Routledge Library Editions: Iran – serie

Behind the Iran-Iraq war rests a history of conflict stretching back to the Ottoman Turks and the Persians. This book examines the deep-seated and complex factors involved in the rivalry between these two nations. It focuses particularly on the period between 1969 and 1984, a time that saw both the rise of the Ba’th party in Iraq and Khomeini’s return to power in Iran. These changes did much to escalate tensions. The Ba’th party’s ideological, socialist regime and its emphasis on political secular concerns stood in marked contrast to Iran under Khomeini and his efforts to spread an Islamic revolution among the nation’s Shiite majority. The author discusses how these differences have affected three long-term problems: Iraq’s and Iran’s rivalry for dominance in the Arabian Gulf region; disputes over the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which serves as a boundary between the two nations; and the Kurdish rebellion in Iraq, supported by Iran. The volume also looks at the most recent episodes of crisis and analyzes the evolution of the Iran-Iraq war and its implications both regionally and globally. Unlike other studies of Iraq’s relations with Iran, Abdulghani’s is distinguished by its systematic and comprehensive synthesis which interlocks legal, cultural, historical and political issues that have characterized relations between the two countries.

The Iran-Iraq war broke out in September 1980. It brought death and suffering to hundreds of thousands of people on both sides and devastated the economies of both countries. It also increased international tensions by precipitating new alliances and rearrangement of forces in the already turbulent Middle East. The focus of this book is on the historical, economic and political dimensions of the war between Iraq and Iran. It examines many aspects of what proved to be a very complex conflict; including its long history, its present economic and political setting, the different responses to the war by outside parties and its regional and world implications.

This volume shows the progress and achievements of Iran up to the 1940s within the setting of her ancient history and her strategic position in the world today. The author discusses Iran’s vital position as the dividing line between the East and the West and how Iran drew from and contributed to both these cultures, without losing her own individuality. It is this cultural influence, the author argues, rather than any political strength that has enabled her to survive. Much of the information is taken from sources not available in English or any other language other than Persian.

This volume is a fascinating portrait of a part of the world uneasily balanced between many loyalties – East and West, European and Arabic. The coronation of the Shah in 1967 marked the end of the need for foreign aid, and Iran emerged from her struggles to become the leading nation in the Middle East. Written before the crippling Iran-Iraq war broke out, this book looked forward to Iran’s great future, which, in the author’s opinion, could only be achieved if she broke with her traditions to form a new material and spiritual synthesis.

The impact of Persian life and literature upon Victorian England was tremendous. It found its public demonstration in the visit of the Shah, but the number of men of letters who turned to the Persian classics for inspiration were as numerous as they were great: William Jones, Charles Murray, Edward Browne, George Borrow, Richard Burton, Edward Palmer and, of course, Fitzgerald, translator of the Rubaiyat.

This volume lays the foundation of a “correct” view of ancient Persian history, which, in the author’s opinion, had hitherto been approached from a “biased standpoint.” It presents a survey of ancient and modern historians such as Gibbon, Malcolm and Rawlinson and critiques their work – either for having too much partiality for Greek and Latin writers, not being conversant with the literature of the East or not doing justice to the ancient Persians. Arab and Persian historians are also discussed and social, literary, legal, religious, economic and political questions examined.

This volume is an account of the journey the author made between Eastern Russia (via Tabriz) to Teheran at the turn of the twentieth century. This is not just a travelogue, however, but a lament for the loss of British “prestige” and power in the region to Russia.

This volume gives a popular description of Iran and was the result of the author’s extensive travelling in the country and close knowledge of its people and customs over a period of 3 years at the turn of the nineteenth century.

This volume records the history of the Persian Gulf from the very earliest records until the 1920s. It records the rise and fall of ancient Empires and discusses the rule of Turks and Arabs. It chronicles the Western maritime nations – the Portuguese, Dutch, French and British – outstrip one another in trade and influence.

This volume contains thirty-five translations of Persian poetry, arranged in five groups as well as two examples of prose translations from Arabic, which offer examples of ‘rhymed prose’ of which the earliest examples are to be found in the Koran. To help the reader, a substantial introduction on Persian poetry is included, as well as a personal memoir of the author by J B Atkins.

Khayyam has been the subject of speculation on the part of literary critics ever since Edward Fitzgerald published his own version of the Rubaiyat in 1859. This edition represented the first opportunity to study in English the work of Khayyam by a Persian scholar. There is no conclusive evidence to prove which of the many quatrains attributed to Khayyam are authentic. Ali Dashti therefore constructs a likeness of the poet from references found in the works of writers of his day or immediately after, and from Khayyam’s own works on philosophy, mathematics and astronomy, of which the authenticity is not questioned. Khayyam emerges as a widely read and broad-minded scholar, immersed in his own studies, cautious and moderate, averse to committing himself on controversial questions. Using this portrait Dashti draws up a list of some hundred quatrains which are in keeping with Khayyam’s character. Selling point: An elegant and accurate translation which throws light on the nature of Khayyam’s religious and philosophical beliefs.

‘Among the many national poets of historical Persia, Ferdowsi is perhaps the greatest...In this superb translation of the epic, the Western reader would not fail to discern clear equivalents of chapters in Genesis, The Odyssey, Paradise Lost or the Canterbury Tales.’ Islamic ReviewThe Shah-nama is the national epic poem of Persia. Written in the tenth century it contains the country’s myths, legends and historic reminiscences. This edition makes available a valuable prose translation selecting the most representative parts of the original including the stories of Rustum, the giant hero and his son Sohrab.

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1873-1938) was not only amongst the leading political figures of his time, but regarded by many as the spiritual father of Pakistan and a great champion of the reform movement of modern Islam. He was also a poet, in both Urdu and Persian. The recurrent theme of his poems is the infinite potentiality of man, as partner with God in shaping the destiny of the universe. As an ardent Muslim, Iqbal saw the realization of mankind’s future in a union of Islamic peoples, unfettered by the bonds of separate nationhood, fully liberated from the chains of imperial domination. The Javid-nama, commonly acknowledged as his greatest work, develops this theme within the frame-work of the ‘Ascension’ story. In imitation of the Prophet of Islam, the poet soars through the spheres, encountering on his heavenly journey many great figures of history with whom he converses. The resemblance to Dante’s Divine Comedy is obvious.

This book describes the structure of modern Persia, showing the methods by which it conveys meaning in sentences and connected passages and illustrating its special characteristics. As an introduction there is a brief account of Persia, its inhabitants, their occupations and beliefs; some attempt is made also to show how the language has been modified by the events of Persian history. A section is devoted to representative writings.

The aim of this dictionary was to provide reference of all the words in use in colloquial Persian, particularly for beginners. Especially for the candidates in the Indian Civil Service, all the words in the Gulistán and other prescribed text-books were also included.

This volume gives a brief outline of the life of Ibn Yamin (who died in 1367), based on the biography of Rashid-i-Yásimi and the background of his writing at a time when the Sultans of Khurásán at a time when they were constantly at war with one another. This version of the Qita’s was collated from the 1890 Bhopál edition with that of the Calcutta edition of 1865. The “Fragments” are arranged alphabetically.

Throughout his life the Shams-ul-Ullema devoted himself to advancing the Zoroastrian Faith, not only as a priest and teacher, but also as a writer. This volume of papers is authored by an international group of scholars and covers the history, philosophy, literature and language of Persia and the Indo-Iranians.

This issue of Edebiyât discusses topics ranging from medieval grammar, prosody and rhetoric to computer-assisted techniques of analysis. It also features excerpts from Michael Cooperson’s translation of Abdelfattah Kilito’s L’Auteur et ses doubles.

The Sufi phenomenon is not easy to sum up or define. This book is concerned primarily with the Persian mystics and looks at the history of the Sūfi movement, the mystical states, fundamentals of Persian mysticism and Sūfi practices.

The Nasirean Ethics is the best known ethical digest to be composed in medieval Persia, if not in all mediaeval Islam. It appeared initially in 633/1235 when Tūsī was already a celebrated scholar, scientist, politico-religious propagandist. The work has a special significance as being composed by an outstanding figure at a crucial time in the history he was himself helping to shape: some twenty years later Tūsī was to cross the greatest psychological watershed in Islamic civilization, playing a leading part in the capture of Baghdad and the extinction of the generally acknowledged Caliphate there. In this work the author is primarily concerned with the criteria of human behaviour: first in terms of space and priority allotted, at the individual level, secondly, at the economic level and thirdly at the political level.

When it was originally published this book broke new ground in presenting one continuous narrative of the history of Christians in Persia from the second century A.D to the 1970s. The material gathered here was previously only to be found in obscure books, manuscripts and foreign periodicals. Christians in Persia shows the intricate history of the period concerned; the personalities of the rulers and the ruled; the difficult task of the missionaries; their successes and failures and the consequences of their efforts. All this is related to the wider history of the country and to the expansion of Christianity in the East.

The Persian Gulf, important because of its vast energy resources, emerged into the limelight of geopolitics at the time of the British Labour government’s policy of withdrawal from East of Suez in 1968. Before 1968 it had been recognised that the Gulf lay in the legitimate sphere of influence of Britain, while the United States exerted its influence in the two pivotal littoral states of Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Soviets had been gaining influence in Iraq ever since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958 and the Chinese were also fishing for influence by their support of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Arabian Gulf. This book examines the political axes of the various super-powers with Iran and the Persian Gulf and discusses the implications of these problems for the issue of security in the region.

In this book experts examine the main features of Iran’s foreign policy from 1980 – 1990, assessing relations with the UN, the superpowers, Europe, the GCC and Iraq. Although the Islamic revolution made Iran a significant force in the international arena, it is argued that the ending of the Cold War and the rise of Iraq as the dominant power in the Gulf are now creating a very different set of foreign policy challenges and options.

The sudden increase of oil prices in 1973 meant that the foreign revenues of Iran quadrupled in just over two months. As the first OPEC member to begin disbursing this extra revenue on a significant scale, Iran offers the first complete example of the social, economic and political problems this caused. This book examines the cycle of the boom and the years that led up to it – from the rural and essentially backward nature of the country to the euphoria of 1973 when the Shah seriously talked of Iran reaching the Great Civilisation, where by the 1990s Iran would be the world’s fifth power. And then finally through to the loss of control over expenditure, the cancellation of ambitious projects and eventual disillusionment with all the attendant problems of expectations and increased social and political tension. A comprehensive analysis of the system of government in Iran is provided in Part Three of the book, demonstrating that this has created a repressed stability, incapable of promoting social and economic progress.

This volume provides a broadly comparative and historical re-examination of the fundamental strategic dilemmas that confront the Western world in the Persian Gulf region. This systematic study of how the West has defined and dealt with its security interests in this region reveals three central strategic dilemmas: strategy versus capability, globalism versus regionalism, and unilateralism versus collectivism. The first part of the book focuses on US policy with particular emphasis on the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The author explains why there has been a persistent gap between American perceptions of the Middle East and the political and strategic realities of the region. The second part of the book examines the frustrated efforts of NATO members to form a cooperative response to their collective interests in the region.

In 1978 and 1979 revolutions in Afghanistan and Iran marked a shift in the balance of power in South West Asia and the world. Then, as now, the world is once more aware that tribalism is no anachronism in a struggle for political and cultural self-determination. This books provides historical and anthropological perspectives necessary to the eventual understanding of the events surrounding the revolutions.

In the first years of the Soviet regime there was little, if any, Soviet interest in Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Over the last fifty years relations between Russia and this part of the world have become more complex; this book traces their intricate history in a full analysis of Soviet policy towards the Arabian Peninsula. It opens with a review of events from the beginning of the Soviet regime until 1975. The author goes on to consider the period between 1975 and 1978, concentrating especially on Soviet relations with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and South Yemen. The impact of the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic in 1979 is examined in detail, with the emphasis on the situation in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and both North and South Yemen. Finally the author examines the effect on Soviet policy of the Iran-Iraq war and the subsequent insecurity in the Gulf region. This study is based on mainly primary sources of Soviet, Arab, Iranian and Western origins.

Relations between the USSR and Iran during the period from the overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic up to early 1983 are reviewed in this book. It begins with a brief survey of Russian-Persian relations in earlier years, with a focus on the developments that served as a background to the current events. It examines Soviet attitudes and reactions to Iran’s foreign and internal policy and highlights the way in which the Soviets often raise events of which they do not approve in order to draw Iran closer to them. In particular, the book discusses the Soviet response to the Iran-Iraq war and the position of the Tudeh Party and the other leftists within Iran. Iran’s policy towards the USSR is treated at length and it is shown that it is suspicious of a tacit USA-USSR agreement over the fate of Iran. Khomeini’s attempts to isolate Iran from both East and West are also reviewed. This book was one of the first to discuss this crucial dimension in Middle East politics and it makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the forces driving the Iranian Revolution.

Since the turn of the century Iran has experienced three major political upheavals in the struggle to democratize her political systems. The last revolution inaugurated an era of unprecedented turmoil and instead of fulfilling its democratic aim, paved the way for an even more despotic theocracy. To put the revolution in a proper perspective, some attempt is made to explain the reasons for Khomeini’s success in acquiring first, the symbolic leadership of the anti-Shah revolution, and then, the monopolistic control of power in Iran. How and why the other claimants to power were shunted aside and later brutally repressed is a further theme for discussion. The domestic and external ramifications of the revolution are examined in detail; in particular the rise of the anti-American feeling which culminated in the hostage crisis. In conclusion, an analysis is offered of the instrumentalities of power available to the Islamic Republic, and several scenarios are explored in which Iran’s competing forces may converge to determine whether this third revolution will finally succeed in subordinating political authority to popular democratic consent.