The death of Princess Ashraf Pahlavi at the age of 96 on Thursday marks the end of an era in more than one sense. The now standard assessment of the twin sister of the late Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, that she "was a close ally and staunch defender of her brother ... throughout his reign," and that "she also played a crucial role in the British-and American-inspired military coup that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh in 1953 and restored her brother to the throne" will be a fair summation of who she was and what she represented. That assessment, however, will fall much short of the fictive power of history that has always underlined any attempt at judicious historiography.
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