Iran's Unresolved Revolution

Mark Downes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138720299
• eBook ISBN: 9781351763165
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This title was first published in 2002. As Iran enters into the third decade since the 1979 revolution, the prospect of socio-political unrest remains ever present. Iran's political structure, its version of Islamic governance and the role of pluralism across all aspects of Iranian society are being questioned openly and defiantly. What this will mean for the future of Iran's theological system of governance and its current social structure remains to be seen. This work examines the roots of Iran's current unrest in the context of the post-revolutionary social and political structure, and the goals and aspirations of the 1979 revolutionaries. It provides in-depth commentary on contemporary Iranian society and the Islamic movement emerging from Khomeini's interpretation of Islamic governance and gauges the response of Iran to the pragmatic realities of the international system.   Readers in Islamic studies, international studies and Middle Eastern politics both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels will find this book an invaluable tool.

Chapter 1

Muhammad and the Islamic Movement

The political folklore of the West has a long and embittered fear of the concept of Islam. The medieval military might of Islam survived and eventually routed the papal, and not so papal, crusades of the 11^th and 12^th centuries.¹ Indeed, during the Middle Ages, Muslims occupied large parts of Spain and at one point knocked at the very ramparts of Vienna, which was then, as now, the gateway to Western Europe. Even today in large parts of the West, when the word Islam is used it is implicitly, albeit incorrectly, associated with fear, fundamentalism and terror.²

From its humble beginnings in the arid planes of Arabia in the beginning of the 6^th century, it is now estimated that about one-fifth of the world’s population is of the Islamic faith. Muslims can now be found throughout the world; in the Asia in places such as Indonesia; in the Middle East territories such as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and in Africa, particularly in the northern half of that continent. Indeed Islam is fast becoming one of the major religions in Western Europe.³

Though it seems to some of the more alarmist political commentators that Islam and Muslims are on the march, the aim of this chapter is to provide an introduction to the vibrant faith that is Islam. In addition, it is important for this body of work that the ideological roots of the contemporary Islamic movement be reviewed.

Muhammad and the Birth of Islam

It was from the forbidding and barren land of Arabia that the founder of Islam hailed.⁴ Whilst it is known that he was born in Mecca⁵ in modern day Saudi Arabia to Abdallah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and his wife Aminah, the exact date of his birth is still an issue of contention amongst historians. There is a saying ascribed to Muhammad that gives us a clue of the date, T was born during the reign of the just king’, the king in question was the Sasanian monarch Chosroes I, who reigned from AD 531 to 579.⁶ It is generally accept that the man who would dramatically alter the course of modern religion was born around circa 570 AD.

Orphaned at the age of six, he was entrusted into the care first of his grandfather and later his uncle, Abu Talib. During his youth he undoubtedly came into contact with monotheist faiths, as the conflict between the Christian Byzantine and Zoroastrian Sasanian Empires was in full swing to the north of the Arabian peninsula. Mecca, a thriving commercial crossroad between the worlds of East and West was the focal point for the idol worshipping Arabs. Muhammad was born into the Quraysh tribe which had control over Mecca at the time. In fact during the early years of his life he lived with the Abd Manaf family who were the custodians of the Ka’bah,⁷ the Meccan shrine. While it appears that most of the Arabian Peninsula could have been termed backward or primitive in comparison to their regional contemporaries, most notably the Byzantine or Sasanian Empires, Mecca by contrast had a well-organised system of administration and a thriving economy.

Our knowledge of Muhammad’s early childhood is scant. We know that he joined his Uncle Abu Talib in his trading business. At the age of twenty-five, he married a widow of considerable wealth named Khadijah Bint Khuwaylid. She had many trading concerns and Muhammad eventually managed her flourishing business interests. It is said that eight children were born to Muhammad and his wife, four sons and four daughters. The sons did not outlive their infancy and three of the daughters all died childless before the age thirty. His remaining daughter, Fatimah, was married to Ali the son of Muhammad’s uncle and guardian Abu Talib. Little is know of this period of Muhammad’s life when he was a trader. However, while travelling north to Syria and south to Yemen, it is fair to assume that he came in contact with and was influenced by the culture and practices of the monotheist religions of the region. While it is claimed that Muhammad was illiterate, the early period of his life would have given him an understanding of the requirements of functioning state, knowledge he would require in later years.

Tradition has it that with time, Muhammad became more reflective and suffered from bouts of internal doubts and questioning.⁸ During this period of contemplation Muhammad received a revelation from the Angel Gabriel containing his mission for the world. While Muhammad’s initial mission would appear to have been to warn his people⁹ and to act as a prophet or holy man whose revelations were to enhance the existing doctrine of the monotheist faiths what was to eventually occur was more in line with a religious revolution. The resultant faith, Islam, went far beyond the previous parameters of monotheist faiths and formulated principles and practices that would encompass not only issues of faith and religion but also the economic, political and social lives of its adherents. Islam, from the very beginning, did not allow its followers to have a life outside of Islam and Muhammad was not only a religious leader but became the political, military and social leader of his followers. The legacy left by the all encompassing leadership of Muhammad, has been incorporated into the Islamic faith and has given weight to the argument that Islam is a political doctrine with a political and social ideology.

In the early years following Muhammad’s revelations his followers only numbered around fifty and came mostly from his immediate family.¹⁰ Others within the family circle however were less supportive and at times attempted to undermine Muhammad. Sometime in the fourth year of this mission, he made a public declaration to the people of Mecca that he was sent as a messenger from the ‘One God’. This intensified the persecution of is followers but also brought with it the conversion of many of his fellow Meccans. During the years that followed, Muhammad’s religious and socio-political doctrine developed into a comprehensive framework of ideas on which the future society of Islam could be based. This appealed to a larger cross section of society and provided the fledgling faith of Islam with adherents from all classes of Meccan society. In tandem with the development of the tenants of Islam, a change occurred with the persona of Muhammad, from preacher to leader, from hermit to warrior.¹¹

The Birth of the First Islamic Society

The turning point in Islam history occurred around 620 AD when Muhammad made contact with a group of pilgrims from Yathrib, who accepted him as the Prophet of God. In time their numbers grew. This coincided with an increasingly hostile and indifferent reception by the people of Mecca. As a result the prophet decided to leave his hometown of Mecca and move with his supporters to the northern city of Yathrib. This hijrah¹² (or withdrawal) to Yathrib occurred in the year 622 AD and is an integral part of the Islamic consciousness, even today.

On the Prophet’s arrival the people of Yathrib changed the name of the city to al-Madínah an-Nabí (or Medina in English), which means the ‘City of the Prophet’.¹³ The arrival of the Muslims of Mecca to join their compatriots in Medina, marks not only the beginning of the Muslim calendar but also marks the beginning of the victory of Islam and the fulfilment of the prophesies of Muhammad. The difficulties and triumph over adversity experienced during the hijrah has remained a cornerstone of the Islamic faith and psyche throughout the ages. The eight years spent in Medina further developed the Islamic way of life, together with the religious, political, economic and social practices that were necessary to maintain it. The development of a community beyond tribal or kinship bonds produced a religion that transcends class or family bonds,¹⁴ giving it mass appeal.

Even though Muhammad was brought up in the punishing Arabian Peninsula where tribal laws and wars reigned supreme, he was not a man accustomed to combat. Now, however, as the leader of the people of Medina, he had an obligation to guarantee their safety and protection. As a result of this obligation, Muhammad and a number of his followers had taken up arms against the idolaters in defence of the Muslim way of life.¹⁵ What started as a series of skirmishes, turned into a fully-fledged battle between the Muslim community of Medina and their opponents in Mecca. Alliances were made and battles were fought to protect and further the Muslim community’s way of life. The Battles of Badr and Uhud and the failed siege of Medina in 627 AD were all decisive in the development of Islam from merely a religious ideology to that of a strong political and military force.¹⁶ While receiving full devotion from his followers, Muhammad can also be seen as a pragmatic political leader. In total Muhammad had twelve wives, his first was the widow Khadijah, to whom he remained faithful until her death after 24 years of marriage. Muhammad’s later marriages, however, facilitated the establishment of system of alliances, with tribal or nomadic groups who were perceived to be a possible threat to the Muslim community.¹⁷

That Islam had become a political force is further strengthened by the fact that Muhammad sent emissaries to neighbouring leaders from the Monarch Negus of Ethiopia, to Chosroes II the Sasssanian Monarch, Heraclius the Byzantine Emperor, the rulers of Egypt, Syria and, tradition has it, to Pope Honorius I of Campania,¹⁸ to summon them all to Islam. His responses were met with varying degrees of success. While it is claimed that a favourable response was received from the Ethiopian Emperor and the ruler of Yemen, other territories had to be won over by both force of arms and military conquest.

Initially while Muhammad was building his Islamic society in Medina, he sought a truce with the people of Mecca to allow his followers to visit this holy site.¹⁹ However, such tranquil relations with their neighbours were short-lived and following the breaking of the truce of al-Hudaybiyya²⁰ it became inevitable that a final victory over the idolaters was necessary. Amassing an army of ten thousand men, Muhammad marched towards Mecca and returned to the city of his birth in triumph, as leader of his Muslim force, some eight years after the hijrah. Thereafter, he established the new Muslim community in the cities of Mecca and Medina. While Muhammad died two years later in 632 AD the trend of Muslim expansion had begun.

The March towards an Islamic Empire

Following on the heels of their victory in Mecca, the forces of Islam swept through Arabian Peninsula and not long afterwards, with a small force, they overran the mighty Sasanian Empire, bringing Islam to Persia in 637 AD. This decisive victory was followed by the Arab conquest over the Byzantine provinces of Syria and Egypt in 656 AD, the conquest of North Africa occurred in 711 AD and the Muslim forces knocked on the gates of Vienna in 1699.²¹ As the conquering Muslim armies swept out of the Arabian Peninsula they brought with them the Arabic language and their new faith, a faith that was readily accepted by their new subjects. Islam with its emphasis on equality and justice for all won mass appeal in societies ridden with class differences and social injustice. There are many theories as to why Islam experienced such a meteoritic rise engulfing not only the Arabian Peninsula but overcame the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires, the most plausible is that Mecca and Medina were highly developed cities on the verge of statehood and merely needed an ideology to galvanise its population. Once the Arab tribes were united in Islam, their tribal warfare, which had previously managed to weaken their peoples, ceased. The united tribes of the Arabian Peninsula still possessed the skills of warfare but now they utilised it for the benefit of Islam. Islam’s march through Arabia gave it a warlike doctrine, which has best described by the term ‘jihad’ or Holy war. This term has been misused in modern times, it does not mean conversion to Islam through conquest but in this context rather a desire to expand the faith and territories where Islam is found.²²

While in the new Islamic territories polytheists were not allowed to practice their faith, other monotheists or ‘people of the book’ such as Christian and Jews were allowed to fulfil their religious obligations in return for a special tax. This policy allowed the Arab armies to give religious freedom to large Christian groups in both Egypt and Syria, groups who were perceived as heretics by the Byz...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 Muhammad and the Islamic Movement
• 2 The Islamic Movement – in Resurgence or in Decline?
• 3 Revolution in Review
• 4 Revolution, Power and Binary Opposition
• 5 Ideologies of the Iranian Revolution; the Rise of Khomeinism
• 6 A Great Revolution of the 20th Century – the Installation of an Islamic Theocracy
• 7 The Election of Khatami – Iran from Revolution to Realpolitik
• Conclusion – Iran Today, Edging towards Unrest
• Glossary I – People, Places and Organisations in Pre- and Post- 1979 Iran
• Glossary II – Terms, Dates and Expressions
• Bibliography
• Index