Zoroastrian Historical and Cultural Heritage as the Foundation for New National Policy of Reza Shah Pahlavi in the 1920s-1930s

The article scrutinizes historical and cultural heritage of the Zoroastrian community in Iran and its role in shaping the national policy of Reza Shah Pahlavi (1878–1944), the founder of the new Iranian royal dynasty that remained in power until the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. A diverse array of hitherto understudied sources encompassing archival records on the socio-economic and political life of the Zoroastrian community in Iran, alongside with the monographs on the phenomenon of Iranian nationalism in the 20th century afford the opportunity to examine Zoroastrian traces within the emergent nationalist agenda. The study employs multi-faceted approach to trace how the elements of the Zoroastrian tradition were integrated into the state rhetoric and the internal aspects of the country’s modernization, with the aim of strengthening national unity, legitimizing authority, and establishing a certain degree of distance from the Islamic past. The ideological foundations of Iranian nationalism, which had been developed long before the emergence of the new national ideology as a political phenomenon, relied on reinterpretations of the country’s illustrious pre-Islamic, Zoroastrian past in accordance with the spirit of modernization. The Zoroastrian community of Iran served as a living embodiment of Reza Shah’s national project, becoming a significant cultural symbol, instrumental in constructing a new national identity. Iranian Zoroastrians became not only beneficiaries of the promotion of the new national idea as an integral part of the modernization policy of the 1920s–1930s, but simultaneously a facade for the gradually established authoritarian rule.