A HISTORY OF MODERN IRAN - Stoa

106 A History of Modern Iran
office but “had become the unofficial controller of almost everything in
Isfahan.” 25 He had so much influence on the electoral board that he was able
to “arrange” behind the scenes a suitable outcome for the Fourteenth Majles
elections.
The campaign for this election began with five strong candidates competing
for the city’s three parliamentary seats: Taqi Fedakar, a young lawyer
representing the trade unions organized recently by the Tudeh Party in the
city’s large textile mills; Haydar Ali Emami, a merchant turned industrialist
with strong links to local landlords; Sayyed Hashem al-Din Dowlatabadi,
the son of a prominent cleric and the main spokesman for the local guilds
and merchants – especially merchants who had acquired expropriated
Bakhtiyari lands; Sheifpour Fatemi (Mosbeh al-Sultan), a close ally of the
Bakhtiyaris and himself a major landlord in the region; and Ahmad Quli
Khan Bakhtiyari, the eldest son of Morteza Quli (Samsam) Khan, the
patriarch of the Ilkhani family. After 1941, Morteza Quli Khan had returned
to reclaim his lands, reassert his authority over the Hajji Ilkhani branch, and
free his tribesmen from military control. By 1944, he had accomplished
much of his goal. He had obtained the governorship of the recreated district
of Bakhtiyar stretching from Dezful to Chahar Mahal. He had reasserted
authority over the Hajji Ilkhani and regained some of his family lands –
although not those acquired by the Isfahani merchants. What is more, he
had armed some 4,500 tribesmen and forced the military and the gendarmerie
to withdraw from the Bakhtiyari region. The British consul reported
that the military withdrew when it discovered that the soldiers were more
eager to “shoot their officers than the tribesmen.” 26 The same consul
reported: 27
Under Reza Shah, the land and mill owners – who are mostly ignorant, believing
that money can do everything, reactionary to a degree, and solely interested in
making as much money as possible – reigned supreme in Isfahan with the help of
the central government. But with the change of regime in 1941 and removal of the
ban on communist propaganda, the Russian-backed Tudeh, led locally by Fedakar,
began to develop by taking advantage of this struggle between labour and capital.
At present Isfahan is the center of the struggle because of the existence of an easily
organized body of uneducated opinion among the millhands.
Despite these tensions, Akbar Mas’oud brokered an amicable deal.
Ahmad Quli Khan Bakhtiyar and Sheifpour Fatemi took the less prestigious
seats of nearby Shahr-e Kurd and Najafabad respectively. Meanwhile,
Fedakar, Dowlatabadi, and Emami took the three Isfahan seats. In fact,
these three urged supporters to cast their three votes for each other. In the
final count, Fedakar received 30,499 votes; Dowlatabadi 29,470; and