Customer Reviews

The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I read The Mantle of the Prophet many years ago. OSmehow the Amazaon computer knew me well enough to reccomend it, and it brought back the impression that this book left me. It is wonderfully written and relates the mix of socio-economic events and the Shi'a culture that coalesced to foment the Islamic Revolution in 1979. However, the sense the reder gets while rapidly going through it, is that the book presents this very thoughtful and clear historical and sociological argument in the manner of a novel, you can't put the book down. This no ordinary academic text and Mottahedeh combines the skills and art of the poet and novelist with the clarity and facts of an academic. I have never read such an interesting and clear - devoid of controversy or criticism - description of what's it like to study in a Shiá Madrasa, to undertand the curriculum and the stages that a student must follow to become an Ayatoallah. Mottahedeh also offers a simple and brilliant, powerful description of the cultural contrast that existed between the supericially modern and wealthy cosmopolitan Teheran and the countryside, which supplied so many of the clerics that influenced the masses living on the fringe. This book is as invaluable to the specialist, and is an excellent complement to the socio-hiostorical classic text by Ervand Abrahamian "Iran Bewteen two Revolutions", yet it can also be read and enjoyed by the non-specialist just the same. This was, however I look at it, one of the finest books I've ever read in my life

Very comprehensive information about the shia, shia philosophy, development of learned in shia hierarchy and finally Islamic revolution in Iran. The story is written about a certain person as he grow up in Iran, got his education in religious centers and involved in the actions. The history and information are given as the situation requires background about it. It is very nicely written, easy to read entertaining and informative.
Sometimes I found names mixed, to many names with too different philosophies to keep up, so it is a fast book to read, time to time you may have to come back and repeat.

Anyone with an interest in history,philosophy, religion, the Middle East, Iran, or human nature, would find this erudite, beautifully written, very readable and sensitive story of one man's life as a religious scholar in Iran, a thoroughly satisfying read. Iran's history from ancient times to the Revolution of 1979 is interwoven with the biography of a Shiah Islamic cleric. The book's strength comes from the author's clarity of expression and his deep and broad understanding of his subject.A wonderful book!

Roy Mottahedeh skillfully weaves together the lives of several people from Iran to present a personal point of view of modern history with a vantage point rarely presented in other modern history texts. He also does not fail to address all the necessary points in history that set the stage for actions in Iran's recent history and give the reader an adequate foundation for understanding Iran's revolution.

This book alternates between historical and analytical background and culturally rooted biography. The focus is on the personal development of Shia clergy in modern Iran. Mottahedeh displays impressive historical learning and insight into a culture much maligned and misunderstood in the West. A good and informative read on an important subject.

Though deliberate in its pace and what I might call dry in tone, I believe this book, which I read over the summer, masterfully reveals the real Iran as it was in the last two decades of the twentieth-century, and gives the best insights I've yet found into that nation today: a country founded on the principles of a blood-soaked revolution. Forget what you hear on the evening news, read this book and approach Iranian culture with an open mind. I think you'll be startled, as I was, at much of what you learn. If the culture of Iran at the time of the Islamic uprising of 1979 was justifiably viewed by Americans as shocking, then it was also certainly fascinating in all its depth. This book takes us inside Iran from the point of view of a number of its citizens, as the pro-western nation in which they'd grown up retreats 1300 years in an effort to save itself from what it views as destruction from the outside. It is too easy to characterize Islamic fundamentalists as unintelligent and backward, but let us make no mistake, many who take that stance are shrewd, brilliant, and above all proudly commited to their way of life. In The Mantle of the Prophet, the reader will meet many of these.

This book gives descriptions of all areas of life under the Ayatollahs, from the law courts, to the marketplaces, the army, to the mosques themselves, and introduces us to real people who lived through those frightening times. This book is as important today in the age of nuclear proliferation as it was when first published in 1985. Anyone who wants to learn about life inside fundamentalist Iran would do no better than to add The Mantle of the Prophet to her reading list.

The Mantle of Prophet is an interesting novel written in the context of Iranian history, religion, and politics. I would say pretty balanced description of the Iran today, I enjoyed that alot, except in the discussion of last fifty years, the author focused more on Jalal Ahmed, who undoubtly did good contribution, and other 'liberal' intelligentsia and neglected to give proper place to Khomeini, Mutahhari, and Shariati's ideas and role, in all, the role of the religious intelligentsia. I also wanted to see the the context of neo-colonial politics and the emerging (as a reaction) international Islamic movements that had influences on the shape of Iranian Revolution. The author traces Khomeini's involvement in politics after Bourojerdi death (1960s), which is not historically accurate. Khomeini wrote his book Kasful Asrar (or some other very controversial book, in which he not only criticized Shah but the lethargic Ulema class as well) around 1942. But all in all a good read.

While there is some very good aspects of this book, the problems far out weigh the positive parts of the work. The book focuses on individuals which gives the work a micro feel to it. It follows some of the intellectuals in Iranian society throughout history which gives the reader an idea of the varied intellectual milieu, and also shows how these differing strains culminated in the Iranian Revolution. The problem is the book loses the big picture, and the author doesn't do an adequate job tying everything together. The book just jumps around too much without giving the reader a clear picture of how all these different narratives work together which leaves one feeling as if they wandering aimlessly.

The other large problem is that the book has a narrow audience. The work is a great starter to get a reader introduced to the many currents of intellectual thought in Iran, but these are not the people who are going to be drawn to this work, instead those with a deep interest in Iran will come to this work. The problem is that there are better books that cover the same subject with better focus. Books by Mehrzad Boroujerdi and Ali M. Ansari treat the same subject more adaptly. If one is already pretty familiar with Iranian history and its intellectual history then much of this work will be somewhat redundant.

In the end there are just better works out there that are better reads. This book left me feeling empty and often I was simply disinterested in the author's story. While the individuals were always interesting, the author doesn't bring the story together so that the reader is just reading the individual stories as isolated islands unto themselves. In the end I just can't recommend this book.

Professor Mottahedeh provides a clear, insightful, historically based analysis of the culture, religion and politics; which have led to the development of the modern Iranian State.

As a self-taught student of Persian and Iranian history, I could not turn the pages of Roy Mottahedeh's "Mantle of the Prophet" fast enough. Not your average work of historical writing, "Mantle" reads more like a first-class piece of literary fiction. The reason I majored in history as an undergraduate was because I enjoyed the "stories" that came with every class. If you want to learn, I mean really learn, something from a book or a class, you have to enjoy what you are reading/studying. Roy Mottahedeh makes you enjoy what you are reading. The insider perspective, told by a narrator you can truly connect with puts "Mantle of the Prophet" at the top of my list...and in a prominent place in my library. Well done!

M. M. Frick
Author of Open Source