Amanollah Jahanbani (1891 – 1 February 1974) was a member of the Qajar dynasty of Iran and a senior general of Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Early life and education

Jahanbani was born in 1895. He was the great grandson of Fath Ali Shah. At the age of 10, Jahanbani was sent to St. Petersburg for schooling, where he attended the Mihailovsky Artillery College and the Nikolaevsky War Academy. He returned to Iran as a ranked military officer in World War I.

Career

After completing his studies in Europe, Jahanbani joined the Cossack forces and became a major general. On 6 December 1921 Jahanbani was named the commander of gendarmerie headquarters following the dissolution of the Cossack Division by Reza Shah. He was appointed the chief of the staff with the rank of brigadier general at the beginning of the 1920s. As of 1925 he was the head of military academy. In 1928, he led the army in Balochistan attack to control the resistance. His path of success continued until 1938, when he fell out of favor and was thrown into the Qasr prison by Reza Shah Pahlavi. However, in 1941 he was named interior minister. When Reza Shah was abdicatied during World War II, he was appointed to the Senate during the era of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi where he served during five consecutive periods.

Personal life and death

Jahanbani married twice. He had a total of nine children, four children with his second wife, Helen Kasminsky: Nader, Parviz, Khosrow, and Mehr Monir. Nader Jahanbani became the deputy head of the Imperial Iranian Air Force, Parviz was an officer in the Imperial Iranian Marines, and Khosrow is the second husband of Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi. Amanullah Jahanbani is the father-in-law of Captain Nasrollah Amanpour, and the uncle of CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour. Jahanbani died in 1974, at the age of 83. He wrote an autobiography titled "Iranian Soldier: Meaning of Water and Soil," which was published in 2001 with the help of his son, Parviz Jahanbani.

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