Seyyed Zia al-Din Tabataba'i Yazdi (; June 1889 – 29 August 1969) was an Iranian journalist and pro-Constitution politician who, with the help of Reza Shah, spearheaded the 1921 Persian coup d'état and aimed to reform Qajar rule, which was in domestic turmoil and under foreign intervention. He subsequently became the 13th Prime Minister of Persia (Iran).
Early life
thumb|left|Young Zia (right)
Zia was born in the city of Shiraz in June 1889. He was one of four children. His father took the family to Tabriz when Zia was two years old. He spent most of his early years in Tabriz, where his father, Seyyed Ali Tabataba'i Yazdi was an influential cleric. When Zia was twelve he went to Tehran, and at fifteen, he moved back to Shiraz in the company of his grandmother, who was said to be a woman of unusual erudition and independence.
In 1917, Zia was commissioned by the government to make a trip to St. Petersburg, where he witnessed firsthand the Bolshevik Revolution. It is even claimed that Zia was present when Lenin made his famous speech about "seizing power" in the name of the proletariat. This affected his perception of politics, and made him a persistent advocate of the policy of rapprochement with the big northern neighbor. In 1919, the Iranian government, headed at the time by Vossug ed Dowleh, sent Zia back to Russia, this time to negotiate an agreement of friendship and alliance with the newly formed, ultimately short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
Rise to power and subsequent events
1921 coup
thumb|Coup d'état of 1921. Zia (center left), Reza Khan (far left)
Zia came to power in the 1921 Persian coup d'état of 22 February 1921 (3 Esfand 1299) with the help of Reza Khan Mirpanj, who later became the Shah of Persia.
Zia gave a fierce speech in parliament against the corrupt political class that tenaciously defended its privileges from the pre-parliamentary period which had brought Persia to the brink of ruin. Ahmad Shah Qajar appointed the thirty-three year old as the Prime Minister of Persia.
Within hours of taking power, the new government immediately declared a new order, which included, "all the residents of the city of Tehran must keep quiet. . . . The state of siege is established . . . all newspapers and prints will be stopped . . . public meetings in the houses and in different places are stopped . . . all shops where wines and spirits are sold, as well as theaters, cinemas and clubs, where gambling goes on, must be closed." Zia and Reza Khan, arrested some four hundred rich people and aristocrats who had inherited wealth and power over the span of ten to twenty years while the country experienced poverty, corruption, famine, instability and chaos. Their cabinets changed every six or seven months and could hardly manage the country's daily affairs.
Zia formed his first cabinet on 24 February. The ministers were:
- Acting Minister of Justice: Mirza Mostafa Khan Mansur os-Saltaneh
- Minister of Foreign Affairs: Mirza Mahmoud Khan Modir ol-Molk
- Acting Minister of Interior: Mirza Hossein Khan Adl ol-Molk
- Minister of Finance: Mirza Issa Khan Feyz
- Minister of War: Major Masoud Khan (Keyhan)
- Minister of Education, Endowments and Fine Arts: Ja'far-Qoli Khan Nayyer ol-Molk (Hedayat)
- Minister of Public Works and Commerce: Mirza Mahmoud Khan Mowgher od-Dowleh (Mowgher)
- Minister of Post and Telegraph: Taghi Khan Moshir-e-Azam
- Minister of Health and Welfare: Dr. Ali-Asghar Khan Moaddab od-Dowleh (Nafisi)
Due to the death of Mowgher od-Dowleh and the resignation of Masoud Khan and Issa Khan Feyz, Zia carried out a cabinet reshuffle on 27 April, in which he assumed the post of interior minister himself:
- Acting Minister of Justice: Mirza Mostafa Khan Mansur os-Saltaneh
- Minister of Foreign Affairs: Mohammad-Taghi Moazzaz od-Dowleh
- Minister of Interior: Seyyed Zia od-Din Tabatabaei
- Minister of Finance: Mirza Mahmoud Khan Modir ol-Molk
- Minister of War: Reza Khan Sardar-e-Sepah
- Minister of Education, Endowments and Fine Arts: Jafar-Qoli Khan Nir ol-Molk
- Acting Minister of Public Works and Commerce: Mirza Mahmoud Khan Modir ol-Molk
- Minister of Post and Telegraph: Taghi Khan Moshir-e-Azam
- Minister of Health and Welfare: Dr. Ali-Asghar Khan Moaddab od-Dowleh
- Minister of State: Major Masoud Khan
Policies
thumb|Zia Tabataba'i, circa 1921
Zia declared that his cabinet's program included far-reaching measures such as the "formation of an army...eventual abolition of the capitulations...establishment of friendly ties with the Soviet Union." At the same time, he tried to implement a truly impressive number of changes in the capital itself—from ordering new rules of hygiene for stores that handled foodstuffs to bringing street lights to the city's notoriously dark roads. He talked of land reform, making him one of the early champions of the idea in modern Iran. He talked of making education available to every Iranian. His political reform program envisaged that the entire legal system of Iran should be modernized and aligned with European standards. He set up a reform commission headed by Iranian intellectual, Mohammad Ali Foroughi. The Ministry of Finance was initially closed in order to fundamentally reform the tax and finance system, which had essentially collapsed.
thumb|Older Tabataba'i
Exile
Zia spent the next few years traveling throughout Europe. For a while he sold Persian carpets in Berlin; then he moved to Geneva, where he tried, unsuccessfully, to write a book with the help of his friend Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh, the famous exiled Iranian writer. He then settled in Montreux, where he continued his carpet business. After about seventeen years of nomadic life in Europe, he went to Palestine and spent the next six years there. In December 1931, he was elected Secretary General of the World Islamic Congress in Jerusalem. In this role, he developed plans to establish an Islamic University (the Al-Aqsa University). Accordingly, the university would have three faculties, one for theology and Islamic law, one for medicine and pharmacy, and one for engineering. In order to make this work, Zia traveled with Amin al-Husseini to Iraq and India to collect donations. However, they were unsuccessful in attaining enough funds, and therefore were not able to establish the university. Zia then settled on becoming a farmer in Palestine. He developed a special affinity for alfalfa and became notorious for his belief that it was the panacea for everything. He even developed a veritable alfalfa cookbook. Among his contributions to Iranian agriculture was the introduction of strawberries to the country.
Zia's political tendencies were perceived to be pro-British by many Iranians. However, unlike many Iranian politicians who had covert foreign relations, Zia was quite open and never denied being "a friend of the British". In fact, the British at the time were already very much entangled in Iranian affairs. The Qajars were constantly seeking help and advice from the British. Reza Khan too, along with many high ranking politicians, were immensely pro-British, at least initially. Part of the intention behind this was to protect Iran against the Russian expansionist policies of that time. Zia insisted that friendship was different from servitude. He argued that fear was the sole motive for this politically costly decision to become a friend of the British. "I was a friend of the British," he declared, "because being their friend, you only pay a price...but being their enemy guarantees your destruction. All my life I have paid the price for this friendship, but as a rational man, I was never ready to be destroyed".
Death
Zia died on 29 August 1969 at the age of 80 of a heart attack in Tehran. He was buried at the Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine in Ray.
Sometime after his death, the ownership of Zia's house was transferred to SAVAK (Iranian Intelligence) and was then converted into what is today known as Evin Prison, the main prison where political prisoners are kept, both before the Iranian Revolution and afterwards.