بردة النبي: الدين والسياسة في إيران

by روي متحدة

يدور هذا الكتاب حول الثورة الإسلامية و أصول قيامها , و الخيارات الكبيرة التي صارت اليها فى موضوع هذا الكتاب , لكنه لا يتخذ لذلك السبل المعروفة للدراسة السياسية أو الإجتماعية , بل يختار منهج التاريخ الثقافي و الأصول التاريخية و المعاني الممتدة للتيارات الكبري الحاضرة , و لذلك يحتل رجل الدين الإيراني فى الكتاب (الملا و الشيخ الشعبي و المرجع و آيه الله ) مكاناً بارزاً فى تحليل أصول نشأته و ثقافته و سلطته , و مواقعة الإجتماعية و الروحیه فد الماضی و الحاضر , حتی إذا جاء القرن العشرون عرض دور رجل الدين فى السياق السياسي و السياسي/الثقافی

Genres: Iran, History, Middle East, Nonfiction, Politics, Islam, Religion

443 pages, Unknown Binding

First published September 1, 1985

Reviews

[Katia N · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1985. It is a brilliant tour de force of the intellectual and religious ideas prevailing on the territory of Iran or influenced by its culture. Inevitably it is focused on Shia Islam. But there is a lot more including secular tradition, sufism, manichaeism and zoroastrism, It is great in its scope and not very difficult to read. Roy Mottahedeh explains tricky concepts with ease but without loosing the level of details. I feel sad that I’ve finished this book and it is hardly possible to produce an update of this book for the last 40 years due to the political developments.

On the superficial level, the book goal is to explain what has lead to the Islamic Revolution in 1979. And “how a revolution so popular in origin should be so conservative in outcome”. However, the author warns in the introduction that there is no definitive answer on this question. As well as there is no answer on the question whether the revolution was the change for the better or worse. He gives the example of the French revolution which happened 200 years ago and the historians still disagree on its consequences.

For me though the sheer scope of the intellectual thought, the strangeness of it as well as some familiarity was amazing. I’ve learned a lot and enjoyed the experience of learning as well.

The book does not have a historically chronological structure. Instead it follows the intellectual life of a boy of a traditional mullah family from his childhood in the 40s of the 20th century through his education and up to the revolution of 1979. The boy, Ali Hashemi is sayyed, the ancestor of a Prophet. We follow his intellectual development from the primary state school to Madreseh in Qom where he lives. Later he becomes the instructor there, leaves for Iraq to study with Khomeini, then comes back and goes to the University of Tehran to study secular subjects such as philosophy. It is a true story. And it forms approximately a third of the total book. Another two thirds are more analytical follow ups to each chapter focused on a certain aspect of the Iranian intellectual and political history such as education, revolution of 1906, the history of Shia Islam, Sufis and the poetry. Typically, the author would pick up a few prominent individuals, politician and scholars and illustrate more general points through their thinking. Those individuals include Avicenna, Khayam, Shahravardi, Karsavi, Mosaddeq and many others. Initially i've had reservations about the structure. And in fact I did not enjoy the first chapter that much. But later I was convinced that the structure worked brilliantly.

The weakness of the book is predictable. His depiction of the American policy in Iran as “naive” and idealistic sounds naive at least. He mentions Roosevelt adviser saying: “Iran is or can be made something in a nature of a clinic - an experiment station-for the presidents postwar policies his aims to develop and stabilise backward areas” which is dubious by itself. But then on the next page he talks about the US sponsored coup to get rid of the elected prime minister in the 50s when CIAs paid out the mob to organise antigovernment protest effectively managing the coup. They even were amazed how cheap it came to be. I find it really far from “naive and idealistic”. The Brits who effectively ruled there together with the Russians for 2 centuries are hardly mentioned. The Russians though got there share, but still treated gently enough. But I think i can forgive him for that as it does not affect the majority of the stuff in the book and is not the main subject of his narrative.

As always with my non-fiction reviews, I would just mention a few points which I found fascinating. The selection is very subjective and far from a comprehensive. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested to broaden their point of view and find the perspective of the world that is different from the Western one.

1. Iran did not have any formal system of education, even on the primary level until the 30s of the 20s century which is very late. The first and only high level secular education establishment was a Polytechnic founded in the late 19th century but for a very specific purpose. But Madresehs first appeared in the 11th century. They were the centres of the formal Islamic learning not very different from the Medieval universities. They existed throughout the centuries and their curriculum was quite vigorous. They taught something which is known as trivium in the West: grammar, rhetoric and logic. Of course those were not the only subjects. They needed to be fluent in Arabic to learn Koran and later the Islamic law among other things.They were taught not only through reading the texts but through disputations. The scholars needed to work in pairs and to dispute the difficult bits. So it was not as dogmatic as we would imagine. The system was still in place when Ali was studying in the early 50s. My understanding is that those establishments were the only place for a brighter boy to be educated.

2. Sufism appeared to play a very significant role in spreading Islam between the masses. It is a mystical movement which believes in a possibility of obtaining a knowledge through “illumination” as opposed to reason. The mainstream clerics did not like Sufis as the reason played a very significant role in the interpretation of Islam and made it a prerogative of a learned man i.e. clergy. Also they competed for the financial resources. However, the Sufism in one form or another never disappeared. The practice of “efran” - learning how to achieve illumination through repetition and other form of ecstatic experience is still popular. Ali, the main character of the book has had a spiritual teacher of efran outside the madreseh system and he has achieved the state when he could see everything around him as just a form of light. It is quite fascinating how this mystical experience is described. The Sufis also had a huge influence on Iranian poetry. Many of the poets were the Sufis themselves.

3. “Seeing the light” has lead me to another little story. When i was reading Dante’s “Divine comedy” earlier this year, I’ve read somewhere that his Paradiso closely resembles in structure and appearance the Paradise described in many narratives of the Ascent by Mohammed. He ascends to the throne of God under the guidance of Gabriel “a visionary experience recorded in all his biographies culminate in light.” It has been even mentioned in Wiki. Here, it is mentioned as well. In both Dante’s book and the Ascent, God is the focus of the most vivid lights surrounded by 9 concentric circles “formed by closed files of angels emitting light and all circles revolve about the Divine Focus.” So it is very likely Dante “was inspired” by the one of these accounts. It is almost certain, but obviously it is viciously argued against by many western scholars.

4. Mani, the founder of the religion named after him in the 3rd century seems to be very fascinating and influential figure. It is strange we do not hear about him that much nowadays. I’ve heard of him and his influence on St Augustine and respectively the Medieval Christianity when I was reading [Iran]. Here, he becomes even more interesting. Mani and his follows believed universal salvation of the soul through knowledge out of evil material world. So everything material, including body is really bad. But as a consequence, everything not material, including the written word is good. So it looks like we owe to him a huge boost in establishing and spreading the literature. Before him the scriptures were not defined. The revelations were recorded by someone else, not by the prophets themselves. But he by himself received revelations and wrote scripture. Therefore, he has created the idea of canon. And all other religions had to follow. I wonder whether we owe him the idea of the canon in the Western literature as well. He made the religion more democratic through translations as well. Other established religions were very reluctant to translate their sacred texts from their original languages. Not Mani. He by himself has translated his revelations into at least three languages and encouraged other translations. He also was quite happy to “borrow” from other religions. And he encouraged composing poetry and singing hymns in native languages. While the other religions considered the poetry as the language of Satan. All in all he seemed to be the first very influential, not very scrupulous literati. He certainly influenced the genesis of the Persian poetry.

5. In general, the dualism of Zoroastrian religion has influenced the appearance of the evil and the Satan in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. In Islam in particular, it seems the devil was associated with the creative impulses as well. And his figure is quite complex, far from the simple personification of the evil. Sufi believed that Satan was so devoted to God that he just could not accept a bow from anyone else. That is why he was ready to be expelled rather than to bow to a human. So he comes out almost like martyr figure. And of course, there is influence from the dualistic earlier religions. Mottahedeh’s argument then follows that while the theology is so ambiguous, it is not surprising that this ambiguity has become a part of the Iranian identity, and more narrowly the main theme of their traditional poetry. He says: “Persian poetry came to be the emotional home in which the ambiguity that was at the heart of Iranian culture lived most freely and openly. What Persian poetry expressed was not an enigma to be solved but an enigma that was unsolvable.” And in reality, the poets in Iran could get away with something which would be unimaginable in a very strict islamic tradition. The poetry plays a very significant role in the life or Iranian people. And this ambiguity, reconciling the opposites between an extreme piety and the hedonistic cynicism might at least partly explain the contradictions of their history.

6. And the last point about the books burning. I’ve recently read a novel by an Iranian immigrant. There, she described an imaginary mass books burning by the Islamists after the revolution. I do not know whether such public actions really took place. I can believe they did, but I have not investigated this question. But I came across “a festival of book burning” by rather unexpected crowd. I was reading here about Kasravi, a former graduate from a madreseh but later a prominent secularist in 20-40s of the 20th century. He believed that traditional poetry is really harmful. Here Mottahedeh says “In pamphlets such as “Hasan is Burning his book of Hafez” he attacked the cult of Persian poetry, since he felt that Iranians used poetic quotations to avoid serious thinking. Anyway, Persian poetry was imbued with the qualities he detested - flattery of patrons, fatalism and mysticism antithetical to science - so he instituted a “book burning festival” for his followers at the winter solstice.” So it seems even if the novel I’ve read is based on some fact (and i do not know whether it is in fact the case), the idea has been initially propagated on the other end of the political spectrum. 


[Murtaza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a breathtaking intellectual history of Iran, starting from its pre-Islamic history all the way up the present day, and narrated alongside the story of one man in particular: a mullah trained in modern Iran's Shia seminaries. The scope of the book is really incredible and it would difficult to do it all justice in any summation, but Mottahedeh somehow manages to chart the origins of modern day Iranian thought deep in its ancient history. The descriptions of life in 20th century Qom and Tehran are also beautifully done, and you really come to identify with the pseudonymous mullah as he tells the story of his education and coming of age. Along with the stories of his rigorously logical seminary training, I was particularly moved by the descriptions of his Sufi experiences and the importance of "erfan" in the lives of some of Iran's traditional religious teachers. The author somehow manages to weave the lives of Ferdowsi, Zoroaster, Ayatollah Taleqani, Jalal al-E Ahmed and many others into one durable narrative that continues alongside the life of the mullah. The writing is really captivating and elegant, which makes the potentially dense subject matter a pleasure to deal with.

The book is bracketed by the events of the Iranian Revolution and was published around the time that the revolution occurred. Although it is not about those events per se, it provides a beautifully narrated origin story of how that strange moment came to pass. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Iran or modern Iranian politics. Hopefully one day the country will open up enough that it will be easier for others to experience it for themselves, but without losing all that makes it so unique.

[Yorgos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mottahedeh uses extensively the personal lives and accounts of real Iranians who lived during the critical era that eventually led to 1979. The book manages to show how Iranian history and thought-life of Iranians developed post WWII.
Its great value is the presentation of the emotional life and struggles of an Iranian mullah, who lived the events of post WWII, leading to 1979.

I would love to see a book, with the same philosophy of presenting issues, that would cover the 1980s and 1990s.

[Tamer Badawi · Rating 5 out of 5]

أفضل ما قرأت فى حقل الدراسات الإيرانية .. من خلال سرد سيرة أحد المعممين .. يبحث الكتاب عن الجذور الفكرية للعقلية الشيعية المعاصرة فى التاريخ .. دور المنطق و الفلسفة فى تكوين تلك العقلية .. مركزية الف��هاء و علاقتها بالتراتبية الهرمية للمؤسسة الدينية فى إيران .. بدايات تحديث التعليم فى إيران .. التحولات السوسیو-سیاسیة فى إيران المعاصرة .. لمحات مهمة عن علاقةالأدب بالسياسة و المجتمع .. الکتاب منبع هائل للأفكار و المشروعات .. لولا أن ثلة من المترجمين السذج هم من ترجموا الكتاب خاصةً فصوله الأخيرة لكان الكتاب أروع بكثير .. يستحق الأقتناء و مهم جداً للدارسين فى حقل الدراسات الإيرانية و الشيعية ..

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The scope of this book is breathtaking and I am in awe of its treatment of its material. This book is - contrary to the cover explanation - hardly about the revolution explicitly, and anyone looking for a 'blow-by-blow' account of those dates should look to dozens of other excellent books on those times. Instead, it is a sweeping and beautiful examination of the development of Persian / Iranian and Shia identity from its earliest days through 1980, covering everything from Islamic jurisprudence (in a detail I've never seen) to poetry to nationalism and everything in between, with attention paid the the changes in thinking that allowed the revolution to occur. The slow and methodical pace is at first noticeable but quickly becomes enjoyable as you become immersed into an epic tale. Critics are quite right about it at times meandering, but all of it is highly relevant and important.

[عبدالرحمن أبوذكري · Rating 4 out of 5]

الكتاب أكثر من رائع، وقد بحثت عن ترجمته طويلاً، حتى أهديت إليّ في طبعة المركز القوميّ للترجمة بمصر. وهي طبعة قد شوّهت الكتاب و أضعفت قيمته. فهي حافلة باﻷخطاء الإملائيّة واللغويّة، وبلا قائمة محتويات، ولا فهارس تحليلية، ولا هوامش -برغم كثرتها في اﻷصل الإنجليزي- ولا أعرف هل طبعة المدار الإسلامي/الكتاب الجديد بنفس السوء أم أن هذه اﻷخطاء قد تمّ تدارُكها.
أما عن الترجمة فأقلّ ما يُمكن أن توصف به أنها خبيثة كمن نُسبت إليه، "الحريري" رضوان السيّد صاحب التصوّر اﻷموي للتاريخ. وبالمناسبة فأنا مصري ولست لبنانياً، كما أني لستُ شيعياً، لكن رضوان السيد قادر على أن يستفز اﻷصنام بخُبث ترجمته. فعلى سبيل المثال؛ المقال المشهور الذي نُشر به سب صريح للخميني في صحيفة اطلاعات، على ما أظن، هو مقال "ندد" بالخميني!
ويُمكن للقاريء المدقق أن يعثر على الكثير من هذه الخطايا التي تدس السم في العسل.
وأزعم أن رضوان السيد لم يخطّ حرفاً في الكتاب، بل ترجمه المترجمون الثلاثة الذين أورد أسماؤهم في الصفحات الداخلية، باعتبارهم شاركوا في الترجمة. فالنصّ غير مُتماسك ومهلهل في كثير من المواضع، كما أنه لم يجر تحريره بشكل احترافي، فهو من أعمال الهواة. ويبدو أن رضوان قد عهد به لبعض صبيته، ووضع اسمه عليه، في تقليد أصبح للأسف سائداً بين الأكاديميين العرب والكثير من المترجمين المشهورين، بل والناشرين الكبار.
ولن أخوض في شخص رضوان ولا أفكاره فليس هذا بموضعه، وإنما كان لزاماً تبيان منهجه في الترجمة، وكيف ارتضى نشر طبعة المجلس القومي للترجمة بهذا الشكل وبلا مراجعة.
الكتاب نفسه مادّة ثريّة وخصبة ومُلهمة، ويبدو أن روي متحدة بذل فيه جهداً ضخماَ، فهو يكشف عن وعي عميق بالنصوص، وبالتحولات الفكرية للأشخاص والجامعات التي يرصدها.
وعنوان الكتاب هو عنوان تجاري لا علاقة له بالمتن الدسم، فالعنوان يوحي بكتاب مبتذل كعادة من يرصدون التحوّلات السياسيّة البرّانية بشكل أفقي وبدون أدني تعمّق، لكن الكتاب على العكس من ذلك، يخوض في تحوّلات الفكر الإسلامي ويرصدها في الفضاء الشيعي، وبشكل مقارن. بل ويربط الاجتماعي بالمعرفي بالسياسي بالديني في ضفيرة شائقة وممتعة ومفيدة.
والكتاب لا ينتمي لحقل الدراسات الإيرانية بقدر ما ينتمي لحقل الدراسات الإسلاميّة بوجه عام، ولحقل علم اجتماع المعرفة بوجه أخصّ، فهو في النهاية رؤية المؤلف لتطوّر الفكر الإسلامي في القرون الثلاثة اﻷخيرة خصوصاً في الفضاء الشيعي.
نصيحة أخيرة لمن يرغب بقراءة الكتاب، وهي أن يقرؤه بالإنجليزية إن استطاع، ففيها الكفاية.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only all countries had a historian of this calibre. This is a sharp and immersive intellectual history of Iran. Mottahedeh starts each chapter with a sort of historical fiction slice of life, following a stock cleric from the 1930s through to the Revolution. After this relatively brief tale, he segues into thematical treatment of Iranian history, culture and theology. Chapters cover secular and Islamic education systems, jurisprudence, Sufism and theology with Shi'ism, passion plays & poetry and much more. The result is a vivid and holistic explanation of Iranian culture, and a sense of how this combines into the heady mix of anti-imperialism and passionate religiosity than underpins the revolution. It is only in the epilogue that Mottahedeh's fury comes through at how Khomeini and his ilk reduced this society of glorious ambiguity built on colour and poetry, sharpened by formal Aristotelian proposition debate techique to a rigidity of black and white and simplicity, and his belief that Iranian culture would inevitably break it down.
I particularly appreciated the explanation of madrasseh history and culture, tracing it's emergence in similar and yet different terms to mediaeval European University cultures. tThe rigor of intellectual training, establishing norms for reason and debate made a lot of other things suddenly make sense - it is a culture based much more on ideas developed through interaction, like Alexandria and it's debate culture,, than developing individualism and scoring in the West.
The book is magnificent achievement, an explanation and celebration all at the same time. I have a huge reading list to follow up now, and I just wish more of it was available in English.

[Talla Khelghati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mottahedeh might be one of the most skillful authors of the 20th century. This book, which oscillates between the narrative story of Ali Hashemi’s life and the history of Shi’ism in the Iranian cultural and political tradition, is a true page-turner. As an Iranian, it was incredible to read about our rich history of philosophy, mysticism, and religious curiosity. Absolutely loved this book!

[Mansoor · Rating 1 out of 5]

The historical sections of the book, in which the events are told in Mottahedeh's voice and from his own perspective, are neither truthful nor insightful. Ali Hashemi's narrative would have been compelling to a lot of readers if it had been read back then, but right now there's nothing interesting about it. It hasn't aged well at all.

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 4 out of 5]

The great Madrassa of Qom signifies the best in contemporary Islamic education has to offer for Shi’a Islam. It produced the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini who was able to produce an Islamic revolution only in Iran. The madrassa education is deeply influenced by the Persian cultural tradition which precedes Islam by a few thousand years at least. That is why the Islamic revolution of Iran has not been able to export its vision anywhere apart from Iran. The proud Islamic Shia scholars are unique within Islam, no Sunni school is able to match their stature and achievements. All of the Sunni revolutionary movements like Al Qaida and the Islamic state are led by non-religious leaders, and I think that is why they remain on the fringe. The Islamic revolution would probably never have occurred if not for the brilliance of the Islamic scholarship of Qom.
Any successful religion has to have the innate quality of regenerating itself, keeping itself relevant with the challenges of time. Islam has achieved this goal by incorporating philosophy so that most major ills of life can be explained in the light of Koran. The author has quite brilliantly managed to explain this phenomenon using Iranian characters set in a story juxtaposed with the politial history of Iran.

[Ömer Faruk Koç · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the best book I have ever read

[Ibrahim · Rating 4 out of 5]

عندما بدأت بقراءة الكتاب، كنت أتوقع أنني سأقرأ كتابًا يتحدث عن الثورة الإيرانية، لكن ما قرأته كان عملًا شاملًا يتناول تطوّر الشخصية الإيرانية، وهو ما أعجبني بشدة.
الكتاب عميق، شامل، ثقيل، وصعب، لكنه مهم ورائع جدًا. إنه كتاب مُبهر، تستمتع بقراءته رغم ما فيه من مشقة.

مشكلة هذا الكتاب في رأيي تكمن في أمرين:
الأولى أن الكتاب يناقش أفكارًا، وأحداثًا، وشخصيات، دون التزام بتسلسل زمني واضح، مما يجعلك تشعر بالضياع أحيانًا في بعض المواضع. كما أنه يحتوي على تفاصيل تتعلّق بما يدرسه الطلاب الدينيون في الحوزات بقم، وهو ما يُضفي عليه شيئًا من الملل.

أما المشكلة الثانية، وهي الأفظع، فهي الترجمة العقيمة، الفظيعة، السيئة لهذا العمل، خصوصًا في الفصول الأخيرة.
هذا ما يجعل محاولة قراءة الكتاب تجربة شاقة ومحبطة إلى أقصى درجة.
الكتاب مليء بالأخطاء الإملائية، والتراكيب اللغوية الركيكة التي لا يقع فيها حتى المترجم المبتدئ. بل إن المترجم يكتب "على" بدلًا من "علي"! كإسم لشخص
فتخيّل إلى أي درجة من الانحدار وصلت إليها هذه الترجمة. ترجمة هذا الكتاب إهانة لمهنة الترجمة.

ومع ذلك، يظل هذا الكتاب عملًا مُبهرًا، يستحق القراءة. ورغم كل المشقة التي قد يواجهها القارئ أثناء قراءته، فإنه يستحق العناء.

[Sagheer Afzal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful

[نعمان · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mottahedeh tells the story of Iran through the eyes of a seminary student called Ali Hashemi. His life from young age, through to studies at Qom and Tehran, is the canvas on which the story of Iran has been painted. The book has been for me an exposition of many things, the most salient points are discussed below.

It always intrigued me that most nations to the East and West of Iran for example Egypt and India were dominated (politically and ideologically) by Sunni Islam. Mottahedeh outlines the inextricable link between Iran and Shiah Islam and despite many of it’s (internal) critics, why it has reigned supreme.

Mottahedeh masterfully outlines how the sentiments of liberals such Kasravi, intellectuals such as Al-e Ahmad and Mullahs such as Ayatollah Khomeini converged to topple first Reza Shah and then his son Mohammed Reza. These three seemingly differing groups fought the same war, but for different reasons. The political face of the initial uprising (pre-revolution), was Mossadegh who has left an indelible mark on Iranian history.

The development of Sufism (or Erfan) by characters such as Sohrvardi (and arguably Avicenna) - from which the Sohrvardiyya arose - and it’s propagation via Mullah Sadra is also discussed. Mottahedeh explains why it was largely opposed by the Clergy, this goes some way to explain why Ali was taught Erfan by a private tutor. Ayatollah Khomeini also studied and (privately) taught it.

Underpinning all of this, are the poets such as Hafez and Khayyam whose works are woven into the text, to illustrate the positions and grievances of Iranian society. Some of which, as Mottahedeh points out, are not strictly allegorical. This explains why for example, many are undecided whether Khayyam was a theist.

There is some discussion of pre-Islamic history, particularly how the Shah utilised it. References are made to Alexander the Great, Zoroaster and Cyrus but not enough to satiate my interest in the topic.

Recommended as a go-to for those interested in Shiah Islam, Iran and the Middle East in general. The book was written in 1985, less than a decade after the Revolution, I very much hope and wish Mottahedeh writes an update to this.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written in an unusual way for a history book. The backbone is a narrative of the life story of a mullah from a wealthy Sayyid mullah family from the holy city of Qom, but most of it is an intellectual history of Iran, told through the lens of the life and work of various influential men in Iranian cultural history. Each chapter begins with a piece of the biographee's story, but devotes many more pages to the backstory of intellectual history. This backstory is not given in chronological order, but includes whatever the author thinks is most relevant to that part of the main character's life. The chapters have no titles, and there is no table of contents.

Despite what some reviewers quoted on my copy say about the author making the subject accessible to the ordinary reader, I feel it is challenging to navigate for someone without much background in the subject (I have a little background in Iranian history, without which I would have been quite lost). Parts of it are interesting, even beautiful, but some parts I found rather tedious. It has a bit too much of the "great man" view of history for my way of thinking. It gave less attention than I would to imperialist intervention and the economic reasons for it (as in oil), or to poverty and the conspicuous consumption of the Shah's regime, as causes of the revolution. It is the nature of intellectual history to be a rather elite subject, which doesn't mean it isn't worth studying. It will be on my shelf to return to if I am looking further into the work of any of the writers discussed in it.

It does give a lot of detail about the educational system in Iran and its evolution, and about the relation of the the clerical class to the legal system and to the government. It is a history of that class of Iranians (the Shiite clerics), as well as of the influential individual writers.

[Abdullah · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب ممتع يستفيد منه القارئ في معرفة العلاقة بين الدين والسياسة في إيران ودور الملالي خلال القرن التاسع عشر والعشرين في المجال السياسي.
يسرد الكاتبة قصة رجل اسمه علي الهاشمي وهو ملا من ملالي إيران. رغم أن الكتاب كتب بأسلوب قصصي ممتع، إلا أنه لم يذكر مصادره لأي معلومة. وهذا ما ينقص من مصداقية هذا الكتاب.
يفتح الكتاب للقارئ آفاق معرفية حول الدين والمجتمع والسياسة في إيران.

[The Bear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Verbose - it's not breezy summer beach reading - but a compelling account, both (individually) anecdotal and sweeingly historical.

If you want to understand the nation of Iran and the worldview of its people - along with The Shah of Iran you need to read The Mantle of the Prophet.

[Zeina Taha · Rating 5 out of 5]

In one of my first classes in Iranian Studies, the professor before us reminded us to beware that we will be studying a nation of 80 million, with a long rich civilizational heritage, and a history ample with political complexities. He cautioned us from falling into reductionist narratives and shallow interpretations, and from misreading the reality of Iran due to its endless intricacies. Even though we were very early on in the program, being someone who is extremely detail-oriented, relentlessly occupied with the subtle and the unsaid, and who cannot be satisfied with a surface-reading of certain issues, I instantly felt that I was out of place, and that fulfilling what I had come to Iran to do – namely, to understand the country in its entirety within a couple of years– was the product of a fresh college-graduate mindset who still needed time and training to appreciate life’s nuances.

Eight years later, Roy Mottahedeh, through his book “The Mantle of the Prophet" offered me what I could not attain in my short year-and-a-half academic visit to Iran. He offered an in-depth, nuanced, yet comprehensible depiction of the endless complexities of the country.

Mottahedeh succeeded at covering an incredible variety of some of the most important topics in Iranian studies in his approximately 400-page book, without reductionist depictions or shallow interpretations. On the contrary, he takes the reader on a temporal and spatial tour around the country with his words. The author takes the reader not only to single-room houses of grand ayatollahs in the narrow valleys of Mashhad, but also invites them to a cup of tea over their most intimate theological discussions and private thoughts, which they would only – cautiously – disclose to people like ‘Ali, the young mullah who features as the story’s main character.

Mottahedeh tackles some of the most delicate issues like silent skepticism among scholars by drawing on real-life incidents in an exciting narrational style. He also skillfully and articulately analyzes and explains the characters and contributions of some of the most important figures in Iran’s pre-modern, modern, and contemporary history while illustrating their wider contexts. Mottahedeh tells a rich part of the story of Iran by moving across politics, education, culture, and religion, but he does so while preserving the specificities of each topic at hand.

Finally, Mottahedeh’s combination of the different levels of analysis – international, local, and personal - often in an integrated manner, gives the book a dynamism that keeps the reader excited to flip the page.

[Ziad Daoud · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intellectual history of Iran, leading up to its 1979 ‎revolution. Each chapter begins with the story of Ali ‎Hashemi, a seminary student from Qom, then explores a ‎related theme. Chapter six is glorious. It tells the story of ‎Shia fiqh, ‎‎including a wonderful exposition of Murtadha Al-‎Ansari’s ‎‎work.‎

[Edith · Rating 5 out of 5]

2022 reread: I assigned this as vacation reading and it is also a pleasure to go back to it. This book reminds us that history is more than just events but are informed a lot of human factors that can't really be quantified nor predicted. This the book that really put the "human" at the forefront of the humanities, and it is something amazing to behold.

Roy Mottahedeh’s book uses the personal narrative of a character (a talabeh and eventually mullah “Seyyed Ali Hashemi”) as a nexus tying together his work on the forces and developments that shaped modern Iran, eventually leading to the revolution of 1979. The book explores a variety of factors contributing to the Islamic Revolution. Though mainly a modern history of Iran, the book incorporates elements from a variety of historical subfields - religious, social, intellectual, political, art history - that help deepen one’s understanding of Iran. In this respect, Dr. Mottahedeh was careful to include vivid descriptions of the setting (Qom, the seminary city that is the intellectual center of Iranian Shi’ism), the role of Shi’i rituals (the passion plays of Moharram; the pilgrimage to the shrines), the curriculum of the madresehs (especially the Shi’i emphasis on Aristotelian logic, in contrast to Sunni thought that rejected the reasoning technique in matters of theology, preferring to defer to revelations and traditions), the special place Iranian society held for the seyyed class, the economy of the bazaar, Persian poetry, etc. These discussions helped to illuminate the complex entity of Iran, and paints a fuller portrait of the society and how it drifted towards the brink of revolution than a work that only dealt with political-economy or political history.

Just like the conversation between “Ali” and his teacher in Najaf on the Aristotelian concepts of sufficient versus material causes, Dr. Mottahedeh’s work suggests that political change has many material causes. A number of such factors are apolitical in their origins and inert for centuries, but their convergence at an opportune time can be a force to be reckoned with, and therefore they are worthy of scholarly attention.

This is powerful introduction to Iran, easy to read but also deals with complex issues, The perspective (from the point of view of a mullah) provides an alternative narrative, since most popular memoirs of the Iranian Revolution - such as “Persepolis” - come from the leftist, urban-intellectual perspective, where the supporters of the Islamic regime are portrayed as bearded hordes imposing a medieval agenda on Iran. “The Mantle of the Prophet” shows how simplistic this conception is and gives us an inside look at the madreseh tradition, as well as into the inner, intellectual life of the seyyeds and mullahs. It suggests that these Iranian “traditionalists” are more dynamic in their attitudes than they get credit for, and the dichotomy of the “intellectuals” versus the “mullahs” isn’t as rigid as imagined. After all, the Islamic Revolution started out with a lot of popular support in the traditional areas, and this book gives us a glimpse of why Shi’iism extends such powerful appeal for Iranians.

[MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even for a serious reader of serious books, rarely does a reader come across a book so exquisitely written that it reminds her the true purpose, perhaps with a capital P, of an art form. And this is precisely what Roy Mottahedeh’s The Mantle of the Prophet does. Although this book can be found in the non-fiction history shelves in libraries and bookstores, the art form that Mottahedeh, a Gurney Professor of History at Harvard, has mastered so adroitly is—curiously enough—fiction. This is not to suggest that any of the characters or events told in these pages were invented, because that would be a disservice to years of rigorous and thorough primary and secondary research that Mottahedeh conducted in preparation. But rather, the feat that Mottahedeh achieves with this non-fiction book is what many great fiction writers strive for: “Serious fiction’s purpose is to give the reader, who like all of us is sort of marooned in her own skull, imaginative access to other selves” (David Foster Wallace). And this feat is even more impressive considering that the “other self” that we gain “imaginative access” to is an unusual character, especially for an American audience: Ali Hashemi, an Islamic Shia mullah from Qom, Iran.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long winded way to begin to understand modern day Iran. Tells the history mostly from the point of view of those in the religious establishment. Your heart will go out to Iran as you read it. It is not outdated. I read this to learn more after reading All the Shah's Men. If you want to get inside the Iranian head this is a great start.

[Mohammad Dashti · Rating 3 out of 5]

كان لشمس الانتظار الساطعة، اثرا يخفيه قوة شعاعها،
لشدة حرارتها، اثر سحري خفي، محفوف بالاسرار، ويلفه الغموض بستاره الجميل الذي لا يلام من يعبده، قاد الماضين منا، على درب جنون، توج بثورة، تجلى فيها ذلك الغضب القديم، المكبوت، وبناء، لم يكتفي ببلبلة السنتنا، وانضممنا بذلك، الى قافلة التيه الحديثة، وابتلع الشمس، ثقب اسود، اغرى قادتنا الذين لم ولن يفهموه.

[Behrooz Parhami · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published 6 years after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, which means that much of Mottahedeh’s research for the book was carried out 4-5 years after the Revolution. Much has changed in religion and politics of Iran’s Islamic regime in the 40+ years since. The idealism at the Islamic regime’s infancy has given way to greed and corruption, both for personal gain of Islamic officials and in the service of holding on to power in the face of broad public discontent. As I write this review, a cease-fire has prevailed after the June 13-25 Israel-Iran war, in which Iran’s atomic sites (with help from the US), long-range missile factories & storage facilities, and the top echelon of IRGC’s command structure were destroyed and significant damage was inflicted on the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv & Haifa.

The mullahs are portraying their crushing military defeat as a resounding victory (shades of Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s 1984) and have tried to expand their measly 10-15% domestic support by appealing to the public’s nationalistic sentiments. What would have been described as “Islam is under attack” only a few years ago is now narrated as “attack on our motherland, Iran,” through the mass media exclusively controlled by the regime. Access to social media, already quite limited for decades, has been totally cut off, so that regime-produced disinformation dominates the airwaves and other news sources. Large numbers of people are being arrested and charged with spying for Israel. Afghan refugees are being used as the primary scapegoats, with the Jewish and Baha'i minorities also being interrogated.

It was against this background that I began reading Mottahedeh’s book, passed on to me by my older son. Mottahedeh’s 400-page book is composed of a prologue, an epilogue, and 10 title-less chapters, averaging 36 pages each in the paperback edition. Professor Ali Hashemi (a pseudonym) is the book’s main character, who received secular education after spending several years at the seminaries of Qom, a shrine city 90 miles to the south of Tehran. Ali suffered from internal contradictions and had reservations about his father, a prominent cleric, and the Shi’i tradition more generally. The book features several other composite characters, based in part on real people.

Ali Hashemi is well-connected to the clerical network, making Mottahedeh’s account an insider’s story. Ali’s experiences are representative of a fairly small minority of Iranians: A fraction of the population who were religiously inclined by choice, later becoming disillusioned with political Islam. At the outset, the Revolution wasn’t Islamic per se, but it was later co-opted and labeled as “Islamic” by the Shi’i clerics, who were better organized than other participating groups. The clerics proceeded to produce a constitution that essentially invested all power in the Supreme Leader, who is a cleric and is chosen mostly by top-level clerics.

Mottahedeh pays much attention to the period 1941-1958, that is, from the Tudeh (Communist) Party gaining strength to the CIA-led coup that ousted PM Mohammad Mosaddeq and reinstated Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to the throne. The book by Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, gives a complementary account of the 1979 Revolution from the standpoint of the intellectual/social vacuum created by the toppling of Mosaddeq, a void later filled by the Shi’i clerics. One book tells us the story of radicalized clerics, while the other paints the sociopolitical context of this radicalization.

Like most books about Iran, The Mantle of the Prophet weaves some ancient Iranian history, including tales of the great kings of the Persian Empire, into its narrative on contemporary Iran.

[Note: I have learned through on-line sources that a revised 2008 edition of Mottahedeh’s book includes a new chronology detailing events in Iran, from the 1979 Revolution up to Ahmadinejad’s controversial presidency.]

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

1985
Describing pre Khomeini times.
Tells story of a friend of his from Qom.
Also tells stories about other learned Iranians of past and present.
Lots of complex discussions of religious arguments, too specialized for me.
Quite an interesting take on pre revolutionary life of theology students in Qom.
345:
Three indispensable features of an Iranian city: government, grand mosque, and bazaar.
Relations between them and within them.
Alongside the informal boundaries based on consensus, such as the mullahs or the bazar community, Iranian society has long had small groups of friends who meet regularly.
The merchants of the bazaar often d belonged to a group that met once a week in each other's homes to hear a mullah preach.
,..... one of the most dangerous elements in the bazaar was the unmarried and unpropertied male adolescents.

144 Mysticism, the ambiguity of poetry, Belief in the many faced subtlety of evil, and the never resolved choice between the roles of hedonistic cynic and selfless devotee have created the great interior spaces in which the Iranian soul has breathed and survived over half a millennium.

[Fiza Irfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review💥 "The Mantle of the Prophet" by Roy Mottahedeh
If you're interested in history, if you wanna know about the cultural and political dynamics of Iran then this book is for you. I assure you wouldn't regret reading it.
The Mantle of the Prophet is the fusion of autobiography of a Mullah of Qom, Iran, Ali Hashemi which resonates with the national, cultural and political history of Iran, as well as the trends which ultimately led to the REVOLUTION of 1979. For writer, the core of Iranian culture is its "two-heartedness"--- Persian for ambiguity. Throughout its history, Iran has a destiny of change and re-definition. The book not only contains the full fledged image of Ali Hashemi, but also covers the lives of the significant personalities of Iran starting from Ibn e Sina( or Avicenna), Isa Sadiq(the foremost historian of modern Iranian culture), Muhammad Mossadegh( the prime minister who defied the US & Britain to nationalize Iranian oil in 1951, Ayatollah Khomeini and many others.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having spent the last year living in Iran and studying Iranian Studies at the University of Tehran, the book provides a distinctive view of Iran, predominantly during the time between the two revolutions, but there's also extensive discussion on important figures such as Avicenna, Jalale Ahmad. One the one hand, Mottahedeh tellls the fictional story of a mullah named Ali, who comes from a prominent sayyed family in Qom, and his journey through the Islamic learning system from Qom to Najaf and to the Universit of the Tehran from around the 50s until a few years after the revolution. While non-fictional discussions on important figures, movements, ideologies of contemporary Iranian history, including an extensive and very interesting discussion on Sufi Islam. This book sparked my interest in Sufi Islam as well as the marriage between Jalale Ahmad and Ali Shariati, with Ayatollah Khomeini.

[Faisal Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expected a chronological rundown of modern era Iran, but instead got something which much more relevant and valuable. The author delves deep and presents an intellectual history of the country, which is a crucial element in understanding political events in the 20th century. From the effect of Leftist intellectuals, to western interference to the gradually growing political importance of juriconsults and mullahs, it makes it easier to understand and appreciate political change in the complex entity that is Iran. The (fictitious?) conversations are the favorite part of my book. There is plenty of delightful back and forth on many subjects; reconciling modernity and religion for example. It really gives a fascinating insight into public attitudes throughout the century

[Ash Papillon · Rating 5 out of 5]

In one single book within the boundaries of one single nation one can see the many facets of religious life, all of which problematize islamophobic reductions. The developments of Islam within Iran are at times meditations into Aristotlean logic. At other times they are the geopolitical machinations of rulers(Ismail) looking to carve out their own sovereignty surrounded by Ottomans and Mughals. Don't like free trade? Like tariffs? Well Islam is now a weapon to protect regional tobacco farmers from foreign exploitation. The personal life of Mohammad's descendants that culminate into geopolitics between USA and USSR and make up the daily complex deliberations of millions like you and I. These a re the various Islam(s) foiund in one book.

[Collin · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the ground interviews with ordinary Iranians make this work an exceptionally insightful work which explains the complex motivations behind the Iranian revolution of 1979. It offers a narrative counter to many popular Western projections of pre-revolutionary Iran specifically because it does not focus on the bourgeois and aristocratic elites, and shows how a highly stratified society developed revolutionary potential.

This is a must read for anyone who wants to begin gaining an understanding of modern Iran.