zlacker

> It usually (though not in the case of popes) also requires that the holder be part of the country’s traditional aristocracy or nobility.

Not really. Reza Khan was just a colonel in the army before the coup that later established him as Shah of Iran. Osman of the Ottoman Empire and his descendants for a very long time had no aristocracy or nobility to speak of, only temporary (land reverted to the Sultan at death) land owners.