Abbas Amanat - Iran: A Modern History

IRAN

IRAN

A Modern History

Abbas Amanat

Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS

New Haven & London

Published with assistance from the Kingsley Trust Association Publication Fund established by the Scroll and Key Society of Yale College.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017942532

ISBN 978-0-300-11254-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the captives in the cage, Convey the glad tidings of blooming meadows.

Hafez

To Maryam

CONTENTS

PREFACE

Covering half a millennium of history of any country or region is a formidable task. When it comes to the history of early modern and modern Iran, it becomes daunting. It took nearly two decades for me to try to cover a complex period that witnessed five dynastic changes, at least three revolutions, three civil wars, four episodes of foreign occupation, and the inception of a new Islamic government. I hope I have produced a coherent narrative that threads the events of this past into meaningful themes, just as every knot feeds into the larger pattern of a Persian carpet. Yet history, as historians are anxious to caution their readers, has many random twists and turns, which seldom lend themselves to an orderly design. What emerges, as in this book, may seem to be disarray up close, but from afar, with the benefit of hindsight, it reveals a pattern with many discernable paths.

I have tried in this book to trace the roots of Iranian modernity, or more accurately, modernities, over a half millennium. To many readers, the rise of a potent messianic movement five centuries ago may seem a far cry from any notion of modernity, at least the way it is often understood. Yet there is in fact a relationship between the rise of a state with an enforced religious creedin this case, the Safavid Empire upholding Shiismand emergence of a modern nation state in later centuries. Encounters with Europe in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries and the adoption of Western-style modernity, in all its permutations, only reinforced Irans own sense of identity and its distinct pattern of continuity. Despite territorial losses at the periphery and its inherent material disadvantages, Iran was among very few non-Western countries that preserved its sovereignty and much of its territorial integrity in the age of high imperialism. It did so, it can be argued, in part because it rendered, and still is rendering, its own Persianized version of modernity, not without many trials and errors.

In this book, by and large I have respected a dynastic periodization, not only because changes of dynasties mattered in and of themselves, but also because many times they were emblematic of sociopolitical, economic, and cultural shifts. Emphasis on members of the elite I also deemed inevitable, for such personalities often proved agents of important, and at times disastrous, changes. Understanding personality traits of Ismail I and Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty were as crucial in the shaping of modern Iran as were those of Aqa Mohammad Khan Qajar, Reza Shah Pahlavi, and, more recently, Ayatollah Khomeini. Yet invariably I have tried to balance these political and biographical narratives with attention to socioeconomic and cultural trends. Likewise, I have tried, to the extent possible, to locate the Iranian past in broader regional landscapes. This is as much an effort to look at Iranian history inclusively or to deter perceptions of exceptionalism as it is an effort to display the vibrant bonds that tied Iran to both neighboring lands and prevailing global trends. Yet I resisted globalizing the Iranian past beyond reasonable limits. We cannot ignore shared patterns that tie Iran to its neighboring lands. Nor can we deny the dictates of geography, religion, and political culture that set Iran apart from South Asia and from Central Asia, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, or Arabia.

The book consists of an introduction, four parts, and an (19771989) is devoted to the shaping of the Islamic Revolution during its first phase. In this final part, wherever I deemed it necessary, I have made brief observations about the post-1989 period in the hope of bringing the narrative to a close. I tried to strike a balance between early modern and modern periods, even though in practice about two-thirds of the book is devoted to the twentieth century, given the weight of the events between the Constitutional Revolution and the Islamic Revolution.

Attention to long-term themes also helped determine the books size and organization. I strived to trace overarching themes and articulate arguments while still preserving a narrative. The famous verse by the Persian poet Rumi often echoed in my mind: The secret of the beloved is best to be told in the stories of the others. The reader will notice throughout such recognized, and stubborn, themes as natural resources and the limits of human habitat, the tension between the sedentary center and the nomadic periphery, the interplay between the state and the urban elite (including the clerical establishment), tension between rulers and ministers, the chronic resurgence of alternative socioreligious movements, and the persistence of cultural and artistic memories. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a greater engagement with European imperial powers, greater awareness of material weaknesses, dilemmas of reform and development, the ideal and realities involved in becoming modern, evolving notions of national identity, and the mastery of internal economic resources all loomed large. Finally, greater reliance on exportable natural resources helped the state consolidate and further its modernizing project. Yet over time, an autocratic vision of transforming Iran lost its popular mandate, generated nostalgia for a fast-disappearing world, and fostered a revolutionary aptitude with strong Islamic undercurrents.

There are topics and personalities that are absent from this book, or appear in passing, and others who take up perhaps more than their fair share. Men far more than women dominate this narrative. Rewriting an essentially patriarchal history is formidable, if not at times impossible. The same can also be said about the silenced multitudes of the downtrodden, the marginalized, the nonconformists, and the powerless in a master narrative, often penned by agents of political power and compilers of hagiographies. I have tried, nevertheless, to retrieve some of these voices and incorporate them into my story.

In retrospect, debates about gender and ethnicity, everyday life, popular culture, public and private spheres, ecology and environment, and complexities of cultural identities could have received greater attention. Yet I hope I have shown at least historical glimpses of a society and a culture more diverse and more complex than often appear in monolithic and monotonous accounts of Iran. Reference to poetry and literary trends, for instance, is one way to enrich our understanding of those recesses of collective memory that the official narrative often ignores or denies. These are the contours of a collective memory that connects the Safavid times to the Qajar era, and to the Constitutional Revolution and the rise of Pahlavi state, the National Movement of the postwar era, and eventually to contemporary times.