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Historiography of the Iranian Revolutionary Movement, 1977–79

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Charles Kurzman*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Georgia State University

Extract

More than Fifty Books, and More than 100 Academic Articles, Have appeared in English alone dealing in significant part with the Iranian revolutionary movement. This impressive output, published in just 15 years, does not reflect a similarly copious wealth of source materials. In fact, the study of the Iranian revolutionary movement is largely, one might argue, sound and fury, a lot of grand theorizing lacking a solid empirical basis. No work on the Iranian revolution has made systematic use of all forms of primary evidence that are currently available, though some are more thorough than others.

This paper discusses Western historiography of the Iranian revolutionary movement of 1977–79, which led to the fall of the Pahlavi regime in February 1979. It does not attempt to cover works on the post-revolutionary period, after the fall of the shah. In addition, it does not deal specifically with individual secondary works on the Iranian revolution.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1995

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Hamid Algar, Abbas Amanat, Shaul Bakhash, and participants at the 1994 conference of the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

References

1. Unfortunately, historiography in Iran suffers from a similar lack of empirical rigor, especially in the study of the 20th century. See Abbas, , “The Study of History in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Nostalgia, Illusion, or Historical Awareness?” Iranian Studies 22, no. 4 (1991): 3–18Google Scholar.

2. “Western” is intended to include Iranian expatriates who operate in Western academic settings.

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8. Mil-i barf āb khwāhīm shud: muẕākirāt-i “shūrā-yi farmāndahān-i artish” (Day-Bahman 1357), 3rd printing (Tehran: Nashr-i Nay, 1366 Sh./1987).

9. Asnād-i Iānah-yi jāsūsī, 69+ vols. (Tehran: Danishjuyan-i Musalman-i Payru-yi Khatt-i Imam, 1980– ).

10. Fihrist-i asāmī-yī shakhṣīyathā-yi sīyāsī va ijtimā'ī dar asnād-i Iānah-yi jāsūsiīiĀmrīkā, covering vols. 1–60 (Tehran: Shabarin, 1365 Sh./1986).

11. National Security Archives, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–1980, microfiche collection, index, and guide (Alexandria, Va.: Chadwyck-Healey, 1989).

12. National Security Archives, doc. 1913.

13. Woodward, Bob, Veil (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), 101Google Scholar.

14. For Khomeini the most accurate collections appear to be Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, trans. Algar, Hamid (Berkeley:Mizan Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Majmū'ah'iīaz maktūbāt, sukhanrānīhā, payāmhā va fatāvī-yi Imām Khumaynī, ed. M. Dahnavi (Tehran: Intisharat-i Chapkhass, 1360 Sh./1981), along with its supplement published a year later. For Saduqi see Saduqi, Mahmud, Majmū'ahyi iṭṭilā'īyahhā-yi sivvumīn shahīd-i miḥrāb ḥażrat-i āyat Allāh Ṣadūqī (Tehran: Ministry of Islamic Guidance, 1362 Sh./1983Google Scholar). For Taliqani see Taliqani, Mahmud, Az āzādī tā shahādat, 2nd printing (Tehran: Intisharat-i Abu Zarr, 1359 Sh./1980)Google Scholar.

15. Shahīdī dīgar az rūḥānīyat (Najaf: Ruhaniyat-i Mubariz-i Irani, 1356 Sh./1977); Darbārah-yi qiyām-i ḥamāsah-āfarīnān-i Qum va Tabrīz, 3 vols. (n.p.: Nahżat-i Azadiyi Iran, 1357 Sh./1978); Pārah'ī az i'lāmīyahhā-yi muntashirah dar Īrān dar māhhā-yi tī3er va murdād 1357 (Willamette, III.: Organization of Iranian Moslem Students, 1978). This final collection is also reproduced as doc. 20:121 in Behn, Wolfgang, Iranian Opposition to the Shah, microfiche collection and guide (Zug, Switzerland: Inter Documentation Company, 1984)Google Scholar.

16. Nurbakhsh, Sayyid Hasan, Yādvārah-yi nahżat-i islāmī tā 22 Bahman, vol. 1 (Tehran: Daftar-i Nashr-i Farhangi-yi Islami, 1360 Sh./1981)Google Scholar; Shakiri, Ramazan ‘Ali, Inqilāb-i islāmī-yi mardum-i Mashhad az āghāz tā istiqrār-i jumhūrī-yi islāmī (Mashhad: Part-i Grafik-i Mashhad, 1359 Sh./1980)Google Scholar.

17. Asnād-i nahżat-i āzādī-yi Īrān (Tehran [?]: Nahżat-i Azadi-yi Iran, 1362 Sh./1983), vol. 9, part 2, subtitled “Ṣafaḥātī az tārīkh-i mu'āṣir-i Īrān“; Muzaffar Baqa'i-Kirmani, Shinākht-i ḥaqīqat (Kirman: Parm Chap, 1980 [?]); Khalq, Fida'iyan-i, Guzārishātī az mubārizāt-i dalīrānahī-yi mardum-i khārij az maḥdūdah (Tehran [?]: Sazman-i Chirikha-yi Fida'iyan-i Khalq, 1977)Google Scholar; Chand i'lāmīyah az junbish-i kārgarī-yi Īrān (London: Iranian Students’ Union in London, 1978); Nabard-i tūdahhā: chand guzārish az Īrān (Frankfurt-am-Main/Berlin: Iranian Students’ Union in Germany, 1978), reproduced in Behn, Iranian Opposition to the Shah, doc. 20:111.

18. Davani, ‘Ali, Nahżat-i rūḥdnīyūn-i Īrān, 10 vols. (Tehran: Bunyad-i Farhang-i Imam Riza, 1360 Sh./1981)Google Scholar; Behn, Iranian Opposition to the Shah.

19. Żamīmah-yi khabarnāmah, no. 13 (Farvardin 1357/March-April 1978): 15–23.

20. Darbārah-yi qiyām, 39–58; Asnād va taṣāvīrī az mubārizāt-i khalq-i musalmā-i Īrān (Tehran: Abu Zarr, 1978), 1:26–32, reproduced in Behn, Iranian Opposition to the Shah, doc. 10:3.

21. Gulabdarah'i, Mahmud, Laḥżahhā, 3rd printing (Tehran: Intisharat-i Kayhan, 1365 Sh./1986), 21Google Scholar.

22. Ahanchiyan, Jalal, Ṭarḥ-i suqūṭ-i yak pādishāh (Mill Valley, Calif.: self-published, 1982), 370–85Google Scholar.

23. Semkus, Charles I., The Fall of Iran, 1978–1979, 2 vols. (New York: Copen Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

24. Shahīd Duktur Bāhunar, ulgū-yi hunar-i muqāvamat, vol. 1 (Tehran: Vahid-i Farhangi-yi Bunyad-i Shahid-i Inqilab-i Islami, 1361 Sh./1982); Farzand-i Islām va Qur'ān, 2 vols. (Tehran: Vahid-i Farhangi-yi Bunyad-i Shahid, 1362 Sh./l983); Izadi, Mustafa, Guzarī bar zindagī-yi faqīh-i ‘ālīqadr āyat Allāh Muntaẓirī (Tehran: Surush, 1362 Sh./1983)Google Scholar.

25. Khalkhali, ‘Ali Rabbani, Shuhadā-yi rūhānīyat-i shī'ah dor yak-ṣad sālah-yi akhīr, 2 vols. (Qum: Intisharat-i Maktab al-Husayn, 1361 Sh./1982 and 1362 Sh./1983Google Scholar); Muradi, Riza, Zindagī-nāmah-yi pīshvāyān-i inqildb, 2 vols. (Tehran: Intisharat-i Kazimi, 1363 Sh./1984)Google Scholar; Pīshtāzān-i shahādat dor inqilāb-i sivvum (Qum: Daftar-i Intisharat-i Islami, 1360 Sh./1981).

26. Khalkhali, Shuhadā-yi rūḥānīyat 2:147Google Scholar.

27. Kirbaschi, Ghulam-Riza, “Bakhsh-i khāṭirāt,” Yād 4, no. 13 (Winter 1367 Sh./1989): 40Google Scholar.

28. Bani, Omol, Fatima Statt Farah: Erfahrungen einer Frau in der iranischen Revolution (Tubingen, Germany: Iva-Verlag, 1980)Google Scholar; Hariri, Nasir, Muṣāḥibah bā tārīkhsāzān-i Iran (Tehran [?]: n.p., 1984)Google Scholar; Saint-James, Fred, Au Nom de dieu clément et miséricordeux (Paris: Mercure de France, 1983)Google Scholar.

29. Bayat, Assef, Workers and Revolution in Iran (London: Zed, 1987)Google Scholar; Hegland, Mary Elaine, “Imam Khomaini's Village: Recruitment to Revolution” (Ph.D. thesis, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1986)Google Scholar; Kazemi, Farhad, Poverty and Revolution in Iran (New York: New York University Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Sarraf, Tahmoores, Cry of a Nation: The Saga of the Iranian Revolution (New York: Peter Lang, 1990)Google Scholar.

30. The methodology for this study is discussed further in Kurzman, Charles, “Structure and Agency in the Iranian Revolution, 1977–1979” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1992)Google Scholar.

31. Abrahamian, Ervand, The Iranian Mojahedin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989)Google Scholar.

32. Radjavi, Kazem, La Révolution iranienne et les moudjahedines (Paris: Éditions Anthropos, 1983)Google Scholar. See also Khalq, Mujahidin-i, Barrasī-yi muhimmtarīn taḥavvulāt-i siyāsī: az nīmah-yi khurdād ‘57 tā nakhustvazīrī-yi Bakhtīyār (n.p.: Sazman-i Mujahidin-i Khalq-i Iran, 1979)Google Scholar.

33. Untitled pronouncement of 9 Mihr 1357/1 October 1978, in the collection of the Centre Iranien de Documentation et des Recherches, Paris.

34. See Iṭṭilā'āt, 10 February 1979.

35. Iṭṭilā'āt, 10 and 11 February 1979; Āyandigan, 11 February 1979.

36. See, for instance, Barahani, Riza, Dar inqilāb-i Īrān, chih shudah va chih wāhad shud? (Tehran: Nashr-i Zaman, 1358 Sh./1979), 123Google Scholar; Gulabdarah'i, Laḥẓihhā, 327–8Google Scholar; and newspaper accounts.

37. Kurzman, Charles, “Disillusionment and Structuralism in the Study of Social Protest” (forthcoming)Google Scholar.