Padri
Padri (Padries) (Padaries). Name given in Dutch literature to the Padari -- the men from Pedir in Aceh who, in the early decades of the nineteenth century, wished to carry through by force in Minangkabau (Central Sumatra) the reformation of Islam initiated by the Wahhabis. The local chiefs felt their power jeopardized, and the Dutch authorities supported them. The so-called Padri War lasted from 1821 until 1837.
Padries see Padri
Padaries see Padri
Padri (Padries) (Padaries). Name given in Dutch literature to the Padari -- the men from Pedir in Aceh who, in the early decades of the nineteenth century, wished to carry through by force in Minangkabau (Central Sumatra) the reformation of Islam initiated by the Wahhabis. The local chiefs felt their power jeopardized, and the Dutch authorities supported them. The so-called Padri War lasted from 1821 until 1837.
Padries see Padri
Padaries see Padri
Pahlavi
Pahlavi. Iranian dynasty of the Shahs of Persia (r. 1925-1979). Their main capital was Tehran. The dynasty’s founder, Reza Khan (1878-1944), was a commander of the Cossack brigade under the Qajars, toppled the government in 1921, was prime minister 1923-1925 and had himself elected shah by the National Assembly in 1925, following the removal of the Qajars. With the support of the military, he conducted an authoritatrian modernization and secularization program based on the Ataturk example, which resulted in ongoing conflict with the Shi‘ite clergy. In 1934, he introduced the name “Iran” (rather than “Persia”) as the country’s official designation. Due to his sympathies with Hitler, he was deposed by the British and Soviets in 1941 during their occupation of the country. His son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi (r. 1919-1980), ruled under the supervision of the British and Soviets until 1946 and thereafter depended on the United States and the West for his foreign policy. Following a conflict with Prime Minister Mossadegh and a brief departure (in 1953), he eliminated the opposition with the help of the United States (using the SAVAK secret police) and from 1964 forced an authoritarian modernization of the country along Western lines (the “White Revolution”). As part of the ongoing conflict with the bourgeois opposition, the socialites, and the Shi‘ite clergy, he was forced to leave Iran in January 1979, escaping the “Islamic Revolution” inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini.
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925—1941) and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (r. 1941—1979).
The Pahlavis came to power with the overthrow of Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty —already weakened by Soviet and British occupation. The National Assembly of Iran, known as the Majlis, convening as a constituent assembly on December 12, 1925, deposed the young Ahmad Shah Qajar, and declared Reza Shah the new monarch of the Imperial State of Persia. In 1935, Reza Shah informed foreign embassies that he had renamed the country that for centuries had been known as Persia. He changed the country name to Iran.
The Pahlavi dynasty ended in 1979 when Reza Shah's son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution.
In 1921, Reza Khan, an officer in Iran's Persian Cossack Brigade, used his troops to support a successful coup against the government of the Qajar dynasty. Within four years he had established himself as the most powerful person in the country by suppressing rebellions and establishing order. In 1925, a specially convened assembly deposed Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty, and named Reza Khan, who earlier had adopted the surname Pahlavi, as the new shah.
Reza Shah had ambitious plans for modernizing Iran. These plans included developing large-scale industries, implementing major infrastructure projects, building a cross-country railroad system, establishing a national public education system, reforming the judiciary, and improving health care. He believed a strong, centralized government managed by educated personnel could carry out his plans.
He sent hundreds of Iranians, including his son, to Europe for training. During 16 years from 1925 to 1941, Reza Shah's numerous development projects transformed Iran into an urbanized country. Public education progressed rapidly, and new social classes developed. A professional middle class and an industrial working class emerged.
By the mid-1930s, Reza Shah's dictatorial style of rule caused dissatisfaction among some groups, particularly the clergy, which was opposed to his reforms. In 1935, Reza Pahlavi issued a decree asking foreign delegates to use the term Iran in formal correspondence, in accordance with the fact that "Persia" was a term used by Western peoples for the country called "Iran" in Persian. After some scholars protested, his successor, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, announced in 1959 that both Persia and Iran were acceptable and could be used interchangeably.
Reza Shah tried to avoid involvement with Britain and the Soviet Union. Though many of his development projects required foreign technical expertise, he avoided awarding contracts to British and Soviet companies. Although Britain, through its ownership of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, controlled all of Iran's oil resources, Reza Shah preferred to obtain technical assistance from Germany, France, Italy, and other European countries. This created problems for Iran after 1939, when Germany and Britain became enemies in World War II. Reza Shah proclaimed Iran as a neutral country, but Britain insisted that German engineers and technicians in Iran were spies with missions to sabotage British oil facilities in southwestern Iran. Britain demanded that Iran expel all German citizens, but Reza Shah refused, claiming this would adversely impact his development projects.
Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union became allies. Both turned their attention to Iran. Britain and the Soviet Union (USSR) saw the newly-opened Trans-Iranian Railway as an attractive route to transport supplies from the Persian Gulf to the Soviet Union. In August 1941, because Reza Shah refused to expel the German nationals, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran, arrested the Shah and sent him into exile, taking control of Iran's communications and railroad. In 1942 the United States, an ally of Britain and the USSR during the war, sent a military force to Iran to help maintain and operate sections of the railroad. Over the next few months, the three nations took control of Iran's oil resources and secured a supply corridor for themselves. Reza Shah's regime collapsed, and the American, British and Soviet authorities limited the powers of the rump government that remained. They permitted Reza Shah's son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to accede to the throne.
In January 1942 the three allies signed an agreement with Iran to respect Iran's independence and to withdraw their troops within six months of the war's end. In 1943 at the Tehran Conference, the United States reaffirmed this commitment. In 1945, the USSR refused to announce a timetable to leave Iran's northwestern provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, where Soviet-supported autonomy movements had developed. At the time, the Tudeh Party of Iran, a communist party that was already influential and had parliamentary representation, was becoming increasingly militant, especially in the North. This promoted actions from the side of the government, including attempts of the Iranian armed forces to restore order in the Northern provinces. While the Tudeh headquarters in Tehran were occupied and the Isfahan branch crushed, the Soviet troops present in the Northern parts of the country prevented the Iranian forces from entering. Thus, by the late autumn of 1945, the North was virtually controlled by the Tudeh and its affiliates.
The USSR withdrew its troops in May 1946, but tensions continued for several months. This episode was one of the precipitating events of the emerging Cold War, the postwar rivalry between the United States and its allies, and the USSR and its allies.
Iran's political system became increasingly open. Political parties were developed, and in 1944 the Majlis election was the first genuinely competitive election in more than 20 years. Foreign influence remained a very sensitive issue for all parties. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which was owned by the British government, continued to produce and market Iranian oil. In the beginning of the 1930s some Iranians began to advocate nationalization of the country's oil fields. After 1946 this became an increasingly popular political movement.
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and his wife Farah Diba, upon him being proclaimed the Shah of Iran.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi replaced his father on the throne on September 16, 1941. He wanted to continue the reform policies of his father, but a contest for control of the government soon erupted between the shah and an older professional politician, the nationalistic Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Despite his vow to act as a constitutional monarch who would defer to the power of the parliamentary government, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi increasingly involved himself in governmental affairs. He concentrated on reviving the army and ensuring that it would remain under royal control as the monarchy's main power base. In 1949 an assassination attempt on the Shah, attributed to the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party, resulted in the banning of that party and the expansion of the Shah's constitutional powers.
In 1951, the Majlis (Parliament of Iran) named Mohammad Mossadegh as new prime minister by a vote of 79–12. Shortly afterwards, Mossadegh nationalized the British-owned oil industry. Mossadegh was opposed by the Shah who feared a resulting oil embargo imposed by the west would leave Iran in economic ruin. The Shah fled Iran but returned when the United Kingdom and United States staged a coup against Mossadegh in August 1953. Mossadegh was then arrested by pro-Shah army forces.
In the context of regional turmoil and the Cold War, the Shah established himself as an indispensable ally of the West. Domestically, he advocated reform policies, culminating in the 1963 program known as the White Revolution, which included land reform, extension of voting rights to women, and the elimination of illiteracy. Major plans to build Iran's infrastructure were undertaken, a new middle class began flourishing and in less than two decades Iran became the indisputable major economic and military power of the Middle East.
However, these measures and the increasing arbitrariness of the Shah's rule provoked religious leaders who feared losing their traditional authority, and intellectuals seeking democratic reforms. These opponents criticized the Shah for his reforms or for violation of the constitution, which placed limits on royal power and provided for a representative government.
The Shah saw himself as heir to the kings of ancient Iran, and in 1971 he held a celebration of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. In 1976 he replaced the calendar (year 1355) with an "Imperial" calendar (year 2535), which began with the foundation of the Persian Empire more than 25 centuries earlier. These actions were viewed as un-Islamic and resulted in more religious opposition by the clergy.
The Shah's government suppressed its opponents with the help of Iran's security and intelligence secret police, SAVAK. Such opponents included members of the Communist Tudeh party, who tried to assassinate the Shah and his son on multiple occasions.
By the mid-1970s, relying on increased oil revenues, the Shah began a series of even more ambitious and bolder plans for the progress of his country and the march toward the "Great Civilization". However, his socioeconomic advances increasingly irritated the clergy. Islamic leaders, particularly the exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, were able to focus this discontent with an ideology tied to Islamic principles that called for the overthrow of the Shah and the return to Islamic traditions. The Shah's government collapsed following widespread uprisings in 1978 and 1979.
The Shah, seeking medical treatment, fled the country to Egypt, Mexico, the United States, and Panama and finally resettled with his family in Egypt as a guest of Anwar Sadat. Upon his death his son Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi succeeded him in absentia as heir apparent to the Pahlavi dynasty.
Pahlavi. Iranian dynasty of the Shahs of Persia (r. 1925-1979). Their main capital was Tehran. The dynasty’s founder, Reza Khan (1878-1944), was a commander of the Cossack brigade under the Qajars, toppled the government in 1921, was prime minister 1923-1925 and had himself elected shah by the National Assembly in 1925, following the removal of the Qajars. With the support of the military, he conducted an authoritatrian modernization and secularization program based on the Ataturk example, which resulted in ongoing conflict with the Shi‘ite clergy. In 1934, he introduced the name “Iran” (rather than “Persia”) as the country’s official designation. Due to his sympathies with Hitler, he was deposed by the British and Soviets in 1941 during their occupation of the country. His son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi (r. 1919-1980), ruled under the supervision of the British and Soviets until 1946 and thereafter depended on the United States and the West for his foreign policy. Following a conflict with Prime Minister Mossadegh and a brief departure (in 1953), he eliminated the opposition with the help of the United States (using the SAVAK secret police) and from 1964 forced an authoritarian modernization of the country along Western lines (the “White Revolution”). As part of the ongoing conflict with the bourgeois opposition, the socialites, and the Shi‘ite clergy, he was forced to leave Iran in January 1979, escaping the “Islamic Revolution” inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini.
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925—1941) and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (r. 1941—1979).
The Pahlavis came to power with the overthrow of Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty —already weakened by Soviet and British occupation. The National Assembly of Iran, known as the Majlis, convening as a constituent assembly on December 12, 1925, deposed the young Ahmad Shah Qajar, and declared Reza Shah the new monarch of the Imperial State of Persia. In 1935, Reza Shah informed foreign embassies that he had renamed the country that for centuries had been known as Persia. He changed the country name to Iran.
The Pahlavi dynasty ended in 1979 when Reza Shah's son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution.
In 1921, Reza Khan, an officer in Iran's Persian Cossack Brigade, used his troops to support a successful coup against the government of the Qajar dynasty. Within four years he had established himself as the most powerful person in the country by suppressing rebellions and establishing order. In 1925, a specially convened assembly deposed Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty, and named Reza Khan, who earlier had adopted the surname Pahlavi, as the new shah.
Reza Shah had ambitious plans for modernizing Iran. These plans included developing large-scale industries, implementing major infrastructure projects, building a cross-country railroad system, establishing a national public education system, reforming the judiciary, and improving health care. He believed a strong, centralized government managed by educated personnel could carry out his plans.
He sent hundreds of Iranians, including his son, to Europe for training. During 16 years from 1925 to 1941, Reza Shah's numerous development projects transformed Iran into an urbanized country. Public education progressed rapidly, and new social classes developed. A professional middle class and an industrial working class emerged.
By the mid-1930s, Reza Shah's dictatorial style of rule caused dissatisfaction among some groups, particularly the clergy, which was opposed to his reforms. In 1935, Reza Pahlavi issued a decree asking foreign delegates to use the term Iran in formal correspondence, in accordance with the fact that "Persia" was a term used by Western peoples for the country called "Iran" in Persian. After some scholars protested, his successor, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, announced in 1959 that both Persia and Iran were acceptable and could be used interchangeably.
Reza Shah tried to avoid involvement with Britain and the Soviet Union. Though many of his development projects required foreign technical expertise, he avoided awarding contracts to British and Soviet companies. Although Britain, through its ownership of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, controlled all of Iran's oil resources, Reza Shah preferred to obtain technical assistance from Germany, France, Italy, and other European countries. This created problems for Iran after 1939, when Germany and Britain became enemies in World War II. Reza Shah proclaimed Iran as a neutral country, but Britain insisted that German engineers and technicians in Iran were spies with missions to sabotage British oil facilities in southwestern Iran. Britain demanded that Iran expel all German citizens, but Reza Shah refused, claiming this would adversely impact his development projects.
Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union became allies. Both turned their attention to Iran. Britain and the Soviet Union (USSR) saw the newly-opened Trans-Iranian Railway as an attractive route to transport supplies from the Persian Gulf to the Soviet Union. In August 1941, because Reza Shah refused to expel the German nationals, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran, arrested the Shah and sent him into exile, taking control of Iran's communications and railroad. In 1942 the United States, an ally of Britain and the USSR during the war, sent a military force to Iran to help maintain and operate sections of the railroad. Over the next few months, the three nations took control of Iran's oil resources and secured a supply corridor for themselves. Reza Shah's regime collapsed, and the American, British and Soviet authorities limited the powers of the rump government that remained. They permitted Reza Shah's son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to accede to the throne.
In January 1942 the three allies signed an agreement with Iran to respect Iran's independence and to withdraw their troops within six months of the war's end. In 1943 at the Tehran Conference, the United States reaffirmed this commitment. In 1945, the USSR refused to announce a timetable to leave Iran's northwestern provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, where Soviet-supported autonomy movements had developed. At the time, the Tudeh Party of Iran, a communist party that was already influential and had parliamentary representation, was becoming increasingly militant, especially in the North. This promoted actions from the side of the government, including attempts of the Iranian armed forces to restore order in the Northern provinces. While the Tudeh headquarters in Tehran were occupied and the Isfahan branch crushed, the Soviet troops present in the Northern parts of the country prevented the Iranian forces from entering. Thus, by the late autumn of 1945, the North was virtually controlled by the Tudeh and its affiliates.
The USSR withdrew its troops in May 1946, but tensions continued for several months. This episode was one of the precipitating events of the emerging Cold War, the postwar rivalry between the United States and its allies, and the USSR and its allies.
Iran's political system became increasingly open. Political parties were developed, and in 1944 the Majlis election was the first genuinely competitive election in more than 20 years. Foreign influence remained a very sensitive issue for all parties. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which was owned by the British government, continued to produce and market Iranian oil. In the beginning of the 1930s some Iranians began to advocate nationalization of the country's oil fields. After 1946 this became an increasingly popular political movement.
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and his wife Farah Diba, upon him being proclaimed the Shah of Iran.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi replaced his father on the throne on September 16, 1941. He wanted to continue the reform policies of his father, but a contest for control of the government soon erupted between the shah and an older professional politician, the nationalistic Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Despite his vow to act as a constitutional monarch who would defer to the power of the parliamentary government, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi increasingly involved himself in governmental affairs. He concentrated on reviving the army and ensuring that it would remain under royal control as the monarchy's main power base. In 1949 an assassination attempt on the Shah, attributed to the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party, resulted in the banning of that party and the expansion of the Shah's constitutional powers.
In 1951, the Majlis (Parliament of Iran) named Mohammad Mossadegh as new prime minister by a vote of 79–12. Shortly afterwards, Mossadegh nationalized the British-owned oil industry. Mossadegh was opposed by the Shah who feared a resulting oil embargo imposed by the west would leave Iran in economic ruin. The Shah fled Iran but returned when the United Kingdom and United States staged a coup against Mossadegh in August 1953. Mossadegh was then arrested by pro-Shah army forces.
In the context of regional turmoil and the Cold War, the Shah established himself as an indispensable ally of the West. Domestically, he advocated reform policies, culminating in the 1963 program known as the White Revolution, which included land reform, extension of voting rights to women, and the elimination of illiteracy. Major plans to build Iran's infrastructure were undertaken, a new middle class began flourishing and in less than two decades Iran became the indisputable major economic and military power of the Middle East.
However, these measures and the increasing arbitrariness of the Shah's rule provoked religious leaders who feared losing their traditional authority, and intellectuals seeking democratic reforms. These opponents criticized the Shah for his reforms or for violation of the constitution, which placed limits on royal power and provided for a representative government.
The Shah saw himself as heir to the kings of ancient Iran, and in 1971 he held a celebration of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. In 1976 he replaced the calendar (year 1355) with an "Imperial" calendar (year 2535), which began with the foundation of the Persian Empire more than 25 centuries earlier. These actions were viewed as un-Islamic and resulted in more religious opposition by the clergy.
The Shah's government suppressed its opponents with the help of Iran's security and intelligence secret police, SAVAK. Such opponents included members of the Communist Tudeh party, who tried to assassinate the Shah and his son on multiple occasions.
By the mid-1970s, relying on increased oil revenues, the Shah began a series of even more ambitious and bolder plans for the progress of his country and the march toward the "Great Civilization". However, his socioeconomic advances increasingly irritated the clergy. Islamic leaders, particularly the exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, were able to focus this discontent with an ideology tied to Islamic principles that called for the overthrow of the Shah and the return to Islamic traditions. The Shah's government collapsed following widespread uprisings in 1978 and 1979.
The Shah, seeking medical treatment, fled the country to Egypt, Mexico, the United States, and Panama and finally resettled with his family in Egypt as a guest of Anwar Sadat. Upon his death his son Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi succeeded him in absentia as heir apparent to the Pahlavi dynasty.
Pahlavi
Pahlavi. Adjective that, in its Middle Iranian form "pahlavig", designated the Parthians, the politically most prominent ethnic group in Iran during the Arsacid period (c. 250 B.C.T.-226 C.C.), and stood in contrast to Middle Iranian parsig (modern farsi), which designated the Persians, an ethnic group predominant in southwestern Iran that became the most prominent group during the succeeding Sasanid period (226-651). During the early Islamic period (seventh to eleventh century) this contradistinction between pahlavi and farsi retained its chronological implication as the designation for the older literary Persian of the Sasanids and the new literary Persian written in Arabic script, respectively.
Pahlavi, the official Sasanid literary language, represented a variety of Middle Iranian speech of the ethnic Persians in southwestern Iran (Persis) and was distinguished by its heterographic writing system, which was a direct paleographical development of the Achaemenid style of written Aramaic as it persisted and developed in this Persian-speaking area of Iran during the centuries following the end of Achaemenid administration (330 B.C.T.). It was used not only in official circles by the imperial chancellery for royal inscriptions, coins, and other government documents, but also by private individuals for a variety of purposes (e.g., inscriptions and letters). At least two prominent Sasanid religious communities, the Zoroastrians and the Nestorian Christians, used it extensively for religious writings and inscriptions. During the early Islamic period, Pahlavi continued to be used for Zoroastrian writings (ninth century) as well as on the inscriptions and coins of some local Iranian dynasts (seventh to eleventh centuries).
Pahlavi. Adjective that, in its Middle Iranian form "pahlavig", designated the Parthians, the politically most prominent ethnic group in Iran during the Arsacid period (c. 250 B.C.T.-226 C.C.), and stood in contrast to Middle Iranian parsig (modern farsi), which designated the Persians, an ethnic group predominant in southwestern Iran that became the most prominent group during the succeeding Sasanid period (226-651). During the early Islamic period (seventh to eleventh century) this contradistinction between pahlavi and farsi retained its chronological implication as the designation for the older literary Persian of the Sasanids and the new literary Persian written in Arabic script, respectively.
Pahlavi, the official Sasanid literary language, represented a variety of Middle Iranian speech of the ethnic Persians in southwestern Iran (Persis) and was distinguished by its heterographic writing system, which was a direct paleographical development of the Achaemenid style of written Aramaic as it persisted and developed in this Persian-speaking area of Iran during the centuries following the end of Achaemenid administration (330 B.C.T.). It was used not only in official circles by the imperial chancellery for royal inscriptions, coins, and other government documents, but also by private individuals for a variety of purposes (e.g., inscriptions and letters). At least two prominent Sasanid religious communities, the Zoroastrians and the Nestorian Christians, used it extensively for religious writings and inscriptions. During the early Islamic period, Pahlavi continued to be used for Zoroastrian writings (ninth century) as well as on the inscriptions and coins of some local Iranian dynasts (seventh to eleventh centuries).
Pahlavi, Ashraf
Pahlavi, Ashraf (Ashraf Pahlavi) (Ashraf ul-Mulk) (b. October 26, 1919). Twin sister of the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, active in Iranian political and social welfare activities. She founded the Imperial Organization for Social Services in the 1940s and represented the Iranian government in an official trip to the Soviet Union in 1946 to discuss the critical issue of the communist backed Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan that was established in Iran in 1945. In the 1950s, she formed the Women’s Organization of Iran. The organization was largely responsible for the passage of the Family Protection Act in 1975. She was sent into exile twice, first in 1951 by the Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, ostensibly because of corruption and her opposition to the oil nationalization bill. She returned to Iran in 1953 after the fall of Mossadegh and resumed her political and social activities. She again followed her brother into exile in 1979.
Ashraf Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Ashraf
Pahlavi, Ashraf (Ashraf Pahlavi) (Ashraf ul-Mulk) (b. October 26, 1919). Twin sister of the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, active in Iranian political and social welfare activities. She founded the Imperial Organization for Social Services in the 1940s and represented the Iranian government in an official trip to the Soviet Union in 1946 to discuss the critical issue of the communist backed Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan that was established in Iran in 1945. In the 1950s, she formed the Women’s Organization of Iran. The organization was largely responsible for the passage of the Family Protection Act in 1975. She was sent into exile twice, first in 1951 by the Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, ostensibly because of corruption and her opposition to the oil nationalization bill. She returned to Iran in 1953 after the fall of Mossadegh and resumed her political and social activities. She again followed her brother into exile in 1979.
Ashraf Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Ashraf
Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah (Muhammad Riza Shah Pahlavi) (Mohamed Reza Pahlavi) (Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi) (Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi) (October 26, 1919 – July 27, 1980). Shah of Iran (r.1941-1979). During his reign, he initiated the White Revolution which emphasized rapid modern development combined with a grandiose military buildup and dictatorial rule. It was this White Revolution which is generally deemed responsible for his downfall.
Mohammed Reza was the shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979 and was the last monarch before the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Mohammed Reza Shah was the son of Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. He and his twin sister, Ashraf, were born in Tehran while their father was still an officer with the Cossack Brigade. Mohammed Reza was named crown prince at the coronation of Reza Shah in 1926. His father made a conscious effort to educate him to be a future shah. From 1931 to 1936 Mohammad Reza attended private schools in Switzerland. When he returned to Iran, he studied military science for two years at the Military College in Tehran, then served as inspector of the army for three years.
Mohammed Reza was named shah in September 1941, following the forced abdication of his father under pressure from Great Britain and the Soviet Union, whose forces had jointly invaded Iran. The foreign troops continued to occupy parts of Iran until May 1946. Thus, Mohammed Reza Shah began his reign under the national humiliation of foreign intervention. He and his fellow citizens would continue to be concerned about the role of foreign governmental interference in Iran’s internal affairs thoughout his entire rule.
In the early postwar period Pahlavi’s reign was marked by political unrest generated by Communist and nationalist movements; an attempt was made on his life in 1949.
The forced abdication of Reza Shah and the presence of foreign troops in Iran for more than four years helped to stimulate the revival of political parties opposed to the concentration of power in the hands of the monarch. Consequently, the first twelve years of Mohammed Reza Shah’s reign were characterized by intense rivalry between the shah and his supporters and the elected members of the Majlis who preferred a strictly constitutional king. By 1951, the Majlis was able to nominate its own choice for prime minister, and Mohammed Reza Shah was obliged to acquiesce. In 1953, the Majlis nationalized the petroleum industry, then owned by the British government, precipitating an international crisis. The shah was forced to flee the country, but a pro-royalist, military coup d’etat against the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh (Muhammad Mosaddegh) enabled Mohammed Reza to return to reclaim the throne. It is widely reported that Mohammed Reza was restored to his throne with covert United States aid.
After 1953, Mohammed Reza Shah asserted himself more forcefully. Independent political parties were banned, press censorship was imposed, elections to the Majlis were controlled, and political leaders who insisted upon expressing opposition in public were jailed. The repressive measures provoked periodic political disturbances, most notably the riots of June 1963, which spread to several cities and resulted in hundreds of casualties. Nevertheless, until 1977 most of the period after 1953 was characterized by relative political calm despite the general resentment of the shah’s authoritarian rule.
Having begun the distribution of royal lands to tenant farmers in 1951, the shah in 1962 ordered large private landholdings broken up to allow peasant ownership. The following year he revealed his White Revolution program of socioeconomic reforms. He meanwhile delayed his coronation until 1967.
Mohammed Reza Shah was interested, as had been his father, in promoting what he believed was the modernization of his country. Thus, he initiated projects to expand industrial capacity. These included direct government investment in petroleum refineries, steel works, and various heavy industries, as well as easy term loans and subsidies for private investors. The revenues from the sale of oil were used to finance multi-year development plans and major projects such as dam construction, extensions of the Trans-Iranian Railway, and new highways.
Mohammed Reza Shah also was interested in agricultural development. He supported the implementation of a major land reform program that led to the redistribution of approximately one-half of the cultivated land to peasant sharecroppers. Low interest loans to large landowners encouraged the increased production of industrial and export crops. The government also invested in and subsidized the development of agribusinesses, agricultural machinery manufacture, and irrigation networks.
Mohammed Reza Shah also promoted social changes by expanding the state-supported school system, especially at the secondary and college levels, and by supporting legislation to improve the legal status of women. Some of the social changes that occurred as a result of these policies, as well as social changes that resulted from economic development policies, were resented by various classes of people who felt threatened by the rapidity of social change. By 1977, those who opposed social changes have begun to ally with groups who were disaffected on account of political and/or economic grievances.
As the power of the oil-exporting nations grew in the 1970s, the shah became an increasingly important world leader, and Iran became the pre-eminent military power of Southwest Asia. At the same time, strong opposition to his autocratic rule developed, especially among the group of conservative Muslims led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Consequently, a popular movement against the shah developed in the latter part of 1977 and throughout 1978. In January 1979, Mohammed Reza Shah decided to leave Iran voluntarily in order to stem the tide of discontent. His departure failed to dampen the anti-monarchy sentiments, and in a referendum in April an overwhelming majority of the population voted to abolish the institution of shah and replace it with a republic.
Mohammed Reza Shah did not return to Iran. He lived in exile in various countries and died of cancer in Cairo, Egypt on July 27, 1980.
Muhammad Riza Shah Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Mohamed Reza Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Pahlavi, Mohamed Reza see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Pahlavi, Muhammad Reza Shah see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah (Muhammad Riza Shah Pahlavi) (Mohamed Reza Pahlavi) (Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi) (Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi) (October 26, 1919 – July 27, 1980). Shah of Iran (r.1941-1979). During his reign, he initiated the White Revolution which emphasized rapid modern development combined with a grandiose military buildup and dictatorial rule. It was this White Revolution which is generally deemed responsible for his downfall.
Mohammed Reza was the shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979 and was the last monarch before the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Mohammed Reza Shah was the son of Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. He and his twin sister, Ashraf, were born in Tehran while their father was still an officer with the Cossack Brigade. Mohammed Reza was named crown prince at the coronation of Reza Shah in 1926. His father made a conscious effort to educate him to be a future shah. From 1931 to 1936 Mohammad Reza attended private schools in Switzerland. When he returned to Iran, he studied military science for two years at the Military College in Tehran, then served as inspector of the army for three years.
Mohammed Reza was named shah in September 1941, following the forced abdication of his father under pressure from Great Britain and the Soviet Union, whose forces had jointly invaded Iran. The foreign troops continued to occupy parts of Iran until May 1946. Thus, Mohammed Reza Shah began his reign under the national humiliation of foreign intervention. He and his fellow citizens would continue to be concerned about the role of foreign governmental interference in Iran’s internal affairs thoughout his entire rule.
In the early postwar period Pahlavi’s reign was marked by political unrest generated by Communist and nationalist movements; an attempt was made on his life in 1949.
The forced abdication of Reza Shah and the presence of foreign troops in Iran for more than four years helped to stimulate the revival of political parties opposed to the concentration of power in the hands of the monarch. Consequently, the first twelve years of Mohammed Reza Shah’s reign were characterized by intense rivalry between the shah and his supporters and the elected members of the Majlis who preferred a strictly constitutional king. By 1951, the Majlis was able to nominate its own choice for prime minister, and Mohammed Reza Shah was obliged to acquiesce. In 1953, the Majlis nationalized the petroleum industry, then owned by the British government, precipitating an international crisis. The shah was forced to flee the country, but a pro-royalist, military coup d’etat against the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh (Muhammad Mosaddegh) enabled Mohammed Reza to return to reclaim the throne. It is widely reported that Mohammed Reza was restored to his throne with covert United States aid.
After 1953, Mohammed Reza Shah asserted himself more forcefully. Independent political parties were banned, press censorship was imposed, elections to the Majlis were controlled, and political leaders who insisted upon expressing opposition in public were jailed. The repressive measures provoked periodic political disturbances, most notably the riots of June 1963, which spread to several cities and resulted in hundreds of casualties. Nevertheless, until 1977 most of the period after 1953 was characterized by relative political calm despite the general resentment of the shah’s authoritarian rule.
Having begun the distribution of royal lands to tenant farmers in 1951, the shah in 1962 ordered large private landholdings broken up to allow peasant ownership. The following year he revealed his White Revolution program of socioeconomic reforms. He meanwhile delayed his coronation until 1967.
Mohammed Reza Shah was interested, as had been his father, in promoting what he believed was the modernization of his country. Thus, he initiated projects to expand industrial capacity. These included direct government investment in petroleum refineries, steel works, and various heavy industries, as well as easy term loans and subsidies for private investors. The revenues from the sale of oil were used to finance multi-year development plans and major projects such as dam construction, extensions of the Trans-Iranian Railway, and new highways.
Mohammed Reza Shah also was interested in agricultural development. He supported the implementation of a major land reform program that led to the redistribution of approximately one-half of the cultivated land to peasant sharecroppers. Low interest loans to large landowners encouraged the increased production of industrial and export crops. The government also invested in and subsidized the development of agribusinesses, agricultural machinery manufacture, and irrigation networks.
Mohammed Reza Shah also promoted social changes by expanding the state-supported school system, especially at the secondary and college levels, and by supporting legislation to improve the legal status of women. Some of the social changes that occurred as a result of these policies, as well as social changes that resulted from economic development policies, were resented by various classes of people who felt threatened by the rapidity of social change. By 1977, those who opposed social changes have begun to ally with groups who were disaffected on account of political and/or economic grievances.
As the power of the oil-exporting nations grew in the 1970s, the shah became an increasingly important world leader, and Iran became the pre-eminent military power of Southwest Asia. At the same time, strong opposition to his autocratic rule developed, especially among the group of conservative Muslims led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Consequently, a popular movement against the shah developed in the latter part of 1977 and throughout 1978. In January 1979, Mohammed Reza Shah decided to leave Iran voluntarily in order to stem the tide of discontent. His departure failed to dampen the anti-monarchy sentiments, and in a referendum in April an overwhelming majority of the population voted to abolish the institution of shah and replace it with a republic.
Mohammed Reza Shah did not return to Iran. He lived in exile in various countries and died of cancer in Cairo, Egypt on July 27, 1980.
Muhammad Riza Shah Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Mohamed Reza Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Pahlavi, Mohamed Reza see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Pahlavi, Muhammad Reza Shah see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Muhammad Riza Shah
Pahlavi, Reza
Pahlavi, Reza (Reza Pahlavi) (Reza Khan Pahlavi) (Reza Shah Pahlavi) (Reza Shah) (Reza Shah the Great) (Reza Shah Kabir) ( Riza Pahlavi) (March 16, 1878 – July 26, 1944). Shah of Iran (r.1925-1941). He was founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. Reza Shah was born in an Elburz mountain village (Savad Kouh) near the Caspian Sea in Iran’s Mazandaran Province. His father, a small landowner and an officer in a locally recruited regiment of Nasir al-Din’s army, died when Reza was still an infant. Subsequently, his mother took him to Tehran, where Reza was raised in the household of a maternal uncle. While he was an adolescent, his uncle had him enrolled in the Russian-officered Cossack Brigade in about 1893. The future shah was to spend almost thirty years with the Cossacks, rising from the ranks to become one of the brigade’s most influential Iranian officers and, eventually, commander of the entire army.
Reza Shah’s interest in politics developed as early as World War I. After the Iranian government dismissed all remaining Russian officers of the Cossack Brigade in 1920, Reza, then a general, was made commander of the regiment based in Qazvin. This position enabled him to exercise a degree of political power, and he was soon in contact with civilian leaders who were plotting to install a new government in Tehran. In February 1921, he collaborated with a prominent journalist in the coup d’etat that would lead to his emergence as the single most powerful leader in Iran.
Following the coup d’etat, Reza served initially as chief of the army, then as minister of war, and in October 1923, was appointed prime minister. After he became prime minister, he entertained the idea of establishing a republic in Iran. Opposition to a republic, led by prominent clergymen who feared that a republican government would institute secular programs like the 1924 reforms in Turkey, persuaded Reza that a monarchical form of government should be retained. Consequently, in December 1925, when the Majlis, or National Assembly, deposed the reigning ruler, Ahmed Shah (1898-1930), Reza encouraged his supporters in the Majlis to abolish the Qajar dynasty and establish a new royal family, the Pahlavi, with himself as Reza Shah.
During his reign, Reza Shah instituted various economic and social reforms that were collectively called modernization. The focus of his economic policies was the industrialization of Iran. The state invested in manufacturing enterprises and encouraged private capital to set up factories for producing consumer goods. An infrastructure of roads, railways, and renovated harbors was built to promote the industrial development.
Reza Shah’s social policies were equally significant. Legal reforms secularized the judicial system. A state run, public school system was established for the entire country. Universal male conscription was introduced and a national army created, and public dress codes were enforced for men and women. Some of his social policies were controversial, but Reza Shah did not tolerate public opposition after 1925. Consequently, the programs instituted during his reign, while often resented by different classes of the population, effected a major transformation of Iranian urban society.
Reza Shah viewed the social and economic policies he undertook as necessary measures to make a Iran a strong country that could resist pressures from the European powers. He regarded the foreign intervention in Iranian affairs, especially in the years 1911-1921, as a matter of national dishonor and was determined that such interference not recur. He sought to minimize the influence of Great Britain and Russia -- the two countries that historically had been most deeply involved in Iran -- by cultivating diplomatic relations with rival countries such as Germany, France, and the United States.
Reza Shah’s efforts to prevent foreign intervention proved to be futile. In August 1941, soon after Great Britain and the Soviet Union became allies in the war against Germany, they used the fact of Iran’s diplomatic relations with Germany as an excuse to invade and occupy Iran. Great Britain insisted upon Reza Shah’s abdication and exile from Iran. He died in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1944.
Reza Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Khan Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Shah Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Shah see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Shah Kabir see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Shah the Great see Pahlavi, Reza
Pahlavi, Reza (Reza Pahlavi) (Reza Khan Pahlavi) (Reza Shah Pahlavi) (Reza Shah) (Reza Shah the Great) (Reza Shah Kabir) ( Riza Pahlavi) (March 16, 1878 – July 26, 1944). Shah of Iran (r.1925-1941). He was founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. Reza Shah was born in an Elburz mountain village (Savad Kouh) near the Caspian Sea in Iran’s Mazandaran Province. His father, a small landowner and an officer in a locally recruited regiment of Nasir al-Din’s army, died when Reza was still an infant. Subsequently, his mother took him to Tehran, where Reza was raised in the household of a maternal uncle. While he was an adolescent, his uncle had him enrolled in the Russian-officered Cossack Brigade in about 1893. The future shah was to spend almost thirty years with the Cossacks, rising from the ranks to become one of the brigade’s most influential Iranian officers and, eventually, commander of the entire army.
Reza Shah’s interest in politics developed as early as World War I. After the Iranian government dismissed all remaining Russian officers of the Cossack Brigade in 1920, Reza, then a general, was made commander of the regiment based in Qazvin. This position enabled him to exercise a degree of political power, and he was soon in contact with civilian leaders who were plotting to install a new government in Tehran. In February 1921, he collaborated with a prominent journalist in the coup d’etat that would lead to his emergence as the single most powerful leader in Iran.
Following the coup d’etat, Reza served initially as chief of the army, then as minister of war, and in October 1923, was appointed prime minister. After he became prime minister, he entertained the idea of establishing a republic in Iran. Opposition to a republic, led by prominent clergymen who feared that a republican government would institute secular programs like the 1924 reforms in Turkey, persuaded Reza that a monarchical form of government should be retained. Consequently, in December 1925, when the Majlis, or National Assembly, deposed the reigning ruler, Ahmed Shah (1898-1930), Reza encouraged his supporters in the Majlis to abolish the Qajar dynasty and establish a new royal family, the Pahlavi, with himself as Reza Shah.
During his reign, Reza Shah instituted various economic and social reforms that were collectively called modernization. The focus of his economic policies was the industrialization of Iran. The state invested in manufacturing enterprises and encouraged private capital to set up factories for producing consumer goods. An infrastructure of roads, railways, and renovated harbors was built to promote the industrial development.
Reza Shah’s social policies were equally significant. Legal reforms secularized the judicial system. A state run, public school system was established for the entire country. Universal male conscription was introduced and a national army created, and public dress codes were enforced for men and women. Some of his social policies were controversial, but Reza Shah did not tolerate public opposition after 1925. Consequently, the programs instituted during his reign, while often resented by different classes of the population, effected a major transformation of Iranian urban society.
Reza Shah viewed the social and economic policies he undertook as necessary measures to make a Iran a strong country that could resist pressures from the European powers. He regarded the foreign intervention in Iranian affairs, especially in the years 1911-1921, as a matter of national dishonor and was determined that such interference not recur. He sought to minimize the influence of Great Britain and Russia -- the two countries that historically had been most deeply involved in Iran -- by cultivating diplomatic relations with rival countries such as Germany, France, and the United States.
Reza Shah’s efforts to prevent foreign intervention proved to be futile. In August 1941, soon after Great Britain and the Soviet Union became allies in the war against Germany, they used the fact of Iran’s diplomatic relations with Germany as an excuse to invade and occupy Iran. Great Britain insisted upon Reza Shah’s abdication and exile from Iran. He died in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1944.
Reza Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Khan Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Shah Pahlavi see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Shah see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Shah Kabir see Pahlavi, Reza
Reza Shah the Great see Pahlavi, Reza
Pakhtun
Pakhtun (Pashtun) (Pushtun) (Pathan) (Pukhtun). Terms by which the speakers of Pakhtu/Pashtu inhabiting the present territory of Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan have preferred to be known. Outsiders, however, have more frequently referred to them as Pathans or Afghans.
The Pakhtu language seems to be derived from Saka, a language spoken by Central Asian nomads who conquered the present habitat of the Pakhtuns in the second millennium B.C.T. However, there is little historical evidence or agreement on the ethnogenesis of the Pakhtuns. Stressing their monotheism, the Pakhtuns, in their folklore, equate their origin with the origin of Islam: Qais, their putative ancestor, is said to have led his followers from Ghur, in central Afghanistan, to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, in Medina. There he was converted by the Prophet in person and renamed Abd al-Rashid.
The Pakhtuns represent their social relations in an organizational chart of hierarchical patrilineal segments, starting with Qais and his three or four sons and reaching those living in the present. In this principle, every Pakhtun should know every chain of segmentation. In practice, however, a male Pakhtun has to know the name of his seven male ascendants and how their living descendants are linked to him. Beyond this minimal unit, he is required to know only the major segments, rather than the precise line of individuals through which his minimal unit is linked to the higher-named segments.
There are no words in Pakhtu that refer exclusively to a “lineage,” in which descent is demonstrated, or a “clan,” in which descent is merely assumed. The suffixes zai and khel, added to names of males to imply descent from them, can mean either “lineage” or “clan.” The ambiguity, however, is very useful in practice. Instead of allowing their genealogy to dictate their behavior, the Pakhtuns can manipulate their tables of organization in such a way as to change the significance of levels of segmentation to the extent of incorporating totally alien groups within their genealogical fold.
Durrani, Ghilzai, and Karlanri have been for the last two centuries the names of the major groups of Pakhtun clans. The major clans in the Durrani group are the Achakzai, Alikozai, Alizai, Barakzai, Ishaqzai, Nurzai, and Popalzai; in the Ghilzai group are the Andar, Hotak, Kharoti, Nasir, Sahak, Sulimankhel, Taraki, and Tokhi; and in the Karlanri group are the Afridi, Bangash, Khatak, Khugiani, Mahsudi, Mangal, Orakzai, Utmankhel, and Wazir.
Symbolically, the unity of the Pakhtuns is expressed through their adherence to pakhtunwali, the ideal code of behavior stressing honor, hospitality, and revenge. Pakhtunwali is also a customary system of mediation that includes provisions for settling disputes ranging from theft to homicide. The social agencies through which pakhtunwali has been practiced are the jirga (assembly) and the khan (chief). In its juridical sense, jirga refers to a gathering of experts on pakhtunwali who are chosen by parties to a case to mediate between the disputants. In its political sense, jirga refers to a gathering of all members of a clan, heads of households or lineages, or the representatives of clans, who serve as intermediaries between a Pakhtun group and outside powers. The jirga is, thus, always considered representative, but the khan may or may not be.
In the sixteenth century, the title khan was bestowed by Mughal and Safavid emperors on Pakhtun notables appointed to safeguard the long-distance trade between India and Iran. The consolidation of the office of khan soon led to the emergence of khankhels (chiefly, lineages) that laid exclusive claim to the office. Khans, however, were often polygamous, and as the Pakhtun have had no preferential rules of succession to high office, the intense rivalry among aspirants to the office of khan often resulted in internal factionalism and unfavorable external alliances. The odds against unified Pakhtun action were thus great, and the few leaders who have succeeded at the task are fondly remembered by all Pakhtuns. The best known of these Pakhtun heroes are Khushal Khattak (1613-1689), the poet-warrior who led the Pakhtun resistance against the Mughals; Mir Wais Hotak (d. 1715), who freed Kandahar from the Safavid yoke and founded the Hotak state; and Ahmadshah (r. 1747-1773), who founded the Durrani empire. Unfortunately, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, which has subsequently driven most Pakhtuns out of the country, has neither produced unified action nor given rise to leaders with a vision of the future.
The Pashtuns are intimately tied to the history of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Following Muslim Arab and Turkic conquests from the 7th to 11th centuries, Pashtun ghazis (warriors for the faith) invaded and conquered much of northern India during the Khilji dynasty (1290–1321), Lodhi dynasty (1451–1526) and Suri dynasty (1540–1556). The Pashtuns' modern past stretches back to the Hotaki dynasty (1709–1738) and later the Durrani Empire (1747–1826).[58] The Hotakis were Ghilzai tribesmen, who defeated the Safavid dynasty of Persia and seized control over much of the Persian Empire from 1722 to 1738. This was followed by the conquests of Ahmad Shah Durrani who was a former high-ranking military commander under Nader Shah of Persia. He founded the Afghan Empire that covered most of what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Indian Punjab, and Khorasan province of Iran. After the fall of the Durrani Empire in 1826, the Barakzai dynasty took control of Afghanistan. Specifically, the Mohamedzai subclan ruled Afghanistan from 1826 to the end of Mohammed Zahir Shah's reign in 1973. This legacy continues into modern times as Afghanistan is run by President Hamid Karzai, who is from the Popalzai tribe of Kandahar.
The Pashtuns in Afghanistan resisted British designs upon their territory and kept the Russians at bay during the so-called Great Game. By playing the two empires against each other, Afghanistan remained an independent state and maintained some autonomy. But during the reign of Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901), Pashtun regions were divided by the Durand Line, and what is today western Pakistan was ceded to British India in 1893. In the 20th century, many politically-active Pashtun leaders living under British rule in the North-West Frontier Province of colonial India supported Indian independence, including Khan Wali Khan and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (both members of the Khudai Khidmatgar, popularly referred to as the Surkh posh or "the Red shirts"), and were inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent method of resistance. Later, in the 1970s, Khan Wali Khan pressed for more autonomy for Pashtuns in Pakistan. Many Pashtuns also worked in the Muslim League to fight for an independent Pakistan, including Abdur Rab Nishtar (a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah) and Yusuf Khattak, among others.
Pashtuns in Afghanistan attained complete independence from British intervention during the reign of King Amanullah Khan, following the Third Anglo-Afghan War. The monarchy ended when Sardar Daoud Khan seized control of Afghanistan in 1973. This opened the door to Soviet intervention and culminated in the Communist Saur Revolution in 1978. Starting in the late 1970s, many Pashtuns joined the Mujahideen opposition against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In the late 1990s, Pashtuns became known for being the primary ethnic group that comprised the Taliban, which was a religious government based on Islamic sharia law. The Taliban government was ousted in late 2001 during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and replaced with the current Karzai administration, which is dominated by Pashtun ministers.
Pashtun see Pakhtun
Pushtun see Pakhtun
Pathan see Pakhtun
Pukhtun see Pakhtun
Pakhtun (Pashtun) (Pushtun) (Pathan) (Pukhtun). Terms by which the speakers of Pakhtu/Pashtu inhabiting the present territory of Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan have preferred to be known. Outsiders, however, have more frequently referred to them as Pathans or Afghans.
The Pakhtu language seems to be derived from Saka, a language spoken by Central Asian nomads who conquered the present habitat of the Pakhtuns in the second millennium B.C.T. However, there is little historical evidence or agreement on the ethnogenesis of the Pakhtuns. Stressing their monotheism, the Pakhtuns, in their folklore, equate their origin with the origin of Islam: Qais, their putative ancestor, is said to have led his followers from Ghur, in central Afghanistan, to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, in Medina. There he was converted by the Prophet in person and renamed Abd al-Rashid.
The Pakhtuns represent their social relations in an organizational chart of hierarchical patrilineal segments, starting with Qais and his three or four sons and reaching those living in the present. In this principle, every Pakhtun should know every chain of segmentation. In practice, however, a male Pakhtun has to know the name of his seven male ascendants and how their living descendants are linked to him. Beyond this minimal unit, he is required to know only the major segments, rather than the precise line of individuals through which his minimal unit is linked to the higher-named segments.
There are no words in Pakhtu that refer exclusively to a “lineage,” in which descent is demonstrated, or a “clan,” in which descent is merely assumed. The suffixes zai and khel, added to names of males to imply descent from them, can mean either “lineage” or “clan.” The ambiguity, however, is very useful in practice. Instead of allowing their genealogy to dictate their behavior, the Pakhtuns can manipulate their tables of organization in such a way as to change the significance of levels of segmentation to the extent of incorporating totally alien groups within their genealogical fold.
Durrani, Ghilzai, and Karlanri have been for the last two centuries the names of the major groups of Pakhtun clans. The major clans in the Durrani group are the Achakzai, Alikozai, Alizai, Barakzai, Ishaqzai, Nurzai, and Popalzai; in the Ghilzai group are the Andar, Hotak, Kharoti, Nasir, Sahak, Sulimankhel, Taraki, and Tokhi; and in the Karlanri group are the Afridi, Bangash, Khatak, Khugiani, Mahsudi, Mangal, Orakzai, Utmankhel, and Wazir.
Symbolically, the unity of the Pakhtuns is expressed through their adherence to pakhtunwali, the ideal code of behavior stressing honor, hospitality, and revenge. Pakhtunwali is also a customary system of mediation that includes provisions for settling disputes ranging from theft to homicide. The social agencies through which pakhtunwali has been practiced are the jirga (assembly) and the khan (chief). In its juridical sense, jirga refers to a gathering of experts on pakhtunwali who are chosen by parties to a case to mediate between the disputants. In its political sense, jirga refers to a gathering of all members of a clan, heads of households or lineages, or the representatives of clans, who serve as intermediaries between a Pakhtun group and outside powers. The jirga is, thus, always considered representative, but the khan may or may not be.
In the sixteenth century, the title khan was bestowed by Mughal and Safavid emperors on Pakhtun notables appointed to safeguard the long-distance trade between India and Iran. The consolidation of the office of khan soon led to the emergence of khankhels (chiefly, lineages) that laid exclusive claim to the office. Khans, however, were often polygamous, and as the Pakhtun have had no preferential rules of succession to high office, the intense rivalry among aspirants to the office of khan often resulted in internal factionalism and unfavorable external alliances. The odds against unified Pakhtun action were thus great, and the few leaders who have succeeded at the task are fondly remembered by all Pakhtuns. The best known of these Pakhtun heroes are Khushal Khattak (1613-1689), the poet-warrior who led the Pakhtun resistance against the Mughals; Mir Wais Hotak (d. 1715), who freed Kandahar from the Safavid yoke and founded the Hotak state; and Ahmadshah (r. 1747-1773), who founded the Durrani empire. Unfortunately, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, which has subsequently driven most Pakhtuns out of the country, has neither produced unified action nor given rise to leaders with a vision of the future.
The Pashtuns are intimately tied to the history of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Following Muslim Arab and Turkic conquests from the 7th to 11th centuries, Pashtun ghazis (warriors for the faith) invaded and conquered much of northern India during the Khilji dynasty (1290–1321), Lodhi dynasty (1451–1526) and Suri dynasty (1540–1556). The Pashtuns' modern past stretches back to the Hotaki dynasty (1709–1738) and later the Durrani Empire (1747–1826).[58] The Hotakis were Ghilzai tribesmen, who defeated the Safavid dynasty of Persia and seized control over much of the Persian Empire from 1722 to 1738. This was followed by the conquests of Ahmad Shah Durrani who was a former high-ranking military commander under Nader Shah of Persia. He founded the Afghan Empire that covered most of what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Indian Punjab, and Khorasan province of Iran. After the fall of the Durrani Empire in 1826, the Barakzai dynasty took control of Afghanistan. Specifically, the Mohamedzai subclan ruled Afghanistan from 1826 to the end of Mohammed Zahir Shah's reign in 1973. This legacy continues into modern times as Afghanistan is run by President Hamid Karzai, who is from the Popalzai tribe of Kandahar.
The Pashtuns in Afghanistan resisted British designs upon their territory and kept the Russians at bay during the so-called Great Game. By playing the two empires against each other, Afghanistan remained an independent state and maintained some autonomy. But during the reign of Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901), Pashtun regions were divided by the Durand Line, and what is today western Pakistan was ceded to British India in 1893. In the 20th century, many politically-active Pashtun leaders living under British rule in the North-West Frontier Province of colonial India supported Indian independence, including Khan Wali Khan and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (both members of the Khudai Khidmatgar, popularly referred to as the Surkh posh or "the Red shirts"), and were inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent method of resistance. Later, in the 1970s, Khan Wali Khan pressed for more autonomy for Pashtuns in Pakistan. Many Pashtuns also worked in the Muslim League to fight for an independent Pakistan, including Abdur Rab Nishtar (a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah) and Yusuf Khattak, among others.
Pashtuns in Afghanistan attained complete independence from British intervention during the reign of King Amanullah Khan, following the Third Anglo-Afghan War. The monarchy ended when Sardar Daoud Khan seized control of Afghanistan in 1973. This opened the door to Soviet intervention and culminated in the Communist Saur Revolution in 1978. Starting in the late 1970s, many Pashtuns joined the Mujahideen opposition against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In the late 1990s, Pashtuns became known for being the primary ethnic group that comprised the Taliban, which was a religious government based on Islamic sharia law. The Taliban government was ousted in late 2001 during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and replaced with the current Karzai administration, which is dominated by Pashtun ministers.
Pashtun see Pakhtun
Pushtun see Pakhtun
Pathan see Pakhtun
Pukhtun see Pakhtun
Pakubuwana
Pakubuwana (Pakubuwono). Name which has been borne by twelve sushunans (“kings”) of Kartasura and Surakarta in Central Java since Pakubuwana I (r. 1704-1719). Pakubuwana II (r. 1726-1749) was one of the least able and most unfortunate monarchs of the Mataram dynasty. Pakubuwana IV (r. 1788-1820) was a mercurial man who tried to overturn existing political arrangements in Central Java and only narrowly escaped deposition by the Europeans on three occasions (in 1790, 1812, and 1815). Pakubuwana VI (r. 1823-1830) was exiled by the Dutch for fear that he would rebel. Pakubuwana XII (r. 1944 to ?) was kidnapped by Indonesian revolutionaries, and his prerogatives were abolished in 1946.
Susuhunan is a title used by the kings of Mataram and then by the hereditary rulers of Surakarta, Indonesia. The rulers of Surakarta traditionally adopt the reign name Pakubuwono (also spelled Pakubuwana). Susuhunan is specific to the rulers of Surakarta; the rulers of Yogyakarta, who are also descended from the Mataram dynasty have the title Sultan.
The following is the list of Susuhunan of Surakarta
* Pakubuwono II, 1727 — 1749 (Kartasura and Surakarta)
* Pakubuwono III, 1749 — 1788
* Pakubuwono IV, 1788 — 1820
* Pakubuwono V, 1820 — 1823
* Pakubuwono VI, 1823 — 1830, (Pangeran Bangun Tapa)
* Pakubuwono VII, 1830 — 1858
* Pakubuwono VIII, 1859 — 1861
* Pakubuwono IX, 1861 — 1893
* Pakubuwono X, 1893 — 1939
* Pakubuwono XI, 1939 — 1944
* Pakubuwono XII, 1944 — 2004
* Pakubuwono XIII 2005 — present
Note: There were two rival claimants to the throne, Hangabehi and Tedjowulan, both are sons of late Pakubuwono XII.
Pakubuwono see Pakubuwana
Pakubuwana (Pakubuwono). Name which has been borne by twelve sushunans (“kings”) of Kartasura and Surakarta in Central Java since Pakubuwana I (r. 1704-1719). Pakubuwana II (r. 1726-1749) was one of the least able and most unfortunate monarchs of the Mataram dynasty. Pakubuwana IV (r. 1788-1820) was a mercurial man who tried to overturn existing political arrangements in Central Java and only narrowly escaped deposition by the Europeans on three occasions (in 1790, 1812, and 1815). Pakubuwana VI (r. 1823-1830) was exiled by the Dutch for fear that he would rebel. Pakubuwana XII (r. 1944 to ?) was kidnapped by Indonesian revolutionaries, and his prerogatives were abolished in 1946.
Susuhunan is a title used by the kings of Mataram and then by the hereditary rulers of Surakarta, Indonesia. The rulers of Surakarta traditionally adopt the reign name Pakubuwono (also spelled Pakubuwana). Susuhunan is specific to the rulers of Surakarta; the rulers of Yogyakarta, who are also descended from the Mataram dynasty have the title Sultan.
The following is the list of Susuhunan of Surakarta
* Pakubuwono II, 1727 — 1749 (Kartasura and Surakarta)
* Pakubuwono III, 1749 — 1788
* Pakubuwono IV, 1788 — 1820
* Pakubuwono V, 1820 — 1823
* Pakubuwono VI, 1823 — 1830, (Pangeran Bangun Tapa)
* Pakubuwono VII, 1830 — 1858
* Pakubuwono VIII, 1859 — 1861
* Pakubuwono IX, 1861 — 1893
* Pakubuwono X, 1893 — 1939
* Pakubuwono XI, 1939 — 1944
* Pakubuwono XII, 1944 — 2004
* Pakubuwono XIII 2005 — present
Note: There were two rival claimants to the throne, Hangabehi and Tedjowulan, both are sons of late Pakubuwono XII.
Pakubuwono see Pakubuwana
Palawanon
Palawanon. The island of Palawan hosts five groups of Muslim Filipinos, including scattered communities of Tausug, Jama Mapun and Pangutaran Sama. The two other groups are the Molbog and the Palawanon. Nearly all are found in the five southern municipalities of Palawanon Province: Aborlon, Balabac, Batarasa, Brooke Point and Quezon.
The Palawanon, of whom approximately ten percent are Muslim, live in the mountainous, forested interior regions of southern Palawan. A few live along the west and east coasts of southern Palawan and also in the midst of Muslim groups on Balabac-Bugsuk islands. Islamization has occurred among these coastal Palawanon only in recent generations and is continuing, a function of increasing interaction with other Muslims. Palawanon in the interior are primarily traditional in religion.
The Palawanon, unlike many other groups, but like the Muslim Yakan, live in houses out of sight of each other, distributed among their plots of farm land. Probably for this reason they are called Ira-an, or “people in scattered places. ” They are primarily subsistence farmers cultivating upland rice.
The history of Palawan may be traced back 22,000 years ago, as confirmed by the discovery of bone fragments of the Tabon Man in the municipality of Quezon. Although the origin of the cave dwellers is not yet established, anthropologists believe they came from Borneo. Known as the Cradle of Philippine Civilization, the Tabon Caves consist of a series of chambers where scholars and anthropologists discovered the remains of the Tabon Man along with his tools and a number of artifacts.
Waves of migrants arrived in the Philippines by way of land bridges between Borneo and Palawan. From 220 up to 263 AD, during the period of the Three Kingdoms, the people living in Anwei province in South China were driven South by Han People. Some settled in Thailand, others went farther south to Indonesia, Sumatra, Borneo. They were known as Aetas and Negritos from whom Palawan's Batak tribe descended. Other tribes known to inhabit the islands such as the Palawano and Tagbanwa, are also descendants of the early settlers, who came via ice-age land bridges. They had a form of indigenous political structure developed in the island, wherein the natives had their non-formal form of government, an alphabet, and a system of trading with sea-borne merchants.
In 982, ancient Chinese traders regularly visited the islands. A Chinese author referred to these islands as Kla-ma-yan (Calamian), Palau-ye (Palawan), and Paki-nung (Busuanga). Pottery, china and other artifacts recovered from caves and waters of Palawan attest to trade relations that existed between Chinese and Malay merchants.
In the 12th century, Malay settlers, who came on boats, began to populate the island. Most of the settlements were ruled by Malay chieftains. These people grew palay, ginger, coconuts, camote, sugar and bananas. They also raised pigs, goats and chickens. Most of their economic activities were fishing, farming, and hunting by the use of bamboo traps and blowguns. The local people had a dialect consisting of 18 syllables. They were followed by the Indonesians of the Majapahit Empire in the 13th century, and they brought with them Buddhism and Hinduism.
Because of Palawan's proximity to Borneo, southern portions of the island were under the control of the Sultanate of Borneo for more than two centuries, and Islam was introduced. During the same period, trade relations flourished, and intermarriages occurred among the natives and the Chinese, Japanese, Arab, Hindu. The inter-mixing of blood resulted to a distinct breed of Palaweños, both in physical stature and features.
After Ferdinand Magellan's death, remnants of his fleet landed in Palawan where the bounty of the land saved them from starvation. Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's chronicler named the place "Land of Promise."
The first ever recorded act of piracy in the Philippines happened in Palawan when Chief Tuan Mohamad and his staff were captured aboard their vessel and taken hostage by the Spaniards who demanded ransom within 7 days consisting of 400 sukats or 190 sacks of clean rice, 450 chickens, 20 pigs, 20 goats and several jars filled with tuba.
The northern Calamianes Islands were the first to come under Spanish authority, and were later declared a province separate from the Palawan mainland. In the early 17th century, Spanish friars sent out missions in Cuyo, Agutaya, Taytay and Cagayancillo but they met resistance from Moro communities. Before 18th century, Spain began to build churches enclosed by garrisons for protection against Moro raids in the town of Cuyo, Taytay, Linapacan and Balabac. In 1749, the Sultanate of Borneo ceded southern Palawan to Spain.
In 1818, the entire island of Palawan, or Paragua as it was called, was organized as a single province named Calamianes, with its capital in Taytay. By 1858, the province was divided into two provinces, namely, Castilla, covering the northern section with Taytay as capital and Asturias in the southern mainland with Puerto Princesa as capital. It was later then divided into three districts, Calamianes, Paragua and Balabac, with Principe Alfonso town as its capital.
In 1902, after the Philippine-American War, the Americans established civil rule in northern Palawan, calling it the province of Paragua. In 1903, pursuant to Philippine Commission Act No. 1363, the province was reorganized to include the southern portions and renamed Palawan, and Puerto Princesa declared as its capital.
Many reforms and projects were later introduced in the province. Construction of school buildings, promotion of agriculture, and bringing people closer to the government were among the priority plans during this era.
During World War II, in order to prevent the rescue of prisoners of war by the advancing allies, on December 14, 1944, the Japanese herded the remaining 150 prisoners of war at Puerto Princesa into three covered trenches which were then set on fire using barrels of gasoline. Prisoners who tried to escape the flames were shot down. Others attempted to escape by climbing over a cliff that ran along one side of the trenches, but were later hunted down and killed. Only 11 men escaped the slaughter and between 133 and 141 were killed. The site of the massacre can still be visited. The massacre is the premise of the recently published book "Last Man Out: Glenn McDole, USMC, Survivor of the Palawan Massacre in World War II" by Bob Wilbanks, and the opening scenes of the 2005 Miramax movie, "The Great Raid".
The island was liberated from the Japanese Imperial Forces by a task force consisting of Filipino and American military personnel between February 28 and April 22, 1945.
Palawanon. The island of Palawan hosts five groups of Muslim Filipinos, including scattered communities of Tausug, Jama Mapun and Pangutaran Sama. The two other groups are the Molbog and the Palawanon. Nearly all are found in the five southern municipalities of Palawanon Province: Aborlon, Balabac, Batarasa, Brooke Point and Quezon.
The Palawanon, of whom approximately ten percent are Muslim, live in the mountainous, forested interior regions of southern Palawan. A few live along the west and east coasts of southern Palawan and also in the midst of Muslim groups on Balabac-Bugsuk islands. Islamization has occurred among these coastal Palawanon only in recent generations and is continuing, a function of increasing interaction with other Muslims. Palawanon in the interior are primarily traditional in religion.
The Palawanon, unlike many other groups, but like the Muslim Yakan, live in houses out of sight of each other, distributed among their plots of farm land. Probably for this reason they are called Ira-an, or “people in scattered places. ” They are primarily subsistence farmers cultivating upland rice.
The history of Palawan may be traced back 22,000 years ago, as confirmed by the discovery of bone fragments of the Tabon Man in the municipality of Quezon. Although the origin of the cave dwellers is not yet established, anthropologists believe they came from Borneo. Known as the Cradle of Philippine Civilization, the Tabon Caves consist of a series of chambers where scholars and anthropologists discovered the remains of the Tabon Man along with his tools and a number of artifacts.
Waves of migrants arrived in the Philippines by way of land bridges between Borneo and Palawan. From 220 up to 263 AD, during the period of the Three Kingdoms, the people living in Anwei province in South China were driven South by Han People. Some settled in Thailand, others went farther south to Indonesia, Sumatra, Borneo. They were known as Aetas and Negritos from whom Palawan's Batak tribe descended. Other tribes known to inhabit the islands such as the Palawano and Tagbanwa, are also descendants of the early settlers, who came via ice-age land bridges. They had a form of indigenous political structure developed in the island, wherein the natives had their non-formal form of government, an alphabet, and a system of trading with sea-borne merchants.
In 982, ancient Chinese traders regularly visited the islands. A Chinese author referred to these islands as Kla-ma-yan (Calamian), Palau-ye (Palawan), and Paki-nung (Busuanga). Pottery, china and other artifacts recovered from caves and waters of Palawan attest to trade relations that existed between Chinese and Malay merchants.
In the 12th century, Malay settlers, who came on boats, began to populate the island. Most of the settlements were ruled by Malay chieftains. These people grew palay, ginger, coconuts, camote, sugar and bananas. They also raised pigs, goats and chickens. Most of their economic activities were fishing, farming, and hunting by the use of bamboo traps and blowguns. The local people had a dialect consisting of 18 syllables. They were followed by the Indonesians of the Majapahit Empire in the 13th century, and they brought with them Buddhism and Hinduism.
Because of Palawan's proximity to Borneo, southern portions of the island were under the control of the Sultanate of Borneo for more than two centuries, and Islam was introduced. During the same period, trade relations flourished, and intermarriages occurred among the natives and the Chinese, Japanese, Arab, Hindu. The inter-mixing of blood resulted to a distinct breed of Palaweños, both in physical stature and features.
After Ferdinand Magellan's death, remnants of his fleet landed in Palawan where the bounty of the land saved them from starvation. Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's chronicler named the place "Land of Promise."
The first ever recorded act of piracy in the Philippines happened in Palawan when Chief Tuan Mohamad and his staff were captured aboard their vessel and taken hostage by the Spaniards who demanded ransom within 7 days consisting of 400 sukats or 190 sacks of clean rice, 450 chickens, 20 pigs, 20 goats and several jars filled with tuba.
The northern Calamianes Islands were the first to come under Spanish authority, and were later declared a province separate from the Palawan mainland. In the early 17th century, Spanish friars sent out missions in Cuyo, Agutaya, Taytay and Cagayancillo but they met resistance from Moro communities. Before 18th century, Spain began to build churches enclosed by garrisons for protection against Moro raids in the town of Cuyo, Taytay, Linapacan and Balabac. In 1749, the Sultanate of Borneo ceded southern Palawan to Spain.
In 1818, the entire island of Palawan, or Paragua as it was called, was organized as a single province named Calamianes, with its capital in Taytay. By 1858, the province was divided into two provinces, namely, Castilla, covering the northern section with Taytay as capital and Asturias in the southern mainland with Puerto Princesa as capital. It was later then divided into three districts, Calamianes, Paragua and Balabac, with Principe Alfonso town as its capital.
In 1902, after the Philippine-American War, the Americans established civil rule in northern Palawan, calling it the province of Paragua. In 1903, pursuant to Philippine Commission Act No. 1363, the province was reorganized to include the southern portions and renamed Palawan, and Puerto Princesa declared as its capital.
Many reforms and projects were later introduced in the province. Construction of school buildings, promotion of agriculture, and bringing people closer to the government were among the priority plans during this era.
During World War II, in order to prevent the rescue of prisoners of war by the advancing allies, on December 14, 1944, the Japanese herded the remaining 150 prisoners of war at Puerto Princesa into three covered trenches which were then set on fire using barrels of gasoline. Prisoners who tried to escape the flames were shot down. Others attempted to escape by climbing over a cliff that ran along one side of the trenches, but were later hunted down and killed. Only 11 men escaped the slaughter and between 133 and 141 were killed. The site of the massacre can still be visited. The massacre is the premise of the recently published book "Last Man Out: Glenn McDole, USMC, Survivor of the Palawan Massacre in World War II" by Bob Wilbanks, and the opening scenes of the 2005 Miramax movie, "The Great Raid".
The island was liberated from the Japanese Imperial Forces by a task force consisting of Filipino and American military personnel between February 28 and April 22, 1945.
Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (Al Fatah). Organization founded in 1964 as a Palestinian nationalist umbrella organization committed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, militia groups composing the PLO vied for control, with Al Fatah -- led by Yassir Arafat -- becoming dominant. Al Fatah joined the PLO in 1968 and won the leadership role in 1969. In 1969, Arafat assumed the position of PLO Executive Committee chairman, a position he still holds. Al Fatah essentially became the PLO, with other groups’ influence on PLO actions increasingly marginalized. Al Fatah and other PLO components were pushed out of Jordan following clashes with Jordanian forces in 1970-71. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 led to the group’s dispersal to several Southwest Asian and North Africa countries, including Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq, and others. The PLO maintains several military and intelligence wings that have carried out terrorist attacks, including Force 17 and the Western Sector. Two of its leaders, Abu Jihad and Abu Iyad, were assassinated in recent years. In the 1960s and the 1970s, Al Fatah offered training to a wide range of European, Southwest Asian, Asian and African terrorist and insurgent groups and carried out numerous acts of international terrorism in Western Europe and Southwest Asia in the early to middle 1970s. Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles (DOP) with Israel in 1993 --- the Oslo Accords -- and renounced terrorism and violence. The organization fragmented in the early 1980s, but remained the leading Palestinian political organization. Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, the PLO -- read Al Fatah -- leadership assumed control of the nascent Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is an organization which has worked as the official representative for the Palestinian people, and is now the leading force of Palestine. PLO is an umbrella organization made up of a handful of other organizations, like al-Fatah, as-Saiqa and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, organizations that are very different in many fields, but they all share the same goal of an independent Palestinian state.
However, a large part of the individual members connected to the PLO, are members directly connected to the organization. Earlier the planned Palestinian state was intended to be on the very same ground where Israel was, while they now define the new Palestinian state inside the borders of the areas occupied by Israel since 1967, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, plus East Jerusalem.
The PLO is made up of three bodies, the Executive Committee, exercising central control; the Central Committee, the counsel; and the Palestine National Council, which was earlier the Palestinian people’s parliament in exile.
PLO has performed both military and political actions. Military, the organization has been involved in actions against both Israeli troops and against innocent civilians, not only Israelis, but people of many nationalities. Responsibility for these actions has been denied by PLO though, but this is strongly disputed by international observers.
Politically, the organization has been only partly democratic, dominated as it has been by one person for almost all its history: Yassir Arafat. Yet, this political structure have proven to be effective enough to be implemented as a structure for parliamentarism of the new Palestinian state, called Palestinian National Authority for the transitory period from 1994 to 2000 or longer.
The PLO was founded in Jerusalem (the part belonging to Jordan) in May of 1964 by refugee groups and local Palestinians, and with the aid of Arab nations in the shape of the Arab League.
In 1968, Yassir Arafat, of al-Fatah, became chairman of the PLO
In 1970, there was a battle between the fadayeen (commandos) of PLOand the Jordanian army.
In 1971, the PLO was expelled from Jordan, and their body and many Palestinians move to Lebanon.
In 1974, the PLO was proclaimed the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by Arab states at the Rabat Conference. The United Nations recognized the PLO as “the representaive of the Palestinian people.”
In 1975, the civil war of Lebanon began, in which the PLO contributed by destabilizing the politics of Lebanon.
In 1982, there was an invasion of Lebanon by Israel. The PLO was once again driven out of their headquarters. About 12,000 members fled to other Arab countries. Arafat moved together with his followers to Borj Cedria, just outside Tunis, Tunisia, aided by the United States government.
In 1983, there was turmoil in the PLO. From this time on, the organization was strongly divided into two factions after disagreements with Arafat.
In October 1985, Israeli jets attacked Tunisia, bombing the PLO head quarters, but failed to kill Arafat who is the presumed target.
In July 1988, with Jordan giving up its claim on the West Bank in favor of the Palestinians, as represented by the PLO, room was given to declare a Palestinian state. On November 15, the Palestinian National Council declared under a meeting in Algiers, Algeria the establishment of a Palestinian state. At the same time they accepted the United Nations resolution 242, which in reality is a recognition Israel. In December, the United States began diplomatic talks with PLO.
In April 1989, Arafat was declared president of Palestine.
In 1991, with the PLO supporting Iraq during the Gulf War, the organization was set back with regard to its popularity among Western governments, as well as in Western public opinion. In July 1991, the PLO was driven out of southern Lebanon by the Lebanese army that is backed by Syria.
In January 1993, Israel’s ban on personal contacts with the PLO was lifted. On September 13, 1993, the Oslo Agreement was signed in Washington between Israel and the PLO, where power over Gaza and West Bank is to be transferred to an elected body of the Palestinian people. With this accord much of the PLO’s authority was restored. However, it was strongly opposed by several Palestinian groups.
In May of 1994, Israel withdrew from most of the Gaza Strip and Jericho, and the Palestinian state under the temporary name of the Palestinian National Authortiy became a reality.
On September 24, 1995, the so-called Oslo 2 Agreement was concluded and signed in Washington, D. C. four days later. This agreement was both a follow-up and a partial renegotiation of the initial Oslo Agreement from two years earlier. Many observers regard this agreement as less advantageous for the Palestinians than the initial agreement.
On January 20, 1996, elections were held in Palestine among non-Israeli residents, for a national council and a president of the council. Yassir Arafat received 88% of the ballots in the presidential election. His sympathizers won about 50 of the 88 seats in the national council. On April 24, the charter of the PLO from 1964 was changed so that the destruction of Israel no longer is the goal of the PLO. Seventy-five percent of the Palestinian National Council voted in favor of this, eight percent against it.
ʿArafāt’s decision to support Iraq during the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War alienated the PLO’s key financial donors among the gulf oil states and contributed to a further softening of its position regarding peace with Israel. In April 1993 the PLO under ʿArafāt’s leadership entered secret negotiations with Israel on a possible peace settlement between the two sides. The first document in a set of Israel-PLO agreements—generally termed the Oslo Accords—was signed on September 13, 1993, by ʿArafāt and the leaders of the Israeli government. The agreements called for mutual recognition between the two sides and set out conditions under which the West Bank and Gaza would be gradually handed over to the newly formed Palestinian Authority, of which ʿArafāt was to become the first president. This transfer was originally to have taken place over a five-year interim period in which Israel and the Palestinians were to have negotiated a permanent settlement. Despite some success, however, negotiations faltered sporadically throughout the 1990s and collapsed completely amid increasing violence—dubbed Al-Aqṣā intifāḍah—in late 2000. This second uprising had a distinctly religious character, and militant Islamic groups such as Ḥamās, which had come to the fore during the first intifāḍah, attracted an ever-larger following and threatened the PLO’s dominance within Palestinian society.
The Second or Al-Aqsa Intifada started concurrent with the breakdown of talks at Camp David with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The Intifada never ended officially, but violence hit relatively low levels during 2005. The death toll both military and civilians of the entire conflict in 2000-2004 is estimated to be 3,223 Palestinians and 950 Israelis, although this number is criticized for not differentiating between combatants and civilians. Members of the PLO have claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Israelis during the Second Intifada.
PLO see Palestine Liberation Organization
Al Fatah see Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (Al Fatah). Organization founded in 1964 as a Palestinian nationalist umbrella organization committed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, militia groups composing the PLO vied for control, with Al Fatah -- led by Yassir Arafat -- becoming dominant. Al Fatah joined the PLO in 1968 and won the leadership role in 1969. In 1969, Arafat assumed the position of PLO Executive Committee chairman, a position he still holds. Al Fatah essentially became the PLO, with other groups’ influence on PLO actions increasingly marginalized. Al Fatah and other PLO components were pushed out of Jordan following clashes with Jordanian forces in 1970-71. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 led to the group’s dispersal to several Southwest Asian and North Africa countries, including Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq, and others. The PLO maintains several military and intelligence wings that have carried out terrorist attacks, including Force 17 and the Western Sector. Two of its leaders, Abu Jihad and Abu Iyad, were assassinated in recent years. In the 1960s and the 1970s, Al Fatah offered training to a wide range of European, Southwest Asian, Asian and African terrorist and insurgent groups and carried out numerous acts of international terrorism in Western Europe and Southwest Asia in the early to middle 1970s. Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles (DOP) with Israel in 1993 --- the Oslo Accords -- and renounced terrorism and violence. The organization fragmented in the early 1980s, but remained the leading Palestinian political organization. Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, the PLO -- read Al Fatah -- leadership assumed control of the nascent Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is an organization which has worked as the official representative for the Palestinian people, and is now the leading force of Palestine. PLO is an umbrella organization made up of a handful of other organizations, like al-Fatah, as-Saiqa and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, organizations that are very different in many fields, but they all share the same goal of an independent Palestinian state.
However, a large part of the individual members connected to the PLO, are members directly connected to the organization. Earlier the planned Palestinian state was intended to be on the very same ground where Israel was, while they now define the new Palestinian state inside the borders of the areas occupied by Israel since 1967, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, plus East Jerusalem.
The PLO is made up of three bodies, the Executive Committee, exercising central control; the Central Committee, the counsel; and the Palestine National Council, which was earlier the Palestinian people’s parliament in exile.
PLO has performed both military and political actions. Military, the organization has been involved in actions against both Israeli troops and against innocent civilians, not only Israelis, but people of many nationalities. Responsibility for these actions has been denied by PLO though, but this is strongly disputed by international observers.
Politically, the organization has been only partly democratic, dominated as it has been by one person for almost all its history: Yassir Arafat. Yet, this political structure have proven to be effective enough to be implemented as a structure for parliamentarism of the new Palestinian state, called Palestinian National Authority for the transitory period from 1994 to 2000 or longer.
The PLO was founded in Jerusalem (the part belonging to Jordan) in May of 1964 by refugee groups and local Palestinians, and with the aid of Arab nations in the shape of the Arab League.
In 1968, Yassir Arafat, of al-Fatah, became chairman of the PLO
In 1970, there was a battle between the fadayeen (commandos) of PLOand the Jordanian army.
In 1971, the PLO was expelled from Jordan, and their body and many Palestinians move to Lebanon.
In 1974, the PLO was proclaimed the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by Arab states at the Rabat Conference. The United Nations recognized the PLO as “the representaive of the Palestinian people.”
In 1975, the civil war of Lebanon began, in which the PLO contributed by destabilizing the politics of Lebanon.
In 1982, there was an invasion of Lebanon by Israel. The PLO was once again driven out of their headquarters. About 12,000 members fled to other Arab countries. Arafat moved together with his followers to Borj Cedria, just outside Tunis, Tunisia, aided by the United States government.
In 1983, there was turmoil in the PLO. From this time on, the organization was strongly divided into two factions after disagreements with Arafat.
In October 1985, Israeli jets attacked Tunisia, bombing the PLO head quarters, but failed to kill Arafat who is the presumed target.
In July 1988, with Jordan giving up its claim on the West Bank in favor of the Palestinians, as represented by the PLO, room was given to declare a Palestinian state. On November 15, the Palestinian National Council declared under a meeting in Algiers, Algeria the establishment of a Palestinian state. At the same time they accepted the United Nations resolution 242, which in reality is a recognition Israel. In December, the United States began diplomatic talks with PLO.
In April 1989, Arafat was declared president of Palestine.
In 1991, with the PLO supporting Iraq during the Gulf War, the organization was set back with regard to its popularity among Western governments, as well as in Western public opinion. In July 1991, the PLO was driven out of southern Lebanon by the Lebanese army that is backed by Syria.
In January 1993, Israel’s ban on personal contacts with the PLO was lifted. On September 13, 1993, the Oslo Agreement was signed in Washington between Israel and the PLO, where power over Gaza and West Bank is to be transferred to an elected body of the Palestinian people. With this accord much of the PLO’s authority was restored. However, it was strongly opposed by several Palestinian groups.
In May of 1994, Israel withdrew from most of the Gaza Strip and Jericho, and the Palestinian state under the temporary name of the Palestinian National Authortiy became a reality.
On September 24, 1995, the so-called Oslo 2 Agreement was concluded and signed in Washington, D. C. four days later. This agreement was both a follow-up and a partial renegotiation of the initial Oslo Agreement from two years earlier. Many observers regard this agreement as less advantageous for the Palestinians than the initial agreement.
On January 20, 1996, elections were held in Palestine among non-Israeli residents, for a national council and a president of the council. Yassir Arafat received 88% of the ballots in the presidential election. His sympathizers won about 50 of the 88 seats in the national council. On April 24, the charter of the PLO from 1964 was changed so that the destruction of Israel no longer is the goal of the PLO. Seventy-five percent of the Palestinian National Council voted in favor of this, eight percent against it.
ʿArafāt’s decision to support Iraq during the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War alienated the PLO’s key financial donors among the gulf oil states and contributed to a further softening of its position regarding peace with Israel. In April 1993 the PLO under ʿArafāt’s leadership entered secret negotiations with Israel on a possible peace settlement between the two sides. The first document in a set of Israel-PLO agreements—generally termed the Oslo Accords—was signed on September 13, 1993, by ʿArafāt and the leaders of the Israeli government. The agreements called for mutual recognition between the two sides and set out conditions under which the West Bank and Gaza would be gradually handed over to the newly formed Palestinian Authority, of which ʿArafāt was to become the first president. This transfer was originally to have taken place over a five-year interim period in which Israel and the Palestinians were to have negotiated a permanent settlement. Despite some success, however, negotiations faltered sporadically throughout the 1990s and collapsed completely amid increasing violence—dubbed Al-Aqṣā intifāḍah—in late 2000. This second uprising had a distinctly religious character, and militant Islamic groups such as Ḥamās, which had come to the fore during the first intifāḍah, attracted an ever-larger following and threatened the PLO’s dominance within Palestinian society.
The Second or Al-Aqsa Intifada started concurrent with the breakdown of talks at Camp David with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The Intifada never ended officially, but violence hit relatively low levels during 2005. The death toll both military and civilians of the entire conflict in 2000-2004 is estimated to be 3,223 Palestinians and 950 Israelis, although this number is criticized for not differentiating between combatants and civilians. Members of the PLO have claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Israelis during the Second Intifada.
PLO see Palestine Liberation Organization
Al Fatah see Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) (Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine) (Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn). The PIJ, emerging from radical Gazan Palestinians in the 1970s, is apparently a series of loosely affiliated factions rather than a cohesive group. The PIJ focus is the destruction of Israel and the creation of a Palestinian Islamic state. Due to Washington’s support of Israel, the PIJ threatened to strike American targets. Arab regimes deemed to as un-Islamic were also threatened. PIJ cadres reportedly received funding from Iran and logistical support from Syria.
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine known in the West as simply Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a small Palestinian militant organization. The group has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and Israel. Their goal is the destruction of the state of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Islamic state.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad was created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood found that the organization was becoming too moderate and did not commit enough effort to the Palestinian struggle. So in the late 1970s, the founders of the PIJ, Fathi Shaqaqi and Abd al-Aziz Awda created the group to fight for the sovereignty of Palestine and the destruction of Israel. Shaqaqi and Awda conducted operations out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. The PIJ continued its work in Gaza until it was exiled to Lebanon in 1987. While in Lebanon, the group was able to receive training from Hezbollah and ultimately developed a close relationship with the Lebanese organization. While in Lebanon, the PIJ adopted the use of suicide bombing and other forms of terrorism as their principle method of achieving their goals. In 1989, the PIJ moved its operation to Damascus where it remains to this day.
The group is currently based in the Syrian capital, Damascus, but there are also offices in Beirut, Tehran and Khartoum. Its financial backing is believed to come from Syria and Iran. The group operates primarily in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but has also carried out attacks in Jordan and Lebanon. Its main strongholds in the West Bank are the cities of Hebron and Jenin. The PIJ has approximately 50 to 200 members as well as recruiting suicide bombers and volunteers. Because of its small size, the PIJ is unable to run large scale training camps so instead they rely heavily on other organizations such as Hezbollah for support.
Islamic Jihad has much in common with Hamas. They both work towards the destruction of Israel as a state as well as restoring the “true faith” to the Muslim world. The distinction between the groups comes in the order of these priorities. “The Islamic Brotherhood, like many other fundamentalist Islamic movements, sees jihad as a general duty of all Muslims and proposed that first ‘proper Islam’ should be established throughout the Muslim world. Only after the primary goal is achieved, violent jihad should be directed against Israel. In contrast, the irredentist Hamas movement switched the two priorities. It maintained that first jihad should be directed at liberating all of Palestine, and then Muslims should direct their attention to the goal of restoring the ‘true faith’ to the rest of the Islamic world.” Both groups were formed as offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood and receive a large amount of funding from Iran. With similar goals, Hamas and the PIJ have worked together on a number of attacks on Israel including a suicide bombing in Beit-Lid in February 1995 that killed eight Israelis and wounded fifty.
Fathi Shaqaqi led the organization for two decades until his death in Malta in October 1995 by an unknown party. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad often attempts to carry out attacks against Israeli targets on the anniversary of his death, although the identity of the assassins was never determined.
During the Al-Aqsa Intifada, beginning in September 2000, the PIJ committed many suicide bombing attacks against Israelis. Many of the attacks in 2001 and 2002 came from the PIJ in Jenin, headed by Mahmoud Tawallbe, Ali Sefoori, and Tabeth Mardawi. The headquarters of the PIJ in Jenin and the West Bank was seriously damaged during Operation Defensive Shield: Tawallbe was killed by an IDF Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer while Sefoori and Mardawi were arrested by Israeli security forces.
On February 20, 2003, University of South Florida computer engineering professor Dr. Sami Al-Arian was arrested after being indicted on 50 terrorism-related charges. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft alleged at a press conference that Al-Arian was the North American head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On December 6, 2005, Al-Arian was acquitted on 8 of the 17 charges against him, and the jury deadlocked on the remaining nine counts 10–2. Then on March 2, 2006, Al-Arian entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization. Al-Arian was sentenced to 57 months in prison, given credit for time served, and ordered deported following his prison term. In November 2006 he was found guilty of civil contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury. He served 13 months in prison on that conviction. In March 2008, the United States Department of Justice subpoenaed Al-Arian to testify before a grand jury. He refused to testify, and prosecutors charged him with criminal contempt in June 2008. On September 2, 2008, Al-Arian was released from detention on bond. He remains under house arrest, as he awaits a trial on criminal contempt charges.
Islamic Jihad is alleged to have used teens as suicide bombers. On March 29, 2004, 16-year-old Tamer Khuweir in Rifidia, an Arab suburb of Nablus, was apprehended by Israeli security forces as he prepared to carry out a suicide attack. His older brother claimed he was brainwashed to do it by an Islamic Jihad cleric and demanded the Palestinian Authority investigate the incident and arrest those responsible for it.
After Shaqaqi's death, Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been led since 1995 by fellow founder Sheikh Abdullah Ramadan Shallah, AKA Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah, who was then listed as a "Specially Designated Terrorist" under United States law on November 27, 1995, and subsequently was indicted on RICO charges, and consequently became one of the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists on February 24, 2006.
The PIJ’s main target is Israel but they also see the United States and Western secularism as an enemy. The PIJ “considered the United States an enemy because of its support for Israel. The PIJ also opposes moderate Arab governments that it believes have been tainted by Western secularism and has carried out attacks in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.
The Israeli response was to use targeted killings.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for many militant activities over the years. The organization is responsible for a number of attacks including more than 30 completed suicide bombings. “On December 22, 2001, despite a declaration by Hamas to halt suicide bombings inside Israel, in response to a crackdown on militants by Yassir Arafat, PIJ vowed to continue its terror campaign. PIJ’s representative in Lebanon, Abu Imad Al Rifai, told Reuters, ‘Our position is to continue. We have no other choice. We are not willing to compromise.’” The Palestinian Islamic Jihad have claimed responsibility for the following attacks:
* August 1987: The PIJ claimed responsibility for a shooting that killed the commander of the Israeli military police in the Gaza Strip.
* July 1989: Attack of Egged bus 405 along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, at least 14 people killed (including two Canadians and one American) and dozens more wounded. Though intended to be a suicide attack, the perpetrator survived.
* December 1993: Killed an Israeli reservist, David Mashrati, during a public bus shooting.
* April 1994: A car bomb aboard a public bus killed nine people and injured fifty.
* January 1995: Suicide bombing attack near Netanya killing eighteen soldiers and one civilian.
* April 1995: Suicide bomb in Netzarim and Kfar-Darom. The first bomb killed eight people and injured over 30 on an Israel bus. The second attack was a car bomb that injured twelve people.
* March 1996: A Tel Aviv shopping mall is the site of another suicide bombing killing twenty and injuring seventy five.
* November 2000: A car bomb in Jerusalem at an outdoor market killed two people and injured ten.
* June 2001: Suicide bomb attack at a Tel Aviv nightclub killing twenty-one people.
* March 2002: A suicide bomber killed seven people and injured approximately thirty aboard a bus travelling from Tel Aviv to Nazareth.
* June 2002: Eighteen people are killed and fifty injured in a suicide attack at the Meggido Junction.
* July 2002: A double suicide attack killed five people and injured 40 in Tel Aviv.
* November 2002: Ambush in Hebron.
* May 2003: Three people killed and eighty-three injured in a suicide bombing at a shopping mall in Afula.
* August 2003: A suicide bomber killed twenty-one people and injured over one hundred on a bus in Jerusalem.
* October 2003: Suicide bomber killed twenty-two and injured sixty at a Haifa restaurant.
* October 2005: A bomb detonated in a Hedera market was responsible for killing five people.
* April 2006: Suicide bomb in Tel Aviv killed eleven.
* January 2007: Both the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the PIJ claim responsibility for a suicide bombing at an Eliat bakery that killed three.
* On June 9, 2007, in a failed assault on an IDF position at the Kissufim crossing between Gaza and Israel in a possible attempt to kidnap IDF soldiers, four armed members of the al-Quds Brigades (the military wing of Islamic Jihad) and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (the military wing of Fatah) used a vehicle marked with "TV" and "PRESS" insignias penetrated the border fence and assaulted a guard tower in what Islamic Jihad and the army said was a failed attempt to capture an Israeli soldier. IDF troops killed one militant, while the others escaped. The use of a vehicle that resembled a press vehicle evoked a sharp response from many journalists and news organizations.
* On March 26, 2009, two Islamic Jihad terrorists were imprisoned for a conspiracy "to murder Israeli pilots and scientists using booby-trapped toy cars."
Islamic Jihad also deployed its own rocket, similar to the Qassam rocket used by Hamas, called the Al Quds rocket.
PIJ see Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine see Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn see Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) (Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine) (Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn). The PIJ, emerging from radical Gazan Palestinians in the 1970s, is apparently a series of loosely affiliated factions rather than a cohesive group. The PIJ focus is the destruction of Israel and the creation of a Palestinian Islamic state. Due to Washington’s support of Israel, the PIJ threatened to strike American targets. Arab regimes deemed to as un-Islamic were also threatened. PIJ cadres reportedly received funding from Iran and logistical support from Syria.
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine known in the West as simply Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a small Palestinian militant organization. The group has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and Israel. Their goal is the destruction of the state of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Islamic state.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad was created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood found that the organization was becoming too moderate and did not commit enough effort to the Palestinian struggle. So in the late 1970s, the founders of the PIJ, Fathi Shaqaqi and Abd al-Aziz Awda created the group to fight for the sovereignty of Palestine and the destruction of Israel. Shaqaqi and Awda conducted operations out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. The PIJ continued its work in Gaza until it was exiled to Lebanon in 1987. While in Lebanon, the group was able to receive training from Hezbollah and ultimately developed a close relationship with the Lebanese organization. While in Lebanon, the PIJ adopted the use of suicide bombing and other forms of terrorism as their principle method of achieving their goals. In 1989, the PIJ moved its operation to Damascus where it remains to this day.
The group is currently based in the Syrian capital, Damascus, but there are also offices in Beirut, Tehran and Khartoum. Its financial backing is believed to come from Syria and Iran. The group operates primarily in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but has also carried out attacks in Jordan and Lebanon. Its main strongholds in the West Bank are the cities of Hebron and Jenin. The PIJ has approximately 50 to 200 members as well as recruiting suicide bombers and volunteers. Because of its small size, the PIJ is unable to run large scale training camps so instead they rely heavily on other organizations such as Hezbollah for support.
Islamic Jihad has much in common with Hamas. They both work towards the destruction of Israel as a state as well as restoring the “true faith” to the Muslim world. The distinction between the groups comes in the order of these priorities. “The Islamic Brotherhood, like many other fundamentalist Islamic movements, sees jihad as a general duty of all Muslims and proposed that first ‘proper Islam’ should be established throughout the Muslim world. Only after the primary goal is achieved, violent jihad should be directed against Israel. In contrast, the irredentist Hamas movement switched the two priorities. It maintained that first jihad should be directed at liberating all of Palestine, and then Muslims should direct their attention to the goal of restoring the ‘true faith’ to the rest of the Islamic world.” Both groups were formed as offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood and receive a large amount of funding from Iran. With similar goals, Hamas and the PIJ have worked together on a number of attacks on Israel including a suicide bombing in Beit-Lid in February 1995 that killed eight Israelis and wounded fifty.
Fathi Shaqaqi led the organization for two decades until his death in Malta in October 1995 by an unknown party. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad often attempts to carry out attacks against Israeli targets on the anniversary of his death, although the identity of the assassins was never determined.
During the Al-Aqsa Intifada, beginning in September 2000, the PIJ committed many suicide bombing attacks against Israelis. Many of the attacks in 2001 and 2002 came from the PIJ in Jenin, headed by Mahmoud Tawallbe, Ali Sefoori, and Tabeth Mardawi. The headquarters of the PIJ in Jenin and the West Bank was seriously damaged during Operation Defensive Shield: Tawallbe was killed by an IDF Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer while Sefoori and Mardawi were arrested by Israeli security forces.
On February 20, 2003, University of South Florida computer engineering professor Dr. Sami Al-Arian was arrested after being indicted on 50 terrorism-related charges. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft alleged at a press conference that Al-Arian was the North American head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On December 6, 2005, Al-Arian was acquitted on 8 of the 17 charges against him, and the jury deadlocked on the remaining nine counts 10–2. Then on March 2, 2006, Al-Arian entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization. Al-Arian was sentenced to 57 months in prison, given credit for time served, and ordered deported following his prison term. In November 2006 he was found guilty of civil contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury. He served 13 months in prison on that conviction. In March 2008, the United States Department of Justice subpoenaed Al-Arian to testify before a grand jury. He refused to testify, and prosecutors charged him with criminal contempt in June 2008. On September 2, 2008, Al-Arian was released from detention on bond. He remains under house arrest, as he awaits a trial on criminal contempt charges.
Islamic Jihad is alleged to have used teens as suicide bombers. On March 29, 2004, 16-year-old Tamer Khuweir in Rifidia, an Arab suburb of Nablus, was apprehended by Israeli security forces as he prepared to carry out a suicide attack. His older brother claimed he was brainwashed to do it by an Islamic Jihad cleric and demanded the Palestinian Authority investigate the incident and arrest those responsible for it.
After Shaqaqi's death, Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been led since 1995 by fellow founder Sheikh Abdullah Ramadan Shallah, AKA Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah, who was then listed as a "Specially Designated Terrorist" under United States law on November 27, 1995, and subsequently was indicted on RICO charges, and consequently became one of the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists on February 24, 2006.
The PIJ’s main target is Israel but they also see the United States and Western secularism as an enemy. The PIJ “considered the United States an enemy because of its support for Israel. The PIJ also opposes moderate Arab governments that it believes have been tainted by Western secularism and has carried out attacks in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.
The Israeli response was to use targeted killings.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for many militant activities over the years. The organization is responsible for a number of attacks including more than 30 completed suicide bombings. “On December 22, 2001, despite a declaration by Hamas to halt suicide bombings inside Israel, in response to a crackdown on militants by Yassir Arafat, PIJ vowed to continue its terror campaign. PIJ’s representative in Lebanon, Abu Imad Al Rifai, told Reuters, ‘Our position is to continue. We have no other choice. We are not willing to compromise.’” The Palestinian Islamic Jihad have claimed responsibility for the following attacks:
* August 1987: The PIJ claimed responsibility for a shooting that killed the commander of the Israeli military police in the Gaza Strip.
* July 1989: Attack of Egged bus 405 along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, at least 14 people killed (including two Canadians and one American) and dozens more wounded. Though intended to be a suicide attack, the perpetrator survived.
* December 1993: Killed an Israeli reservist, David Mashrati, during a public bus shooting.
* April 1994: A car bomb aboard a public bus killed nine people and injured fifty.
* January 1995: Suicide bombing attack near Netanya killing eighteen soldiers and one civilian.
* April 1995: Suicide bomb in Netzarim and Kfar-Darom. The first bomb killed eight people and injured over 30 on an Israel bus. The second attack was a car bomb that injured twelve people.
* March 1996: A Tel Aviv shopping mall is the site of another suicide bombing killing twenty and injuring seventy five.
* November 2000: A car bomb in Jerusalem at an outdoor market killed two people and injured ten.
* June 2001: Suicide bomb attack at a Tel Aviv nightclub killing twenty-one people.
* March 2002: A suicide bomber killed seven people and injured approximately thirty aboard a bus travelling from Tel Aviv to Nazareth.
* June 2002: Eighteen people are killed and fifty injured in a suicide attack at the Meggido Junction.
* July 2002: A double suicide attack killed five people and injured 40 in Tel Aviv.
* November 2002: Ambush in Hebron.
* May 2003: Three people killed and eighty-three injured in a suicide bombing at a shopping mall in Afula.
* August 2003: A suicide bomber killed twenty-one people and injured over one hundred on a bus in Jerusalem.
* October 2003: Suicide bomber killed twenty-two and injured sixty at a Haifa restaurant.
* October 2005: A bomb detonated in a Hedera market was responsible for killing five people.
* April 2006: Suicide bomb in Tel Aviv killed eleven.
* January 2007: Both the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the PIJ claim responsibility for a suicide bombing at an Eliat bakery that killed three.
* On June 9, 2007, in a failed assault on an IDF position at the Kissufim crossing between Gaza and Israel in a possible attempt to kidnap IDF soldiers, four armed members of the al-Quds Brigades (the military wing of Islamic Jihad) and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (the military wing of Fatah) used a vehicle marked with "TV" and "PRESS" insignias penetrated the border fence and assaulted a guard tower in what Islamic Jihad and the army said was a failed attempt to capture an Israeli soldier. IDF troops killed one militant, while the others escaped. The use of a vehicle that resembled a press vehicle evoked a sharp response from many journalists and news organizations.
* On March 26, 2009, two Islamic Jihad terrorists were imprisoned for a conspiracy "to murder Israeli pilots and scientists using booby-trapped toy cars."
Islamic Jihad also deployed its own rocket, similar to the Qassam rocket used by Hamas, called the Al Quds rocket.
PIJ see Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine see Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn see Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Palestinians
Palestinians (Palestinian people) (Palestinian Arabs) (ash-sha'b al-filas Tini) (al-filas Tiniyyun) (al-'Arab al-filas Tiniyyun). Inhabitants of Palestine. It is now the term used for Arabs who live in Palestine or who came from Palestine or who are descended from emigrants from Palestine.
The Palestinian people, (Arabic: ash-sha`b al-filasTīni) also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs (Arabic: al-filasTīnīyyūn; Arabic: al-`Arab al-filasTīnīyyūn), are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine. As of 2009, the total Palestinian population was estimated at approximately 12 million, roughly less than half continuing to live within the boundaries of what was Mandate Palestine, an area encompassing Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip. In this combined area, as of 2009, Arabs constitute 49% of all inhabitants, some of whom are internally displaced. The remainder, over half of all Palestinians, comprise what is known as the Palestinian diaspora, of whom more than half are stateless refugees, lacking citizenship in any country. Of the diaspora, about 1.9 million live in neighboring Jordan, one and a half million between Syria and Lebanon, a quarter million in Saudi Arabia, while Chile's half a million are the largest concentration outside the Arab world.
By religious affiliation, most Palestinians are Muslim, particularly of the Sunni branch of Islam, and there is a significant Palestinian Christian minority of various Christian denominations in the Palestinian territories. However, the majority of Palestinian Christians are found outside of Palestine. As the commonly applied "Palestinian Arab" ethnonym implies, the current traditional vernacular of Palestinians, irrespective of religion, is the Palestinian dialect of Arabic. For those who are Arab citizens of Israel, many are now also bilingual in Modern Hebrew. Recent genetic evidence has demonstrated that Palestinians as an ethnic group are closely related to Jews and represent modern "descendants of a core population that lived in the area since prehistoric times," largely predating the Arabian Muslim conquest that resulted in their acculturation, established Arabic as the predominant vernacular, and over time also Islamized many of them from various prior faiths.
The first widespread use of "Palestinian" as an endonym to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by the local Arabic-speaking population of Palestine began prior to the outbreak of World War I, and the first demand for national independence was issued by the Syrian-Palestinian Congress on September 21, 1921. After the creation of Israel, the exodus of 1948, and more so after the exodus of 1967, the term came to signify not only a place of origin, but the sense of a shared past and future in the form of a Palestinian nation-state. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) represents the Palestinian people before the international community. The Palestinian National Authority, officially established as a result of the Oslo Accords, is an interim administrative body nominally responsible for governance in Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Since 1967, pan-Arabism has diminished as an aspect of Palestinian identity. The Israeli capture of the Gaza Strip and West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War prompted fractured Palestinian political and militant groups to give up any remaining hope they had placed in pan-Arabism. Instead, they rallied around the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, and its nationalistic orientation under the leadership of Yasser Arafat. Mainstream secular Palestinian nationalism was grouped together under the umbrella of the PLO whose constituent organizations include Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, among others. These groups gave voice to a tradition that emerged in 1960s that argues Palestinian nationalism has deep historical roots, with extreme advocates reading a Palestinian nationalist consciousness and identity back into the history of Palestine over the past few centuries, and even millennia, when such a consciousness is in fact relatively modern.
The Battle of Karameh and the events of Black September in Jordan contributed to growing Palestinian support for these groups, particularly among Palestinians in exile. Concurrently, among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a new ideological theme, known as sumud, represented the Palestinian political strategy popularly adopted from 1967 onward. As a concept closely related to the land, agriculture and indigenousness, the ideal image of the Palestinian put forward at this time was that of the peasant (in Arabic, fellah) who stayed put on his land, refusing to leave. A strategy more passive than that adopted by the Palestinian fedayeen, sumud provided an important subtext to the narrative of the fighters, in symbolizing continuity and connections with the land, with peasantry and a rural way of life.
In 1974, the PLO was recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people
by the Arab states and was granted observer status as a national liberation movement by the United Nations that same year. Israel rejected the resolution, calling it "shameful".
From 1948 through until the 1980’s, the textbooks used in Israeli schools tried to disavow a unique Palestinian identity, referring to 'the Arabs of the land of Israel' instead of 'Palestinians.' Israeli textbooks now widely use the term 'Palestinians.' Podeh believes that Palestinian textbooks of today resemble those from the early years of the Israeli state.
The First Intifada (1987–1993) was the first popular uprising against the Israeli occupation of 1967. Followed by the PLO's 1988 proclamation of a State of Palestine, these developments served to further reinforce the Palestinian national identity. After the signing of the Oslo Accords failed to bring about a Palestinian state, a Second Intifada (2000-) began, more deadly than the first. The International Court of Justice observed that since the government of Israel had decided to recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people, their existence was no longer an issue. The court noted that the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of September 28, 1995 also referred a number of times to the Palestinian people and its legitimate rights. The right of self-determination gives the Palestinians collectively an inalienable right to freely choose their political status, including the establishment of a sovereign and independent state. Israel, having recognized the Palestinians as a separate people, is obliged to promote and respect this right in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.
Today, most Palestinian organizations conceive of their struggle as either Palestinian-nationalist or Islamic in nature, and these themes predominate even more today. Within Israel itself, there are political movements, such as Abnaa el-Balad that assert their Palestinian identity, to the exclusion of their Israeli one.
Palestinian people see Palestinians
Palestinian Arabs see Palestinians
ash-sha'b al-filas Tini see Palestinians
al-filas Tiniyyun see Palestinians
al-'Arab al-filas Tiniyyun see Palestinians
From 1948 through until the 1980’s, the textbooks used in Israeli schools tried to disavow a unique Palestinian identity, referring to 'the Arabs of the land of Israel' instead of 'Palestinians.' Israeli textbooks now widely use the term 'Palestinians.' Podeh believes that Palestinian textbooks of today resemble those from the early years of the Israeli state.
The First Intifada (1987–1993) was the first popular uprising against the Israeli occupation of 1967. Followed by the PLO's 1988 proclamation of a State of Palestine, these developments served to further reinforce the Palestinian national identity. After the signing of the Oslo Accords failed to bring about a Palestinian state, a Second Intifada (2000-) began, more deadly than the first. The International Court of Justice observed that since the government of Israel had decided to recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people, their existence was no longer an issue. The court noted that the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of September 28, 1995 also referred a number of times to the Palestinian people and its legitimate rights. The right of self-determination gives the Palestinians collectively an inalienable right to freely choose their political status, including the establishment of a sovereign and independent state. Israel, having recognized the Palestinians as a separate people, is obliged to promote and respect this right in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.
Today, most Palestinian organizations conceive of their struggle as either Palestinian-nationalist or Islamic in nature, and these themes predominate even more today. Within Israel itself, there are political movements, such as Abnaa el-Balad that assert their Palestinian identity, to the exclusion of their Israeli one.
Palestinian people see Palestinians
Palestinian Arabs see Palestinians
ash-sha'b al-filas Tini see Palestinians
al-filas Tiniyyun see Palestinians
al-'Arab al-filas Tiniyyun see Palestinians
No comments:
Post a Comment