Orders, Decorations, and Medals of the Empire of Iran – the Pahlavi Era

Orders, Decorations, and Medals of the Empire of Iran – the Pahlavi Era is an astonishing effort in categorisation of the Pre-revolutionary Iranian awards. Museums, historians, auction houses, numismatists, collectors, and interest groups particularly in the hostile post-revolutionary milieu of the Islamic Republic were hampered by lack of solid information in this particular area of Iranian modern history. Some thirty years of “collective memory decay” combined with a dearth of books, pamphlets, informative texts or journal articles had heretofore limited the study of modern Iranian heraldry. Sourcing a new medal specimen, in itself an arduous task in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution, was made quite a lot more complicated by the effort in deciphering its purpose, the heraldic elements in its construction, and other such attributes. Many orders are in multiple classes and it is not always possible to guess at the various grades of an award. Many times there are ribbon attachments missing or the medal badge has been placed on the wrong ribbon! Examining literally thousands of photographs with the eye of a forensic assessor, the author was able to compare ribbon bars with specimen awards, consider timelines of images and at length compile the material in the present format. Dr. Younessi has combined his passion for heraldry, numismatics, and photography with his command of the English and Persian languages as well as research skills gained in his career as a surgeon to bridge the gap in our knowledge of the orders and decorations of Iran.