Chapter 2

Salient Themes and Trends in the History of Iran

Iran has been described as a historical nation because Iranians are constantly haunted by the shadow of their long history. As such, an examination of the Iranian history is a prerequisite to comprehend its current social and economic conditions. Moreover, a historical perspective provides insights into Iran’s twisted relationship with other nations particularly with the Western powers. Obviously, a detailed account of the history of Iran is beyond the scope of this chapter, but in the following pages, I will try to review some salient chronological trends that remarkably continue to shape modern Iran.

Ancient Times and Pre-Islamic Era:
The Divine Right to Rule

Around 559–530 BC, Cyrus the Great united the Aryan tribes on the Iranian plateau and founded the Achaemenid Empire. He described his empire as Iran-shahr and himself as the king of kings.¹ Achaemenids established an efficient bureaucratic system across their vast empire and built many roads, ports, and underground irrigation systems. For over two centuries, the Persians became the world dominant power and ruled the world from Egypt to India. The Achaemenid Empire was conquered by Alexander of Macedonia around 331 BC and Iran went under the Greek rule. Subsequently, a group of Iranian people called Parthians rejected the Hellenic influence and claimed for themselves the divine right to rule the country. Around 224 AD, a Persian called Ardeshir I overthrew the Parthians and founded the Sassanid dynasty. The Sassanid kings revived the Persian culture and Zoroastrian religion and returned to the Achaemenid government model. Zoroastrianism was founded by the Iranian prophet and reformer, Zoroaster in the sixth century BC and had a considerable influence on the Iranian art, culture, and society. The Sassanid rulers relied hugely on Zoroastrianism to justify their rule as ordained by Ahura Mazda (Zoroastrian God) and established a caste system that served their social and political agenda.

The Arab-Islamic Conquest: The Resilience of
Iranian Identity

Despite all its military and administrative strengths, in the mid-seventh century, the Persian Empire was rapidly defeated by the Arab tribesmen who were armed with a new faith. After the collapse of the Persian Empire, Iranians converted to Islam and became part of the Arab-Islamic Empire. Around 750 AD with the help of Persians, the Islamic capital was relocated from Damascus to Baghdad where Persians could closely supervise the Islamic world.² The conquering Muslim Arabs had less experience with the government and empire organization, therefore they relied on the Persian tradition in governance, politics, bureaucracy, and fiscal system. Likewise, in cultural and scientific fields, the Persian Muslims brought numerous scholars and thinkers who wrote mainly in Arabic and made significant contributions to the advancement of science and art in the Islamic civilization. After the ninth century, the Arab rule over Persia waned gradually, and as a result, many Iranian monarchs emerged across the country. Persian language was again employed by government officials and administrators. The Persians adopted Islamic faith, but preserved their own culture and emerged as a distinct society within the Islamic civilization. In the end, the Iranian identity proved to be strong and resilient.³

Mongol Invasion: A Terrible Shock and Resilience

In 1220, Genghis Khan of Mongolia attacked Persia. The attack was terrible, brutal, and extremely destructive. Major cities were sacked and their inhabitants were cruelly slaughtered. Buildings, schools, libraries, mosques, and hospitals were totally annihilated. Eventually, Mongol invaders converted to Islam and became reliant on native Iranians to rule over their vast Empire. Regardless of its destructive effects, the Mongol Empire facilitated the exchange of ideas and goods among major civilizations namely China, India, and Persia.⁴ During this time, some of the greatest poets and thinkers of the Persian literature, such as Hafiz and Rumi, appeared. Once again, Persians conquered their conquerors and the Iranian identity survived the wave of violence and brutality.⁵

Safavid Dynasty: Making of the Iranian Shia Identity

In the 15th century, a young Shia called Shah Ismail Safavi conquered the city of Tabriz in Azerbaijan province and gradually took control over entire Iran. Shah Ismail established the Safavid Dynasty, made Shia the official religion of state, and reinforced the function of Shia clergy. Since then, Shia became the cornerstone of the modern Iranian national identity and the clerics gained much social influence. Safavids emphasized some elements of Shia religion such as martyrdom, commemorations, and passion plays. Interestingly, the claim of Shah Ismail as the Shia ruler was in accordance with the Persian culture, which historically embraced the divine right of kingship. One of the most influential Safavid monarchs, Shah Abbas the Great, developed a disciplined army and defeated the Ottomans. He chose Isfahan as his capital and contributed to the advancement of different disciplines of art, science, architecture, and craftsmanship. The Safavids are considered the founders of modern Iran, because they unified a large territory under Shia religion, distinguished Iran from Sunni Ottomans, and established a powerful and glorious empire extending from Tigris to India.

Humiliation by the West and
the Constitutional Revolution

In the 18th century, the Qajars dynasty took control over the country. During this time, Iran like many other Eastern nations lagged behind Europe and was extremely weak and impoverished. Faced with the industrial revolution and increasing power of the European countries, Iran could not defend its national interests. The British and Russians intervened in Iran’s internal affairs and gained considerable influence in the country’s political and economic domains. In the 19th century, Iran was humiliated and defeated by the Russian armed forces and consequently lost huge areas in the Caucasus and Central Asia including Georgia, Armenia, and parts of Azerbaijan.⁶ On the other hand, the British government forced Iran to give up all its claims on Afghanistan. In addition, the Iranian trade was dominated by the Europeans, and Qajar Shahs or Princes were often bribed or forced to cede many unfair and exclusive concessions to the British and Russian companies.⁷

The economic crisis and rampant government corruption led to demands for curbing royal authority and establishing constitutional rule in 1904.⁸ In 1906, Iran established the first parliamentary system and deputies of people came to play a role in the political governance. However, due to many internal tensions and the British and Russian meddling, two decades of turbulence and chaos followed the parliamentary rule. In 1907, the Anglo-Russian Agreement forced Iran to split up into three zones: the north to Russia, the southwest to Great Britain, and the remaining areas as neutral zones. Apparently, this aggression was intended to allow for the two major powers to prepare against German influence.⁹ Russian forces occupied the northern parts of Iran in 1911 and the ­Russian-supported troops shelled the parliament and suspended the constitutional rule.¹⁰ By 1917, Britain gained a significant influence over Iran and kept a tight political and economic control over the country undermining Iran’s national sovereignty.¹¹ The restraint of the Iranian Constitutionalist movement by Great Britain and Russia and their meddling and aggression were interpreted as the foreign and Western animosity toward the nation.¹² Iranians became increasingly suspicious of the harmful influence of foreigners and Westerners on their society and considered them as serious threats to national sovereignty, culture, tradition, and religion.¹³ This sentiment paved the way for the latent radical and Islamist movements.

Pahlavi Dynasty and the Accelerated
Modernization or Westernization

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Iranian politicians managed to protect the independence of the country, but they were hugely under the British and Russian influence. By the end of World War I, Iran was plunged into a state of political, social, and economic chaos.¹⁴ The country was suffering from civil war, foreign occupation, and ethnic uprisings, which demanded a strong leader.¹⁵ In 1921, the British encouraged Brigadier Reza Khan to stage a coup d’état. He replaced the last Qajar Shah in 1925 and established the Pahlavi Dynasty. Reza Shah Pahlavi chose a nationalistic and authoritarian agenda and launched some drastic socioeconomic reforms.¹⁶ In 1935, Reza Shah requested all foreign governments to no longer refer to his country as Persia, but as Iran. He emphasized Iranian nationalism and revitalized the pre-Islamic Persian identity. Undeniably, the most important objective of Reza Shah was modernization of Iran at any cost. To this end, he imitated the Western model and introduced substantial social changes. He centralized the decision making, severely crushed ethnic and tribal rulers, and revolutionized judiciary, education, army, transport, health care, and economy. In accordance with his modernization agenda, Reza Shah forcibly abolished the wearing of the veil and brought women to the workplace. As a result of his reforms, the Western educated lawyers replaced mullahs and the French Civil Code took the place of Islamic laws. Likewise, Reza Shah restricted religious festivals, commemorations, passion plays, and other practices that affected public life.¹⁷ Obviously, these reforms aimed at socioeconomic development, but they were in clear contradiction with the traditional Iranian and Islamic values and, for that reason, received criticism from religious leaders. Indeed, Reza Shah’s socioeconomic reforms decreased the influence of clergy in judicial, economic, and educational spheres and created resentment among conservative Islamists.¹⁸ In his final years, Reza Shah developed friendly relations with Germans partly to counter the influence of Great Britain. With the outbreak of World War II, Iran was occupied by Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Subsequently, Reza Shah was sent into exile and his son Mohammad Reza was appointed the Shah of Iran.¹⁹ Once again, the development in Iran was interrupted by foreign invasion and big powers’ meddling.²⁰ On the whole, the rule of Reza Shah was marked by an accelerated modernization and Westernization, socioeconomic development, and emergence of Iran as a centralized nation-state.

Mohammad Reza Shah and the American
Organized Coup d’État

After World War II ended, Iran struggled for national autonomy, especially against the Soviets and the British.²¹ During this time, oil was becoming an important issue in international relations and the state was relying more and more on revenues from exports of oil. From 1951 to 1953, Prime Minister Mossadeq led the oil nationalization movement and ultimately the parliament passed a law to liberate Iran’s oil from British control. The Americans and the British governments plotted against the democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadeq and overthrew him in a jointly organized coup in l953.²² This event sullied the image of America in the Iranian collective consciousness. The Islamists, nationalists, and particularly the leftists viewed the role of American and British intelligence services in organizing the coup as another example of Western meddling in Iran’s internal affairs. The nationalists, Islamists, and communists, despite all their ideological and political differences, agreed upon the animosity of Western powers toward Iran. The coup had a traumatic effect on the Iranian public opinion, which has continued to the present day.²³ After the coup, fearing Soviet aggression and internal opposition, the Shah built close relations with Great Britain and the United States. Moreover, the United States needed the Shah as a barricade against the expansion of the Soviet influence in the Persian Gulf.²⁴ Thanks to the support of the United States, Iran moved to become a major economic and military power in the Middle East. Relying on his throne, the Shah became increasingly autocratic and embarked on some rapid socioeconomic reforms. In 1962, he introduced his White Revolution that consisted of major programs such as land reform and women’s suffrage. His reforms were in clear contradiction with the traditional and Islamic values and resulted in resentment from the clergy, the conservative groups, and even the middle class citizens. The majority of clerics were critical of the land reform program, liberalization of laws concerning women, and the extension of government institutions. In 1963, ­Ayatollah Khomeini described the Shah’s White Revolution as a direct assault on Islam and preached in Qom by harshly criticizing Shah’s socioeconomic reforms. The government severely suppressed the ensuing riots and Khomeini was exiled first to Turkey and then to Iraq. As a result of his opposition to Shah’s social reforms, Khomeini emerged as a well-known Islamist dissident.

After 1963, encouraged by the support of the United States and enriched by oil revenues, the Shah found the audacity to end the democratic statute. He established an authoritarian rule and crushed all opposing groups including secular nationalists, communist movements, and Islamist clerics. Relations with the United States and other Western nations were warm, and moreover, Iran embarked upon trade and cultural relations with a wide range of regions and countries including Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, France, Germany, and Scandinavia. Altogether, the 1960s and 1970s were marked by significant economic growth, modernization, rapid urbanization, and social transformation.²⁵ The land reforms reduced the power of feudal lords and empowered small farmers who mainly migrated to large cities and became middle class urban citizens. Between 1970 and 1977, the gross national product increased to an average annual rate of 7.8 percent.²⁶ Consequently, the standard of living rose dramatically and Iran’s infrastructure improved rapidly. The Shah relied on oil revenues to finance the massive development plans. After all, he intended to lead Iran toward the Great Civilization, which was an allusion to the glory of ancient Persian Empire.

Islamic Revolution: The End of Monarchy

Despite economic prosperity and higher standards of living in the 1970s, the discontent with the Shah’s regime was constantly growing. On one hand, his reforms were not aligned with the traditional Iranian and Islamic values, and on the other hand, Shah’s accelerated modernization had led to numerous social problems such as mass urbanization, widening social gap, bribery, corruption, and inflation. By the late 1970s, opposition to the Shah grew from a wide range of political affiliations including bazaar merchants, seculars, liberal Muslims, leftists, communists, and guerrilla groups. All dissident groups gradually united behind the charismatic leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini whom they called Imam, an allusion to Imam Mahdi who according to Shia Islam will return and liberate the world from tyranny and injustice. In 1978, a powerful opposition movement to the Shah’s regime was built up. A few months later, Khomeini returned to Iran triumphant and shortly after, in February 1979, took over. The Shah who was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution died in Egypt a year later. After 2500 years of monarchy, the Islamic Republic of Iran was born.

The First Decade of Islamic Republic:
War and Domestic Violence

The first years of the new republic were marked by conflict, turmoil, unrest, bloodshed, and eight years of war with Iraq. During the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), the country experienced negative rates of real economic growth, decline in oil production, high levels of inflation, and international isolation.²⁷ The Islamic Revolution was reversing many of the Shah’s political, social, and economic reforms. The emphasis on Persian nationalism was suddenly replaced by a revolutionary emphasis on Islam. Fundamentalist measures were taken and revolutionary committees patrolled the streets, enforcing Islamic codes of behavior. Due to turmoil and anti-Western sentiments, most of the educated elites fled the country. A wide range of political groups were competing for political power, pushing their agendas, and creating conflict and disorder. During the first year, the revolutionary Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and the first Islamic Republic President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr were expelled by radical forces. Anti-American sentiment was strong and the revolutionary students took control of the United States embassy in Tehran. The following months were marked by both internal and external threats. In September 1980, Iraq invaded parts of the southwestern oil-producing Iranian province of Khuzestan. On the domestic front, the Islamic government took harsh measures to eliminate any political and social opposition and moved toward the consolidation of political and military power. Remorseless executions of anitrevolutionaries, royalists, Marxists, seculars, and other opposing groups’ supporters panicked the population. The Mojahadein-Khalgh, a strong Islamist-Marxist terrorist group stepped up a campaign of bombing throughout the country killing many clerics and high ranking government officials. The war with Iraq turned out to be a long and bloody battle in which both countries’ populations suffered severely. After nearly eight years, in 1988 both sides withdrew to their respective borders and accepted a ceasefire. Following the death of ­Ayatollah Khomeini on June 3, 1989, the Assembly of Experts met in an emergency session and elected Ali Khamenei as the new supreme leader.

The Second and Third Decades of Islamic Republic: Construction, Reform, and Counter Reform

A few months after Khomeini’s death, presidential elections took place and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was elected as president. Rafsanjani began the process of rebuilding the war-torn economy. Considered a pragmatist, he favored a policy of economic liberalization, privatization of industry, and a rapprochement with the West that would encourage foreign investment. After Rafsanjani’s presidency, the unexpected victory of reformist Mohammad Khatami in 1997 brought high hopes among the population.²⁸ Khatami promised political and social reforms, civil liberties, and economic prosperity; therefore, he received overwhelming support from young middle class Iranians and women. He was reelected in 2001, but his reforms were hindered by the powerful Guardian Council. For the first few years of Khatami’s presidency, it seemed the voices of reform were heard, but the hopes gradually waned and finally the reform movement was crushed. In 2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran and decided on hard line policies at home and abroad. In June of 2009, Ahamdinejad was reelected, but the election’s results created a controversy, and supporters of the opponent, Mir Hossein Moussavi, took to the streets to protest the election was fraud. Ahamdinejad who enjoyed full support of the Supreme Leader and conservative clerics, undertook some drastic measures to reverse the sociopolitical reforms of his predecessors, adopted chaotic policies, and ultimately led the country to economic recession and further isolation.

Salient Themes and Trends in the History of Iran

A reflection on the history of Iran reveals some salient themes and trends that continue to impact its society. In the following pages, I briefly review some of these themes such as the Persian pride and ambition, sentiment of the lost glory, spirit of resilience, Iranian loneliness, belief in conspiracy theories, distrust of foreigners, centrality of religion and its impacts on politics, charismatic leadership, and recurrence of social movements and revolutions.

A chief theme in Iran’s history is the Persian pride. As a nation, Iranians are conscious of the ancient Persian greatness and regret their lost status in the world affairs. They consider themselves and their culture as refined, glorious, and subtle and they develop lofty aspirations. As we have seen in the previous sections, by referring to the past Persian glory, Mohammad Reza Shah ambitiously intended to make Iran one of the most powerful nations of the world. After the Islamic Revolution, this trend continued under another label. Indeed, the Muslim clerics overwhelmingly relied on a combination of the Persian and Shia pride to push their revolutionary agenda and yearned for the leadership of Muslim world. As such, it is possible to claim that the Pahalavi and revolutionary regimes pursued some similar lofty goals with dissimilar approaches.²⁹ While Iranians consider themselves devoted Muslims, they underline their historical contribution to the Islamic civilization; they boast of their scholars and scientists such as Avicenna, Al-Khwarizmi, and Razi who significantly enriched the Islamic civilization.

Very closely associated with the Persian pride is the spirit of resilience and durability. Among Iranians, it is widely accepted that Iran has a resilient culture that has endured all the past aggressions and adversities and will overcome future threats. Iranians maintain that in the past they have conquered their conquerors by culture, art, and soft power and have persianized their invaders such as the Mongols.³⁰ At the same time, they have a sentiment of their lost glory as the size and influence of the Persian Empire has been declining steadily. Since the 17th century, Iran has lost control of Bahrain, Baghdad, the Caucasus, western Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and Turkmenistan. While Iran has not been formally colonialized, in practice it has gone under the control of the Britain and Russia during the 19th century. These losses have resulted in depressing impressions in the Iranian collective psyche.

An important characteristic of Iran as a nation is its ethnic and religious loneliness. As a Persian speaking nation, Iranians are linguistically or ethnically different from their neighboring countries. In addition, Shia represents a minority among all other Islamic branches. As we discussed previously, for the past five centuries, after the Safavid Dynasty, the Iranian identity has been deeply interwoven with the Shia creed. For all these differences, Iran has few natural friends in the Middle East and suffers from a severe cultural, linguistic, and historical loneliness. After the Islamic Revolution, Khomeini relied on a pan-Islamic rhetoric to export revolution, but despite all his material and moral efforts, he remained isolated and witnessed little success in other Islamic countries.

A central theme in the Iranian history is related to the foreign and especially Western meddling in Iran’s internal affairs.³¹ As mentioned previously, the history of Iran is marked by many foreign brutal attacks by the Greek, Muslim Arabs, Ottomans, Mongols, and Russians. In modern times, the Iranians have severely suffered from the British and ­American meddling. For that reason, they have a strong tendency to attribute many social, economic, and political problems to outsiders. They believe in conspiracy theories and always see some hidden hands behind every phenomenon. Average Iranians put blame on foreigners for any ill in their history and society and particularly see the Westerners’ hands in every turmoil. After the Islamic revolution, the conspiracy theories targeted the ­American influence and Khomeini pointed to the United States as the Great Satan and the source of Iran’s pains. After all, the Western meddling has left a deep scar on the Iranian social psyche that continues to shape Iran’s destiny.³²

Another prevalent theme in the Iranian history is religion, its pervasiveness, its close relation with politics, and its implications for the social life. Obviously, the Islamic Revolution was an astonishing phenomenon that incorporated religion into all aspects of sociopolitical life. In Michel Foucault’s language, it was an expression of a spiritual and godly movement rejecting secular and material politics. While the Islamic Revolution was an astonishing religious movement, we should underline the close relationship between religion and politics throughout Iran’s long history. As discussed earlier, the Sassanid rulers relied hugely on Zoroastrianism and Ahura Mazda (God) to legitimize their royal rule. Similarly, in the 15th century, Shah Ismail Safavi unified Iran under the flag of Shia Islam and knotted the Iranian national identity with this faith. Even Mohammad Reza Shah, who considered himself a modern and secular leader, relied on godly inspirations to justify his rule.³³ Cyrus was the first to establish a tradition of absolute kingship, which subsequently attained a godlike clout. The Ferdowsi’s epic poems, Shahnameh (Book of Kings), portray the evolution of the divine right through which Iranian kings ruled.³⁴

Despite a rigid hierarchical social system, the Iranian history is marked by the prevalence of revolutionary and social movements.³⁵ A review of Iran’s history reveals a constant quest for social justice and revolutionarism. In Persian language, numerous words are used to describe different categories of revolutionary and social movements. For instance, enghelab (revolution), harj-o-marj (anarchy), ashub (disturbance, turmoil), naa-arami (unrest), shouresh (rebellion), eghteshash (rioting), ghiyam (rebellion), khizesh (jump), degargooni (change), harekat (movement), nehzat (movement), and jombesh (movement), and fetneh (crisis) are some terms that are referred to social and political unrest.³⁶ This revolutionary spirit is seen in many patriotic militants or groups such as ­Abu-Muslim (eighth century), Babak and Mazyar (ninth century), the Assassins (11–12th century), the Constitutional Revolution movement (1905), the oil nationalization (1951–1953), anti-Pahlavi movements (1960s–1970s), and the Islamic Revolution (1979). This propensity for revolution might be attributed to the activism of both Zoroastrianism and Shia Islam and their eternal quest for justice across the world.