Masoud Keyhan

Mas'oud Keyhan (* 1886 ; † 1961 ), also Mas'ud Khan Kayhan , was a major in the Persian gendarmerie and for a short time Minister of War in the cabinet of Prime Minister Seyyed Zia al Din Tabatabai .

Life

Mas'oud Keyhan attended military schools in France, including the St. Cyr Military Academy . Keyhan joined the Persian gendarmerie led by Swedish officers in 1913. The Persian Gendarmerie was the armed unit of the constitutional government of Iran, while the Persian Cossacks, led by Russian officers, was considered the army of the Shah.

In the gendarmerie, Mas'oud Keyhan rose to the rank of major. Mas'oud Keyhan participated together with Captain Kazem Khan Sayah in the coup of February 21, 1921 , with which the government of Prime Minister Fathollah Akbar Sepahdar was overthrown. Troops of the Persian Cossack Brigade under the leadership of Reza Khan, who later became Reza Shah Pahlavi , were significantly involved in the coup .

Fathollah Akbar Sepahdar's successor was Seyyed Zia al Din Tabatabai. Mas'oud Keyhan became Minister of War in Seyyed Zia's cabinet. Reza Khan was appointed Commander-in-Chief (Sardar Sepah) of the Cossack Brigade by Seyyed Zia . Kazem Khan, who was also involved in the coup, became military governor of Tehran.

Mas'oud Keyhan and Kazem Khan had taken on the role of liaison officer between the Cossack brigade and the gendarmerie. When the Cossack Brigade marched into Tehran on the night of February 20-21, there was no resistance from the gendarmerie. Major Habibollah Khan Shaibani, the commander of the gendarmerie in Tehran, was informed of the invasion of the Cossack brigade and supported the coup.

Although the gendarmerie and the Cossack brigade carried out the coup together, Prime Minister Seyyed Zia saw the gendarmerie as his real power base. The gendarmerie was considered to be well trained and equipped and outnumbered the Cossack brigade. Seyyed Zia turned to the Swedish government and asked for another twenty-five Swedish officers to help expand the gendarmerie. War Minister Keyhan ordered that the nizam units of the Persian army established by the Austro-Hungarian military mission in Persia , which existed alongside the gendarmerie and the Cossacks, be disbanded and integrated into the gendarmerie.

The Cossack Brigade, which had previously been led by Russian officers and separated from its Russian officer after the Russian October Revolution , was to be led by British officers according to the Anglo-Iranian Treaty of 1919 . This met with fierce resistance from Reza Khan and the Iranian officers of the Cossack Brigade. Prime Minister Tabatabai eventually had to give in. Reza Khan refused to take orders from Mas'oud Keyhan. To resolve the dispute, Mas'oud Keyhan was dismissed as Minister of War and replaced by Reza Khan. Mas'oud Khan remained in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio.

After Prime Minister Tabatabai resigned after just 100 days, Mas'oud Keyhan's political career came to an end. He continued to serve in the gendarmerie and later in the new Iranian army, but left it in 1924. Obviously he had never gotten over the fact that he had to vacate the chair of the Minister of War for Reza Khan.

After leaving the army, he first went to school as a high school teacher. He later trained teachers at the teacher college and then moved to the newly founded University of Tehran. He wrote a notable three volume work on the geography of Iran.

literature

• Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Schah. IB Tauris, 2000, p. 202.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Stephanie Cronin: The Army and the creation of the Pahlavi State in Iran. Tauris Academic Studies, 1997, pp. 90f.