After Khomeini: Iran Under His Successors [Hardcover]

Saï¿1/2d Amir Arjomand (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195391799 | ISBN-13: 978-0195391794 | Publication Date: November 20, 2009

For many Americans, Iran is our most dangerous enemy--part of George W. Bush's "axis of evil" even before the appearance of Ahmadinejad. But what is the reality? How did Ahmadinejad rise to power, and how much power does he really have? What are the chances of normalizing relations with Iran?
In After Khomeini, Sa�d Amir Arjomand paints a subtle and perceptive portrait of contemporary Iran. This work, a sequel to Arjomand's acclaimed The Turban for the Crown, examines Iran under the successors of Ayatollah Khomeini up to the present day. He begins, as the Islamic Republic did, with Khomeini, offering a brilliant capsule biography of the man who masterminded the revolution that overthrew the Shah. Arjomand draws clear distinctions between the moderates of the initial phrase of the revolution, radicals, pragmatists, and hardliners, the latter best exemplified by Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Taking a chronological and thematic approach, he traces the emergence and consolidation of the present system of collective rule by clerical councils and the peaceful transition to dual leadership by the ayatollah as the supreme guide and the subordinate president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He explains the internal political quarrels among Khomeini's heirs as a struggle over his revolutionary legacy. And he outlines how the ruling clerical elite and the nation's security forces are interdependent politically and economically, speculating on the potential future role of the Revolutionary Guards. Bringing the work up to current political events, Arjomand analyzes Iran's foreign policy as well, including the impact of the fall of Communism on Iran and Ahmadinejad's nuclear policy.
Few countries loom larger in American foreign relations than Iran. In this rich and insightful account, an expert on Iranian society and politics untangles the complexities of a nation still riding the turbulent wake of one of history's great revolutions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Much of the Western world responded to Iran's recent postelection upheaval with surprise; the demands of protesters left many pundits scrambling to explain what they perceived as unprecedented politicization of the citizenry. However, as Arjomand (The Turban for the Crown) demonstrates, the West's tendency to see Iran as a political monolith has always been profoundly ahistorical. Efforts to control domestic tensions played an important role even in the decisions of the revolution's father, Ayatollah Khomeini. Arjomand presents a variety of factors that shape today's Iran. He demonstrates, for instance, the extent to which the state religion practiced by Khomeini and his successors amounts to a “theocratic redefinition of Shi'ism,” and that while this has led to the disaffection of some of the original revolutionary vanguard (such as former president Mohammad Khatami), potential reformists remain “trapped as insiders in their revolutionary discourse,” their timidity in challenging the system leading to greater power concentrated in fewer hands and the development of a “clerical monarchy.” Arjomand's presentation and analysis are fascinating, but might prove dense and intimidating for the neophyte. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"A clear analysis of Iran's political and ideological transformation in the post-Khomeini period. Dealing with a broad range of issues from political development and constitutional politics to Islamic reformism and the rise of new conservatives, this book is a valuable addition to Iranian studies and current debates in the sociology of revolution."--Ali Gheissari, University of San Diego

"Said Arjomand illuminates post-revolutionary Iran by placing it in its broad historical and sociological setting. His familiarity with Islamic texts, together with his careful reading of modern revolutions, makes him exceptionally well qualified to understand and communicate what religion in this case has done to revolution and, perhaps even more importantly, what revolution has done to Shi'ite Islam in Iran. Coming twenty years after his masterful analysis of the Iranian revolution in The Turban for the Crown, this treatment of the revolution After Khomeini removes some of the mystery from one of the most consequential events of our times."--Gary Sick, Columbia University

"With an unsurpassed command over the material and events and a comparativist perspective, Said Amir Arjomand rescues our entrapped understanding of Iran and sets a superior standard for a new generation of scholarship. It is impossible to understand what has happened in Iran of the last three decades without a careful reading of this uncommonly perceptive and extraordinary book."--Hamid Dabashi, author of Iran: A People Interrupted

"After Khomeini may indeed prove to be a conceptually ground-breaking work of great interest to both lay people and specialists in Iranian, Middle Eastern, Islamic studies, and the sociology of revolution....The work constitutes an invaluable contribution to a genuine theoretical understanding of post-revolutionary and post-reformist Iran, insofar as it seeks to uncover the complex interplay of the intended as well as of the unintended consequences of the 1979 revolution."--American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195391799
• ISBN-13: 978-0195391794
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > History > Middle East > Iran

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Analysis of the Islamic Revolution, December 26, 2009

By 

James R. Maclean (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After Khomeini: Iran Under His Successors (Hardcover)

This is a book about the decay of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) into a patrimonial regime over the course of thirty years. For a look at the actual revolution, I recommend Milani's The Making Of Iran's Islamic Revolution.


Arjomand wisely balances his examination of the economics and power politics with a sincere look at the Iranian revolutionary ideology. This is not monolithic, and, as Arjomand demonstrates, it is not unproblematic either (not even for adherents). The basic doctrine of *velayat-e-faqi* is translated as "mandate of the jurist," but this simple expression leaves serious difficulties in interpretation. The partisans of the revolution were undecided as to if there was to be one single jurist (Khomeini) or the entire ecclesiastical community (in which case, Khomeini would have been balanced by, say, Ali Montazeri); if the jurists were to govern by guidance, by example, or by direct supervision. In the event, the immense constitutional powers awarded to the supreme leader would eventually ensure a system of adoptive Caesars.


The economic dimension of the Islamic revolution is ambiguous. The regime's older eminences favored a very strict market economy, yet confiscated the sham "enterprises" of the Shah's friends. Rather than nationalize these to serve the developmental state, Khomeini created several *bonyad* (foundations), each of which held many enterprises in trust. These were later assimilated into the business empires of the military-security complex, dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, or *Pasdaran*) and the Mobilization Corp (*Basij*). The normal social functions of government developed under the Shah nearly collapsed during the revolution before rebounding to somewhat larger dimensions under Pres. Hashemi-Rafsanjani (1989-1997), but this was mainly to rebuild a country devastated by revolution and war with Iraq. Eventually, of course, the military-security complex has come to dominate economic policy in Iran; it has been a major consolation to being permanently underneath the clergy, who retains actual power.


The book's narrative style is somewhat difficult to follow; Arjomand is not clear as to what the reformists and radicals want, and why so many radicals became reformists. Also, Arjomand constantly refers to topics that he expects the reader to already be familiar with, such as "integrative revolution" (a theory of revolution propounded by Vilfredo Pareto, and of course totally unfamiliar to most Iranians). He also drops a lot of startling revelations about the involvement of the IRGC in overseas terrorism, which I think remain unproven.


Overall, a valuable contribution to the scanty literature on the revolution. I remain a bit skeptical of some claims, such as the ties to terrorist acts or the egregious corruption of the *Pasdaran* economic empire; these are not, in my view, adequately documented.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A concise primer, January 24, 2010

By 

John Roemer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Khomeini: Iran Under His Successors (Hardcover)

A scholar's account of where the Islamic Republic is heading. It is well-researched and argued but not as easy to read. Still for Iran followers it is a worthy resource.

4.0 out of 5 stars The cross roads of theology and politics... still a mystery, August 10, 2011

By 

C P Slayton (Monterey, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: After Khomeini: Iran Under His Successors (Hardcover)

You can't study Iran without looking deeply at the philosophical discussions between its Shi'a scholars on the Mahdi (the revealing of the 12th hidden Imam), the debate on divine authority and political theology. If any of those topics seem a little to dense, well, they are... but Arjomand does a great job of hashing it all out.

Iran's current government system was an evolutionary process. Khomeini himself debated through the years how the Grand Ayatollah would first, work under a Shah and later, how every secular authority was evil. By 1979 Khomeini's lectures on Islamic governance (Hukumat Islami) were widely circulated from his exile in Najaf. Arjomand explores the debates counter to Khomeini's ideas and introduces Khomeini's contemporary opposition clerics and the modern dissidents.

What I found intriguing was the political theology debates. In more common language, Iran's clerics wrestled over dualism: dual morality, dual authority and even 'Kingdom' theology, in Shi'a terms, how were preparations for the Mahdi supposed to be executed? With the intense political debates intertwined in politics, Iran's brand of Shi'ism could hardly have survived unscathed. The theology of Iran is not found in other Shi'a dominated areas like Southern Iraq or Bahrain. Khomeini's idealist attitudes towards Islamic government had to evolve as Iran's 'revolution' trudged on.

And Khomeini had to compromise. Politics was not what he wrote it to be. Arjomand looks at the debates within the government, the nuances between ideas that shaped the 1989 constitutional revision. Khamenei, Khomeini's successor, did not meet the requirements for the position, according to Khomeini's earlier teachings. With political compromise came religious compromise and even Shi'a division. In 1992, Khoi died, the leading Shi'a cleric in Iraq. It was the moment of truth. Could Iran's leader claims as the global marja'iyyat (source of immitation) unite the Shi'a world? No.

Khomeini's ideals have continued to spiral out of control, revealing their impossible claims. Iran's government is far from accepted global Shi'a doctrine and Arjomand explains how the leadership doesn't even try to reconcile the blatant Shar'ia contradictions with Iranian law. Arjomand has a different take than most on the dynamics between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, placing the blame for foreign policy blunders in ambiguous places. What will happen to a government whose constitutional is impossibly applicable, whose leadership is at odds and whose people fully recognize the ethical disparities?

This book is not only a good study of Iran but of debates within Shi'a politics, understanding the connections between Middle East regimes, their self-interested motives and outlooks.