all the cabinet ministers and discussed every problem in minute details, as if he might have had it solely in charge.” As minister of the royal court, he dictated most of the policies and supervised their progress. His familiarity with the bureaucracy, which he had devised, the ease with which he manipulated the system, and through which he maintained an unrivaled command over its parts made him the most powerful man in Iranian society after Reza Shah. However, suddenly dismissed, Teymurtash was accused of fraud, accepting bribes, and embezzling public funds during his trial of March 17, 1933. A few months later he was murdered in jail. See further, Katouzian, H., State and Society in Iran, The Eclipse of the Qajars and the Emergence of the Pahlavis (London and New York, 2000)Google Scholar, and The Political Economy of Modern Iran (London and New York, 1981)Google Scholar.

⁵ Titled Moshir al-Dawleh, Hasan Pirnia is considered one of the most prominent politicians of the late Qajar period. He became prime minister a few times before Reza Shah, perhaps the most difficult of which was in 1920 when the fate of the Anglo-Iranian Agreement of 1919 was in balance. But after Reza Shah's accession, which he did not approve, he voluntarily retired from politics and withdrew from the public scene to focus on his scholarship. In the following years, he remained in the executive committee of the SNH and published a umber of influential books on ancient Iran.

⁶ Mohammad Ali Forughi, titled Zoka' al-Molk, Reza Shah's first and last prime minister, was first appointed to the post in December 1925, but was sacked and disgraced in 1936 during his second term of office. After the 1941 Allied invasion of Iran, Reza Shah again, in despair, turned to Forughi, who took the responsibility for running the country and managing the accession of the young Prince Mohammad Reza. Forughi was also the founder of the Academy of Iranian Culture and a professor at the prestigious Tehran School of Law and Political Science. In 1901, in his academic role, he wrote a textbook titled History of Iran, reprinted in 1917. In the Board of Trustees of the SNH, throughout his life, he remained the most publicly recognized figure of the Society.

⁷ Titled Nosrat al-Dawleh, he was one of the triumvirs who negotiated the ill-fated Anglo-Iranian 1919 agreement. In cultural affairs and as the governor-general of Fars, Firuz's strength lay in his ability to persuade Ernst Herzfeld to conduct archeological studies at Persepolis after 1923. While he was much less involved with the architectural projects of the SNH, he is nevertheless considered a prominent member who greatly influenced the final draft of the 1927 Archeological Convention. Accused of bribery, he was dismissed from the cabinet and arrested in 1929, and was eventually murdered in jail 1937.

⁸ Arbab Keikhosraw Shahrokh was the Zoroastrian Majlis deputy from 1909 until his “mysterious” murder in 1940. He was perhaps the most active member of the SNH in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly during the construction of Ferdawsi's mausoleum, witnessed by the overt and unique use of Zoroastrian emblems on the landmark. See further Shahrokh, Sh. & Writer, R., The Memoirs of Keikhosrow Shahrokh (Lewiston, 1994)Google Scholar.

⁹ Ali Akbar Davar, a talented but unassuming member of the SNH, is better known as the architect of the new judicial system who later becoming finance minister. His role was vital to the financial survival of the SNH until his suicide in February 1937.

¹⁰ See further, Abrahamian, Iran between two Revolutions, 120–123 and Katouzian, State and Society in Iran, 280–299.

¹¹ At the time, the Ministry of Culture and Education was known as the Ministry Culture and of Education, Endowments, and Fine Arts: Vezarat-e Ma'aref, Owqaf, va Sanaye-'e Mostazrafeh. Tadayyon played a major role in the Franco-Iranian negotiations for the ownership and management of the archeological sites in 1927.

¹² The Times, September 1, 1927.

¹³ FO 371, 12293/E3909, Clive, April 26, 1927.

¹⁴ FO 371, 12286/E4109, Clive, September 10, 1927. Emphasis added. See further Ettela'at, Shahrivar 9, 1306/August 31, 1927.

¹⁵ “Annual Report for 1932,” FO 371/Persia 1933/34–16967.

¹⁶ FO416, 113/E2445 Clive, April 30, 1930.

¹⁷ The financing of Ferdawsi's mausoleum got complicated since SNH was not affiliated to any government department. See Iran National Archives 240, Micro-reel 291, Document 54, page 17; Esfand 8, 1312 (1933); Iran National Archives 240, Micro-reel 291, Document 54, page 5; Khordad 3–26, 1313 (1934); and Iran National Archives 240, Micro-reel 291, Document 53, page 3; Mehr 11, 1313 (1934).

¹⁸ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 13–21.

¹⁹ FO 371, 12286/E4503, October 8, 1927, and FO E 4742/34/34, R. Clive, November 7, 1927.

²⁰ Teymurtash in conversation with the British minister in Tehran, FO 371, 12293/E3909, August 26, 1927.

²¹ FO 371, 12293/E3909, Tehran, August 26, 1927, emphasis added. See further on the disillusionment with constitutionalism and popularity of dictatorship among modern intellectuals and middle classes, H. Katouzian, State and Society in Iran, 3–10, and Iranian History and Politics (London and New York, 2003), 2, 5, and 8.

²² A. Yaghma'i, Karnameh-ye Reza Shah-e Kabir, Bonyangozar-e Iran-e Novin (Tehran, 1971), 1.

²³ Yaghma'i, Karnameh-ye Reza Shah, 131.

²⁴ Shahrokh, Memoirs, 72; H. Mokhtari, Tarikh-e Bidari-ye Iran (Tehran, 1947), 553.

²⁵ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 3.

²⁶ Similarly, Abdi only mentions Pirnia, Forughi, and Firuz Mirza as the founders of the Society for National Heritage. Abdi, K., “Nationalism, Politics, and the Development of Archaeology in Iran,” American Journal of Archaeology 105 (2001): 56–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁷ Sadiq, I., Yadegar-e Omr (Tehran, 4 vols. 1959–1974), 2: 201Google Scholar.

²⁸ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 13–21.

²⁹ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 13–21.

³⁰ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 13–21.

³¹ Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Direction des Affaires Politique et Commerciales Asie-Oceanie 1919–1929, Perse 66, Fouilles archeologique E387–3, 53, February 25, 1927, Tehran, Iran.

³² Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 4.

³³ At the time, the ministry was called Mas‘udiyeh; what came later be the ministry of culture and art. On June 2, 1925, Prime Minister Forughi wrote to Teymurtash, “As Your Excellency may recall, Professor Herzfeld, who is a German Orientalist scholar has come to Tehran by the invitation of the Society for National Heritage. The aim of the Society in inviting him was to benefit from his skills in the establishment and organization of the national library and museum of Iran; [he is to] help the Ministry of Public Instruction” in this task. Iran National Archives, document 110/letter 3927. Khordad 11, 1305/June 2, 1926, Tehran, Iran.

³⁴ SNH 92, Majmu‘eh-ye Entesharat-e Qadim-e Anjoman (Tehran, 1351), 41–43. Emphasis added.

³⁵ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 5.

³⁶ Entesharat-e Qadim, 35.

³⁷ Shahrokh, Memoirs, 147.

³⁸ Shahrokh, Memoirs, 147.

³⁹ “Michelet not only claimed to speak on behalf of a large number of anonymous dead people, but insisted, with poignant authority, that he could say what they ‘really’ meant and ‘really’ wanted, since they themselves ‘did’ not understand. In this vein, more and more ‘second-generation’ nationalists learned to speak ‘for’ dead people with whom it was impossible or undesirable to establish a linguistic connection.” Anderson, B., Imagined Communities (London, 1991), 198Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ Aryanpur, A., A Translation of the Historic Speeches of His Imperial Majesty Shahanshah Aryamehr (Tehran, 1973), 50Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Similarly, the Egyptian Committee for the Conservation of Monuments of Arab Art, in the 1860s “set up a ‘First Commission’ to list monuments worth preserving and a ‘Second Commission’ to oversee repairs and select relics for a museum.” Reid, D., “Cultural Imperialism and Nationalism: the Struggle to Define and Control the Heritage of Arab Art in Egypt,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 24:3 (1992): 61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴² Gaston Maugras was the French minister in Iran. Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Direction des Affaires Politique et Commerciales Asie-Oceanie 1919–1929, Perse 66, Fouilles archeologique E387–3, 44, November 5, 1926, Teheran, Iran.

⁴³ SNH 1, Fehrest-e Mokhtasar-e Asar va Abnieh-ye Tarikhi-e Iran (Tehran, 1304/1925); and SNH 2, Asar-e Melli-ye Iran (Tehran, 1304/1925).

⁴⁴ Here “invention” is based on the definitions given by Anderson and Hobsbawm, and “historical monuments” as defined by Choay. See Anderson, B., Imagined Communities (London, 1991)Google Scholar; Hobsbawm, E., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar; Choay, F., Alberti: the Invention of Monumentality and Memory (Cambridge, 2000)Google Scholar; and Choay, F., L'Allegorie du Patrimoine (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Avery, P., Modern Iran (New York, 1965), 287Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Arthur Upham Pope (1881–1969) and Phyllis Ackerman (1893–1977) were American art historians and art dealers who devoted most of their professional lives to the research and publication of Iranian art, architecture, and archeology. Their two lasting contributions included the Survey of Persian Art: From Prehistoric Times to the Present, 1938–1939 and its reprint, 1964, both funded by the Pahlavi royal patronage and the organization of several international exhibitions and conferences on Persian art.

⁴⁷ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 10. See also Mazaheri, H., Aramgah-e Kharejian dar Isfahan (Isfahan, 2000), 291Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ A. U. Pope, “The Past and Future of Persian Art” delivered on April 22, 1925 in Tehran. For the complete English text of the speech, see Gluck, J. and Siver, N. eds., Surveyors of Persian Art: A Documentary Biography of Arthur Upham Pope &Phyllis Ackerman (Ashiya, 1996), 93–110Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ Pope, “The Past and Future of Persian Art”; see Gluck, Surveyors of Persian Art, 110.

⁵⁰ Pope, “The Past and Future of Persian Art”; see Gluck, Surveyors of Persian Art, 109.

⁵¹ Wilber, D. N., Reza Shah Pahlavi: The Resurrection and Reconstruction of Iran (Hicksville, 1975), 98Google Scholar. This point is confirmed by Lenczowski, : “…Reza Shah's awareness of [Iran's] great past was stimulated by the work of…Arthur Pope.” Lenczowski, G., ed., Iran under the Pahlavis (Stanford, 1978), 37Google Scholar.

⁵² Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 12.

⁵³ A. U. Pope, “Nine Lives,” unfinished autobiography, Pope-Ackerman Archives.

⁵⁴ See Abrahamian, Iran between Two Revolutions, 141.

⁵⁵ It was reprinted in Entesharat-e Qadim, 101–147.

⁵⁶ Sadiq, I., “American Pioneers in Persian Art,” IV th International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology (Oxford, 1972), 3207–3209Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Lenczowski, Iran under Pahlavis, 37.

⁵⁸ Mazaheri, Aramgah-e Kharejian, 291.

⁵⁹ See Sadiq, I., The Past and Future of Persian Art (Tehran, 1977)Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ SNH 3, Shahnameh va Tarikh (Tehran, 1925).

⁶¹ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 6.

⁶² However, it is also possible that the image of the seal was not the SNH's first logo but rather the logo of the 2500-year anniversary affixed to the gate of the SNH's Tehran headquarters in 1971 on the occasion of the state-wide celebrations.

⁶³ “Drawings and Maps, D-759,” Herzfeld Archive, Freer Gallery of Art &Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.

⁶⁴ However, some SNH booklets, letters, and documents carry the Ferdawsi logo well after WWII. I am uncertain as to whether there was a consistent system to utilize the logos through the administrative, political, and technical changes of the Society. It might have been random, dictated by surplus letterheads, lack of technology to make new molds, etc. Nevertheless, the third logo remains predominant in the 1960s and 1970s. After the 1979 Revolution, the SNH's logo, along with its name, was changed altogether.

⁶⁵ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 6–7.

⁶⁶ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 7–8. Emphasis added. Also see Correspondence between Ministry of Culture and Education with Ministry of the Royal Court regarding Hannibal's fee for the SNH conference, Documents on Archaeology in Iran, document 114, letter 1, Ministry of Culture and Education, 375–375; Tir 3, 1306/June 25, 1927 and Mordad 22, 1306/August 14, 1927.

⁶⁷ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 7–8. Emphasis added.

⁶⁸ Shahrokh, Memoirs, 73.

⁶⁹ “Drawings and Maps, D-758,” Herzfeld Archive.

⁷⁰ “His Majesty himself went 50 kilometers ahead of the caravan to personally check the condition of the road…” See Sadiq, Memoirs, 2: 220; and Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 51–52.

⁷¹ C. Ghani, Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Rule (London, 1998), 282–283.

⁷² Reza Shah's Ferdawsiyeh speech was reprinted in many venues: Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 54–55; Sadeq-Pur, A.-R., “Inaugural Speech of Ferdawsi's Aramgah,” Yadegar-e Gozashteh (Tehran, 1967): 121–122Google Scholar; Yaghma'i, Karnameh Reza Shah, 411–413; Rajabi, P., Me'mari-e Iran dar Asr-e Pahlavi (Tehran, 1977), 72Google Scholar.

⁷³ Sadiq, I., Ferdawsi (Tehran, 1945), 14Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ Hosseiniyeh is the term used for the space specially constructed or converted for Rawzeh-khanis in commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hossein during the month of Moharram.

⁷⁵ “But it was the totality of the Pahlavi project as expressed in the Iran-e Naw manifesto which was the most audacious aspect of the reform programme.” Ansari, A., Modern Iran since 1921: the Pahlavis and After (London, 2003), 45Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ Bahr al-Ulumi, Karnameh, 13–21.

⁷⁷ “Editorial: Notre But,” Le Journal de Téhéran 1 (Tehran, March 15, 1935): 1.

⁷⁸ Ullens Archive Audio Collection, CD #27 UlAuCD In GoA, Y/Of; Interview with Yedda Godard, continued; Track 2, Minutes 35:00; Visual Collection of Fine Arts Library, Harvard University.

⁷⁹ Gamboni, D., The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution (New Haven, 1997), 329–330Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ Gamboni, Destruction of Art, 331.

⁸¹ Katouzian, The Political Economy of Modern Iran, 5.

⁸² Marefat, M., “Building to Power: Architecture of Tehran, 1921–1941” (Ph.D. diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988), 75Google Scholar.

⁸³ Marefat, Building to Power, 76.

⁸⁴ Gamboni, Destruction of Art, 332.

⁸⁵ Forbes, R., Conflict: Angora to Afghanistan (London, 1931), 105Google Scholar.

⁸⁶ Archives of Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres, Asie-Oceanie Janvier 1918-Decembre 1929, Perse #129, E387–1, 163, August 20, 1935, Tehran, Iran. See also Arjomand, S. A., Turban for the Crown: the Islamic Revolution in Iran (New York, 1988), 26–27Google Scholar; Katouzian, Political Economy, 101–120.

⁸⁷ A. G. E'tesamzadeh, “Notre Editorial: Le Progrès de l'Instruction Publique en Iran,” Le Journal de Téhéran 6 (Tehran, Farvardin 6, 1314/March 27, 1935): 1.

⁸⁸ See Mitchell, T., Colonizing Egypt (Cambridge, 1988)Google Scholar.

⁸⁹ FO371, 12293, E3909, Clive, Tehran, 26 August 1927. Emphasis added.

⁹⁰ Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Asie 1930–1940, Iran 87, Microfilm E373–2, 58, M. Gallois, November 6, 1931, Paris, France. And Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Asie 1930–1940, Iran 87, Microfilm E363–2, 67, January 19, 1932, Moscow newspaper clippings.

⁹¹ This remarkable photograph is being published here, I believe for the first time, by the kind permission of Firuz Mirza Firuz's son, Mr. Shahrokh Firuz.