Abdolhossein Teymourtash - Legacy

Legacy

Essad Bey described Teymourtash as "a kaleidoscope in which all the colours of the new Iran intermingled" in the 1930s. However, the task of critically assessing his role in modern Iranian history was made unduly difficult after his death by concerted efforts during the Pahlavi era to obliviate any reference to the contributions of personalities, other than that of Reza Shah, who assisted in laying the foundations of modern Iran. More belatedly, after the overthrow of the Pahlavi regime and the advent of the Islamic Republic, the contributions of secular reformists such as Teymourtash have also been overlooked for obvious reasons. However, it is interesting to note that in 2004, the Iranian Cultural Heritage Department announced that it was earmarking money to renovate the homes of several of Iran's renowned modern political personalities such as Mohammad Mossadegh, Mohammad Taghi Bahar ("Malekol Sho'ara Bahar"), and Teymourtash.

Given the shortcomings of rigorous Iranian historiography during the Pahlavi and post-revolutionary period, a more critical assessment of the role of the likes of Teymourtash may be gleaned from the dispatches that were recorded by diplomats resident in Iran at the time of his death. In his report to London shortly after Teymourtash's death, the British Minister in Tehran, Mallet, noted " The man who had done more than all others to create modern Persia ... was left by his ungrateful master without even a bed to die upon". "oblivion has swallowed a mouthful", the senior American diplomat in Tehran reported in his dispatch, "Few men in history, I would say, have stamped their personalities so indelibly on the politics of any country". In the concluding paragraph the American diplomat noted, "Albeit he had enemies and ardent ones, I doubt that anyone could be found in Persia having any familiarity with the deeds and accomplishments of Teymourtache who would gainsay his right to a place in history as perhaps the most commanding intellect that has arisen in the country in two centuries".

A new generation of Iranian academics, however, have initiated a process of re-examining in a more objective light the contributions of numerous personalities that were previously treated in the most cursory fashion in Iranian historiography. One of the personalities whose legacy is being rehabilitated as a part of this process is Abdolhossein Teymourtash. Typical of the novel approach has been one of Iran's most pre-eminent historians, Javad Sheikholeslami, who recently unearthed much archival material which sheds light on the vast contributions of Teymourtash in the widest array of endeavours. Sheikholeslam concludes that Teymourtash should rightly be considered the Amir Kabir of 20th century Iran, both for his zealous pursuit of much needed and far-reaching national reforms, as well as his steadfast refusal to compromise Iran's national or economic interests in his dealings with foreign governments. Apart from his undeniable political contributions, it remain to add, that Teymourtash's intellectual conceptions had a profound influence on the social and cultural landscape of modern Iran.