Iran Debates

Musaddiq and the struggle for power in Iran

A biography of Muhammad Musaddiq, who was prime minister of Iran between 1951 and 1953 until he was deposed in a CIA-backed coup d'etat and who has long been regarded as one of the great anti-colonial campaigners of the post-war era.

The Political Economy of Modern Iran: Despotism and Pseudo-Modernism, 1926–1979

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The Persians: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Iran

In recent years, Iran has gained attention primarily for negative reasons - its authoritarian religious government disputed its nuclear programme and controversial role in the Middle East - but there is much more to the story of this ancient land than can be gleaned from the news. This authoritative and comprehensive history of Iran, written by Homa Katouzian, an acclaimed expert, covers the entire history of the area from the foundation of the ancient Persian empire to today's Iranian state. Writing from an Iranian rather than a European perspective, Katouzian integrates Iran's significant cultural and literary history with its political and social history. Some of the greatest poets of human history wrote in Persian - among them Rumi, Omar Khayyam, and Saadi - and Katouzian discusses and occasionally quotes their work. In his thoughtful analysis of Iranian society, Katouzian argues that the absolute and arbitrary power traditionally enjoyed by Persian/Iranian rulers has resulted in an unstable society where fear and short-term thinking dominate. A magisterial history, this book also serves as an excellent background to the role of Iran in the contemporary world.

State and Society in Iran: The Eclipse of the Qajars and the Emergence of the Pahlavis

Iran was the first country in the Middle East to experience (in 1905-6) a popular revolution that demanded the rule of law and parliamentary government. However, the democratic constitution established by the revolution plunged the country into a period of turmoil and, despite subsequent popular democratic movements, most notably in the early 1950s and during the Iranian revolution of 1978-9, the country has lived under arbitrary rule for most of the century. Katouzian offers a theoretical framework for studying Iranian history, state and society, which is then applied to social and political developments from the Constitutional Revolution to the fall of the Pahlavi state. This analysis affords essential insights into the present situation in Iran and the alternative prospects for its future, especially relevant since the recent accession of President Khatami.

Sadeq Hedayat: The Life and Legend of an Iranian Writer

Sadeq Hedayat is the most famous and enigmatic Iranian writer of the 20th century. This book is the first comprehensive study of Hedayat's life and works set against literary and political developments in a rapidly changing Iran over the first half of the 20th century. Katouzian discusses Hedayat's life and times and the literary and political circles with which he was associated. But he also emphasises the uniqueness and universality of his ideas that have both influenced and set Hedayat apart from other Iranian writers of the period and have given him a mystique that has been instrumental in his posthumous success with acclaimed works such as The Blind Owl.