Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the former Shah of Iran, haunts the international stage like a latter-day Lear. In the loneliness of his exile he is bitter about his former allies and still incredulous at the way his throne was ripped from under him, his dream of Iran as a world power shattered by revolution and an Islamic republic brought into being. He boasted about Iran's 2,500 years of continuous monarchy and proclaimed the Pahlavis one of Iran's most illustrious dynasties: but he provoked and presided over the institution's demise.

LRB 19 June 1980 | PDF Download