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2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy

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The Cyrus Cylinder served as symbol of 2,500 Year Celebration

The 2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy (Persian جشن‌های ۲۵۰۰ سالۀ شاهنشاهی ایران) consisted of an elaborate set of festivities that took place October 12-16, 1971 on the occasion of the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Iranian monarchy (Persian Empire) by Cyrus the Great. The intent of the celebration was to demonstrate Iran's long and magnificent history and to showcase its contemporary advancements under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran.

Contents

[edit] Planning

The planning for the event took more than a decade. The Cyrus Cylinder served in the official logo as the symbol for the event. With the decision to hold the main event at the ancient city Persepolis near Shiraz, the local infrastructure had to be improved including the airport at Shiraz and a highway to Persepolis. While the press and supporting staff would be housed in Shiraz the main festivities were planned for Persepolis that for this occasion would be the site of an elaborate tent city. The area around Persepolis was cleared of snakes and other vermin.[1] Other events were scheduled for Pasargadae, the site of the tomb of Cyrus the Great, and Tehran.

[edit] The Tent City of Persepolis

The Shahyad Tower was renamed Azadi Tower in 1979

The Tent City (also Golden City) was planned by the Swiss interior design firm of Jansen AG on 160 acres (0.65 km2) that took its inspiration from the 1520 Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting between Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England.[1] Fifty 'tents' (actually prefabricated luxury apartments with traditional Persian tent-cloth surrounds) were arranged in a star pattern around a central fountain, and vast numbers of trees were planted around them in the desert, recreating something of how the ancient Persepolis would have looked. The large Tent of Honor was designed for the reception of the dignitaries. The Banqueting Hall was the largest structure and measured 68 by 24 meters. The tent site was surrounded by gardens of trees and other plants flown in from France and adjacent to the ruins of Persepolis. Catering services were performed by Maxim's de Paris, which closed its restaurant in Paris for almost two weeks in order to provide for the glittering celebrations. Legendary hotelier, Max Blouet, came out of retirement to supervise the banquet. Lanvin designed the uniforms of the Imperial Household. 250 red Mercedes-Benz limousines were used to chauffeur guests from airport and back. Dinnerware was created by Limoges and linen by Porthault.

[edit] Festivities

Cyrus' tomb at Pasargadae where the festivities started

The festivities were opened on October 12, 1971 when the Shah and the Shahbanu paid homage to Cyrus the Great at his mausoleum at Pasargadae. For the next two days, the Shah and his wife greeted arriving guests, often directly at the Shiraz airport. On the evening of the 14th, a grand gala dinner took place in the Banqueting Hall in celebration of the birthday of the Shahbanu. Sixty heads of royalty and heads of state were assembled at the single large serpentine table in the Banqueting Hall. The official toast was raised with a Dom Perignon Rosé 1959.

The banquet menu was:

Six hundred guests dined over five and a half hours thus making for the longest and most lavish official banquet in modern history as recorded in successive editions of the Guinness Book of World Records. A son et lumière show and fireworks, accompanied by Iannis Xenakis' specially-commissioned electronic music piece Persepolis[2] concluded the evening. The next day saw a parade of armies of different Iranian empires covering two and half millennia by 1,724 men of the Iranian armed forces, all in period costume. In the evening a less formal "traditional Persian party" was held in the Banqueting Hall as the concluding event at Persepolis.[3] Two of the large candelabra used in the tent were later acquired by Herbert W. Armstrong and used to furnish the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California. These have since been acquired by Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma.

On the final day, the Shah inaugurated the Shahyad Tower (later renamed the Azadi Tower after the Iranian revolution) in Tehran to commemorate the event. The tower was also home to the Museum of Persian History. In it was displayed the Cyrus Cylinder, which the Shah promoted as "the first human rights charter in history",[4][5], though historians have criticized this idea as "a misunderstanding".[6]. The cylinder was also the official symbol of the celebrations, and the Shah's first speech at Cyrus' tomb praised the freedom that it had proclaimed, two and a half millennia previously. The festivities were concluded with the Shah paying homage to his father, Reza Shah Pahlavi, at his mausoleum.[3]

The event brought together the rulers of two of the oldest extant monarchies, the Shah and Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. By the end of the decade, both monarchies had ceased to exist.

[edit] Security

Security was a major concern. Persepolis was a favorable site for the festivities as it was isolated and thus could be tightly guarded, a very important consideration when many of the world's leaders were gathered there. Iran's security services, SAVAK, took into preventive custody anyone it suspected to be potential troublemakers.[1].

[edit] Guests

Elizabeth II had been advised not to attend, with security being an issue (Prince Philip and Princess Anne represented her instead).[1] Other major leaders who did not attend were Richard Nixon and Georges Pompidou. Nixon had initially planned to attend but later changed his mind and sent Spiro Agnew instead.[1]

Some of the guests who were invited include:

[edit] Royals and viceroys

[edit] Presidents and Prime Ministers

[edit] Criticism

In retrospect, the event can be considered the swan song of the Iranian monarchy[citation needed]. Arguably, it was the most notable international social event in the 20th century involving royalty and heads of state. The festivities were criticized for their lavishness and it was opined that the money could have been better spent by supplying social services. Such critiques were voiced in the western press and by Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers. Expenses were said to be as high as $200 million, while the Ministry of the Court set placed the cost at $17 million. The actual expense figure may be difficult to tabulate and may remain a partisan issue; Ansari, one of the organizers, puts it at $22 million.[1] The defenders of the activities point out other benefits such as the opening of 3,200 schools, improvement in infrastructure, and the positive effect on Iran's public relations. The event was largely discredited after the Iranian Revolution.[citation needed]

In addition, historical and political analysts consider the criticism of the event in connection with the Iranian Revolution. Revolutionary critics claimed that the event emphasized Reza Shah's loss of touch with the general public. Critics of the regime claimed Reza Shah was too secular, un-Islamic, and westernized. His shunning of Islam's role in Iran alienated the general population from the regime, who began to see the shah as puppet of the west, trying to impress it and court it by westernizing Iran. The cost of the event added to the notion of the regime being authoritarian and not caring of its peoples.

[edit] Today

Persepolis remains a major tourist attraction in Iran and apparently there are suggestions to rehabilitate the archeological site as it is a proclamation of Iranian history.[7] The rededicated Azadi Tower is a major landmark in Tehran. The mausoleum of Reza Shah Pahlavi was destroyed after the revolution and replaced by an Islamic religious school. 1971 Persepolis Myspace Project + - In 2007 a group of Iranian Aristocrats and Historians created the 1971 Persepolis Myspace page. This project was done with the aim of reconnecting online those surviving attendees of the 2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy who are still alive and on Myspace. The 1971 Persepolis page accepts Myspace pages of those surviving members and offical pages of deceased attendees. Of the surving attendees of the 2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy nine have Myspace pages and are linked up on the 1971 Persepolis Myspace page. Those nine are Reza Pahlavi King Constantine II, Sultan Qaboos of Oman, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and Princess Anne of the United Kingdom, Crown Prince, now King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, Prince, now King Juan Carlos and Princess, now Queen Sofia of Spain, and former Yugoslav First Lady Jovanka Tito. Shahbanou Farah has so far declined invitations to Myspace.


[edit] Quotes

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Kadivar C (2002-01-25). "We are awake. 2,500-year celebrations revisited". http://www.iranian.com/CyrusKadivar/2002/January/2500/. Retrieved on 2006-10-23. 
  2. ^ Karkowski, J.; Harley; Szymanksi, F.; Gable, B. (2002), "Liner Notes", Iannis Xenakis: Persepolis + Remixes, San Francisco: Asphodel LTD. 
  3. ^ a b "The Persepolis Celebrations". http://www.angelfire.com/empire/imperialiran/persepolis1.html. Retrieved on 2006-10-23. 
  4. ^ British Museum explanatory notes, "Cyrus Cylinder": "For almost 100 years the cylinder was regarded as ancient Mesopotamian propaganda. This changed in 1971 when the Shah of Iran used it as a central image in his own propaganda celebrating 2500 years of Iranian monarchy. In Iran, the cylinder has appeared on coins, banknotes and stamps. Despite being a Babylonian document it has become part of Iran's cultural identity."
  5. ^ Neil MacGregor, "The whole world in our hands", in Art and Cultural Heritage: Law, Policy, and Practice, p. 383-4, ed. Barbara T. Hoffman. Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 0521857643
  6. ^ See e.g. T.C. Mitchell, Biblical Archaeology: Documents from the British Museum, p. 83. Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN 0521368677
  7. ^ Iran Daily (2007-06-23). "Team Named For Renovating Persepolis". http://www.iran-daily.com/1386/2873/html/art.htm#s236631. , accessed 09-03-2008
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