The Shah and the Ayatollah: Iranian Mythology and Islamic Revolution PDF
Preview The Shah and the Ayatollah: Iranian Mythology and Islamic Revolution
THE SHAH AND THE AYATOLLAH: Iranian Mythology and Islamic Revolution Fereydoun Hoveyda PRAEGER The Shah and the Ayatollah THE SHAH AND THE AYATOLLAH Iranian Mythology and Islamic Revolution Fereydoun Hoveyda A National Committee on American Foreign Policy Study Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hoveyda,Fereydoun. The Shah and the Ayatollah :Iranian mythology and Islamic Revolution / Fereydoun Hoveyda. p.cm. “A National committee ofAmerican Foreign Policy study.” Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–275–97858–3 (alk.paper) 1. Iran—Politics and government—1941–1979. 2. Iran—Politics and government—1979–1997. 3. Mythology,Iranian. 4. Islam and politics—Iran. I. Title DS318 .H675 2003 955.05(cid:1)3—dc21 2002029763 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2003 by Fereydoun Hoveyda All rights reserved.No portion ofthis book may be reproduced,by any process or technique,without the express written consent ofthe publisher. Library ofCongress Catalog Card Number:2002029763 ISBN:0–275–97858–3 First published in 2003 Praeger Publishers,88 Post Road West,Westport,CT 06881 An imprint ofGreenwood Publishing Group,Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States ofAmerica The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Copyright Acknowledgment The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission from Mage Pub- lishers Inc.to reprint excerpts from Dick Davis’Father and Sons.Washington,DC, 2000. Contents Preface vii 1. The Shah and the Ayatollah 1 2. The Enduring Mythology ofPersia 31 3. The Unwritten Constitution and the “Hidden Imam” 65 4. Tradition vs.Modernization 91 Notes 107 Bibliography 117 Name Index 121 Subject Index 123 Preface As far back as I remember, I was always steeped in Iranian mythology.I was three years old,in Damascus.My mother and the servants who had been brought from Iran would tell me the deeds and fates ofour legendary kings and heroes.To them these fearless champions had really existed and were part of our his- tory.Hence my surprise when in grade two in the French Lycée of Beirut (I was six years old) I noticed that our teacher did not mention them in his version of Iran’s history. To my query she answered: “Oh that! It’s mythology!” At home my nanny shrugged her shoulders:“Your teacher is an ignorant! Don’t listen to her!”Years passed on and we schoolkids became acquainted with Greek mythology and other legends.But I discovered that they were not told at home to European kids and at any rate their legends were very different from ours. For one thing, they re- ferred to multiple gods who were not always morally right like our Wise Lord who continuously fought against Ahriman, the evil spirit. viii Preface Thus the difference between Iran and the rest ofthe world struck and intrigued me since my early years.But,as it happens,I forgot about it after I entered secondary school.It was much later that my childhood memories popped back in my mind. While reading Freud in the late 1940s,I felt somehow at odds with his theories about the Oedipus complex.I remembered our story ofthe super- man Rostam,inadvertently killing his son Sohrab.I then started a study ofother mythologies.I certainly do not pretend to be an ex- pert,but in the course ofmy readings and research I have gathered enough data to convince myselfofthe active role these legends of the remotest past play in the present lives ofpeople.1In the case of Iran,this is even more apparent as we have preserved,almost in- tact,the whole body ofour mythology despite all the invasions and occupations to which we have been subjected over the centuries and millennia.Our legends are being continually told to kids and recounted publicly to children as well as adults.I remember a 1995 lecture given by Professor K.D.Irani,an American Parsi,to the City College’s Faculty Colloquium on World Humanities.Although his subject matter concerned the influence of Indian epics on early Sanskrit drama,he explained how old legends were still kept alive by public storytellers who traveled to the remotest villages.He also told us about one ofhis childhood experiences in Bombay:he was ten years old when Iranian artists staged in the Opera House some ofthe old stories concerning Zoroaster and legendary kings such as Jamshid and Kaykhosrow.2 Their recitations accompanied by music moved the audience to the point of weeping! Such public performances were also very common in Iran before the Islamic revolution. On the transmission of ancient mythology to kids, André Malraux reports a conversation with Nehru in which the first Indian prime minister told him, “Even ill-lettered women Preface ix know our national epics and recount them to kids as bedtime sto- ries.”3 The part played by mothers (or nannies) in the transmission of old legends has been acknowledged by many specialists and re- searchers. Thus, Professor Carlo Ginzburg during his research came across the trial of a sixteenth-century shepherd of a village north ofVenice,who claimed that on certain nights,armed with fennel sticks, he and his fellow villagers battled with the devil’s witches for the fertility of their farmlands.He told an American interviewer:“The case was reminiscent ofa fairy tale and I imme- diately reacted to it.It was like the Sicilian fable my mother read to me as a child.Those fairy tales molded my mind and emotions.”4 At any rate,I have found many points in the events that led to the fall of Muhammad Reza Shah and the ascent of Ayatollah Khomeini that can be explained only by the impact ofold mythol- ogy on Iranians’mind-sets.5 I have tried to develop them in the present book in the hope that my narrative will trigger further studies.
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