The Party that Overthrew the Iranian Empire
Written by Sabarish P
In 1971, Iran threw one of the most opulent and extravagant parties the world had ever seen. It was organised to celebrate the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire. From the food to accommodation, every little detail was meticulously taken care of, and the grandeur was unparalleled. The guestlist included heads of state from over 65 countries — emperors, kings, sultans, princes, and princesses — you name it. In other words, if you were rich and important, you were invited. Rest assured, you definitely wouldn’t have gotten in.
An entire city was built in the middle of the Iranian desert to host the attendees. They were housed in plastic tents. Mind you, these weren’t your ordinary tents. They were flush with expensive carpets, furniture, and other luxurious stuff. Now you may think, “ooh, this must have cost a fortune.” And, you’re right, it did. The official figure released by Iran was $16.8M ($112M adjusted for inflation). Time magazine however, put the figure at a ridiculous $100M ($635M adjusted for inflation).
I think it’d be wise to go with Time magazine here, what with the Iranian monarchy being so transparent and all. In fact, this party was dubbed the most expensive party in the history of the world. By expensive, we’re not exactly speaking in monetary terms, though. As much as $100M is a fortune in 1971’s terms, that is not all the Shah of Iran had to shell out. The party cost him a tad bit more — his entire dynasty. It was the catalyst for the rise of the Iranian revolution and the subsequent fall of the Iranian Monarchy that changed the face of the country forever.
The Political Atmosphere of Iran in the 60’s
To truly grasp why this party had such terrible implications for the Shah, you need to understand the political atmosphere of Iran in the 60’s. Iran in the 60's was a constitutional monarchy, ruled by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, also called the ‘King of the Kings.’ Even though he claimed he wanted to modernise Iran, and make it a free society, he largely acted to refute himself.
The Shah had been curbing free speech and shutting down dissent like he was playing whack-a-mole. There were no civil rights in the country. His secret police kidnapped and killed people at their will. Despite being an oil-rich state, the country’s economy was in a bad condition. Almost half of the population lived below poverty. Cities lacked infrastructure. Rural areas had a huge shortage of water, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions.
Iran was in dire need of urgent political reform. Naturally, the Shah decided to do something about it. He threw a sick party.
The Infamous Party
Since Iran didn’t have huge hotels or extravagant resorts, the decision was reached to turn the abandoned city of Persepolis into a city to host the attendees. The only problem? Persepolis was right in the middle of a desert. That didn’t deter the Shah, though. He decided that a royal village would be set up in these deserts using tents.
First though, they wanted to turn these deserts into a forest. So, they imported trees — an incredible number of trees. Around 15000 trees, plants, and flowers were flown in to be planted on the site. All this for a three-day event while Iran was suffering from a crippling shortage of water. The Shah wanted to give his guests the best experience possible and he was determined to go to any length to do that.
They also removed around 4 hectares of earth and delivered it to the site so that George Truffaut, the famous florist from Versailles, could create an extravagant perfumed garden with a variety of roses and tall cypresses. If you thought the roadblocks ended there, you’re dead wrong. To make things worse, the site was infested with poisonous snakes and scorpions whose sting could kill anyone from a businessman to a king. So, they sprayed chemicals over a 30 km area and removed a truckload of them.
To further add to the pomp and show of this opulent house of cards, the Shah imported 50,000 songbirds from Europe and released them on the site. 20,000 sparrows were brought in from Spain, most of which died within a few days because of the lack of water and the adverse climate.
You would think that a man who wished to show his country off to the world would at least try to involve his people in his pursuit. The Shah, though, was a ‘sophisticated’ man who only trusted ‘world-class’ professionals. So, he outsourced most of the work to renowned European companies. To build the royal ‘tent city,’ the Shah hired the famous Jansen company from Paris.
For food, the Shah signed a deal with the famous “Maxim’s de Paris.” Based in Paris, Maxim’s was widely regarded as the best restaurant in the world at the time. The party got even more attention after this deal was made. The legendary Hotelier, Max Blouet, came out of retirement to supervise the banquet. Maxim’s shut down their restaurants for over two weeks to cater to the Shah’s party.
Since Iran wasn’t as self-sufficient a nation as most others, almost everything had to be flown in. The volume of goods being flown in was so huge that the Shah had to build an entire new airfield in Shiraz. Since the airfield was fifty kilometers away from the site in Persepolis, he also had to build a whole new highway connecting the two. The Iranian Air Force was enlisted to haul stuff back and forth across Iran and the world. Over a period of six months, the Air Force shuttled goods between Shiraz and Paris, which were then transported by Army trucks to Persepolis.
If you were an outsider who knew nothing about Iran, based on this party alone, you wouldn’t have been able to tell that Iran was an impoverished nation. The Shah went all out in making sure that he only showed the world an Iran that was as glorious as the Persian empire of the past. He was vigilant in masking the rifts and cracks of an eroding dynasty, and showing only what he wanted the world to see.
The Fallout
While the party seemed like a huge success momentarily, and the Shah revelled in his success, people soon wanted to know one thing — how much the party actually cost. Foreign media like Time magazine and the French Press started doing their own research and outed the Shah as a money squanderer and a show-off. This sparked a massive outrage from the people of Iran. While the general population was struggling to make ends meet, the Shah was throwing a party for his rich friends on a utopic Island he had built far away from the real Iran — literally and figuratively. The Shah had lost all of the public support by now.
Political parties in opposition, despite their contrasting ideologies, joined hands against the ‘king of kings.’ Iran’s popular uprising led to the Islamic Revolution of 1979 that ended the rule of the Pahlavi Dynasty and the two and a half millennia of the Persian Empire. The party was turning out to be truly cataclysmic in every sense of the word. Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile. Iran became an Islamic Republic and Khomeini, its first supreme leader.
Three years after the event, Shah publicly apologized to his people and sought forgiveness for decades of bad decisions, corruption, and cruelty. Alas, the damage had already been done. Much like his party supplies, the Iranian people entrusted the Shah with the outside world, and he was sent into exile, where he died a year later.
What can you, as a reader, take away from this? Maybe use this as a guide as to what not to do if you ever find yourself loaded with power, money, and free reign over a country. Maybe don’t decide to throw a giant party smack-bang in the middle of the Lut desert. Maybe don’t try to build a lush, green forest in said desert. And definitely don’t spend over $100M on a party when almost all of your people are living in abject poverty.
Here’s remembering The Shah — a man who was so engrossed in throwing an absolute banger of a party that he was willing to bet his entire dynasty on it. But hey, silver lining — at least the Shah died revelling in the fact that no party would ever beat his own.
Sources
How Iran Threw the World’s Greatest Party In a Desert
2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire
