Product Description

"Fanatic," "dogmatic," "fundamentalist"--these are the words most often used in the West to describe the Ayatollah Khomeini. The essays in this book challenge that view, arguing that Khomeini and his Islamic movement should be seen as a form of Third World political populism--a radical but pragmatic middle-class movement that strives to enter, rather than reject, the modern age.
Ervand Abrahamian, while critical of Khomeini, asks us to look directly at the Ayatollah's own works and to understand what they meant to his principal audience--his followers in Iran. Abrahamian analyzes political tracts dating back to 1943, along with Khomeini's theological writings and his many public statements in the form of speeches, interviews, proclamations and fatwas (judicial decrees). What emerges, according to Abrahamian, is a militant, sometimes contradictory, political ideology that focuses not on issues of scripture and theology but on the immediate political, social, and economic grievances of workers and the middle class.
These essays reveal how the Islamic Republic has systematically manipulated history through televised "recantations," newspapers, school textbooks, and even postage stamps. All are designed to bolster the clergy's reputation as champions of the downtrodden and as defenders against foreign powers. Abrahamian also discusses the paranoia that permeates the political spectrum in Iran, contending that such deep distrust is symptomatic of populist regimes everywhere.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #549647 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

From Library Journal
In this collection of essays, Abrahamian ( The Iranian Mojahedin , LJ 5/1/89) challenges the Western perception of Khomeini as a fundamentalist. He argues instead that Khomeini was a populist and that the current Iranian Islamic Republic has largely abandoned terrorism for pragmatism. Khomeini is presented as a radical cleric who broke with traditional Iranian Shi'ism to pursue social and economic reforms--an interpretation that ignores Shi'ism's revolutionary origins as a reaction of the have-nots to the Sunni Umayyad Caliphate. Abrahamian instead sees Khomeini as a champion of Iran's petite bourgeoisie and a defender of individual property rights, in this regard likening Khomeini's efforts to what he calls Latin American Populism. For another interpretation of the Islamic Republic and its goals, see Mohammad Mohaddessin's Islamic Fundamentalism ( LJ 9/15/93). A different perspective on the Islamic Republic; recommended for academic libraries with extensive holdings in Middle Eastern Studies.
- Robert Andrews, Duluth P.L., Minn.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Ervand Abrahamian is Professor of History at Baruch College at the City University of New York. He is the author of Iran Between Two Revolutions (1982) and The Iranian Mojahedin (1989).

Customer Reviews

Khomein's Populist, religious and cultural authenticity

Abrahamian's essays from 1993 argue that Khomeini was an astute religious Populist who did not micro manage the revolution but helped motivate, encourage, and lead a revolt that was against irreligious Royalty, foreign interests, cultural debasement of Islamic Iran and provided authenticity for Iranians.

The "Paranoid Style" in Iranian politics played a significant role in the revolution and also in the difficulty of interpretation since. Another chapter traces May Day celebrations (and what reminds one of "socialistic realist" art posters and stamps) to show evolution from elements of a worker's revolution to a nationalist bourgeois realism. The evolving perceptions of property and state (another essay) puts perspective on rhetoric of people's rights that never threatened private property but came to more strongly support a national economy so long as Iranian culture and religion were secure and foreign interests well controlled - pragmatism did not replace principle.

The most important essay argues convincingly that the "Fundamentalist" label explains little about the character or the success of the revolution. (This should be a strong reminder to the labelers of our own time who feel they explain and understand by name calling.)

Essays, perhaps necessarily, sometimes overlap and are uneven. At times they could have been briefer and tighter. A reader would do well to have some basic picture of Iranian history at least back into the 19th century. Yet the book has considerable value and the first and last essays on the "Populism" of the revolution and the "Paranoid Style" of Iranian politics are of special value.

One of the best books about Iran's Revolution
I wish everyone who talks about iran would first read this book. it is very balanaced, and thoughtful. It has original ideas formulated by Abrahamian. these ideas came from reading khomieni in farsi. not from prejudice, or from heresay. the author did his research, and presented the revolution and the transformation of khomeini's ideas pre and post revolution the best way i have yet to read.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in gaining insight into iran from someone who actually has spent much of his life objectively and with wisdom studing it, and did research by reading the most important sources in farsi!

Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic
Like most students of Iran, Abrahamian brings the academic's bias against religion having much importance. He prefers to see Khomeini's ideas "as a flexible political movement." But discount this bias and you'll find Abrahamian makes a strong and original case that "the behavior of Khomeini and the Islamic Republic has been determined less by scriptural principles than by immediate political, social, and economic needs." He makes this case the old-fashioned way, through a close reading of texts and study of events. Abrahamian's intimate knowledge of Iran imbues his short study with the sort of insight all too rare in the study of Iran; and it's certainly one of the most important books on Iran to appear in English in some years. The author catalogues the profound changes in Khomeini's thinking that took place in the era 1965-70, when he replaced many of his traditional Shi'ite beliefs with the trendy notions of European Marxism (as mediated by Leftist Iranian intellectuals). Abrahamian demonstrates the evolution of the mullahs' relations with the Left through a close analysis of May Day celebrations. Over and over again, he shows how Khomeini changed his views to fit current needs, contradicting not only himself but some of Islam's most basic tenets (such as the priority of Sacred Law over raison d'état). Indeed, the sainted ayatollah apparently stuck with just one tenet through his entire career: the inviolability of private property.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1994