Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi - Revolution and Its Discontents: 7 (The Global Middle East)

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, SOAS, University of London

Ali Mirsepassi, New York University

The Global Middle East series seeks to broaden and deconstruct the geographical boundaries of the Middle East as a concept to include North Africa, Central and South Asia, and diaspora communities in Western Europe and North America. The series features fresh scholarship that employs theoretically rigorous and innovative methodological frameworks resonating across relevant disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. In particular, the general editors welcome approaches that focus on mobility, the erosion of nation-state structures, travelling ideas and theories, transcendental techno-politics, the decentralisation of grand narratives, and the dislocation of ideologies inspired by popular movements. The series will also consider translations of works by authors in these regions whose ideas are salient to global scholarly trends but have yet to be introduced to the Anglophone academy.

Revolution and Its Discontents

Political Thought and Reform in Iran

Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi

University of Oxford

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Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi 2019

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ISBN 978-1-108-42634-3 Hardback

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To my parents

&

Homa Katouzian

I would first like to thank Homa Katouzian, my mentor and doctoral supervisor at the University of Oxford. He was never short of time, advice, or support and was always ready to help in any way possible. I simply cannot express sufficient gratitude for his abundant kindness, integrity, and generosity of spirit, as well as the example he has set as both a scholar and human being, all of which have indelibly left their mark.

I must profusely thank Ali Ansari and Faisal Devji, whose incisive comments and provocative questions in the course of my viva voce upon which this work is based were invaluable and helped me to improve this modest piece of research. Both have been a generous source of support and encouragement, indispensable to any early career scholar and their development. Nasser Mohajer is also in need of special thanks and has been a brilliant source of advice and guidance. He has spent many hours speaking with me and discussing sources, events, and historiography, very often on issues unrelated to the subject of this work. Nonetheless, I believe myself a much better researcher as a result of his positive influence and meticulous intellect, which have enabled me to understand the vicissitudes of twentieth-century Iranian history in a far deeper fashion than I might have done otherwise. He also took great care when reading the chapters I sent for his review and gave comments that were without exception insightful and thought-provoking. They always inspired me to polish and improve those points which were unclear or demanded further elucidation. Siavush Randjbar-Daemi is deserving of profuse thanks and gratitude. He has always and without fail been indefatigable in offering his help, suggestions, and constructive criticism. I feel fortunate to consider him not only a first-rate academic colleague and interlocutor but also a dear friend. Without our constant back-and-forth and intellectual dialogue I would be quite a different historian to the one I am today.