In October 1967, The Shah of Iran, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi crowned himself as King of Kings in a sumptuous royal ceremony held at the Golestan Palace in Teheran. Although the Shah had been a monarch for twenty five years, he vowed not to wear the crown until Iran becomes strong and prosperous. A weak, underdeveloped and invaded Iran in 1941, which he had inherited from his defeated and exiled father, had changed to a rapidly developing nation with ambitious plans for future. The capital city Tehran had become a picture of wealth and prosperity. In 1967, the Shah decided to crown himself is a way befitting a great Emperor.
Queen Farah Pahlavi
Queen Farah Pahlavi
Shah’s reforming zeal translated into modernizations plans for the country which were implemented under White Revolution. It included ground breaking reforms for women emancipation. For the first time, Iranian women were extended the right to vote. It is largely believed that these measures were taken under Queen Farah’s good influence. She belonged to middle class before marrying the Shah and was an educated and socially conscious queen. Farah attached herself to a number of social and charitable causes apart from being a great supporter of reform and a benevolent queen to her people. The Queen held a highly distinguished public profile. On the day of royal coronation, Empress Farah knelt down before the peacock throne and the King of Kings placed a beautiful crown on her head. Farah Pahlavi remains the only crowned woman in the history of Iran.
The royal coronation of 1967 was a grand affair. It was a highly splendid and lavish ceremony and turned out to be an ultimate expression of royal pomp and show. An oriental monarch’s coronation was a matter of great interest and fascination for the western media and public in general. The media hype thus created made it an international event. It was indeed a major highlight of Muhammad Reza Pahlavi’s reign. Subsequently, a lot of literature appeared in response to worldwide interest in Iran’s monarchy. When it came to writing Queen Farah’s biography, she insisted on two conditions. Firstly, the biographer should be a female and secondly she should belong to an Asian nation so that west’s prejudices against east couldn’t negatively influence her understanding of Iran and its Queen. The assignment was given to none other than Urdu’s greatest novelist Quratulain Haider. She arrived in Iran around the time of coronation and remained a royal guest for several weeks while researching the biography. She also travelled with the royal family and spent a lot of time in private conversations with the Queen.
A decade later, when Iran was going through a bloody revolution, Shah’s days in power were numbered and he was soon to leave for exile, Quratulain Haider wrote the interesting story of her days in Iran with the royalty. It turned out to be a short book of ninety five pages and was named Koh-e-Damawand (Mount Damawand) after the highest peak in Iran. It is lesser known among Quratulain Haider’s works and brief in length, but nevertheless a unique book. It is a literary travelogue and a socio historic commentary.
One of the greatest storytellers of her age arrives in Iran, the land of world’s finest poetry and art. It is no wonder that her first acquaintance in Tehran is Anqa, one of the thirty birds of Simurgh from Attar’s Conference of Birds. It is her first night at Tehran’s Hilton Hotel and suddenly she saw Anqa sitting on the window railing. He says “hello”, enters the room and replies to her Salam Alaikum in a crisp Aligarh accent. Thus starts a beautifully woven dialogue between the author and the bird. It turns out to be an interesting conversation. The bird is a royalist and an Iranian nationalist. He’s incredibly proud of Iran’s rapid development. They talk about the country’s progress, splendid coronation ceremony, communism across the Caspian Sea and Arab-Israel conflict among many other things. With a salute to the Shah portrait on a magazine’s cover, the bird vanishes into the dark night.
Second part of the book tells the story of author’s travelling throughout Iran with the royal party. She witnesses a fantastic night of folk dance and music in Khorasan province. A medieval scene from A Thousand and One Nights is recreated in front of her eyes when performers are showered with gold and wealth. She also travels to Esfahan, Shiraz and Persepolis with the royal entourage and keeps observing little details for her project. Iran is a rapidly developing country. Royalty has an extremely lavish European lifestyle. They live in magnificent palaces. Gold and precious gems are used in their table ware, cigarette cases and makeup boxes. They commute within the capital using helicopters. A royal guest can purchase anything, no matter how expansive, on account of the ministry of court. From threshold to chandelier, royal palaces are reflective of the country’s fabulous petro-wealth. The cities are beautiful. There is a strong feeling of nationalism and it seems that the country is rapidly modernizing.
Shah of Iran crowning Queen Farah in Oct 1967
The Royal couple and crown prince on the day of coronation
Later part of the book mainly focuses on the person of Queen Farah. It relates the story from earliest days of her life, family background, her father’s death when she was just ten years old and moves on to her education in France, the fairytale like story of her courtship and marriage with the most powerful man in Iran, her new role as the Queen, the royal mission of a modern and progressive Iran and the important role she plays in it. It shows the picture of a humble and progressive woman who rose from the common masses to be their Queen and her changed status didn’t change her natural disposition. She considers herself more of a social worker than the Queen of a great nation. Imam Zaadon Ki Duniya (The Worlds of Imams) the final chapter of the book is an interesting account of author’s visits to Iran’s holy shrines to get a glimpse of a common man’s life. Time and again, author reverts to the present and compares the altogether different circumstances of 1967 and 1979 adding her insight to the narrative. “Iran is Immortal”, Quratulain concludes her story with this beautiful expression, which sums up her physical and philosophical journey through Iran’s history and its society.
Back home, Quratulain Haider started writing Queen Farah’s biography and completed the first manuscript in a couple of months. The Empress was going to be translated in six European languages and published at the same time from London and New York. Without keeping any copies for herself, author parceled the manuscript to the publisher Ramesh Sankhvi who had secured the assignment of the book for Quratulain Haider and was very enthusiastic about the whole thing. Unfortunately, Ramesh Sankhvi suddenly died. His secretary lost the manuscript in the ensuing chaos at the publishing house. At this stage of her career, Quratulain Haider was simply incapable of writing something less than a masterpiece so it can be safely assumed that The Empress was an absolutely brilliant book, result of a fascinating journey and tireless efforts of a great writer. Quratulain Haider, who always disliked talking about herself and her works, mentions this great loss with her characteristic aloofness in a short paragraph of Koh e Damavand’s conclusion. The manuscript is lost for five decades now. It’s highly unlikely that it would ever be found. If it is recovered after all, a lost masterpiece would come to life.