Customer Reviews

Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces

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The author has done a good job of providing an even handed and fair account of the Iranian military history as best as any one historian could. Though the book focuses more on modern and contemporary Iranian military history. I think this book by far is the most even handed account of Iran's military history I have ever read. I liked it as someone who comes from a military background myself. Especially the sections that discussed the Iranian operations in Dhofar. I have met with several veterans of that campaign and the accounts provided by the author are genuinely true.

Though there were a few typos and historical errors. For instance, the author says that the Iranian air force was established in 1955. That's incorrect and not historically accurate. The independent Iranian air force was established by Reza Shah in mid 1920s when he purchased French, German & Russian aircraft. One can view this piece of info by checking [...] website. The other factual error is that the author has placed surface to air missile capabilities within the Iranian army/land forces jurisdiction/control. That's also incorrect. Air force always maintained and operated these networks and army did not/do not operate any SAM systems except shoulder fired ones. The other incorrect data is author's claims the Iranians were going to buy short range/low level British made SAMS (known as Rapier) by late 1970s. This is also not correct as the Iranians had bought such systems in early 1970s and the British Rapier was being phased out of service with the introduction of more advanced I-Hawk SAM systems and possible purchase of German/French SAM systems in early 80s (p197). On page 198, where the author is talking about the navy, there are mentions of French fast attack boats (La Combatant) that author claims to have been equipped with famous Exocet missiles. This is another factual error. The Iranian navy or armed forces never acquired Exocet missiles. Only in late 980s, Iranians were provided with shore to ship Chinese version/copy of Exocet missile called Silk Worm by China that were used against allied war ships and arab oil tankers during the much debated tanker war in Persian gulf in 1986-88 period.

All in all, this book is a good one. I'd recommend it to those who lack basic knowledge about the Iranian military history.

Comprehensive story of Iran's 2500+ colorful military history. Many Great Captains - Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes - as well as classical battles - Thymbra, Marathon, Thermopylae - are carefully woven into a tapestry that helps one understand the rich heritage of the Iranian military - both its ups and its downs. With a nation suffering invasion after invasion over the centuries, the latest being Iraq in the 1980's, the author peels back the curtain on this rich story so that the reader can understand the quality of the individual Iranian soldiers, who only need adequate support and skilled leadership to move to the center stage of today's battlefields.

This is an interesting account of the military in Iran's history. It is useful for specialists and a joy to read for amateurs. The author uses history as a tool for understanding the present and predicting the future. His method and style reminds those faimilar with contemporary Iranian political writing of such eminent Iranian authors as Fereydoun Hoveyda, Dariyoush Shayegan, Amir Taheri, Roy Mottahede and Ervand Abrahamian. In other words, Ward understands Iran and Iranians.

IMMORTAL is the only single-volume, English-language survey of Iran's military history and comes from a CIA analyst who shows that Iran's soldiers throughout history should not be underestimated. Background on Iran's social, cultural and military organization discusses everything from the founding of its empire to modern times and is a key acquisition for both military and college-level collections strong in Middle East studies.

Not only did this book provide the long view of Irannin history but it also provides an excellent 20th century background for the present situation. My understanding is much better now.

Iran traces its military heritage back to the ancient Persian Empire, a nation which stretched all the way to the Mediterranean in the west and the Indian frontier in the east. One way of understanding Iran's armed forces is to read this book).

The author does a great job of studying the military traditions, organizations weaknesses and influences of Iran dating to the days of Darius, the Parthians, the Sassanians, the Safavids, the Qajars, the Pahlavis and the Islamic Republic. If an army can have a character then much of Iran's military can trace back the development of character of the horsemen who served on behalf of the tyrants who have ruled the Persian lands at one time or another. Efforts to create more effective forces, like the Gendarmie, the Persian Cossacks and the Pasdaran have had problems due to the culture of Iran and these are discussed in the book.

In order to understand Iran's current dual military, divided as it is between the Artesh (regular armed forces) and the Pasdaran (IGRC), you need this book as it puts them into historical context.

Overall, well-researched and well-written. The maps make it much easier to follow and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

It says it on the cover very plainly, this is a history book. It starts very early on with...historical stuff. But quickly it does get to recent history some of us can remember, such as the Iran-Iraq war. I haven't finished it yet but I'll assume there's a chunk after that explaining the current Revolutionary Guard (labelled as a terrorist org. by our government), and probably stuff about their other, lesser known forces of 'evil' (Basij/Qods). I did enjoy the extensive coverage of their history, which helps one realize how they got so messed up in the first place. And in case you're wondering, I don't have the time or patience to give this book a proper, more professional review, its really not that important to me. I'm just doing this because I have 5 minutes to burn. Anyways, the author seems well informed (former CIA or something), but he's not Iranian himself so really all he's doing is regurgitating what he's researched or knows already into an readable form that is publishable (not classified, he makes that clear in the intro). This is good enough for me because all I really wanted was to learn was what everyone else who pays attention to Iran already knows. Jolly good book sir.