Iran: The Show of Shows

SOMETHING out of the Arabian nights" was what Mohammed Reza Pahlevi commanded--and when Iran's Shah of Shahs orders something, he generally gets it. The cost was $100 million, more or less, and the cast included a reigning Emperor (Haile Selassie of Ethiopia), nine Kings, five Queens, 13 Princes, eight Princesses, 16 Presidents, three Premiers, four Vice Presidents, two Governor Generals, two Foreign Ministers, nine sheiks and two sultans. That clearly made last week's shindig in Iran's ancient ceremonial center of Persepolis one of the biggest bashes in all history. Whether it was also "the most wonderful thing the world has ever seen," as the Shahanshah described it, is another question.

Representatives from 69 states, including assorted sheikdoms, poured into Iran for the monumental Jash'n (celebration) marking the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great. Awaiting the guests on a dusty, windswept, 5,000-ft.-high plain next to the ruins of Persepolis was a city that even Scheherazade could never have imagined: a 160-acre oasis studded with three huge royal "tents" and 59 lesser ones arranged in a star pattern. The tents were more or less permanent structures of synthetic fabric, with cement bases and wooden partitions; they were built to withstand fire, rot, and winds of up to 70 m.p.h. Decorated by Jansen of Paris, the firm that helped Jacqueline Kennedy redo the White House, the tents were completely air-conditioned and furnished with Baccarat crystal, Ceralene Limoges china and Porthault linens.

Providing the trappings kept Paris merchants--who supplied everything --busy for a whole year. Bimonthly flights of aircraft and convoys of trucks that made the overland trip from Paris with relays of drivers transported the wares to the desert.

Cigars and Roses. As the party date approached, the Shah came under increasing criticism on the grounds of expense and taste. Peasants in nearby villages may have been impressed--but not exactly pleased--that the government had spent $50,000 on 50 Lanvin-designed uniforms for the royal court, each requiring one mile of gold thread. As for taste, even the Empress Farah said in an unguarded moment, "There have been a lot of mistakes and lapses" --one of which might have been the choice of pink roses and cigars for signs on rest-room doors. Many Iranians also resented that the extravaganza evolved from a festival of their national culture into a celebration of the monarchy. "This was the Shah's ego coming in," said a Western diplomat. "He is idealistic and patriotic, and he works 18 hours a day running this country all by himself. But he also has a heavy dose of megalomania."

Nonetheless, the Shah was determined to stage his show of shows as "a sign to the rest of the world that Iran is again a nation equal to all the others --and much finer than many." Cyrus the Great provided a handy peg. Iran ("home of the Aryans") was settled by an Aryan tribe from what is now southern Russia. Cyrus, a leader of the Achaemenian dynasty of the tribe, accepted Babylon's surrender in 539 B.C., and by the next year had founded an empire that at its height stretched from present-day India to the Aegean, and from the Danube to the Nile.

At last week's celebrations, an hour-long parade recalled Iran's many dynasties. To represent the Achaemenians, who wore long beards, 200 Iranian soldiers did not shave for months; in the interests of authenticity, the government turned down a Japanese firm's offer of fake beards. There were also Sassanians, Parthians and Safavids--right down to the 20th century, when the Shah's father, General Reza Khan, a professional soldier of near-peasant origin, seized power in a 1921 army coup. He was ousted by the British and Russians during World War II for inconveniently keeping his strategic country neutral, and the present Shah took over in 1941.

White Revolution. The big party was actually nine years late. The celebrations were postponed while the Shah, who feared that his country's poverty might set the stage for a "Red revolution," set about accomplishing a "white revolution from the throne." His peaceful upheaval has been amazingly successful. Since 1962 Iran's gross national product has advanced at an average 9.2% per year, to $10 billion in 1970. Per capita income has nearly doubled, from $180 a year to $350.

Drawing on oil income that now has reached $2 billion, the Shah has built modern roads, communications facilities and dams. He has bartered natural gas for a Soviet steel plant and a Rumanian tractor factory, and used hard currency to buy more sophisticated Western technology. U.S. and European investment has built an auto-assembly works, an aluminum plant and a petrochemical complex. Though two-thirds of the country's 30 million people still live in villages, Teheran, the capital, has become a bustling city of 3,000,000, with traffic even scarier than Tokyo's.

Democracy is less advanced. Iran has political parties and elections, but the Shah appoints half the members of the Senate and makes all the important decisions. The press is firmly controlled, and criticism of the Shah is wholly forbidden. For the celebrations, the army clamped tight security around a 60-mile circumference of the tent city and, by ironic coincidence, arrested exactly 2,500 potential troublemakers. Iran's security police, SAVAK, tracked each VIP electronically via a small radio transmitter carried by an aide of the guest.

The Headwaiter. Some of the most illustrious names on the invitation list failed to make it. Regrets were sent by President Nixon (who dispatched Spiro Agnew instead), Queen Elizabeth II (who was represented by Prince Philip and Princess Anne) and, in the unkindest cut of all, French President Georges Pompidou, who sent Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas. What was particularly grating was the fact that the Shah had given the affair such a heavily French accent. Taking note of this, Pompidou is reported by a Western diplomat to have said: "If I did go, they would probably make me the headwaiter."

There were plenty of acceptances, from King Hussein to Princess Grace and Prince Rainier, as well as Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny. But most of the visitors were lesser-knowns, such as King Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho, Liechtenstein's Prince Franz Joseph and Swaziland's Premier Prince Makhosini.

Miffed Guests. There were also the inevitable hitches. The French hairdressers Alexandre and Carita were all atwitter when their dryers did not arrive until the second day of the celebration, along with the 400 pairs of false eyelashes, 300 wigs and 240 Ibs. of hairpins that they had ordered. Several peeved Persian Gulf sheiks complained that they had to travel the 30 miles from Shiraz airport to Persepolis by air-conditioned Mercedes limousine while Agnew, a mere Vice President, insisted on going by helicopter--and did. Haile Selassie, who was expected to arrive with an entourage of five, turned up from his China visit with 72 Ethiopians and a black Chihuahua that was later seen sporting a diamond-studded collar.

Despite the fact that the Shah strictly followed the rules of protocol laid down at the 1815 Congress of Vienna, some guests were miffed. When Kai-Ewe von Hassel, president of West Germany's Bundestag, was sent to represent (Federal President Gustav Heinemann, protocol decreed that he be shifted to a hotel and his tent assigned to the higher-ranking Princess Bilgis of Afghanistan. Von Hassel was not happy.

Nonetheless, considering the potential for disaster, the festivities went off remarkably smoothly. They began officially when the Shah visited the unadorned stone tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae, 50 miles from Persepolis. "O Cyrus, great king, king of kings, Achaemenian king, king of the land of rlran," the Shah intoned, "I, the Shahanshah of Iran, offer thee salutations from myself and from my nation. Rest in peace, for we are awake and we will always stay awake."

Medieval Dish. Sensitive to criticism that the whole thing was a mite overdone, the Shah inquired angrily before the party: "Why are we reproached for serving dinner to 50 heads of state? What am I supposed to do--serve them bread and radishes?" Hardly. The affair was catered by Maxim's of Paris, which sent to Persepolis 165 chefs, wine stewards and waiters. Maxim's shopping list included 25,000 bottles of wine--including a Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, 1945, at $100 a bottle--that were sent to Iran a month early to rest. There were also 7,700 Ibs. of meat, 8,000 Ibs. of butter and cheese, and 1,000 pints of cream to feed the guests and their legions of attendants. The menu for the main banquet was up to the occasion: quail eggs stuffed with caviar (the only Iranian dish on the menu); a mousse of crayfish tails in Nantua sauce; stuffed rack of roast lamb and, as a main course, a traditional medieval dish: roast peacock stuffed with foie gras. For dessert there was a ring of figs with raspberries in the center, champagne sherbet and mocha coffee. There was also a 33-kg. cake to mark Farah's 33rd birthday, which was last week.

The seating arrangement at the 235-ft. solid mahogany table paired a few improbable dinner guests, such as a robed Gulf sheik, complete with kaffiyeh, next to Maximilien Cardinal de Furstenberg, the representative of the Vatican. Podigorny was seated alongside Mme. Nicolae Ceausescu, whose husband, the President of Rumania, is not Moscow's favorite chief of state. The Shah sat between Queens Fabiola of Belgium and Ingrid of Denmark. Agnew sat at the end of the table with a small American contingent, including a bejeweled Mrs. Henry Ford II. The banquet was scheduled to last three hours but ran 51.

Afterward, the guests trooped into the chill desert night and sat wrapped in blankets at the foot of the ruins to watch fireworks and a son et lumiere display of Persian history. After an hour the Shah, noticing some royal yawns and glazed eyes, mercifully rose from his chair and almost everybody took the welcome exit cue. The guests trooped back to their tents and had a whole morning to sleep before getting up for lunch, a parade and another dinner with the regal couple before flying home.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.