Word: shahs
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Mossadegh had apparently decided to bring his growing differences with Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi to a head. The Premier was convinced (with reason) that one center of resistance to his rule lay in the Shah's court. He resented the Shah's distribution of royal lands to the poor (because it provoked demands for general land reform), and wanted to ease his financial woes by cutting into the Shah's $720,000-a-year government allotment and his $2,000,000 a year from other sources...
...stage whisper, Mossadegh complained of court intrigues, threatened to resign and "go to the people" for a showdown. As it had before, the threat won him an invitation to talk it over with the Shah. For four hours the fiery old demagogue and the uncertain young monarch conferred. Quickly the secret got out-Mossadegh had persuaded the Shah to leave Iran-ostensibly for a vacation, possibly as the first step toward abdication...
Popularity Unsuspected. One who heard the news early was Mullah Ayatullah Kashani, the opportunistic, fanatic religious leader who was still smarting over the spanking Mossadegh gave him last January in Parliament. Quickly Kashani alerted his street toughs. When it became public that the Shah would leave the country, Kashani was ready. A paroxysm of protest seized Teheran. The Kashani-influenced bazaars closed down (always a sign of trouble), and Kashani gangs choked the streets shouting, "Our Shah or death!" Kashani, who is Speaker of the Majlis, dispatched a delegation to urge the Shah to stay...
Engulfed suddenly by a popularity he did not know he enjoyed, the young Shah stayed inside the palace while thousands gathered below to shout his praises. Then, dark and regally handsome, he appeared. With tears in his eyes and a sob in his voice, he announced his decision: he would stay with his people...
...boss. He fired the chief of staff and installed a man of his own in command of the army. In the streets, where so much of contemporary Middle Eastern history is being made, pro-Mossadegh mobs were out to trade epithets and blows with his enemies. "The Shah or death!" cried thousands. "Mossadegh or death!" replied other thousands. Yet a kind of truce seemed to have settled over Teheran at week's end. The crowds seemed more curious and confused than cross...