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This page intentionally left blank A HISTORY OF MODERN IRAN InaradicalreappraisalofIran’smodernhistory,ErvandAbrahamian tracesitstraumaticjourneyacrossthetwentiethcentury,throughthe discoveryofoil,imperialinterventions,theruleofthePahlavis,and,in 1979, revolution and the birth of the Islamic Republic. In the inter- vening years, Iran has experienced a bitter war with Iraq, the trans- formationofsocietyundertheruleoftheclergy,and,morerecently, theexpansionofthestateandthestruggleforpowerbetweentheold elites,theintelligentsia,andthecommercialmiddleclass.Theauthor, whoisoneofthemostdistinguishedhistorianswritingonIrantoday, is a compassionate expositor. While he adroitly negotiates the twists and turns of the country’s regional and international politics, at the heart of his book are the people of Iran, who have endured and survived a century of war and revolution. It is to them and their resiliencethatthisbookisdedicated,asIranemergesatthebeginning of the twenty-first century as one of the most powerful states in the MiddleEast. ervand abrahamian is Distinguished Professor of History at BaruchCollegeandGraduateCenter,CityUniversityofNewYork. His previous publications include The Iranian Mojahedin (1989), Khomeinism(1993),andTorturedConfessions(1999). A HISTORY OF MODERN IRAN ERVAND ABRAHAMIAN CityUniversityofNewYork CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB28RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521821391 © Ervand Abrahamian 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2008 ISBN-13 978-0-511-41399-5 eBook (EBL) ISBN-13 978-0-521-82139-1 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-52891-7 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. In memory of the more than three hundred political prisoners hanged in 1988 for refusing to feign belief in the supernatural Contents List of maps page viii Listofillustrations ix Listoftables xi Listoffigures xii Chronology xiii Glossary xv Apoliticalwho’swhoofmodernIran xvii Preface xxvii Introduction 1 1 “Royaldespots”:stateandsocietyundertheQajars 8 2 Reform,revolution,andtheGreatWar 34 3 TheironfistofRezaShah 63 4 Thenationalistinterregnum 97 5 MuhammadRezaShah’sWhiteRevolution 123 6 TheIslamicRepublic 155 Notes 196 Bibliography 215 Furtherreading 218 Index 224 vii Maps 1 Iran and the Middle East page xxix 2 Iranianprovinces xxx viii