The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran (Cambridge Middle East Studies) Paperback – 13 Dec 2012

As New Delhi's Abdul Gaffar stated at the Spring 2015 edition of the Middle East Quarterly, In The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran, Ansari of the University of St. Andrews assesses the relationship between history and myth in defining Iranian nationalism, focusing on ideas that shaped the building of the Iranian nation. His interpretation of Iranian nationalism is placed within the context of various ideas that achieved prominence beginning with the Qajar dynasty (1725-1925) and culminating in today's Islamic Republic of Iran.

Persian elites borrowed from the vocabularies and myths of Europe as they crafted their own Iranian version of the role of nation in bringing about progress (as defined by European standards.) The legacy of the European myth of Aryanism, which took a destructive path in Hitler's National Socialism, was embraced by Persians: Iran was seen as the developing center of the human race with Europe tracing its roots to a common and noble Aryan origin.

The rise of modern Iranian nationalism truly begins, though, with the constitutional revolution of 1905. The central figures of this revolution were politicians and thinkers including Seyyed Hasan Taqizadeh, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, and others. Taqizadeh's contributions was especially important, drawing on the revered and ubiquitous Shahnameh (Book of Kings by Ferdowsi) to politicize and transform Iran's legendary past with European notions of civic pride, patriotic values, and even the virtue of disobeying autocracy.

While the rise of Reza Khan and the establishment of his Pahlavi dynasty in 1925 spelled the end of the constitutional revolution, the new shah, nevertheless, promoted and regulated nationalism, modernization, and education, central pillars of the constitutional movement. During his reign, Mohammad Ali Foroughi, a scholar turned politician, also turned to the Shahnameh as an inspirational source for developing a national and civic culture.

Reza Shah was forced by European powers to abdicate in 1941, and his son and successor Mohammed Reza Shah gradually marginalized the Shahnameh from the body politic of Iran, largely, in Ansari's opinion, because it did not eulogize the shahs and sanctioned regicide in many cases. Instead, Mohammed Reza Shah created his own historical myth, Pahlavism, comparing himself to Cyrus the Great, the "founder" of Persia. Most significantly though for the development of Iranian nationalism is the role played by religion—at the shah's behest—as a means to counter communism. Ansari argues that the prime mover of religious and revolutionary thought that culminated in the Islamic revolutionary movement was not Ayatollah Khomeini but the shah himself. The shah encouraged and financed religious thinkers such as the Iranian and Islamic intellectual Ali Shariati and promoted the concept of a continuous revolution in which the ruler would be "the guardian and protector of the 'nation' with a divine mandate and access to esoteric knowledge."

Under Khomeini and his successors, traditional notions of nationalism were subsumed under the banner of Islamism: "Don't listen to those who speak of democracy," Khomeini declared in 1979. "They all are against Islam. They want to take the nation away from its mission. We will break all the poison pens of those who speak of nationalism, democracy, and such things."[1]

But that divine mission always seemed to circle around the role that the Iranian nation must play in achieving that goal. Ansari claims, though, that the 2009 election debacle has made those Iranians who accepted the Islamic Republic as the national identity doubt it. The authoritarian manner in which protests were suppressed distressed an enormous number of Iranians. The nation seemed no longer to be composed of all Iranians but limited to an ever-increasing circle of the elect. Iranian nationalism now essentially consisted of Iran without the Iranians.

This book is not an easy read, and those looking for a chronological narration of modern Iranian history will not find it here. The readers are assumed to have an understanding of Iran's history of the last one hundred years in order to make sense of some of the arguments. Nevertheless, The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran is an excellent source for how mythology and history can find expression in nationalism and ideology.

[1] Remarks to students and educators in Qom, Mar. 13, 1979.

This is well written academic book that is aimed at specialists in the politics and history of Iran. In my opinion, the author does not make enough of an effort to make the book more accessible to a reader (such as myself) with less than a specialist's knowledge. There are many, many, instances where an individual or event is introduced with almost none of the background information that I believe is necessary for a non-specialist to fully understand what it being discussed. I would have benefited from an appendix that laid out the necessary background, but alas there is none. All this is not to say that I got nothing from the book. I did learn that the politics and history of modern Iran are much, much, more complicated than I had imagined and that many of my previously held views were quite simplistic.

The theme of the book is the idea of Iranian nationalism and how Iranian politics has utilized this idea and the various national myths (the author's connotation) that support it. Another important focus of the book is on how attempts to establish a constitutional democracy in Iran have failed and that the failure is the result of events spanning the 20th century and were not just due to the Iranian revolution of 1979. The book goes into the constitutional movement that began in 1905 and extended to 1960. It contrasts the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and how it laid the seeds not only for the Iranian revolution but also how the current regime mirrors that of the Shah, but also how it has become much more autocratic.

On balance, the book mostly showed me how ignorant I am of Iranian politics and history, and how disappointed I was that the author did not make more of an effort to make the book more accessible to a reader who is interested in history and politics, but is not an Iran specialist. I thought the book was just OK (3-stars), but one seeking a very detailed, specialist's view, would likely rate it higher.

Ali Ansari has delivered a well thought out and thorough analysis of how nationalism has developed in Iran from 1900 to present. While there are plenty of references to all points in Iran's history Ansari keeps it rooted mostly on the modern state especially surrounding the Shah. Many of the underlying causes of national identity and the interplay of modern state vs the religious influence that is felt in Iran is clearly analyzed and balanced in its presentation. This is not a book aimed at your average reader and is very much intended for a college level study. For those looking for something on the evolution of the Iranian state this will also disappoint since it takes a much broader view and looks at the influences in shaping how Iran sees itself in the world. This book is as much a political history as it is an intellectual history of the competing forces that strive for the political soul of Iran. Overall if you are a serious student of nationalism or looking for scholarly information on how Iran's national identity was shaped this is an excellent book otherwise it is pretty limited in furthering the studies of other areas.

I wanted to read this book because Iran is a country that's always in the news, generally not for good things. I tend to like to offer political opinions that are educated, so I thought this book could provide some insight into the makings of the Iranian political spectrum.

I briefly studied Iran in high school, but most of this information was new to me. This book mainly covers the changes in Iranian politics from 1900 on. Ansari lays out what you need to know early on, but the reader is expected to keep up with what he's talking about.

As could be expected, this book is dense. Very dense. It isn't a brief overview of Iranian Politics by any means, but rather it's the complete story of a revolution thats taken place over the past hundred years or so. This book goes into the kind of depth that you'd expect to find in a college course.

That's certainly important to know when choosing to read this book. It requires a far amount of effort on the reader's end. Ansari chose not to weigh down the book by constantly repeating terms that had already been covered. Should you forget what one of the foreign terms means, then it's up to you to go back and figure everything out.

This book is an investment on your time. Those willing to really dive into the material will be rewarded, but this is the kind of book that would be assigned for a college course. Whether or not you want that for recreational reading is up to you.

Ali Ansari has written quite a complex book on the politics of nationalism in modern Iran. Most of the book is focused on the period from 1900-present, though the history of Iran plays an ever present role. The book as is true of many Cambridge University Press titles is chalked full of rich and intricate details that are interesting, but can often leave the reader grasping for the thesis through the thick jungle of verbiage. Still, Ansari makes several key points that appear throughout the text.

In Iran, whoever has been in charge of the country has sought to justify their rule through the creation and/or utilization of myths often based on the historical character of various symbols that have become important to the Iranian state. The second important point that Ansari really hammers on throughout the book is that no matter what type of government has been in power--be it the monarchy or the so called Islamic Revolution, they've largely retained the previous institutions of the state, even though they've often assailed those same institutions to ascend to power.