Aryamehr (, , ) was a title used in the Pahlavi era by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.
History Aryamehr was granted as a secondary title by a session of the joint Houses of Parliament (Majles) on 15 September 1965 to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran (reigning since he took the oath at the Majles on 17 September 1941), before his coronation at Golestan Palace on 26 October 1967. The Pahlavis used it as an idealization of pre-Islamic Iran and foundation for anti-clerical monarchism, while the clerics used it to exalt "Iranian values" vis-à-vis Westernization. Demonstrating affinity with Orientalist views of the alleged "supremacy" of the Aryan peoples and the "mediocrity" of the Semitic peoples, Iranian nationalist discourse idealized pre-Islamic Achaemenid and Sasanian empires, whilst negating the Islamization of Iran during the Caliphate. Compared to the titles used by the Qajar dynasty, such as "Pivot of the Universe" and "Shadow of God", the Shah's title "Aryamehr" was less pompous in scope, despite critics ridiculing it as "grandiose and bombastic".
In 1965, the Shah ordered Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi to establish Aryamehr University of Technology. However, after the 1979 Iranian Revolution It was renamed and currently known as the Sharif University named after Majid Sharif-Vaghefi.
Things named after Aryamehr include the Aryamehr Sports Complex, the Aryamehr Stadium, and the Shahyad Aryamehr monumental gate.
Associated order
In 1873, Naser al-Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty established the Order of Aftab (), restricted to female sovereigns or consorts (1st class) and princesses or women of high rank (2nd class). In 1939, the order was renamed Neshân-e Khorshid or Nishān-i Xwarshēd. This was then transformed into Neshân-e Âryâmehr, or Nishān-i Āryāmihr, meaning 'the Order of the Light of the Aryans'. It was the third and last imperial order of knighthood founded by the Shah on 26 September 1967 in honour of his consort, Empress Farah Diba, and restricted to ladies only. The first class was restricted to female Sovereigns or consorts of reigning rulers; the second class to princesses.
See also Order of Aryamehr
References Notes
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