Fathollah Minbashian (7 August 1916 – 5 July 2007) was an Iranian general. He served in the Iranian army from 1938 to 1972, reaching the rank of four-star general as Commander of the Imperial Iranian Ground Forces (1969–1972), during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Family Fathollah Minbashian came from a family of military musicians, who contributed to the emergence of classical music in Iran. His grandfather Gholam Reza Minbashian (Salar Mo'azez) was a pioneer in the history of classical Western music in Iran.Sadjad Pourghanad,"Gholam Reza Khan Minbashian: a pioneer in Iranian music (I)",Harmony Talk, consulted 14 March 2021. He is recognised as the first Iranian to have received an education in classical music, and to have studied music abroad, and whose work was published in Europe. He was also the first Iranian to have taught classical music in Iran, and he created Iran's first string orchestra. Among other compositions, Gholam Reza Minbashian wrote the music of the national anthem of Iran's Constitutionalist Revolution, entitled "Sublime State of Iran" (Dowlat-e 'Aliyye-ye Irān - دولت علیّه ایران). Fathollah Minbashian's father, Nasrollah Minbashian, entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory at 13, for a period of seven years. On returning to Iran, he joined the Persian Cossack Brigade, in which he served throughout is career, finally reaching the rank of Brigadier General. Nasrollah succeeded his father (Gholam Reza) at the head of the army's musical orchestra, while also directing its music school. Nasrollah Minbashian held these posts until 1935, while teaching several instruments which he had mastered: the piano, the violin, the cello.Ali Taghipour, History of the Music Conservatory of Iran 1918–2018, limited edition to commemorate the centenary of the Conservatory, Tehran,(), 2018. Fathollah Minbashian's uncle Gholam-Hossein Minbashian (1907–1980) studied at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin and Geneva. He was a pupil of Robert Mendelsohn. On returning to Iran in 1932, he joined the Military Academy, and took on the directorship of the music conservatory music in 1934. He founded and directed Iran's first symphony orchestra, the "Baladieh" orchestra, the Tehran Symphony Orchestra.

Early life and education Fathollah Minbashian attended a Zoroastrian school until the age of 14. In Part 1 of his military memoires,General Minbachian's military memoirs were related in an interview conducted by Dr. Habib Ladjevardi, Director of the Iranian Oral History project at Harvard University, in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, December 1981 he describes his patriotic fervour, which in 1930 led him to volunteer to go to the military high school (Madrasseh Nezam), against his father's wishes. He remained there until 1936. From high school onwards and throughout this period he played football, becoming the first goalkeeper of Iran's national team "Tadj", for ten years and so acquired great popularity.Team Melli, Iran's national football team, consulted 2021-03-14

Advanced studies in the United States and Iran Fathollah Minbashian was 20 years old when he entered the Military Academy (Daneshgadeh Afsari) in the same class as Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran's Crown Prince. He left it as an officer in 1938, coincidentally the day of his father's death. Between 1938 and 1940, he was an officer cadet and then second-lieutenant, commanding the NCOs’ training school. In 1944 he became a lieutenant, and he then passed the exam for the US Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, and having been promoted captain, he went to the United States with his wife. At the end of his studies, Fathollah Minbashian returned to Iran, entering War School. He graduated top of his class, and became a major. He returned to the United States in 1951, as the Americans had qualified him to go to their war school, the Command and General Staff College of the US Army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Again, he was top of his class, and he was offered to join the US army, but refused and returned to Iran.

In 1970, while on an official visit to the United States as Commander of the Imperial Iranian Ground Forces, General Minbashian received the US Legion of Merit.

Military career and military operations Once in Iran again, he devoted his career to building up a modern army. According to several officers' testimonies reported in the Nima monthly journal in August 2007 (including the Shah's former Chief of Staff General Fereydoun Djam), two objectives guided his military thinking throughout his life: the defence of the Persian Gulf because he rightly feared invasion of Iran by Iraq, and the provision of a decent life for the army's soldiers and NCOs, usually from very modest backgrounds. He has also been acknowledged for having contributed to the modernisation of Iran's ground forces.Following the death of General Minbashian, numerous officers and other dignitaries testified to his reforms of Iran's ground forces, Nima, monthly review, No 158 (), August 2007 issn=1265-0773 pp 9-11.

In 1954, he was promoted to colonel at the head of Iran's Military Academy where he developed new methods of instruction, based especially on "management by motivation".Military memoirs, op. cit. He reorganised the academy and student discipline, and having become a brigadier general in 1958, he was appointed to the command of the First Brigade of Tehran.

In 1961, he was appointed commander of the Mashhad Army with the rank of major general. He was therefore stationed in the holy city of Mashhad during the 1963 demonstrations. According to French Wikipedia,:fr:Émeutes de juin 1963 en Iran these protests were critical of the Shah's reformist White Revolution which in particular ended feudal landownership in Iran as part of a land reform programme, and gave women the right to vote. In Part 2 of his military memoirs (Section 35), Minbashian recounts the arrest of Ayathollah Qomi who was responsible for disorders in Mashad.Military memoirs, op. cit. Section 35. According to Minbashian's account, he received the order to arrest Qomi and send him to Tehran, and he described how he organised this arrest "without any bloodshed, and without the least deployment force or military action".

In 1965, he was promoted to lieutenant general, and Commander of the Third Army in Fars. Summoned by the Shah, he was ordered to provide the army's logistical support to the regional Gendarmerie in the arrest of Bahman Gashgai. The latter had become the leader of a rebellion of the tribes in Fars, against the Shah's land reforms.In 1961, 75% of Iran's population was agricultural and 70% of arable land belonged to a minority of feudal landlords, supported by religious institutions. The land reform of the White Revolution redistributed this land to peasants, including land from the Gashgai tribes. Gashgai was accused of having killed eight gendarmes. According to his own account, Minbashian advocated using anti-guerrilla tactics based on “military civic action”. In Section 38 of his military memoires, he recounts the context of this arrest and the strategy put in place so that the rebels laid down their arms and surrendered of their own will.Military memoirs, op. cit. Section 38. This strategy consisted, first, of cutting the rebels off from their sources of supply, and secondly, from carrying out civic actions among tribal peoples to improve their living conditions and to get them to dissociate themselves from rebels. Being isolated, and following negotiations with the Minister of the Court of the Shah, Assadollah Alam, Bahman Gashgai surrendered himself to Alam, on the condition his life would be spared. Alam then accompanied Gashgai to Tehran, yet later handed him over to the Gendarmerie. They in turn put Gashgai on trial and executed him for the murders of eight gendarmes. A cousin of Bahman Gashgai and a comrade in arms, Iraj Kashkouli, gave an account of their saga in his own memoirs. Here he said that he “suspected” Minbashian of having had a role in this execution. Minbashian always denied this, stating that the army under his command played no role in the execution. His task had only been to provide logistical assistance to the Gendarmerie, the only actors in the field. Minbashian specified that during his entire military career none of his missions “led to the slightest bloodshed”.

Joint Operation Arvand Rud

In April 1969, while he was Commander of the Imperial Ground Forces, Minbashian was assigned to deal with border tensions with Iraq, which, had they degenerated could have set the entire region ablaze, as history subsequently showed. Joint Operation Arvand Rud was conducted by Iran's three armed services: the navy, the air force and the army, under the command General Minbashian, who recounts the details of this operation in his military memoirs.Military memoirs, op. cit. Section 46.

The conflict arose out of a decision by Mohammad Reza Shah to stop paying tolls to Iraq for the use of Arvand Rud river to the Persian Gulf, and so access the sea for Iranian ships, under a treaty signed in 1937, drafted in the light of British influence, and which favoured Iraq.Iraq was created after World War I, becoming a British protectorate, and the British installed the Hachemite monarchy in 1920, ensuring the protectorate until 1932. This river traces a border of 200 km between the two countries, and its width varies between 200 and 800 meters. The Iranian cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr (with their oil installations) and the Iraqi city of Basra are located along the river. Iraq claimed sovereignty over the river (called Shatt al-Arab in Arabic) and threatened to block the passage of ships not flying the Iraqi flag.

Minbashian organised a show of military force to intimidate the Iraqis. He personally overflew the river in a helicopter, entering Iraqi airspace, at risk to his life, to show that he would not retreat under any circumstances, threatening the Iraqi forces amassed along the river with retaliation if they opened fire.

Thus, on 22 April 1969, the Iranian merchant ship Ebn-e-Sina bearing the Iranian flag and escorted by two warships of the Imperial Navy under the command of Captain Ataï, and a squadron F4 Phantom jets of Imperial Airforce under the command of General Nader Jahanbani (a highly distinguished Iranian fighter pilot) passed down the river for six hours, to the Persian Gulf, without any resistance by Iraqi forces. The 1937 treaty was thus abrogated and Iran took control of its side of the Arvand Rud.

Relieved from command