WI: The Royal Wedding of King Faisal II of Iraq and Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi of Iran, October 1955

[The Admiral Hook]

According to various vague sources throughout the internet King Faisal II of Iraq was briefly betrothed to the daughter of the Shah, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi of Iran, with the marriage scheduled for October 1955.


The marriage would have symbolically united both branches of Islam (Shia and Sunni) and may have also potentially resulted in a personal union once the Shah died presuming that the marriage resulted in a male heir and the Shah's eldest son dies early and his youngest is never born.


In OTL, allegedly, the Princess respectfully asked for a cancellation of the betrothal but remained friendly with Faisal II until his untimely death. As you know Iraq and Jordan entered into the 'Arab Federation' in 1958, and young King Faisal II would be overthrown and executed that same year.


But suppose in TTL King Faisal II of Iraq and Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi of Iran are married in October of 1955, Iraq still enters the Arab Federation in 1958, and butterflies somehow prevent the success of that year's coup.


There will be opposition, I know, perhaps even more than in OTL, but assuming it can be survived how does the history of the region most likely progress from 1955 until now?


I'm keeping this rather open ended to encourage the most possible discussion.

 

[Remitonov]

At the very least, expect a certain sociopathic Ayatollah to damn Shahnaz as a heretic who turned to her husband's Sunni faith.

 

[The Admiral Hook]

At the very least, expect a certain sociopathic Ayatollah to damn Shahnaz as a heretic who turned to her husband's Sunni faith.

I had considered that and I wonder if Khomeini would even attempt to flee to Iraq TTL.

Best case scenario for the happy couple would be to somehow quietly have him killed while in prison. Anything more dramatic or public and you risk sparking the revolution early. Letting him live on the other hand...

Also, I wonder if the marriage would necessarily mean she would renounce Shiism. It doesn't appear from all the limited information available that he would have required her to, and obviously her father would at any rate insist that she didn't.

As for their offspring... I don't know. Educated in both schools of faith but pressured towards neither?

Perhaps I'm being naïve.

 

[Deleted member 94680]

Genuine question: Can someone be both Shi’a and Sunni? Don’t you have to be one or the other?

I’m basing this on Protestant/Catholic analogues, so may well be wrong.

 

[Remitonov]

Genuine question: Can someone be both Shi’a and Sunni? Don’t you have to be one or the other?

I’m basing this on Protestant/Catholic analogues, so may well be wrong.

Technically, no, you have to be either one of the sects, though I'm sure there are plenty of Sunni-Shi'a couples throughout the world that ignore this, with kids able to decide on the sect on their own. For a monarchy, though, it's generally assumed the spouse of the reigning monarch would be the convert, so it's likely the princess would be nominally Sunni, at minimum.

 

[The Admiral Hook]

I would think she would simply be silent on the matter, but their children would almost certainly have to be nominally Sunni, even if privately they were educated in both schools of faith and personally, privately adhere to neither over the other.

If due to the death and butterflied away birth of the Queen Consort's OTL brothers her son inherits both thrones late in life, this matter would of course become pretty critical, however by then I would imagine a solution would have been well planned and in the works for some time.

Perhaps, despite being a Sunni Muslim, he vows to rule both states as a secular leader adhering to a moderate and modern interpretation of Islam and respecting the freedom of both sects to peacefully coexist.

It may also help if his own consort is nominally Shia, as is their heir.

And so on and so forth....

 

[Deleted member 94680]

Can they get away with being silent on the matter in 1950s Arab politics? Can the daughter of the Shah realistically be secular?

 

[Cregan]

I think this would encourage an even faster anti-royalist coup, as this marriage will make the Iraqi royal family seem even more out of touch to the Arab nationalist, mostly Sunni Iraqi officer corps.

Edit: would Reza intervene in Iraq to protect his daughter's family against the putschists? That would be interesting.

 

[Seandineen]

He probably would.

 

[walmart]

Edit: would Reza intervene in Iraq to protect his daughter's family against the putschists? That would be interesting.

She would likely be died so he would be pretty pissed off

 

[The Admiral Hook]

Can they get away with being silent on the matter in 1950s Arab politics? Can the daughter of the Shah realistically be secular?

Well, everyone would know she was Shia. I mean silent in the sense that one or the other never explicitly says, 'Oh, and also I'm renouncing my sect of Islam and from here on out I'm adhering to the form of Islam followed by my new spouse...'

Which of course would be a pretty easy thing for them not to say, because presumably it wouldn't be the case anyway.

As far as the reaction from extreme elements of Islamists within their respective nations, almost everyone who is going to have a problem with it already hates the monarchy anyway. There will surely be a number of citizens who did approve of the monarchies but who suddenly feel the wedding proposes a threat to their interpretation of Islam, and there might be a few who suddenly begin to approve of the monarchies because of the unifying factor of the marriage - but the net result will probably be the same amount of disapproval each party already faces in the 1950s.

I think this would encourage an even faster anti-royalist coup, as this marriage will make the Iraqi royal family seem even more out of touch to the Arab nationalist, mostly Sunni Iraqi officer corps.

Edit: would Reza intervene in Iraq to protect his daughter's family against the putschists? That would be interesting.

He probably would.

She would likely be died so he would be pretty pissed off

It's very likely this results in a more widespread or violent or earlier coup, but it isn't inevitable that it succeeds.

For discussion purposes I'd like to focus on the possibilities of a failed coup after the wedding TTL.

We've been focusing a lot on the religious factor because it is really a huge part of this whole scenario, but there's a whole wide world of geopolitical consequences we've neglected. Would anyone have any interest in diving into that?

 

[The Admiral Hook]

Just a little late night bump...

 

[Urcea]

I'm not sure you'd even see a similar situation due to butterflies, but I do find the idea of Iraq invading a revolutionary Iran at the behest of the Monarchy to be a somewhat appealing and interesting timeline

 

[Adamgerd]

I'm not sure you'd even see a similar situation due to butterflies, but I do find the idea of Iraq invading a revolutionary Iran at the behest of the Monarchy to be a somewhat appealing and interesting timeline

If that situation happened, though with butterflies it'd be different, then I think it might be like the OTL Iran-Iraq war except end in an Iraqi victory as they would have a justification to invade Iran unlike OTL and so the West wouldn't condemn them, I don't think or at least not so much

 

[Urcea]

If that situation happened, though with butterflies it'd be different, then I think it might be like the OTL Iran-Iraq war except end in an Iraqi victory as they would have a justification to invade Iran unlike OTL and so the West wouldn't condemn them, I don't think or at least not so much

They'd also have the advantage of Iranian loyalist support, I would assume

 

[walmart]

the West wouldn't condemn them, I don't think or at least not so much

they didn't condemn the invasion , they even backed Iraq with weapons and information .

they would have a justification to invade Iran

Iran-backed groups repeatedly tried to kill Iraqi officials and overthrow the Iraqi government

 

[walmart]

They'd also have the advantage of Iranian loyalist support, I would assume

a foreign power restoring the monarchy would discredit it

 

[The Admiral Hook]

Well, keep in mind here that something like the Iranian Revolution is very likely to happen quite a bit earlier too - by even as much as a decade or more.

An Iraqi backed monarchy against an Iranian Revolution in the 1960s would certainly be interesting to see.

And if the Revolution goes the same way as the failed coup and is unable to defeat the combined forces of the Shah, the Iranian loyalists, and the full might of the Iraqi military I'd expect to see a more perfect union developing between Iran and Iraq. That's a serious 'backfire' and it's also not inconceivable.

This is beginning to beg for a timeline.

 

[The Admiral Hook]

One final bump as I'm still extremely interested in this.

 

[raharris1973]

According to various vague sources throughout the internet King Faisal II of Iraq was briefly betrothed to the daughter of the Shah, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi of Iran, with the marriage scheduled for October 1955.


The marriage would have symbolically united both branches of Islam (Shia and Sunni) and may have also potentially resulted in a personal union once the Shah died presuming that the marriage resulted in a male heir and the Shah's eldest son dies early and his youngest is never born.


In OTL, allegedly, the Princess respectfully asked for a cancellation of the betrothal but remained friendly with Faisal II until his untimely death. As you know Iraq and Jordan entered into the 'Arab Federation' in 1958, and young King Faisal II would be overthrown and executed that same year.


But suppose in TTL King Faisal II of Iraq and Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi of Iran are married in October of 1955, Iraq still enters the Arab Federation in 1958, and butterflies somehow prevent the success of that year's coup.


There will be opposition, I know, perhaps even more than in OTL, but assuming it can be survived how does the history of the region most likely progress from 1955 until now?


I'm keeping this rather open ended to encourage the most possible discussion.

I think the coup in Iraq is still likely. But the Shah's outlook on things may change if his daughter is killed or traumatized by an escape or if he is hosting royal relatives. It could lead him to an earlier grave or make him an unrepentant, fully committed hardliner when dealing with unrest.