The Pahlavi Crown is part of the Iranian Crown Jewels which was crafted for the coronation of Reza Shah on 25th April 1926. The design of the crown was made in the fashion of the Sassanid Dynasty that ruled in Iran between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD.
The last royalty who was coronated with this crown was Shah’s son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi on 26th October 1967.
Reza Shah Pahlavi was the Iranian prime minister, and it was the first democratically elected monarch of Iran. He is the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and established a constitutional monarchy that lasted until 1979. For his defenders, Shah Pahlavi was the essential modernizing force of Iran, and for the people who didn’t like him, he was a despot.
He died in exile on 26th July 1944 of a heart ailment. After his death, his bones were kept at the royal Al-Rifa’I Mosque in Cairo, Egypt and in 1950, the remains were flown back to Iran and were buried in a mausoleum in the town of Ray, a suburb of Tehran.
On the ordered crown there are 3, 380 diamonds which were carefully picked from the Iranian royal treasury by a group of Iranian jewelers, under the supervision of the experienced jewelry manufacturer, Haj Serajeddin Javaheri. It is made up of red velvet, gold, and silver and every part of the crown is edged with pearls, a total of 368.
The largest diamond on the crown is a 60-carat yellow brilliant, placed in a sunburst of white diamonds. There are also five emeralds, and the largest one is located on the apex of the crown. It has a total height of 19. 8 cm, a width of 19. 8 cm, and it weighs 2, 080 grams.
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The crown replaced the Kjani Crown which has been used by the Qajar dynasty because Shah didn’t want to be related to the Qajars. Both crowns are based on headdresses from the pre-Islamic Sassanid Empire.
Since the 1990s, the crown is on display at the Central Bank of Iran in Tehran with the rest of the Iranian Crown Jewels. Reza Shah transferred ownership of the jewels to the state. Since then, the jewels have been used to back the national monetary system. The Iranian crown jewels are evidence of Iran’s monarchical past.