In a radical reappraisal of Iran’s modern history, Ervand Abrahamian traces its traumatic journey across the twentieth century, through the discovery of oil, imperial interventions, the rule of the Pahlavis, and, in 1979, revolution and the birth of the Islamic Republic. In the intervening years, Iran has experienced a bitter war with Iraq, the transformation of society under the rule of the clergy, and, more recently, the expansion of the state and the struggle for power between the old elites, the intelligentsia, and the commercial middle class. The author, who is one of the most distinguished historians writing on Iran today, is a compassionate expositor. While he adroitly negotiates the twists and turns of the country’s regional and international politics, at the heart of his book are the people of Iran, who have endured and survived a century of war and revolution. It is to them and their resilience that this book is dedicated, as Iran emerges at the beginning of the twenty-first century as one of the most powerful states in the Middle East.
Ervand Abrahamian is Distinguished Professor of History at Baruch College and Graduate Center, City University of New York. His previous publications include The Iranian Mojahedin (1989), Khomeinism (1993), and Tortured Confessions (1999).
Contents
List of maps page / viii List of illustrations / ix List of tables / xi List of figures / xii Chronology / xiii Glossary / xv A political who’s who of modern Iran / xvii Preface / xxvii
Introduction / 1 1 “Royal despots”: state and society under the Qajars / 8 2 Reform, revolution, and the Great War / 34 3 The iron fist of Reza Shah / 63 4 The nationalist interregnum / 97 5 Muhammad Reza Shah’s White Revolution / 123 6 The Islamic Republic / 155
Notes / 196 Bibliography / 215 Further reading / 218 Index / 224
Maps
1 Iran and the Middle East page / xxix 2 Iranian provinces / xxx
Illustrations
1 Coronation stamp, 1926 / 66 2 Road construction stamp, 1934 / 78 3 Stamps set depicting Pahlavi ideology, 1935 / 78 3.1 Persepolis / 78 3.2 Tehran airport / 78 3.3 Sanatorium near Tehran / 79 3.4 Cement factory in Abdul qAzim / 79 3.5 Gunboat / 79 3.6 Railway bridge over Karun / 80 3.7 Tehran post office / 80 3.8 Justice: woman with scales and sword / 80 3.9 Education: angel teaching youth / 80 4 Stamp set celebrating ancient Iran / 81 4.1 Persepolis: ruins of Main Palace / 81 4.2 Persepolis: lion carving / 81 4.3 Persepolis: Darius / 81 4.4 Persepolis: warrior / 82 4.5 Pasaraga: Cyrus’ tomb / 82 4.6 Carving at Naqsh-e Rostam: God Mazda’s investiture of Ardashir / 82 4.7 Carving at Naqsh-e Rostam: Shahpour accepting Emperor Valerian’s submission / 83 5 Stamps (1963–78) / 135 5.1 Set celebrating aspects of the White Revolution / 135 5.2 Set commemorating Reza Shah / 136 5.3 Stamp set commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Pahlavi dynasty / 137 6 Statue of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi during the revolution. Tehran, February 1979. Copyright Abbas/Magnum Photos / 160 7 Woman passing soldiers during the revolution, Tehran, 1978. Copyright Abbas-Magnum Photos / 160 8 Stamps from the Islamic Republic / 170 8.1 Stamps for the forerunners of the Islamic Revolution / 170 8.2 Stamp for Ayatollah Kashani / 171 8.3 Two stamps for Ayatollah Beheshti and the seventy-two martyrs / 171 8.4 Stamps issued by the Bazargan government for al-e Ahmad, Shariati, Mossadeq, and Dehkhoda / 172 8.5 Anniversary stamps for the Islamic Revolution / 173
Tables
1 Vital statistics / 6 2 Communal composition of Iran, 1900 / 18 3 Government budgets, 1925–26 and 1940–41 / 69 4 Expansion of public education, 1923–24 and 1940–41 / 84 5 Changes in place names / 88 6 Changes in state terminology / 88 7 Prime ministers, 1941–53 / 102 8 Oil revenues, 1954–76 / 124 9 Prime ministers, 1953–77 / 129 10 Military expenditures, 1954–77 / 132 11 Industrial production, 1953–77 / 134 12 Urban household expenditures, 1959–60 and 1973–74 / 141 13 Oil revenues, 1977–94 / 175 14 Presidents, 1980–2007 / 187
Figures
1 Class structure (labor force in the 1970 s) / 140 2 Chart of the Islamic Constitution / 165
PREFACE
We view the past, and achieve our understanding of the past, only through the eyes of the present. E. H. Carr
This book is an introduction written primarily for general readers perplexed by the sound and fury of modern Iran. It tries to explain why Iran is often in the news; why it often conjures up images of “Alice in Wonderland”; why it has experienced two major revolutions in one century – one of them in our own lifetime; and, most important of all, why it is now an Islamic Republic. The book subscribes to E. H. Carr’s premise that we historians inevitably perceive the past through our own times and attempt to explain how and why the past has led to the present. This premise can have an obvious pitfall – as Carr himself would have readily admitted. If, by the time this book is published, the regime and even the whole state has disappeared into the “dustbin of history” because of a major external onslaught, then the whole trajectory of the book will appear to have been misconceived. Despite this danger, I take the calculated risk and work on the premise that if no ten-ton gorilla barges on to the scene, the Islamic Republic will continue into the foreseeable future. Of course, in the long run all states die. The period I cover is Iran’s long twentieth century – starting from the origins of the Constitutional Revolution in the late 1890s and ending with the consolidation of the Islamic Republic in the early 2000s.
Since this book is not a work of primary research intended for the professional historian, I have dispensed with the heavy apparatus of academic publications. I have used endnotes sparingly to cite direct quotations, support controversial statements, or elaborate further on needed points. For readers interested in exploring specific topics, I have compiled a bibliography at the end listing the more important, more recent, and more available – mostly English-language – books. For transliteration, I have modified the system developed by the International Journal of Middle East Studies, dispensing with diacritical marks, and, where possible, adopting the spelling used in the mainstream media. Consequently, I have Tehran instead of Teheran, Hussein instead of Husayn, Nasser instead of Nasir, Mashed instead of Mashhad, Khomeini instead of Khom’ayni, and Khamenei instead of Khamenehi.
I would like to thank Baruch College, especially the History Department, for giving me the time to write this book. I would also like to thank Marigold Acland for inviting me to undertake the task and for guiding the manuscript through the whole process from inception to publication. Thanks also go to Amy Hackett for editorial work and to Helen Waterhouse for helping out in the publication process. Of course, I am fully responsible for errors and views found in the book.
Introduction
“The past is a foreign country.” David Lowenthal
Iran entered the twentieth century with oxen and wooden plough. It exited with steel mills, one of the world’s highest automobile accident rates, and, to the consternation of many, a nuclear program. This book narrates the dramatic transformation that has taken place in twentieth-century Iran. Since the main engine of this transformation has been the central government, the book focuses on the state, on how it was created and expanded, and how its expansion has had profound repercussions not only on the polity and economy, but also on the environment, culture, and, most important of all, wider society. Some repercussions were intended; others, especially protest movements and political revolutions, were not. This book may appear somewhat quaint and even insidious to those convinced that the state is inherently a part of the problem rather than solution of contemporary dilemmas. But since this book is about major transformations, and these transformations in Iran have been initiated invariably by the central government, it will focus on the latter hopefully without falling into the Hegelian–Rankean pitfalls of glorifying the state.
Through all the changes, Iran’s geography and identity have remained remarkably constant. Present-day Iranians live more or less within the same borders as their great-grandparents. The region – three times the size of France and six times that of the United Kingdom – is demarcated in the south by the Persian Gulf; in the east by the deserts and mountains of Khurasan, Sistan, and Baluchestan; in the west by the Shatt al-Arab, the Iraqi marshes, and the Kurdish mountains; and in the north by the Aras River flowing from Mount Ararat to the Caspian Sea, and by the Atrak River stretching from the Caspian Sea into Central Asia. Three-fifths of the country, especially the central plateau, lacks the rainfall to sustain permanent agriculture. Farming is confined to rain-fed Azerbaijan, Kurdestan, ...
Ervand Abrahamian
A history of modern Iran
Cambridge
Cambridge university press A history of modern Iran Ervand Abrahamian City University of New York
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In memory of the more than three hundred political prisoners hanged in 1988 for refusing to feign belief in the supernatural
