An Iranian prince calmly walks to his political science class, the same class he’s taught for the past 16 years. He can almost taste the freedom that is America. Here, he’s far removed from his politically ravaged homeland of Iran. He embraces the sun by watching the waves hit the shoreline from West Campus.
He passes by numerous students. Some greet him. Some don’t. He loves Santa Barbara, his home for nearly 30 years. He loves his family and his job. He’s known on campus as Dr. Eskandari, but is known throughout the world as Prince Manoutchehr Mirza Eskandari-Qajar of the former Iranian Royal Family.
“I am a prince, I just don’t emphasize it,” said Eskandari. “Not because of false humility, it’s just that the age of princes have come and gone.”
Eskandari is a descendant of Fath Ali Shah, a Kadjar king who ruled for over 35 years.
Kadjar is the English form of Qajar, part of Eskandari’s last name.
Iran was led by the Kadjar Dynasty for over 130 years before being overthrown by a military coup led by Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925.
Pahlavi forced many members of the Kadjar family into exile. As a result, Eskandari was born in Vienna, Austria. He was however raised in both Austria and Iran after his father moved back to Iran in the 1950s.
“My grandfather was assassinated by the new king,” Eskandari said. “As the governor of one of the northern providences he stayed and paid for it with his life.”
Eskandari recalls the hardships his family had to endure as a result of his family thrown into exile.
“We were reduced to absolute poverty,” Eskandari said. “The new regime tried to starve us.”
The mass scattering of the Kadjar relatives would continue into the early 1980s, following the Iranian Revolution.
“I never thought I’d come to this country,” said Eskandari. “That’s one of the effects of the revolution.”
Eskandari arrived in America in 1980 on the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. His original intention was to study for two years and then work as a diplomat for the United Nations in Vienna.
“I came to this country because of the scholarship and then I decided to stay,” said Eskandari. “I looked around, and it was beautiful; who wouldn’t want to stay in Santa Barbara?”
Eskandari earned his Ph. D. from UCSB in 1984, and would stay there as a professor. In 1991, he was elected Professor of the Year by the UCSB student body, and in 1992 he became a full-time professor at City College.
“Because of the pedigree of his family, I think it has driven him intellectually,” said Patrick Coombs, Eskandari’s teacher’s assistant.
In the 1990s, Eskandari founded the Kadjar Family Association, which serves as a gathering place for the royal family. They meet once a year, and have no political agenda.
“We made that decision from the very beginning,” said Eskandari. “That would be the kiss of death.”
Eskandari is also the founder and current President of the International Qajar Studies Association. Their purpose is to publish papers and to have conferences.
“I have no life,” a smiling Eskandari said. “I teach and I do this and I do that.”
At City College, he established the Middle East Studies Program, which teaches the younger generation to see the Middle East in a different light. Iran has recently been under constant scrutiny by the west for failure to end their nuclear program.
“This talk about invading Iran, and smashing Iran, and bombing Iran is extremely disturbing because this is an ancient culture with an ancient civilization that has so much to offer,” said Eskandari.
Despite his various accomplishments and his heritage, Eskandari prefers to stay in the background, noting that he doesn’t want the spotlight to be on him.
“Our relationship is not based on his family history,” said Coombs. “I’ve known this for a while, but it isn’t anything we talk about.”
