An Exile Laid to Rest

Draped in a red, white and green Iranian flag, the coffin was placed in state in the Abdin palace. An honor guard of four Egyptian generals stood with swords drawn as incense from a brass burner wafted through the air. Egyptian President Sadat, in full military band delivered a drum roll as the coffin was borne on a caisson drawn by six black Arabian horses. The cortege proceeded solemnly through the streets of Cairo, to the shouts of thousands of Egyptians lining the 1.2-mile route. "There is no God but God!"

Thus was Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the fallen Shahanshah (King of Kings) laid to rest las week. "I am fed up with living artificially. I don't want to live like Tito," the 60-year-old Shah had said shortly before his death from complications of lymphatic cancer two days earlier. Attendance at his funeral was far different from the international tribute paid last May to Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito. The Shah had expressed the desire for "a very simple funeral." But Sadat insisted that he be buried with military honors. Egypt's President skirted a potential boycott by announcing that no other national leaders would be invited. In the end, alongside the Shah's widow Farah and their four children, the only foreign dignitaries who attended were former President Richard Nixon, exiled King Constantine of Greece, U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Alfred Atherton and diplomats from Britain, France, China, Israel, Australia and Morocco. At al-Rifai Mosque, the Shah's silk-shrouded body was placed on its right side by Crown Prince Reza, with its head resting on a pillow of sand, according to Shi'ite custom. On his deathbed the Shah had asked to be buried ultimately in Tehran near his executed generals, named Son Reza as his successor and prayed for the overthrow of the Ayatullah Khomeini.

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