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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
Members of the Achaemenid royal bodyguard, from a bas-relief at Persepolis
THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION in 1979 brought a sudden end to the rule of
the Pahlavi dynasty, which for fifty years had been identified with
the attempt to modernize and Westernize Iran. The Revolution
replaced the monarchy with an Islamic republic and a secular state
with a quasi-theocracy. It brought new elites to power, altered the
pattern of Iran's foreign relations, and led to the transfer of
substantial wealth from private ownership to state control. There
were continuities across the watershed of the Revolution, however;
bureaucratic structure and behavior, attitudes toward authority and
individual rights, and the arbitrary use of power remained much the
same. In 1987, nearly a decade after the Revolution, it was still
too early to determine whether the continuities--always striking
over the long sweep of Iran's history--or the changes would prove
the more permanent.
The Revolution ended a pattern of monarchical rule that, until
1979, had been an almost uninterrupted feature of Iranian
government for nearly 500 years. The tradition of monarchy itself
is even older. In the sixth century B.C., Iran's first empire, the
Achaemenid Empire, was already established. It had an absolute
monarch, centralized rule, a highly developed system of
administration, aspirations of world rule, and a culture that was
uniquely Iranian even as it borrowed, absorbed, and transformed
elements from other cultures and civilizations. Although Alexander
the Great brought the Achaemenid Empire to an end in 330 B.C.,
under the Sassanids (A.D. 224-642) Iran once again became the
center of an empire and a great civilization.
The impact of the Islamic conquest in the seventh century was
profound. It introduced a new religion and a new social and legal
system. The Iranian heartland became part of a world empire whose
center was not in Iran. Nevertheless, historians have found
striking continuities in Iranian social structure, administration,
and culture. Iranians contributed significantly to all aspects of
Islamic civilization; in many ways they helped shape the new order.
By the ninth century, there was a revival of the Persian (Farsi)
language and of a literature that was uniquely Iranian but was
enriched by Arabic and Islamic influences.
The breakup of the Islamic empire led, in Iran as in other
parts of the Islamic world, to the establishment of local
dynasties. Iran, like the rest of the Middle East, was affected by
the rise to power of the Seljuk Turks and then by the destruction
wrought first by the Mongols and then by Timur, also called
Tamerlane (Timur the Lame).
With the rise of the Safavids (1501-1732), Iran was
reconstituted as a territorial state within borders not very
different from those prevailing today.
Shia (see Glossary) Islam
became the state religion, and monarchy once again became a central
institution. Persian became unquestionably the language of
administration and high culture. Although historians no longer
assert that under the Safavids Iran emerged as a nation-state in
the modern sense of the term, nevertheless by the seventeenth
century the sense of Iranian identity and Iran as a state within
roughly demarcated borders was more pronounced.
The Qajars (1795-1925) attempted to revive the Safavid Empire
and in many ways patterned their administration after that of the
Safavids. But the Qajars lacked the claims to religious legitimacy
available to the Safavids; they failed to establish strong central
control; and they faced an external threat from technically,
militarily, and economically superior European powers, primarily
Russia and Britain. Foreign interference in Iran, Qajar misrule,
and new ideas on government led in 1905 to protests and eventually
to the Constitutional Revolution (1905-07), which, at least on
paper, limited royal absolutism, created in Iran a constitutional
monarchy, and recognized the people as a source of legitimacy.
The rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi, who as Reza Khan seized power in
1921 and established a new dynasty in 1925, reflected the failure
of the constitutional experiment. His early actions also reflected
the aspirations of educated Iranians to create a state that was
strong, centralized, free of foreign interference, economically
developed, and sharing those characteristics thought to distinguish
the more advanced states of Europe from the countries of the East.
This work of modernization and industrialization, expansion of
education, and economic development was continued by the second
Pahlavi monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. He made impressive
progress in expanding employment and economic and educational
opportunities, in building up strong central government and a
strong military, in limiting foreign influence, and in giving Iran
an influential role in regional affairs.
Such explosions of unrest as occurred during the 1951-53 oil
nationalization crisis and the 1963 riots during the Muslim month
of Moharram, indicated that there were major unresolved tensions in
Iranian society, however. These stemmed from inequities in wealth
distribution; the concentration of power in the hands of the crown
and bureaucratic, military, and entrepreneurial elites; the demands
for political participation by a growing middle class and members
of upwardly mobile lower classes; a belief that Westernization
posed a threat to Iran's national and Islamic identity; and a
growing polarization between the religious classes and the state.
These tensions and problems gave rise to the Islamic
Revolution. In the late 1980s, they continued to challenge Iran's
new rulers.
Data as of December 1987
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