Description

Where did the 1979 Islamic Revolution come from?

Only six years after the revolution, the late Harvard professor of history Roy P. Mottahedeh set out to answer this question. Drawing on more than two millennia of Iranian history, fourteen centuries of Shi’i scholarship, and the intellectual challenges of modernity, he traced the deep currents that gave the revolution its force. From lectures on Aristotle in Qom’s seminaries to SAVAK’s prisons and the bustle of the bazaars, Mottahedeh illuminates how the revolution was shaped by Iranian society and how it reshaped the nation in turn.

The Mantle of the Prophet offers a rare account of the revolution and its aftermath as they were lived and endured. As the future of the Islamic Republic once again hangs in the balance, Mottahedeh’s classic study has lost none of its relevance. It remains a powerful testament to a society marked by sacrifice, conviction and an unfinished struggle for freedom.

Publisher Review

‘A remarkable treasure.’ Wall Street Journal ‘Mottahedeh has written an intellectual history as stirring and graceful as any novel. He sets the intimate biography of a young cleric against the vast epic of Iranian thought from Zoroaster to Avicenna, Kasravi to Khomeini. The Mantle of the Prophet is literary, learned, and deeply felt; the writing is splendid, and the story is an education for the Western reader unaware of the powerful tides of Shi’ite and Persian thought over a period of centuries.’ The New Yorker ‘Mottahedeh has drawn on a massive amount of learning, but he has got the scholarly apparatus out of the way and made his book accessible to a wide audience.’ * New York Times Book Review * ‘He has a sharp feeling for the sensous aspects of the traditional Iranian town – the texture of bricks and tiles, the movement of breezes, the sound of the side alley, the precious burst of greenery and of trees.’ * The Times Literary Supplement * “The beauty of [Mottahedeh’s] book is in his ability to explain sophisticated ideas and difficult subjects in a way which is widely accessible… an extraordinary book.” * London Review of Books * “One of the top 75 books of the twentieth century” * Foreign Affairs * “The graceful prose and factual command… make [this book] a fascinating read.” * San Francisco Chronicle *