In the late 1960s, Iran was getting wealthy enough and the Shah felt secure enough to begin presenting Iran to the world. Not as a new country but as the current manifestation of the ancient Persian Empire. To do so, a tower was constructed that was both modern and at the same time ancient. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Iran was obviously proud of the Shahyad Tower. It completed in 1971 and already by 1974 it was on it’s third stamp. It still stands under a new name but no longer appears on stamps. Shah era stamps show construction and modern Iranian stamps tend to show people.
Todays stamp is issue A443, a 20 Rials stamp issued by Imperial Iran in 1974. It was an 11 stamp issue in various denominations. The issue lasted a long time. In 1978 there was an update with the Shah’s portrait becoming a profile in gold. There is also a version from 1979 where the Shah gets crossed out. Those of course have the highest value. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth 40 cents used.
In 1966, there was a local design competition regarding a monument to celebrate the 2500 year anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire. Iran is merely how you say Persia in Farsi. The competition was won by a young Iranian born and trained architect named Hossein Amanat. Construction utilized local stone, stonecutters, and cladding white marble from Isfahan province. Some of the structural work was farmed out to a British firm as they used a new woven stone structural technique. The tower was ready for the 1971 supposed 2500 year Persian anniversary and construction cost 6 million dollars. Underground at the base is a museum initially to artifacts of the Persian Empire. This included a fake copy of Cyrus the Great’s Charter that was then compared favorably with the then current Shah’s priciples of the 1960s reforms that the Shah called the White Revolution. Something old something new.
Shahyad Tower was a key place for anti regime protests during the last days of the Shah in 1978. It was after all a place named the Shah’s Memorial. The protests there initially made Mr. Amanat happy. Of course they were drawn to it the shape welcomes them with a father like embrace and already it looks like it has been there 1000 years.
The fall of the Shah in 1979 naturally lead to changes. The tower was renamed Azadi which means freedom and the displays in the museum now attempt to compare favorably the bravery of the anti Shah protestors to the decadence of the previous 2510 years. As you might expect at a Freedom tower, the complex still attracts anti government protestors. The current government is gradually allowing the complex to decay. Not all on purpose. Some releveling of the gardens has resulted in much water damage to the stone and marble as the area now drains poorly.
Hossien Amanat had to flee Iran in 1980. He is a member of the Bahai faith group that started in Persia in the 19th century but is much persecuted by the current Iranian regime. Amanat settled in Canada and designed the Bahai administrative center in Haifa, Israel. He has also designed high rise residential buildings in Canada, the USA and China.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Mr. Amanat. The Shah wanted to show how advanced Iran was becoming, and that indeed was what Mr. Amanat was trying to show. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020