The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a NationIn The Iranians, eminent Middle East expert Sandra Mackey brings us invaluable understanding of a complex, contradictory, and sometimes volatile people. Beginning with the ancient Persian empires that ruled from India to Greece and later humbled mighty Rome, and tracking the waves of invasions that culminated in the triumph of the Arabs under the banner of Islam, Mackey delineates the opposing poles of identity and power that have vied for the Iranian state and the Iranian soul. On the one hand, there is the Persian concept of kingship, in which the nation is guided toward its destiny by a single strong ruler. On the other, there is the Islamic concept of a community of believers in which the faith of Muhammad reigns supreme over every facet of life. This dramatic conflict has played itself out over centuries, intensifying in the twentieth century when Iranians also confronted the issue of modernization in the mode of the West. In the last decades, the Iranians' intertwined destinies of Persia and Islam resulted in the violent shift of leadership and policy from the imperious "King of Kings," Muhammad Reza Shah, to the zealous Ayatollah Khomeini. Without a current icon of culture and authority, the Iranians now struggle with their present and search for their future in the decaying Iranian Revolution. The author's personal knowledge of Iran gives her book a superbly human dimension. Sandra Mackey has more unrestricted movement within the Iranian Islamic Republic than any other American journalist. Her eyewitness account gives the reader a uniquely authentic present-day picture of Iran and the Iranians from the cities to the countryside and from humble mosques to the chaotic political arena governed by the clerics of Shia Islam, as pressures build for a new definition of revolutionary Iran that may well shake the region and the world. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Glory of Persia | 13 |
The Invasion of Islam | 40 |
Copyright | |
14 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation Sandra Mackey,Scott Harrop Limited preview - 1998 |
The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation Sandra Mackey,Scott Harrop No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbas Achaemenian Ahura Mazda Al-e Ahmad Ali Khamenei American Arab army authority Ayatollah Khomeini began British caliph century clergy constitution Cyrus death dynasty economic election elite Empire faith followers force foreign ideology Imam intellectuals Iran Iran's Iranian culture Iranian identity Iranian nation Iranian Revolution Iranian society Iraq Iraqi Isfahan Islamic government Islamic Republic Islamic Revolution Ismail Jalal Al-e Ahmad justice Khamenei Khatami king Koran lamic leader lived Majlis Mashhad military monarchy Mongol mosque Mossadeq Muhammad Mossadeq Muhammad Reza Shah mujtahid mullahs Muslim Nasir ed-Din Nasir ed-Din Shah nationalist nian Pahlavi dynasty Pahlavi Iran Persepolis Persian culture Persian Gulf Persian kingship political clerics pre-Islamic president Prophet Qajar Rafsanjani reform regime reign religion religious Reza Khan rule Russia Saddam Hussein Safavid Sassanian SAVAK secular shah's Shia Islam Shiism social spiritual Sunni Tehran territory theology thousand throne tion tradition ulama Umayyads United Velayat-e Faqih West Western women Zoroastrian