Michael Zirinsky

Inculcate Tehran: Opening a Dialogue of Civilizations in the Shadow of God and the Alborz

Michael Zirinsky — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:07:20 PDT

This essay discusses the establishment of Alborz College by American Presbyterian missionaries. Alborz's early years, before its 1940 nationalization by Iran, were shaped by the vision of its first president, Samuel Jordan, a liberal, athletic, pragmatic Christian reformer who led by example, a practitioner of what we now call “social work” and an encourager of female empowerment. Alborz and the Presbyterian mission which gave it birth grew in the context of American social history, including the religious awakening of the early nineteenth century, American doctrines of freedom and universal education, as well as the contradictory impulses of ethnocentricity and ecumenicism. The essay is based on private and governmental archival sources and the experience of the author as a high school student in Tehran.

This history needs to be told.

—Yahya Armajani

All writing is autobiographical.

—Donald Murray

This essay discusses the origins of Alborz College as an effort by private Americans to share with Iran the blessings of their own culture. This they did for decades, cooperating with the Tehran government, without involving Washington. Remarkably, Alborz survived Reza Shah's assault on foreign schools during the 1930s, and it flourished after nationalization as a premier Iranian institution preparing secondary students for modern university studies. It continues as such today.

Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the Rise of Reza Shah, 1921–1926

Michael P. Zirinsky — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:02:52 PDT

Born in obscurity about 1878 and soon orphaned, Reza Pahlavi enlisted at fifteen in a Russian-officered Cossack brigade. Rising through the ranks, he provided force for a February 1921 coup d'etat, seizing power for journalist Sayyid Zia alDin Tabatabai. Reza Khan provided strength in the new government and rose from army commander to minister of war (April 1921) to prime minister (1923) and, after failing to make a republic in 1924, to the throne in 1925. As shah he ruled with increasingly arbitrary power until Britain and Russia deposed him in 1941. He died in exile in 1944.1 This paper examines British activity in Iran during Reza's rise to the throne and analyzes the longstanding belief that Britain made Reza shah of Iran. Within the context of Iranian and British history it tracks British involvement in the coup that first brought Reza to power and explores the policy of Sir Percy Loraine, British minister in Tehran, 1921-26. It shows that Britain did less than is believed by those who accept the myth, but more than London thought at the time: British aid to the coup was a key to its success, and aid to Reza helped him survive; Loraine's policy of good relations and nonintervention was part of the process by which Reza came to dominate Iran.

The United States and Iran

Michael Zirinsky — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:35:21 PDT

Since the 1978-79 revolution and emergence of an Islamic Republic, America has been transfixed by images of Iran fomenting terror against the US. Ironically, before 1978 most Americans knew nothing about Iran, leading President Carter famously to praise it, on the eve of upheaval, as an island of stability in the midst of a sea of turmoil. Sad to say, many Iranians also have a hostile view of America, based not on the beneficent idealism which characterized US policy in the Middle East before the Second World War, but on American Cold War activism, including sponsoring a 1953 coup d’etat in Iran and supporting the regime of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi. This presentation seeks to illuminate America’s vexed relationship with Iran.

Samuel Jordan and the American College of Tehran

Michael Zirinsky — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:30:54 PDT

Onward Christian Soldiers: Presbyterian Missionaries and the Ambiguous Origins of American Relations with Iran

Michael Zirinsky — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:25:47 PDT

Papers presented at a conference held at the Rockefeller Foundation Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, in August 2000. This project on "Altruism and imperialism" was initiated by the Middle East Institute of Columbia University.

Riza Shah's Abrogation of Capitulations, 1927-1928

Michael Zirinsky — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:19:53 PDT

Dr. Jordan

Michael Zirinsky — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:08:05 PDT

Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the Rise of Reza Shah, 1921-1926

Michael Zirinsky — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:04:19 PDT

A quarter of a century on from the revolution of 1979 there is an ongoing political struggle within Iran between traditionalists and modernists, with the ever-younger average age of the population playing a dynamic role. And on the international stage, the big issues remain Iran’s hostility towards Israel and the development of nuclear power in the face of US and international opposition. This is all in addition to the oil question and the strategic interest of Russia, an issue which harks back to the nineteenth century but remains unresolved, as well as Iran’s concern about the proper stewardship of the holy places of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.

This four-volume collection brings together for the first time the very best and most influential scholarship on the politics of modern Iran. It is an invaluable source of reference for both scholars and students alike, and will allow those developing an interest in Iran quickly and easily to access the highest quality scholarship in the field.

Any understanding of modern Iran must be founded on a firm grasp of the historical context and some of the conceptual issues which underwrite contemporary Iranian politics. Volume I brings together the key work on Iran’s historical inheritance, including articles on religion and culture. Volume II gathers the vital scholarship on the political development of Iran while the third volume assembles materials focused on economic development and the contemporary political economy. The final volume in the collection is organized around Iran’s foreign relations, and includes a special section on the Iran–Iraq War.

Blood, Power, and Hypocrisy: The Murder of Robert Imbrie and American Relations with Pahlavi Iran, 1924

Michael Zirinsky — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:04:45 PDT

On Friday, July 18, 1924, Robert W. Imbrie, United States Consul in Tehran— and personal friend and special agent of Allen W. Dulles, Chief of the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs Division—was brutally killed. Imbrie was beaten to death by a mob led by members of the Muslim clergy and including many members of the Iranian Army. In the weeks preceding July 18, there had been several outbreaks of anti-Bahai violence. Imbrie and Melvin Seymour had gone that morning to investigate a miraculous watering place in central Tehran that figured in the anti-Bahai excitement. According to contemporary accounts, a Bahai had been struck blind after drinking from the source when he refused to make an offering in the name of the Shi'i saints; his sight miraculously had been restored after he had repented and made the donation.