Aryamehr ( fa, آریامهر, Âryâmehr, ) was the title used in the Pahlavi dynasty by

Shahanshah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

Mohammad Reza Shah of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. It means ''Light of the Aryans''.

History

''Aryamehr'' was granted as a secondary title by a session of the joint Houses of Parliament (''

Majles The Islamic Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای اسلامی, Majles-e Showrā-ye Eslāmī), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the national legislative body of Iran. The P ...

'') on 15 September 1965 to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last

Shah of Iran This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes around 671 BCE until the deposition of th ...

(reigning since he took the oath at the Majles on 17 September 1941), before his coronation at Teheran, 26 October 1967. the Pahlavis used it as an idealization of pre-Islamic Iran and foundation for anticlerical monarchism, while the clerics used it to exalt "''Iranian values''" vis-á-vis

Westernization Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, econo ...

. Demonstrating affinity with Orientalist views of the alleged "supremacy" of the '' Aryan peoples'' and the "mediocrity" of the ''

Semitic peoples Semites, Semitic peoples or Semitic cultures is an obsolete term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group.Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

and

Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

empires, whilst negating the 'Islamization' of

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

during

Islamic Caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

era. The Shah's critics ridiculed the use of the title as being "grandiose and bombastic". In 1965, the Shah ordered Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi to establish Aryamehr University of Technology. However, after the 1979 revolution It was renamed and currently known as the Sharif university named after

Majid Sharif-Vaghefi Majid Sharif-Vaghefi ( fa, مجید شریف واقفی, 1949–1975) was a leading member of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) who was murdered in an internal purge staged by the MEK Marxist faction. One of the three members of the MEK's cent ...

Associated order

In 1873

Naser al-Din Shah Qajar Naser al-Din Shah Qajar ( fa, ناصرالدین‌شاه قاجار; 16 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and Mal ...

of Qajar dynasty established the order of Aftab (order of the sun) restricted to female sovereigns or consorts (1st class) and princess ladies or women of high rank (2nd class). In 1939 the order was renamed to Nishan-I-khorschid. and finally the order was transformed into the Neshān-e Āryāmehr, ''Nešâne Āryāmehr'' or ''Nishān-i Āryāmehr'', meaning 'the Order of Light of the Aryans' it become the third and last Imperial

order of knighthood An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is an order of knights, typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic military orders of the Crusades ( 1099–1291) and paired with medieval concept ...

founded by the Shah on 26 September 1967 in honour of his consort, Empress

Farah Diba Farah Pahlavi ( fa, فرح پهلوی, née Farah Diba ( fa, فرح دیبا, label=none); born 14 October 1938) is the widow of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and was successively Queen and Empress (''Shahbanu'') of Iran from ...

, and restricted to ladies only. The first class was restricted to female Sovereigns or consorts of reigning rulers, the second class to princesses.

References

Notes

References

{{reflist Mohammad Reza Pahlavi History of Iran Heads of state Royal titles Noble titles Insignia Titles in Iran

History

Associated order

See also

References

Notes

References