A History of Iran

by Axworthy, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780465008889
• ISBN10: 0465008887
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-05
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Iran is a land of contradictions. It is an Islamic republic, but one in which only 1.4 percent of the population attend Friday prayers. Iran's religious culture encompasses the most censorious and dogmatic Shi'a Muslim clerics in the world, and yet its poetry insistently dwells on the joys of life-wine, beauty, sex. Iranian women are subject to one of the most restrictive dress codes in the Islamic world, but make up nearly 60 percent of the university student population. InA History of Iran, a leading expert on Iran chronicles the rich history of this complex nation from the Achaemenid Empire of sixth century B.C. to the present-day Islamic Republic. In accessible prose, Michael Axworthy explains the military, political, religious, and cultural forces that have shaped one of the oldest continuing civilizations in the world. Concluding with an assessment of the immense changes the nation has undergone since the revolution in 1979,A History of Iranoffers general readers an essential point of entry into a troubled region.

Author Biography

Michael Axworthy is Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter in England. From 1986 to 2000, he served as a British Foreign Service officer; from 1998 to 2000 he was the Head of Iran Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The author of The Sword of Persia, a biography of the Persian monarch Nadir Shah, Axworthy publishes widely in the field of Iranian history. He lives in Bude, England.

Table of Contents

Origins: Zoroaster, the Achaemenids, and the Greeks	p. 1
The Iranian Revival: Parthians and Sassanids	p. 31
Islam and Invasions: The Arabs, Turks, and Mongols - The Iranian Reconquest of Islam, the Sufis, and the Poets	p. 67
Shi'ism and the Safavids	p. 123
The Fall of the Safavids, Nader Shah, the Eighteenth-Century Interregnum, and the Early Years of the Qajar Dynasty	p. 145
The Crisis of the Qajar Monarchy, the Revolution of 1905-1911, and the Accession of the Pahlavi Dynasty	p. 185
The Pahlavis and the Revolution of 1979	p. 221
Iran Since the Revolution: Islamic Revival, War, and Confrontation	p. 259
From Khatami to Ahmadinejad, and the Iranian Predicament	p. 283
Notes	p. 295
Select Bibliography	p. 315
Index	p. 325
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