Summary of Modern Iran's History, Sintesi del corso di Storia Contemporanea

Scarica Summary of Modern Iran's History e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Storia Contemporanea solo su Docsity! HISTORY OF MODERN IRAN, ABRAHAIM INTRODUCTION 1) General geography: a) Iranis demarcated to south by the Persian Gulf, to east by the deserts of Baluchistan, to west by the Iragi marshes and Kurdish mountains, to north by the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. b) 3/5 of the country, especially the central plateau, lacks rainfall to support permanent agriculture. 2) Iranian identity is fluid and contested. Iranians identify with both Shia Islam and pre-Islamic history (Achaemenids, Parthians, Sassanids). Iranian 10°" century epic Shahnameh relates history of Iran, demonstrating national awareness before modern era. 3) The 20! century brought profound changes in all aspects of Iranian life a) At the beginning, population of 12 million (60% villagers, 25% nomads, 15% urban), only 5% literate (mostly from Quranic schools) and only 50% spoke Persian. By end, 70 million (3% nomad), 85% literate and Persian speakers. By the end of the 20'*" century, Iran was integrated into the national economy through roads, the electrical system, and the gas grids. b) Most significantly, the government changed from being run by the Shah through local elites (tribal chiefs, merchants, clerics) and lacking a proper standing army and bureaucracy to a modern bureaucratic state headed by clerics, a state with a modem standing army and one which controls the majority of the economy, one with full citizenship for Iranians (irrespective of gender) and 70% tumout in the national elections. Iranians now consider themselves no longer mere subjects of the ruler but full citizens. c) By the outbreak ofthe 1979 revolution, Shi’ism changed from an apolitical, conservative and quietist doctrine, focused on spiritual and ethical matters, to a highly radical and politicized ideology. = The book describes how Iran changed from royal autocracy to modern bureaucracy, from feudalism to state capitalism and how the formation of the centralized state has placed pressure on the society below and on the other hand how social pressures from below have altered the state, in two dramatic revolutions. CHAPTER 1, ROYAL DESPOTS The Qajars, a Turkik tribal confederation, conquered Iran in the 1780-90s. While the Shah theoretically had absolute power, in reality, the lack ofa state bureaucracy or a standing army limited his power to the capital in Tehran. The local level was administrated by local elites (tribal chiefs, landlords, merchants, clerics). While not elected, these local elites had to have the support and respect of the public. Geography as well, namely the Kaver desert in the middle of Iran, the mountain ranges like the Zagros and the lack of navigable rivers, contributed to this political fragmentation. The Shah would marry many tens and hundreds of wives, which would usually help cement alliances with the local elites that ran most of the provinces. The Qajars presented themselves as protectors of Shi’ism, and tried to genealogically link themselves to the ancient Iranian dynasties (patronizing readings of Shahnameh, built large stone reliefs like ancient) as well as the Shia Imams. They patronized the annual Muharram, building a theatre to house the passion plays that relate Imam Hussein”s revolt and martyrdom at the hands of the Umayyad which is remembered on Ashura. The Qajar state was 85% Shia Muslim. People of the Book (Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians) were allowed to have their own leaders and laws. While the Qajar state did eventually create 9 ministries under Nasser al-Din, almost all (except military and foreign ministry) lacked trained bureaucrats, a regular budget, or any way to exert their power. 1) The finance ministry?s accountants (mostowfis) assisted the tax collection by provincial governors, who obtained their position in auctions to distribute tax farming rights. These accountants were often hereditary positions, not government salaried but rather deriving their influence from personal ownership of old tax assessments and other records. Tax farming was necessary, since Qajars lacked the bureaucracy for direct taxation. The governors, in tum, relied on local leadership for tax collection. 2) The foreign ministry had permanent salaried positions, diplomats stationed throughout Europe and the US. 3) War ministry had 8000 regular army, most using outdated artillery, including a 2000-man Cossack brigade, both serving primary as a palace guard. Troops from tribal leaders who mostly muzzle loaded rifles when Europeans upgraded to breech loaded rifles. Those tribal leaders who did obtain breech loaded rifles likely were more militarily powerful than the regular army. 4) Judiciary dominated by local courts, divided into Sharia courts, which dealt in civil affairs and headed by clerics, and state courts of tribal chiefs and village headmen (Kadkhuda), that dealt with crime and punished according to custom and precedent. The Justice ministry was effectively powerless in the face of legal matters being handled mostly at the local level. Qajars relied on public executions as a form of control. 5) The education ministry established the Dar al-Fanon, a high school to train military and bureaucrats, recruiting students from the local elites. The population lived in small face-to-face communities with their own structure, hierarchies, languages, and dialects. The tribes, mostly nomadic (except Kurds who were fully sedentary), comprised 25% of population, had their own languages and dialects. They consisted of some fifteen major entities known as i/s— Qajars, Kurds, Turkmans, Baluchis, Arabs, Qashga”is, Bakhtiyaris, Lurs, Mamasanis, Boir Ahmadis, Hazaras, Shahsavans, Afshars, Timouris and Khamsehs. Each head chief ruled over the clans, which further subdivided into villages of extended families. The head chief was chosen from the tribe’s elites, and the Shah had little say over it, indeed the tribes were autonomous entities. The peasants, more than 50% of the population, were sharecroppers. While they did not own the land they worked on, they paid rent on a parcel of land (and the irrigation water from the underground canal ganats) and often passed it on to their heirs. After the 1870 famine, lack of labor gave peasants significant bargaining power with landowners and threatened to move to underpopulated land. Population growth eroded this power, and saw peasants fall into debt, becoming serfs. This gradually developed into a feudalistic system dominated by the landowners, who began hiring private armies and effectively behaving as landed aristocracy. The Ulama, the scholars and clerics who primarily dealt with the application of sharia law, were the beneficiaries of extensive endowments from landlords and merchants. These sources of revenues made the Ulama in Iran, as opposed to those in the Sunni world who relied on government endowments, much more independent from the central government. Ulama managed the mosques, seminaries and Quranic schools. On the one hand, villages were often economically isolated, producing their own food for consumption and making their own implements, buying only necessities like salt. Each village chose its headman, kadkhoda, as leader amongst themselves, and neither the governor nor Shah could control this. The Kadkhuda handled disputes, dealt with landlords/tribal chiefs/other officials, collected taxes for local authorities and governors, managed irrigation and walls for the village’s protection. He also rotated peasants between strips of land (prevent one person from monopolizing most fertile land). On the other hand, urbanites were 20% of population, the largest cities being Tehran and Tabriz. The towns were divided into wards with Kadkhuda (who again handled disputes, collected taxes). Towns beset Central/Southern Iran. They also made deals with Anglo-Persian Oil Company and gave concession (without parliament’s approval) for Lynch Brothers to build toll road, further increasing their revenue. While the parliamentarians had won, they still lacked a central government. Government revenues were still far lower than expenditures, a situation worsened as customs revenues were used to pay loans to Britain and Russia. As deficits continued, Iran fell into more debt. The Majlis sought to increase revenues by creating a new taxation apparatus to end the traditional mostowfi system and end the tax evasion by landowners and tribal chiefs. They gave the finance ministry a police force, the gendarmerie, to collect taxes. Maintaining such a force was expensive and not very effective. Central government was effectively powerless: The Qashqai tribe, as well as the tribes along gulf, took advantage of the weak Majlis to accumulate more land, build larger armies, and be effectively independent. o Sunni Turkman rose in revolt, saying the Majlis obeyed the Shia mojtaheds. Robbers infested provinces, whose governors lacked the resources to stop them; Sheikh Khaz'al of Arabestan was effectively independent, sought British support for himself, the secretly rented island to British oil refinery. The Majlis divided between democrats, who supported land reform, industrialization, equal rights for the religious minorities, increased women's right, more public education, end of capitulations, progressive taxation, national conscription and a standing army; and moderates, who supported traditional values, private property, sharia, religious education. Conflicts over women/religious minority rights, as well as sharia in judicial courts, resulted in political violence, including assassinations. Under the terms of 1907 Convention, Russia occupied Azerbaijan and then Tehran. They executed opponents to their rule. During WWI1, Iran became a battleground. The Ottomans invaded Azerbaijan, causing Russia to fund and use Cossack Brigade against Ottoman invasion. British funded the South Persian Rifles regiment and after 1917 Russian Revolution the Cossacks. War, famine, and epidemics like the 1919 Influenza pandemic killed 2 million Iranians. After the war, with Russia out of the picture, now foreign minister Curzon sought to take over whole of Iran with 1919 Anglo-Iranian agreement, gaining exclusive right to providing Iran with loans, arms, instructors, railways, and control over aspects of foreign policy (help Iran gain indemnity for WWI1 damages, join League of Nations). Agreement was incredibly unpopular, with supporters of it in government assassinated by nationalists, leaving Majlis afraid to act and powerless. Bolsheviks published secret treaties Russia and Britain had made to divide Iran, turning public further against Britain and in favor of Bolsheviks (who had now sent troops to Northem Iran). The Qajar Shah was preparing to flee Iran. Britain had to abandon Iran, either completely or in part. CHAPTER 3 “TRON FIST OF REZA SHAH” In 1921, Reza Khan (a commander of the Cossack brigade) took over Tehran from Majlis ina military coup. He suspended martial law and gained support of the gendarmerie. The British general Ironside (who had become leader of Cossack brigade and had replaced Russians with Iranians) provided Reza Khan with ammunition and pay for his soldiers. Reza Khan promised Ironside, who unlike Curzon had given up on the Anglo-Iranian Agreement, that he would assist in a British military withdrawal from Iran and that he would not overthrow the Shah. Reza Khan enabled a British military withdrawal. He got rid of the Anglo-Iranian Agreement and instead signed a Soviet-Iranian Agreement. Russia agreed to withdraw from Gilan on the condition that they would intervene if another power invaded Iran and thus threatened the Soviet Union. Reza Khan assured the British he was pro-Shah, pro- British and against the Bolsheviks, and told the Soviet that he would “eradicate British influence” and pursue neutrality. Reza Khan consolidated his power while keeping Qajar Ahmad Shah, eventually becoming premier and commander-in-chief, but in 1925 he deposed Ahmad Shah and had the Majles crown him as Reza Shah. He would rule for 15 years, until Anglo-Soviet invasion of 1941. In this period, he created a centralized state from the decentralized collection of tribes, villages and aristocratic landlords that had existed before. Centralization was based on the military and the bureaucracy. By 1935, 34% of revenues was being spent on military. Immediately after taking power, he created a new military of 20000 men that unified Cossacks, Gendarmerie and South Persian Rifles, he even replaced foreign officers with Cossacks loyal to him and helped crush early provincial rebellions. Conscription was implemented in 1921 (along with birth certificates and mandatory family names that it required), it required from all men 2 years of service, drawing from peasantry, urban and tribes. He expanded urban policing and rural gendarmerie, bringing both order and security as well as restricting political dissent, creating a militaristic Iranian state, favoring officers with discount land and eventual political positions. He sent officers, including his son and heir, to study and train in Europe. There wasn't a centralized bureaucracy before 1921 (only independent mostowfis and independent governors and tribal chiefs, most ministries completely unstaffed). By 1941, 11 ministries and 90000 salaried civil servants. The interior ministry divided Iran into 15 provinces, each with a governor (appointed by Shah and the ministry) and each with its own ministries, with governors in tum appointing regional governors and municipal mayors. Military and bureaucratic expansion enabled by new sources of revenues, such as oil royalties, expanding 600k pounds in 1921 to 4 million pounds in 1941. He forced the Bakhtiyari and Sheikh Khaz°al of Arabestan to give their oil shares to the central government. New taxation system devised by American Millspaugh, creating new department, abolishing tax farms, updating old rates, and transforming the mostowfis from an inherited class based on access to tax documents to full time civil servants with tax documents belong to state as government records. Reza Shah enforced these changes on tax by threatening to seize landowners” assets, a threat now enabled by the enhanced military power of the central state. He implemented an income tax, as well as expanded customs duties on consumer goods like sugar and tea especially, as well as tobacco, cotton, opium (customs revenue from 51 million Qrans in 1921 to 675 million grans in 1941). Reza Shah accumulated vast tracks of personally owned by confiscation and by forcing sale from its former landowners, like Sepahdar. He also practiced patronage, giving his loyal ministers high salaries, as well as invested state revenues into his home provinces of Mazanderan, building factories and roads. To enable his centralization, he had to ensure that members of the Majles would approve allw his decisions. Candidates for office were only allowed to run if deemed amenable to his rule. The interior ministry controlled who could run for office through control of the governships who controlled the electoral boards who supervised elections and ballots. To keep the Majles compliant, Reza Shah eliminated parliamentary immunity from arrest, banned all political parties, censored independent newspapers, and assassinated any Majlis members who openly criticized him. Reza Shah also personally chose the cabinet and premier. Economically, Reza Shah pursued etatisme. He eventually removed foreign administrators like Millspaugh. He annulled the capitulations that had given European powers commercial privileges and extraterritoriality for their citizens. He gave the National Bank of Iran the power to print money, taking it from the British Imperial Bank (control of monetary policy saw inflationist printing to finance industrialization and caused a 54% in prices). The ministry of Post/Telegraph nationalized the Indo-European Telegraphy Company, and established telephone and radio services. The Commerce Ministry established protective tariffs. The industries Ministry built factories for sugar, tea, cigarettes, cement, copper, and electricity, which spread to most towns by 1938. Road Ministry built 1000km of paved roads. The Trans - Iranian Railway, built by foreign contractors and financed with tea/sugar taxes, linked most of Iran including the more remote areas. He tried to unify the culture of Iran. Military conscription forced men to learn Persian and pay allegiance to Shah and the state, helping to create a unified national identity transcending ethnic and tribal differences that had existed before. Conscription, in tum, required identity cards and mandatory family names. He also introduced the tmetric system, a new Persian solar calendar to replace Muslim lunar calendar, and a standard time zone for the whole country. He instituted a male dress code emphasizing western clothes, including Pahlavi cap as a national hat (only clergy excepted from dress code). No dress code for women, and women allowed to go unveiled in public, though mostly only the western educated middle/upper class women did so. He uniformed education system. In 1923, education system was divided between state schools and religious schools (which included missionary schools as well as Muslim madrasas and maktabs [primary schools]). AIl schools were placed under government control, with new system akin to French lycees (6 years of primary school, 6 years of secondary school). Schools had uniform curriculum, textbooks, and Persian language. Use of other languages were banned in all schools. Colleges of law, science, medicine in Tehran unified into single University of Tehran, which expanded significantly. The government began sponsoring study abroad. New education system helped supply the country with civil servants for its new enormous bureaucracy. The religious seminaries remained autonomous, but the government (through theology college and government appointed imam) decided who could become ulama. Mandatory scripture classes in state schools. Shia clerics, once almost completely autonomous with their sources of revenue, now under some state control. Reza Shah continued to fund seminaries and undertook pilgrimages, encouraged the mojtahed Haeri to settle in Qom; Haeri helped standardize religious establishment, introducing titles like ayatollah. Reza Shah also exempted theology students from conscription. Reza Shah created cultural organizations, which focused on the glories of ancient Iran and replaced foreign Arabic words with new/old Persian vocabulary. Influence of Western racialist theories emphasizing Iran°s Aryan Indo-European heritage. The official name of the country changed from Persia to Iran. Province names and other place names were changed (eg Arabestan to Khuzestan). He created a state judicial system to replace sharia, guild and tribal courts, establishing a hierarchy with local, municipal, provincial and Supreme court. State appointed notaries rather than clergy now handled all legal documents, including property registration and marriage/divorce licenses. All jurists were required to have diploma from Law College. He created a codified legal code, which maintained some sharia principles (men right to polygamy, temporary wives, divorce, custody of children), but diverged from sharia in other regards (no legal difference between Muslim and non-Muslims, death penalty only for murder and treason, replaced corporal punishment with incarceration. He made possible urban renewal: building new government buildings, large squares, wide boulevards, all of which required tearing down old buildings. Electrical plants provided electricity for government building, streets lights, and middle/upper class homes. Cinemas were built in major cities. Thus, the old cities of Qajar Persia whose wards were divided by the Haydari and Nemati, were replaced with new cities divided more on class/income. Public health: little advancement in terms of medicine (only 40 doctors in Tehran), in terms of sanitation (no sewage system, clean water). Infant mortality remained high, due to diseases like measles and malaria. One advancement was the licensing of doctors, banning traditional folk medicine practiced by hakims. Westerners, like Millspaugh who commented on the regressive tax structure, regarded Shah as despotic. Iranians held mixed views on the Shah: while the landlords lost their titles, tax exemptions, and local power, Reza Shah provided them security from radical and revolutionary trends like land reform and Bolshevism. Land registration laws allowed them to acquire tribal land. Their new tax burden was mostly shifted onto the peasantry. Gained right to appoint the village headmen (kadkhuda). Reza Shah’s modern military (planes, tanks, maxim gun) enabled the elimination of the tribes as autonomus entities. Tribal chieftains were killed and the chieftainship abolished. They were disarmed, conscripted, forced to sell their land (and oil shares, in the case of the Bakhtiyaris), and were forced to adopt a sedentary lifestyle on infertile land unsuitable for year-round agriculture. Clerics opposed Reza Shah’s westernizing tendencies, including the western style dress code for men, encouraging women to not wear veil, allowing women to attend college of law/medicine, allowing dissection of bodies in the medical college, banning religious titles like sayyed/hajji/Karbalai, banning established SAVAK intelligence agency, which tortured, and executed anyone suspected of being a political dissident and/or communist, especially among the intelligentsia. Oil revenues also enabled bureaucratic expansion, with interior ministry increasing administrative subdivisions and directly appointing mayor, village headman, or rural council that ran these subdivisions, a massive increase in centralization and in the number of bureaucrats the government employed. Expansion of court patronage, with Pahlavi Foundation founded in 1958 supposedly as a charity to run the landed estates that had been held by Reza Shah, drawing from oil revenues, led to owning $3 billion in assets. The Pahlavi Foundation gave royal family funds and allowed them to reward their supporters discreetly and owned shares in almost all domestic industries, which allowed royal family extensive control over Iranian economy. The Shah amended the constitution to appoint PMs, who in tum ensured that parliament and the cabinet only had Shah’s supporters, and through SAVAK even controlled the major political parties while pretending to support multiparty democracy. The Shah implemented White Revolution to avoid communist upheavals: emphasis on land reform program was implemented in 1963, which initially limited landlords to one village and redistributed excess land to sharecroppers, but later revised to allow landlords to give lands in other villages to family members. Land reform further weakened most large landowners (though some of largest landowners became large scale commercial farmers) and increased power of government, as peasants had to join government run rural cooperatives to get land. Nomadic population continued to decrease, some tribes entirely disappearing. The Five Year Plans saw increased industrialization, expansion of the Trans- Iranian Railway, construction of petrochemical plants, oil refineries, hydroelectric dams like Dezful Dam, steel mills, and nuclear plants. Number of factories increased from quadrupled from under 2000 to nearly 8000. Tariffs were implemented to protect consumer industries. Expansion of education, with significant increase in enrollment at all education levels. Literacy Corp, modeled after Cuba’s, increased literacy from 26 to 42%. Health programs increased the number doctors, nurses, and clinics, and produced the elimination of famines and childhood epidemics. Women gained the right to vote; to run for elected office; and to serve in the judiciary. The 1967 Family Protection Law restricted men’s right to divorce and polygamy, increased age of marriage for women to 15. Veil was never banned but was discouraged. Class structure was comprised of Pahlavi family, high government/military officials, and industrialists/'commercial farmers at top. Middle class consisted of a traditional middle class, 13% of labor force, which included the “bazaar” merchant class and the Ulama, who were a propertied class who owned either shops, workshops, or were absentee landowners, controlling most of Iran’s retail/wholesale markets. Used oil money to finance religious centers and private schools that emphasized Islam. There was also the modern middle class, 10% of labor force, consisted of salaried white collar and college educated professionals, particular the intelligentsia, which were mostly nationalists or socialists. Lack of land, despite land reform, saw influx of millions of rural migrants into cities, 46% of Iran urban by 1979. Rural working class, 40% of labor force, divided between the most prosperous (village headmen and tenant sharecroppers who most benefited from land reform), small landowners (who owned less than enough land to survive which necessitated their join government rural cooperatives), and nonlandowning peasants (who either worked as laborers in farms or migrated to rural). The White Revolution increased tensions, as it promoted growth in intelligentsia and urban working class who were not favorable of Pahlavi’s. Land reform weakened notables but failed to address millions of landless peasants who constituted 45% of rural population. Price controls on agricultural goods favored urban classes and reduced agricultural output, making Iran net importer of food. Shah”s use of “trickle down” economics, giving oil revenues to court elite in hopes they would invest in factories and businesses, resulted in one of highest wealth inequalities in the world by the 1970s. Most landless peasants who migrated to urban centers lived in shantytowns. Despite improvements to education, Iran had 68% adult illiteracy, low enrollment in higher education, and significant brain drain (educated professionals like doctors leaving country). Government did not investin rural areas nearly as much, with most villages lacking electricity, schools, clean water, roads, etc. Social tensions produced political radicalism among both modern middle-class intelligentsia and traditional middle class ulama. Ali Shariati was a college educated professional from a traditional middle-class background of landowning clerics. Attended university in France, influenced by Marxist intellectuals. Reinterpreted Shi’ism as a revolutionary religion that opposed oppression in the form of feudalism, capitalism, and imperialism. He described Imam Hussein as an early Che Guevara who opposed Umayyad oppression. Shariati”s work contributed to the development of Islamism, Islam as a political ideology rather than just a religion, attacked conservative ulama for cooperating with ruling classes, that Islam belonged to mojaheds (religious fighters, in essence the intelligentsia) and not the clerics, and even attacked the system of endowments that tied clerics and ruling class and appealed to intelligentsia. On the other hand, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was exiledin 1963 for accusing Shah of granting Americans capitulations. Khomeini also reinterpreted Shi’ism in Velayat-e Fageh, The Jurist's Guardianship, arguing that senior mojtaheds (clerics) specializing in law had the ultimate authority to rule the state, since Prophet and Imams had left sharia law to guide Shia community and which could only be properly implemented by mojthaheds. These ideas of a government by clerics was unprecedented. Also argued that monarchy was a pagan institution (Achaemenid, Parthians, Sassanids) and thus incompatible with Islam, and that Muslims have a duty to oppose and destroy all monarchies. Significant break from Shia ulama who had accepted monarchy. Khomeini”s attacked monarchy on both politics and economics: for supporting Israel, for allying with US in Cold War, for undermining Islam by enabling influx of western culture, wasting resources on military, weakening Iran’s agricultural production, and making dependent on food imports, for not investing in electricity/education/clean water for villages, corruption of court patronage system, failing to address urban poverty and rise of shantytowns from rural migrants to urban centers. Increasing tensions in 1970s. Shariati’s followers forming People’s Mojahedin and former Tudeh youth formed People’s Fedayin guerilla group, which conducted terrorism and assignation against Pahlavi government. When Mardom Party, which opposed Shah, won elections, its leader died in car crash, SAVAK suspected involvement, making evident the falseness of the supposed two-party system. In 1975, the Shah ended two-party system and installed one party state under Resurgence Party, following Samuel Huntington’s notion that single party states are more effective at dealing with social pressures resulting from modemization in the third world. The Resurgence Party took control of all government organization and institutions including Majles. Centralization under the Resurgence Party produced terrible results: not only increased government control over the salaried middle class, the urban working class, and the rural farm cooperatives, and it tried to control the traditional middle class, especially the bazaars and the clerical establishment which past Pahlavi governments had not interfered with. To merchants: it dissolved autonomous guilds for Chambers of Guilds ran by government appointed businessmen and forced merchants to join Chambers and the party. Created minimum wage for workers in small factories, including bazaar workshops. To deal with rising inflation, it imposed price controls on commodities sold in bazaar and SAVAK fined and arrested those who did not comply. To clerics: declared Shah spiritual leader, replaced Islamic calendar with newimperial calendar, began inspecting religious endowment, and established government monopoly on religious books and sent Literacy Corp to teach peasants “True Islam.” Massive increase in government interference in religious matters. Expanded 1967 Family Protection Law, further raising marriage age, permitting abortion, restricted men’s divorce and polygamy, allowed women to work without husband’s permission: many of these elements were seen as violations of sharia law. Clerics fiercely protested, and many were imprisoned by SAVAK. Rather than providing stability for Pahlavi regime suffering from tensions, it only increased resentment, which now also included resentments of the bazaar and ulama which had traditionally supported the monarchy. Since Resurgence Party monopolized all government organizations, there was no way for public dissatisfaction and desire for reform to express itself, compounded by extreme handling of dissenters, which increased desire for revolution. CHAPTER 6 “THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC” Iranian Revolution of 1979 precipitated by Shah”s lack of support: Shah always been opposed by left wing urban working class and intelligentsia; opposed by the nationalists for his complicity in the CIA overthrow of Mossadeq and his alliance to the United States; the land reform ofthe White Revolution severely weakened the land owning elites who had supported him; The lack of rural investment following land reform failed to inspire support from small landowners; The Resurgence Party’s pretentions to control both commerce and religious affairs alienated the merchants and ulama. The critic Abul-Hassan Bani-Sadr criticized coup of 1921/1953, ignoring constitution, granting capitulations, allying with US, crushing dissent as by SAVAK, allowing penetration of foreign businesses into Iranian agrobusiness, taking control of religious affairs, trying to establish one party state to dominate society. Pressure from US, media, human rights organization like International Commission of Jurists saw Shah loosen the police state, which enabled public outpouring of dissent. After a government editorial criticizing Khomeini, seminary students in Qom demonstrated, demanding release of political prisoners and return of Khomeini, freedom of expression/press, breaking of ties with imperial powers, support for agriculture, and the dissolution of the Resurgence Party. A massacre followed where 70 people were killed. More protests and massacres followed, and the Shah declared martial law, banning all street demonstrations. The most prominent of these massacres were Black Friday and the Abadan Fire. Shah lost all public support, and mass strikes in oil industry, bazaar, factories, and the government bureaucracy followed. Shah left Iran, Khomeini retumed. About 3000 died during the revolution from 1977-79. Following revolution, conflict about the new constitution between Khomeini, who wanted to institute velavet-e fageh Islamic republic, and Provisional PM Mehdi Bazargan, who wanted to institute democratic republic. Bazargan’s supporters were mostly nationalists who had supported Mossadeg. Khomeini had allowed the Provisional government to retain the existing Iranian state apparatus, but he took power by creating a Revolutionary Council to watch over the Provisional government and Central Komiteh made up of mosque guard units. Khomeini created Revolutionary Tribunal to run courts and a Central Mosque Office to appoint Imam Jum?’eh (“prayer leaders”) to run provincial governments. Referendum was held giving 99% in favor of Islamic Republic, no option for Democratic Islamic Republic as Bazargan wanted. Elections were called for Majles-e Khebregan (Assembly of Experts). Candidates were approved by Central Komiteh and Mosque Office to ensure Khomeini supporters. Assembly of Experts wrote Islamic constitution, enshrined concept of velayat- e fageh (Supreme Leader, half of Guardian Council, Assembly of Delegates, judges are all clerics), made Khomeini Supreme Leader, and provided for his replacement by the Assembly of Experts. The Supreme Leader was commander in chief, with power over war/peace/armed forces, could dismiss president at will, appoints chief judge and lower judges, appoints half of Guardian Council of clerics who could veto bill if contrary to constitution or sharia. Could also temporarily create Expediency Council to mediate Majles and Guardian Council. Democratic features: universal suffrage (both men and women) for all adults of age 16+, could elect the president, Majles, Assembly of Experts, provincial/local councils. The President was second only to Supreme Leader and had power to appoint cabinet/ministers, budget. The Majles approved ministers, budget, treaties, chose other half of Guardian Council, and could call referendum to amend constitution with 2/3 majority. Also enshrined basic civil liberties like: freedom of press, expression, worship, petition, and demonstration, equality before the law, freedom from arbitrary arrest, torture, police swrveillance, and even wiretapping, habeas corpus. Democratic features reflected secular protest against Shah’s authoritarianism component of the revolution, despite objects from hardline Islamists. Populist social policies like pensions, unemployment benefits, disability pay, housing, medical care, free secondary/primary education were promoted. Placed large industries in public control, left agriculture and light industry in private control. The theocratic components giving Guardian Council power over what legislation may be passed was opposed by Bazargan and liberals. However, Carter admitting Shah for cancer