The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation by Sandra Mackey, Scott Harrop

From the Publisher

In The Iranians, eminent Middle East expert Sandra Mackey brings us invaluable understanding of a complex, contradictory, and sometimes volatile people. Beginning with the ancient Persian empires that ruled from India to Greece and later humbled mighty Rome, and tracking the waves of invasions that culminated in the triumph of the Arabs under the banner of Islam, she delineates the opposing poles of identity and power that have vied for the Iranian state and the Iranian soul. On the one hand, there is the Persian concept of kingship, in which the nation is guided toward its destiny by a single strong ruler. On the other, there is the Islamic concept of a community of believers in which the faith of Muhammad reigns supreme over every facet of life. This dramatic conflict has played itself out over centuries, intensifying in the twentieth century when Iranians also confronted the issue of modernization in the mode of the West. In the last decades, the Iranians' intertwined destinies of Persia and Islam resulted in the violent shift of leadership and policy from the imperious "King of Kings," Muhammad Reza Shah, to the zealous Ayatollah Khomeini. Without a current icon of culture and authority, the Iranians now struggle with their present and search for their future in the decaying Iranian Revolution. The author's personal knowledge of Iran gives her book a superbly human dimension. Sandra Mackey has more unrestricted movement within the Iranian Islamic Republic than any other American journalist. Her eyewitness account gives the reader a uniquely authentic present-day picture of Iran and the Iranians from the cities to the countryside and from humble mosques to the chaotic political arena governed by the clerics of Shia Islam, as pressures build for a new definition of revolutionary Iran that may well shake the region and the world.

Publishers Weekly

In an engrossing blend of history and reportage, Middle East expert Mackey (The Saudis) portrays a proud, anxious people caught between two interlocking traditions competing for the nation's soul. On the one hand, there is the legacy of ancient Persia, which brought forth Zoroastrianism with its belief in a supreme God, a philosophy of tolerance and justice, and magnificent art; and on the other, there is the predominant Shiite Muslim religion, which mirrors Persian nonconformity in its schismatic break with Sunni orthodoxy, but which also galvanizes the masses with calls for an egalitarian society, retribution against the West and strict adherence to Islamic moral code. Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, in her analysis, abandoned Islamic traditions and, wrapping himself in the cloak of kingship, pushed a shallow resurrection of the glories of ancient Persia. His fall in 1979 left the U.S. adrift in the crucial Persian Gulf; and contemporary Iran, with its ongoing military buildup, its opposition to the Israel-Arab peace process and its refusal to lift the death edict for Salman Rushdie, reinforces deep-rooted authoritarian traditions. Nevertheless, Mackey strongly urges the U.S. to replace its policy of isolation and embargo with reconciliation toward President Hashemi Rafsanjani and the moderate pragmatists he supposedly represents. (May)

Library Journal

Mackey, a Middle East specialist and journalist whose previous books include Passion and Politics: The Turbulent World of the Arabs (LJ 11/1/92), has produced a treasure trove of information on Iranian civilization from Cyrus the Great to the present. Throughout this turbulent history of invasions and conquerors, the Persian soul, with its foundations in the Zoroastrian concept of justice overlaid with Shia Islam, has steadfastly endured. Since many Westerners had little familiarity with Iran until the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, this very readable book provides a perspective on what led up to those events, what is happening in Iran today, and how the current situation is likely to affect the future of Iran and its relationship with the West. The West needs to understand Iran, and this work makes great headway in that direction: it is comprehensive but also discusses Persian history and religion in depth, thereby making it useful to the specialist and nonspecialist alike. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Ruth K. Baacke, Whatcom Cty. Lib. Sys., Bellingham, Wash.

Firuz Kazemzadeh

...a well-written and informative book. -- Firuz Kazemzadeh, The New York Times Book Review

Kirkus Reviews

A richly detailed analysis of the complex historical and ideological forces that drive this large and powerful nation.

Mackey (The Saudis, 1990; Lebanon, 1989) sees the paradoxical soul of Iran as a two-faced Janus that expresses both Persian culture and Shia Islam. By exploring the long and turbulent history of this strategically located nation, she guides the reader toward telling insights that explain such dramatic 20th-century polarities as the Peacock throne of Reza Shah Pahlavi and the Islamic Republic of Ayatollah Khomeini. More than a researcher, Mackey travels through Iran and experiences the celebration of No Ruz, an ancient Zoroastrian holiday still preserved with an Islamic overlay. It would be difficult to understand the zeal of revolutionary demonstrators at the American Embassy compound without this background into the black and white sensibility provided by the prophet Zoroaster. After all the country's abuse at the hands of Greeks, Seleucids, Byzantines, and Britons, it is little wonder that decadent America is an echo of Ahriman the satanic destroyer. Persia's most venerated traditions demand a just but absolute ruler, making the shah's excessive capitalism and secularism that much more foreign to Iranian eyes. While a black-turbaned imam has the unshakable credentials of a descendent of Muhammad, we learn that rivalry between Persian Aryans and Muslim Arabs replays ancient battles of the Umayyads and Abbasids. Mackey likewise allows us to understand the racial and religious animosity toward Sunni Arabs that would pit the Shia Islamic Republic against fellow Muslim Iraq. By touring the wide panorama of Iranian times and space with Mackey, we can appreciate why "Teheran is Iran's brain, Qom is its soul, and cherished Isfahan its heart." (See also Judith Miller, God Has Ninety-Nine Names, p. 512.)

An essential resource for anyone concerned with this crucial region's geopolitics, culture or religion.

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Table of Contents