The Fall of Heaven

An immersive, gripping account of the rise and fall of Iran's glamorous Pahlavi dynasty, written with the cooperation of the late Shah's widow, Empress Farah, Iranian revolutionaries and US officials from the Carter administration.

In this remarkably human portrait of one of the twentieth century's most complicated personalities, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Andrew Scott Cooper traces the Shah's life from childhood through his ascension to the throne in 1941. He draws the turbulence of the post-war era during which the Shah survived assassination attempts and coup plots to build a modern, pro-Western state and launch Iran onto the world stage as one of the world's top five powers.

Readers get the story of the Shah's political career alongside the story of his courtship and marriage to Farah Diba, who became a power in her own right, the beloved family they created, and an exclusive look at life inside the palace during the Iranian Revolution. Cooper's investigative account ultimately delivers the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty through the eyes of those who were there: leading Iranian revolutionaries; President Jimmy Carter and White House officials; US Ambassador William Sullivan and his staff in the American embassy in Tehran; American families caught up in the drama; even Empress Farah herself, and the rest of the Iranian Imperial family.

Intimate and sweeping at once, The Fall of Heaven recreates in stunning detail the dramatic and final days of one of the world's most legendary ruling families, the unseating of which helped set the stage for the current state of the Middle East.

CONTENTS

People
Events of the 1978-1979 Revolution

PART ONE: LOOKING FOR RAIN

Introduction: Back to Cairo
1. The Shah
2. Crown and Kingdom
3. The Old Lion
4. Farah Diba
5. The Ayatollah
6. "Javid Shah!"
7. Royals and Rebels
8. The Camp of Gold Cloth
9. The Pahlavi Progress
10. Emperor of Oil
11. The Turning
12. Thirsty for Martyrdom
13. Last Days of Pompeii

PART TWO: FAREWELL THE SHAH

14. Lights over Niavaran
15. The Caravan Passes
16. Five Days in May
17. Into the Storm
18. Ramadan Rising
19. The Great Terror
20. Black Friday
21. State of Siege
22. Tehran Is Burning
23. Sullivan's Folly
24. Swept Away
25. Flight of the Eagle

Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index