2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire

1971 national event in Iran October 2023 April 2021 Celebration of the 2,500th Anniversary of the Founding of the Persian Empire 2500-year-Celebration-of-Kingdom-of-Iran-logo.svg The Cyrus Cylinder, which was framed by the Iranian King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the event's official logo, owing to his claim that it was the "first charter of human rights" in history. Iran 29.9355 52.8916 Persepolis none center Location of Persepolis, which was the ceremonial capital city of the Achaemenid Empire, and which therefore served as the event's primary venue. fa جشن‌های ۲۵۰۰ ساله شاهنشاهی ایران yes fa yes 1971 10 12 1971 10 16 Imperial State of Iran 29 56 04 N 52 53 29 E inline,title 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire Honouring the legacy of ancient Iran under the Achaemenid dynasty and showcasing the progress of modern Iran under the Pahlavi dynasty The 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire,https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_EPH-ME-125 Celebration of the 2,500th Anniversary of the Founding of the Persian Empire Ministry of Information en 14 September 1971 9 May 2022 officially known as the 2,500-year celebration of the Empire of Iran (fa جشن‌های ۲۵۰۰ ساله شاهنشاهی ایران Jašn-hây-e 2500 sale’ šâhanšâhi Irân), was hosted by the Pahlavi dynasty in the Imperial State of Iran in October 1971. Concentrated at Persepolis, it consisted of an elaborate set of grand festivities that sought to honour the legacy of the Achaemenid Empire, which was founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC.Amuzegar, The Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution, (1991), pp. 4, 9–12Narrative of Awakening : A Look at Imam Khomeini's Ideal, Scientific and Political Biography from Birth to Ascension by Hamid Ansari, Institute for Compilation and Publication of the Works of Imam Khomeini, International Affairs Division, [no date], p. 163 The event was aimed at highlighting ancient Iranian history and also showcasing the country's contemporary advances under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been reigning as the Shah of Iran since 1941.Steele Robert The Shah's Imperial Celebrations of 1971 AD The site brought sixty members of royalty and heads of state from abroad.2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire https://www.thepahlavidynasty.com/about/2500-year-celebration The Pahlavi Dynasty 10 January 2025 19 January 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250119201910/https://www.thepahlavidynasty.com/about/2500-year-celebration dead Some historians take the view that its role in the massive display of seemingly unlimited royal wealth contributed to the Iranian populace's growing frustration with the Pahlavi dynasty, while others argue that the extravagance of the proceedings was exaggerated during the Islamic Revolution to discredit the Shah's regime. As a result, some accounts have overstated the event's costs and luxuries. Planning thumb|left|The Tomb of Cyrus the Great, located at Pasargadae, where the festivities began on 12 October 1971. thumb|The military parade in Persepolis during the celebrations. thumb|Persian Immortals, as portrayed during the parade. The planning for the party took a year, according to the 2016 BBC Storyville documentary Decadence and Downfall: The Shah of Iran's Ultimate Party. The filmmakers interviewed people tasked by the Shah to organize the party. Asadollah Alam, minister of the Royal Court, was named to head the organizing committee. The Cyrus Cylinder appeared in the official logo as the symbol for the event. With the decision to hold the main event at the ancient city of Persepolis, near Shiraz, the local infrastructure had to be improved, including the Shiraz International Airport and a highway to Persepolis. While the press and supporting staff would be housed in Shiraz, the main festivities were planned for Persepolis. An elaborate tent city was planned to house attendees. The area around Persepolis was cleared of snakes and other vermin.http://iranian.com/CyrusKadivar/2002/January/2500/ https://web.archive.org/web/20021108155019/http://iranian.com/CyrusKadivar/2002/January/2500/ dead 8 November 2002 We are awake. 2,500-year celebrations revisited Kadivar C 25 January 2002 23 October 2006 Trees and flowers were planted, and 50,000 song birds were imported from Europe.http://www.spiegel.de/einestages/schah-von-persien-1971-die-groesste-party-auf-erden-a-1089955.html Nina Adler Als der Schah zur größten Party auf Erden lud Der Spiegel de 14 February 2017 14 February 2017 Other events were scheduled for Pasargadae, the site of the Tomb of Cyrus, as well as Tehran. Tent City of Persepolis thumb|left|Tent City of Persepolis. thumb|left|Tent in Persepolis. The Tent City (also called Golden City) was planned by the Parisian interior-design firm of Maison Jansen on 160 acre km2. They referred to the meeting between Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Fifty 'tents' (prefabricated luxury apartments with traditional Persian tent-cloth surrounds) were arranged in a star pattern around a central fountain. Numerous trees were planted around them in the desert, to recreate how ancient Persepolis would have looked. Each tent was provided with direct telephone and telex connections for attendees to their respective countries. The entire celebration was televised to the world by way of a satellite connection from the site. The large 'Tent of Honor' was designed for the reception of the dignitaries. The 'Banqueting Hall' was the largest structure, and measured 68 x 24 m. 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 provided by Maxim's de Paris,Van Kemenade Willem Iran's relations with China and the West http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/20091100_cdsp_paper_kemenade_iran.pdf Clingendael 9 August 2013 November 2009 11 October 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211011154253/https://www.clingendael.org/sites/default/files/20091100_cdsp_paper_kemenade_iran.pdf dead which closed its restaurant in Paris for almost two weeks 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 600 limousines were used to chauffeur guests from the airport and back. The dinnerware was created using Limoges porcelain and linen by D. Porthault. Festivities thumb|2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire in the tomb of Cyrus the Great thumb|Dinner ceremony during the 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire The festivities were opened on 12 October 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 Shiraz's airport. On 14 October, a grand gala dinner took place in the Banqueting Hall in celebration of the birthday of the Shahbanu. Sixty members of royal families and heads of state were assembled at the single large serpentine table in the Banqueting Hall. They dined off a special dinner service of 10,000 plates commissioned from the English china manufacturer Spode, each plate decorated in turquoise and gold, with the Shah's coat of arms. The official toast was raised with a Dom Perignon Rosé 1959. 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, the Polytope of Persepolis designed by Iannis Xenakis and accompanied by the specially-commissioned electronic music piece Persepolis,Karkowski Z. Harley J. Szymanksi F. Gable B. 2002 Liner Notes Iannis Xenakis: Persepolis + Remixes San Francisco Asphodel LTD. concluded the evening. The next day saw a huge military parade of armies of different Iranian empires covering two and half millennia by 1,724 soldiers of the Iranian armed forces, all in period costume, followed by representatives of the Imperial Armed Forces, with a large military band, composed of military musicians and providing the music for the parade, split into two—the modern band playing in Western instruments and a traditional band wearing uniforms from different eras of Iranian history. In the evening, a less formal "traditional Persian party" was held in the Banqueting Hall as the concluding event at Persepolis.https://www.angelfire.com/empire/imperialiran/persepolis1.html The Persepolis Celebrations 23 October 2006 thumb|left|The inauguration of the Shahyad Tower 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".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."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. 0-521-85764-3 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. The event brought together the rulers of two of the three oldest extant monarchies, the Shah and Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. Emperor Hirohito of Japan was represented by his youngest brother, Prince Mikasa. By the end of the decade, both the Ethiopian and Iranian monarchies had been abolished. Security Security was a major concern. Persepolis was a favoured 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, captured and took into "preventive custody" anyone that they suspected of being a potential threat. Criticism The Ministry of the Court placed the cost at US$17 million (at that time); Ansari, one of the organizers, puts it at US$22 million (at that time). The actual figure is difficult to calculate exactly and is a partisan issue. The New York Times reported several months before the event, "The enormous expense of the celebration is hardly likely to strain the treasury, which is enriched by oil and many other resources. But there is muted criticism here of such conspicuous expenditure in the face of widespread poverty and back wardness in this largely rural country of almost 30 million people."Browne Malcolm W. A Spectacle in Fall to Mark Persia's 2,500 Years https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/27/archives/a-spectacle-in-fall-to-mark-persias-2500-years.html 8 January 2024 New York Times The New York Times Company July 27, 1971 According to the BBC documentary Decadence and Downfall, the celebrations cost about 120 million United States dollars. However, this claim has been described as having no real basis. In addition, the documentary claims the approximately 50,000 birds the Shah imported died within a few days due to the desert climate. Historian Robert Steele has described this claim as infeasible, arguing that the October climate in Persepolis is more mild than reported and so the birds would have been accustomed to the local weather.Steele 2020 5 Many accounts from journalists and historians exaggerate cost estimates and claim the regime wanted to spend whatever was necessary. However, the Shah only approved the celebration plans after the scope was reduced to one-quarter of the original plan in order to reduce costs.Steele 2020 144 List of guests thumb|Commemorative set of 9 gold and silver coins, minted in Iran thumb|Commemorative silver coins from a set minted on the occasion of the celebrations thumb|Obverse of the medal for the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire. thumb|Reverse of the medal for the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire Queen Elizabeth II had been advised not to attend, with security being an issue. The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne represented her instead.Tait Robert Iran to rebuild spectacular tent city at Persepolis https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/22/arts.iran 8 August 2013 The Guardian 22 September 2005 Persepolis 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. Some materials, spelt as "Kuo Mo-jo" say that the attendee on China’s behalf was Guo Moruo. According to his daughter, Guo was originally planned to attend, but he fell ill in transit and then-Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Zhang Tong attended instead.http://www.gmw.cn/content/2004-08/24/content_85762.htm 忆父亲郭沫若 庶英 郭 24 August 2004 Guangming Online 3 June 2017 24 September 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150924043446/http://www.gmw.cn/content/2004-08/24/content_85762.htm dead Some of the guests who were invited include: Royalty and viceroys TitleGuestCountryEmperorHaile SelassieEthiopian EmpirePrincessSara GizawKingFrederik IXDenmarkQueenIngridKingBaudouinBelgiumQueenFabiolaKingHusseinJordanPrincessMunaPrincessBasmaKing Mahendra Kingdom of NepalQueenRatnaKingOlav VNorwayEmirSheikh Isa bin Salman Al KhalifaBahrain 1932EmirSheikh Ahmad bin Ali Al ThaniQatarEmirSheikh Sabah III Al-Salim Al-SabahKuwaitKingConstantine IIKingdom of Greece 1970The Greek royal family was in exile at the time, despite being formally on the throne; at home, royal authority was exercised by a regent appointed by the Greek juntaQueenAnne-MariePrinceMichaelPrincessMarinaSultanQaboos bin SaidOmanPrincessBilqis BegumKingdom of AfghanistanSardarAbdul Wali KhanKingMoshoeshoe IILesotho 1966Yang di-Pertuan AgongTunku Abdul HalimMalaysiaRaja Permaisuri AgongBahiyahSheikhZayed bin Sultan Al NahyanAbu DhabiPrinceFranz Josef IILiechtensteinPrincessGinaPrinceRainier IIIMonacoPrincessGraceGrand DukeJeanLuxembourgGrand DuchessJoséphine-CharlottePrincessMarie AstridPrinceBernhardNetherlandsPrince ConsortPhilipUnited Kingdom andCommonwealth realmsPrincessAnnePrinceAga Khan IVinline|23x15px Nizari ImamatePrincess Begum Om Habibeh Aga KhanCrown PrinceCarl GustafSwedenPrinceJuan CarlosFrancoist Spain 1945PrincessSofiaPrinceVictor EmmanuelItalyPrincessMarinaPrinceTakahitoJapan 1947PrincessYurikoPrinceBhanubandhu YugalaThailandPrinceMoulay AbdallahMoroccoPrincessLalla LamiaPrinceMakhosini DlaminiSwazilandGovernor GeneralRoland MichenerCanadaGovernor-GeneralSir Paul HasluckAustralia Presidents, Vice Presidents, Prime Ministers and others TitleGuestCountryPresidentFranz JonasAustriaFirst LadyJovanka BrozSocialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaPresidentJosip Broz TitoChairman of the PresidiumNikolai PodgornySoviet UnionChairman of the State CouncilTodor ZhivkovPeople's Republic of Bulgaria 1971PresidentUrho KekkonenFinlandPresidentV. V. GiriIndiaVice President Gopal Swarup PathakPresident of the Presidential CouncilPál LosoncziHungarian People's RepublicPresidentCevdet SunayTurkeyPresidentSuhartoIndonesiaPresidentLudvík SvobodaCzechoslovak Socialist RepublicPresidentSuleiman FrangiehLebanonPresidentYahya KhanPakistanState PresidentJacobus Johannes FouchéSouth Africa 1928PresidentLéopold Sédar SenghorSenegalPresidentMoktar Ould DaddahMauritania 1959PresidentHubert MagaDahomeyPresidentNicolae CeaușescuSocialist Republic of Romania 1965First LadyElena CeaușescuPresidentMobutu Sese SekoZairePrime MinisterJacques Chaban-DelmasFrance 1830Prime MinisterKim Jong-pilRepublic of Korea 1949Prime MinisterEmilio ColomboItalyDeputy Chairman of the Council of StateMieczysław KlimaszewskiPolish People's RepublicVice PresidentSpiro AgnewUnited StatesSecond LadyJudy AgnewVice PresidentHussein el-Shafei Egypt 1958ChiefEarl Old PersonBlackfeet NationPresident of the Federal SenatePetrônio PortellaBrazil 1968President of the BundestagKai-Uwe von HasselWest GermanyForeign MinisterRui PatrícioEstado Novo (Portugal)First LadyImelda MarcosPhilippines 1936Former PresidentFriedrich WahlenSwitzerlandCardinalMaximilian von FürstenbergHoly SeeMinister of Foreign AffairsArístides Calvani esVenezuela 1930Ambassador to PakistanZhang Tong (diplomat) Zhang Tong zh 张彤_(外交官)China Film Flames of Persia.webm Flames of Persia right Flames of PersiaIran's National Film Board produced a documentary of the celebrations, titled fa Forugh-e Javidan (fa فروغ جاویدان, Eternal Light) in Persian and Flames of Persia in English. Farrokh Golestan directed, and Orson Welles, who had said of the event "This was no party of the year, it was the celebration of 25 centuries!", agreed to narrate the English text, written by Macdonald Hastings, in return for the Shah's brother-in-law funding Welles's own film, The Other Side of the Wind (which eventually went into development hell but was eventually posthumously released by Netflix in 2018).Naficy Hamid Oliver Leaman Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film https://books.google.com/books?id=LmSFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 2003 Routledge 9781134662524 140 Iranian CinemaWelles Orson This is Orson Welles 1998 Perseus Books Group 9780306808340 xxvii The film was aimed at a Western audience.Watson James A.F. March 2015 Stop, look, and listen: orientalism, modernity, and the Shah's quest for the West's imagination The UBC Journal of Political Studies Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia Vancouver 17 22–36: 26–28 http://www.politics.ubc.ca/fileadmin/user_upload/poli_sci/Undergraduate/UBC_Journal_2015.pdf#page=22 15 February 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160222192607/http://www.politics.ubc.ca/fileadmin/user_upload/poli_sci/Undergraduate/UBC_Journal_2015.pdf#page=22 22 February 2016 dead Despite a requirement to show the film in 60 cinemas in Tehran, its "overheated rhetoric" and popular resentment at the extravagance of the event meant it did poorly at the domestic box office.Naficy Hamid A Social History of Iranian Cinema, Volume 2: The Industrializing Years, 1941–1978 https://books.google.com/books?id=CPtUfi3K_JYC&pg=PA139 2011 Duke University Press 9780822347743 139 In the Review of Middle East Studies in 1980, Ellen-Fairbanks Bodman referred to "a Cecil B. DeMille-type parade — a sequence of Iranian dynasties and peoples in orderly array: no conquests, no struggles, no internal conflicts, no Arabs, no Mongols." She also notes only a single reference to Islam and that "the Shah waves to happy peasantry and smiles at the idyllic bucolic revelries of his admiring people. Only two chadors are in fleeting evidence among the crowds, and the camera prefers girls dancing in tight corduroy pants. Attention is paid to modern housing developments and technology, none to land reform or agriculture."https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-middle-east-studies/article/abs/1971-55-minutes-in-color-produced-by-national-iranian-film-board-script-by-macdonald-hastings-narrated-by-orson-welles/054C603DA7A347FE1DD315EDED4051F8 1971 - 55 Minutes - in Color. Produced by National Iranian Film Board. Script by MacDonald Hastings. Narrated by Orson Welles. Ellen-Fairbanks Bodman 22 July 1980 Review of Middle East Studies 14 1 74–74 Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0026318400008269 subscription Legacy thumb|Persepolis tent city ruins in 2007 Persepolis remains a major tourist attraction in Iran. In 2005, reports suggested that the Islamic Republic of Iran intended to reconstruct the tent city created for the 1971 celebration. In 2005, it was visited by nearly 35,000 people during the Nowruz holiday. The tent city continued operating for private and government rent until 1979, when it was looted in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution and the departure of the Shah. The iron rods for the tents and roads built for the festival area still remain and are open to the public, but there are no markers indicating what they were originally for.http://www.iran-daily.com/1386/2873/html/art.htm#s236631 Iran Daily Team Named For Renovating Persepolis 23 June 2007 9 March 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20070702012440/http://www.iran-daily.com/1386/2873/html/art.htm#s236631 2 July 2007 dead The dedicated Shahyad Tower remains as a major landmark in Tehran, although it was renamed Azadi Tower in 1979. See also History Iran Iranian Art Museum Garden Monarchism in Iran Coronation of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi List of monarchs of Persia References 33em Steele Robert The Shah's Imperial Celebrations of 1971 AD_ Nationalism, Culture and Politics in Late Pahlavi Iran 2020 Bloomsbury Academic _ I.B. Tauris 9781838604196 Notes Further reading Steele Robert The Shah's Imperial Celebrations of 1971: Nationalism, Culture and Politics in Late Pahlavi Iran 2021 I.B. Tauris London 978-1-8386-0417-2 External links https://web.archive.org/web/20140420032413/http://www.arte.tv/de/verschollene-filmschaetze-1971-die-feierlichkeiten-des-schahs-von-persien-in-persepolis/3984488,CmC=4076664.html 1971 Celebration of the Shah of Persia in Persepolis (ARTE Documentary Film) https://www.facebook.com/1971 Persepolis 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire ymq6BAd3amg Decadence and Downfall: The World's Most Expensive Party by BestDocumentaryTV Best Documentary dWxwtILhfvE Decadence and Downfall In Iran: The Greatest Party In History by Real Stories 6aF0UqC0J48 How Iran threw the World's Greatest Party in a Desert by SideNote Category:1971 festivals Category:October 1971 in Asia Category:Jubilees Category:1971 in Iran Category:Historiography of Iran Category:Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Category:Achaemenid Empire Category:Persepolis Category:Pahlavi Iran Category:Ceremonies in Iran Persia Persia