Amanullah Jahanbani

Iranian general and historian (1891–1974)

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

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.

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. 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.

Jahanbani married twice. He had a total ofnine children, four children with his second wife, Helen Kasminsky: Nader, Parviz, Khosrow, and Mehr Moneer. 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, the uncle of CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour. Jahanbani died in 1974, at the age of 83. He wrote an autbiography titled "Iranian Soldier: Meaning of Water and Soil," which was published in 2001 with the help of his son, Parviz Jahanbani.

'Alí Rizā Awsatí (عليرضا اوسطى), Iran in the Past Three Centuries (Irān dar Se Qarn e Goz̲ashteh ايران در سه قرن گذشته), Volumes 1 and 2 (Paktāb Publishing انتشارات پاکتاب, Tehran, Iran, 2003). (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).