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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Summary
Summary
Since its revolution in 1979, Iran has been viewed as the bastion of radical Islam and a sponsor of terrorism. The focus on its volatile internal politics and its foreign relations has, according to Kamrava, distracted attention from more subtle transformations which have been taking place there in the intervening years. With the death of Ayatollah Khomeini a more relaxed political environment opened up in Iran, which encouraged intellectual and political debate between learned elites and religious reformers. What emerged from these interactions were three competing ideologies which Kamrava categorises as conservative, reformist and secular. As the book aptly demonstrates, these developments, which amount to an intellectual revolution, will have profound and far-reaching consequences for the future of the Islamic republic, its people and very probably for countries beyond its borders. This thought-provoking account of the Iranian intellectual and cultural scene will confound stereotypical views of Iran and its mullahs.
Author Notes
Mehran Kamrava is the Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Thirty years after the revolution that overthrew the monarchy in Iran, debates over the future course of the revolution and the nature of sociopolitical discourse continue to be one of the most dynamic dimensions of life in contemporary Iran. Relying on interviews with Iranian intellectuals and Persian-language sources, Kamrava (Georgetown Univ.) has written an erudite, sophisticated book about the three major intellectual currents in Iran: religious conservative, religious reformist, and secular modernist. He identifies principal personalities and philosophical underpinnings within each of these contending discourses. The strengths and weaknesses of each discourse are assessed and analyzed in detail. Although religious conservatives control state institutions and centers of power, Kamrava argues that this camp's legitimacy among the urban middle class is problematic and its future challenging. Instead, he argues that the two discourses of religious reformism and secular modernism will, in the long run, determine the outcome of contending issues and the broader shape of political Islam in the country. The struggle between these trends will continue to shape the contours of Iran's intellectual revolution and the future framework of sociopolitical discourse in the country. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. N. Entessar University of South Alabama
Table of Contents
| List of tables | p. viii |
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| 1 Introduction | p. 1 |
| 2 Emerging Iranian discourses | p. 10 |
| 3 Theorizing about the world | p. 44 |
| 4 The conservative religious discourse | p. 79 |
| 5 The reformist religious discourse | p. 120 |
| 6 The secular-modernist discourse | p. 173 |
| 7 Iran's silent revolution | p. 214 |
| Bibliography | p. 227 |
| Index | p. 262 |
