Iranian Revolution

The 2 articles by Moghadam and Keddie illustrated the roots of the Iranian revolution in 1979.

1-      Fatemeh E. Moghadam

An historical interpretation of the Iranian Revolution Camb. J. Econ. (1988) 12 (4): 401-418

2-      Nikki R. Keddie

Iranian Revolutions in Comparative Perspective ,The American Historical Review ,Vol. 88, No. 3 (Jun., 1983) , pp. 579-598

Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association

Moghadam stated that no one can understand the Irainian revolution without its premodern characteristics, while Keddie fouced on the internal and external factors of the Iranian revolution. Keddie stated that the closest examples of the Iranian revolution will be the Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian revolutions. But, the Iranian revolution is still unique. However, in this book review, I will summaries the 2 articles and analyze it. I will speak briefly about the history of Iran before the revolution. Explain how the reasons accumulated through the dynasties before the Shah, international politics, political economy, the role of USA, the development of the Shiaa ideologies, comparison between the revolution of 1905-11 and 1978-79, westernization VS Islimization and conclusion.               

During 11-19 C there was interaction between Iran and the world market, especially the West. This led to westernization for a long period. Before the Pahlavi period the nomadic tribes ruled Iran and they controlled the lands monopoly. There was a conflict between the communal VS class. The despotism spread all of Iran which created the social tensions later on. Iran during 1800-1908 was under the quasi colony. Then, the fall of the Qajar dynasty in 1925. After that, the nationalist movement came by Mossadaq in 1951-1953 and Iran became sovereign state over its resources. These social clashes between the momadics VS the people and the farmers with the land lords was ambiguous and not clear as Moghdam mentioned. Therefore, This ambiguous caused the absents of the upheavals. In addition, the Nomadic tribes were supported by sedentary administration and the Shiaa scholars although the scholars and the army hate each other. Notice that since the Safavid dynasty, the Shiaa scholars created an opioid doctrine to destroy the passive sense of the people. They told the people to be patient on the injustice until coming of the Mahdi who will fulfill the earth in Justice. Keddie added to that , the Qajar (1796-1925) the used this doctrine to avoid the people's criticisms and through the blame on the colonies . But. I say in other words, that the Qajar took advantages of the colonies that used to discriminate the taxation system between the settlers and the Indigenous people. The Iranians paid taxes while the settlers are freed from taxation. The bazaars complained from the foreign free taxed products and the requested protection for the local industry.   Secondly, stolen the raw materials such as cotton, opium, fruits and nuts to their economy. Thirdly, the Qajars had scattered population which it makes it difficult to control it. That’s why the Shah took the chiefs of the tribes and bribed them to control their people. The forth point, due to the role of the Savavids dynasty , Shiaasm owed over the Sunnism in Iran . The Shiaa established the Khomas system. They collected money from people to which made their strong economic situation. Addition to that, the used to control the AWQAF . The Iranian revolution causes are similar with the decline of the Othman empire causes. A bulk of intellectuals studied abroad such as Jamal Eddin Al Afghani and Mirza Malkum Khan have been affected by the western values of democracy , economy , women's rights … etc . Although , there are disagreements between the Uluma , bazaars and seculars , they stopped the monopoly of the British on tobacco in 1892. The Uluma made fatwa that dealing or smoking tobacco is against the will of the Mahdi .  After that, this led into the constitution revolution came (1905-11) . In 1908 the revolution became violent after the close of the parliament by coup. So , from that moment the religious group became more powerful after the overthrown of Mossadeq who nationalize the oil by the help of Britain and USA . which led to the economic crises in 1960-64 . Resulted in demonstration which caused deaths and exiled religious scholars such as Ayatollah Khomeni in 1964.

With the Establishment of OPEC in 1960 Iran succeeded to quadruple the oil prices in 1973-74. However, the Shah of Iran did not take any advantage of that. He wasted the oil revenue in heavy investments and armaments which caused inflation in goods and shortages in housing. In 1975 the urbanization increased which caused a huge amount of unemployment. In 1977 the Shah decided to point Jamshid Amuzegar as the prime minister. But, he couldn't do anything.  In the early 1978 the Khomeini criticized the Shah from Iraq. Then, Saddam kicked him. Khomeini went to France to practice his political rights easily. Unfortunately, the Shah underestimated the oppositions and he was very late for his actions. He appointed Bakhtair as a prime minister to bring Khomeni back to Iran. Anyway, Khomeni continued his way until he became the symbolic revolutionary leader. Not just for the Shiaa , even for seculars . The people were very excited for the coming of their new leader. So, by the help of the Marxist Fedayan-e Khalq and Islaist Mohaheden Khalq , Khomeni arrived in Tehran with a huge numbers of supporters. 
    

Comparison between the revolutions in 1905-11 and 1978-79 :

            According to Davis "revolutions emerge after a considerable period of economic growth followed by a shorter, sharp period of economic contraction and decline". So , the differences are the constitution revolution in 1905-11 leading by the religious scholars while in 1978-79 was led by secular leftist , liberals and religious militarily forces. It was totally Islamic revolution while in 1905 -11 it was westernized and secular. This westernization manifested in education, culture, law, government and especially the economy. But, both of the 2 revolutions were struggling against the autocracy. Moreover, the ideologies in 1905-11 was concentrated fighting the dynasty by using the western values. The religious scholars did not oppose the westernization clearly like in 1978-79. This mentality came from the background of the Shiaa believes in Al TAQIYYAH . Aharon Layish defines TAQIYYA as ; " flattery , smooth talk , protecting , deceit , falsehood , concealment of truth , religious duty , and ability of adaptation ". But, in 1978-79 they did not use TAQIYYAH . They showed a strong hostility against the western imperialism. Addition to that, most of the Iranians did not want to remove Qajars from power. They wanted to reduce their power and diminishing their dictatorship peacefully as possible. They thought overthrow the Qajars was impossible. So, this is the only way to achieve their limited goals.

Frustration of the Iranians from tyranny of the West:

Since the Shah westernized the country and restricts the influence of religion, the reaction was to use religion as a symbol of revolution. As Newton said "for every action there is reaction". Addition to that, the Shah misunderestimated the power of the religious scholars. The Shah took many privileges from the scholars such as the Waqf , Khoms (الخمس) and pilgrimage to Mecca. So, Keddie stated that many Iranians (especially the secularists) are struggling for justice, socialism, democracy and freedom using religion. Nevertheless, the real hostility towards the West increased when the American refused to bring the Shah back to Iran for trail. The Iranians surrounded the American embassy in the 4^th of Nov 1979 until 20^th Jan 1981. The Iranians took 52 American as hostages which led to the failure of Jimmy Carter in the elections and economic sanctions towards Iran.  However, Iranians now are facing tyranny in the name of Islam and many of them are calling for Secularism in the light of Iranian not western style due to the lack of human rights, women rights and Inequality.

Finally, The Shah is responsible for the uprisings when he excluded religious power and increased 50% military budget when he returned into power in 1953. The number of men went from 40,000 to 127,000. The Shah had the chance to create reforms, but, he didn’t. He used his army to crash his opponents. He was looking for self glorification rather than looking the interest of his people. Although, the Shah bribed many of the officers and political opponents, but, he couldn’t satisfy the bulk of the Iranian people . Even his supporters disloyaled him because he didn’t trust anyone who have the ability to compete him. That’s why he left Iran when he felt most of the people forsaken him.Thats why it's important to take lessons from the Iranian revolution and try to not repeat the mistakes of the Shah. Freedom, dignity, human rights, freedom of believes and justice is very important to the nations to be satisfied with the political regimes.