For several centuries Khuzestan, as with many other Iranian provinces prior to the era of the Pahlavi dynasty, had been a semi-autonomous part of Persia under the control of an Imperial Governor-Generalate appointed by the Shah. The Zagros mountains separated the province from the central Iranian plateau. The governor-general, who resided part of the year in the cool highlands at Shushtar or Dezful, often left real exercise of power to local leaders who bid and quarrelled amongst each other for the position of tax farmer.