Amanollah Jahanbani (; 1895 – 1 February 1974) was a member of the Qajar dynasty of Iran and a senior officer during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi.
Early life and education Born in 1895, Jahanbani was the son of prince Amanullah Mirza Jahanbani and via him the great-grandson of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. Jahanbani's mother, princess Iran Khanom Shams-ol-Molkara, was also a princess of the Qajar dynasty. At the age of 10, he 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.
Career 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. He was appointed the chief of the staff with the rank of brigadier general at the beginning of the 1920s. 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. However, in 1941 he was named interior minister.
When Reza Shah was forced to abdicate during World War II, he was appointed to the Senate during the era of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi where he served for five consecutive periods.
Personal life and death Jahanbani married three times and had a total of twelve children. His third wife, Helen Kasminsky, was Russian; they had four children together: Mehr Monir, Nader, Parviz, and Khosrow. Nader became the deputy head of the Imperial Iranian Air Force, Parviz was an officer in the Imperial Iranian Marines, and Khosrow was the second husband of Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi.
Jahanbani died in 1974, at the age of 83.
Jahanbani wrote an autobiography titled "Iranian Soldier: Meaning of Water and Soil," which was published in 2001 with the help of his son, Parviz.
References
Other sources '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).