Abstract
This chapter portrays two distinct facets of active opposition to the Shah around the turn of the decade of sixties. A Shia revivalist movement was germinating in Najaf, where Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had lived in exile since late 1965, while restive youth was in the search of egalitarian models in early Islam or the Maoist paradigm. In Najaf, Ayatollah Khomeini elaborated a doctrine that in essence cast profane rulers as usurpers. The chapter follows the vicissitudes of his life in exile and the terms of his coexistence with the Baathist regime in Baghdad. The youth movement is discussed in its different facets; it is argued that unrest among the emerging middle-class youth was in part a phenomenon of the times and part of the worldwide anti-establishment zeitgeist in late 1960s.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Moin, Khomeini, 39–53.
- 2.
Nasr, The Shia Revival, 119.
- 3.
Montazeri memoirs, 1–193.
- 4.
Nasr, The Shia Revival, 119–20.
- 5.
Moin:332
- 6.
Sahifeh Emam, vol. 20, p. 409, in Khomeini’s official website, http://www.imamkhomeini.ir/fa/n22948/.
- 7.
For an example of such usage, see a letter by Khomeini, addressed to a group of supporters, dated [in the lunar Hijri calendar] “shahr sha’ban, 1397,” roughly equivalent to August 1977, in Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 3.357–8, photocopy on 3.1110.
- 8.
The Al-Aqsa mosque arson was committed by a deranged Australian evangelist who had hoped his act would provoke the “second coming” of Christ.
- 9.
As samples, see his messages of August 25, 1975, and his eid al-Fitr message in 1976, in Khomeini papers, Sahifeh Emam, vol. 1. http://www.askquran.ir/thread12150.html.
- 10.
Video clips of Khomeini’s speech on the massacre of the Jewish Banu Quraiza tribe in YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EmAxl1Ksv0.
- 11.
For an example of several references to these subjects, see Khomeini’s message, dated 5/1/ 1352 (March 26, 1973), addressed to Iranian clerics and preachers, in which he lamented, inter alia, that “To obliterate the Holy Koran and liberating teachings of Islam there exist plans by imperialists that come in different forms at different times”; Khomeini papers, Sahifeh Emam (EV), vol. 1–10.
- 12.
Khomeini’s interview with Oriana Fallaci, September 12, 1979; a full English transcript was published in the New York Times, October 7, 1979.
- 13.
Moin, Khomeini, 151.
- 14.
For campaign by followers see Montazeri memoirs, 2–812; for support of Baghdad see US Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, July 7 1970, FRUS (1969–72), vol. E-4, doc. 76.
- 15.
Gregory Ross, “The Thought of Khomeini,” in Nikki Keddie, Religion and Politics in Iran: Shi’ism from Quietism to Revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983), 177, see also note 44 on the same page; Vali Nasr refers to the same anecdote, The Shia Revival, 125.
- 16.
For a strong endorsement of Khomeini’s candidacy, see the text of the letter written in the wake of Hakim’s death in June 1970 by Montazeri, co-signed by Rabbani and Shirazi; Montazeri memoirs, 2–812 (Annex 11).
- 17.
Bani-Sadr, Dars’e Tajrobeh [Lessons from experience], in conversation with Hamid Ahmadi (Frankfurt: Englelab Eslami Zeitung, 2001), 137.
- 18.
Ibid., 138–40.
- 19.
Montazeri memoirs, 1.260.
- 20.
Loc. cit.
- 21.
[ED: Atabat refers to the totality of shrine cities in Iraq] According to a SAVAK intelligence report, Hakim paid a courtesy call to Khomeini but stayed only five minutes and did not authorize release of the photographs taken; SAVAK archive file, October 23,1965, http://www.22bahman.ir/ContentDetails/pageid/153/ctl/view/mid/364/Id/B-152957/language/fa-IR/Default.aspx. For the negative view of clerics see, Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 3.691–4; Montazari memoirs, 1.256–258.
- 22.
The cabinet officer was Zakaria Mohi-addin, minister of national unity; see “Seyr mobarezat emam khomeini dar ayeneh’e asnad be ravayat savak” (compendium of the SAVAK archive files on Khomeini: 5–491; Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 2.161.
- 23.
SAVAK files in Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 2.396–405.
- 24.
Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 2.558–59; Moin, Khomeini, 145.
- 25.
Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 2–573.
- 26.
Ibid., 2–575.
- 27.
Ibid., 2–565.
- 28.
Speech by Professor Jamshid Aalam, Ette’laat, 20 Dey 1350 (January 10, 1972), in ibid., 3.704.
- 29.
Ibid., 2–565.
- 30.
US Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, July 7, 1970, FRUS (1969–72), vol. E-4, doc. 76.
- 31.
US Embassy Airgram 217 to Department of State, July 7, 1970, DNSA; Alam in The Shah and I, 156–7.
- 32.
Ali Davani (another chronicler close to the Khomeini camp), author of the eight-volume Nehzat Rohaniat (a history of the clerical movement in Iran), confirms the existence of these relations and facilities provided by the Baathist regime to allow Khomeini to conduct his campaign against the Shah from Najaf, 6–252–3.
- 33.
Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr, My Turn to Speak; Iran the Revolution and Secret Deals with the U.S. (Lincoln, NE: Brassey’s, 1991), 62–63; Sabeti/Qaneei-Fard, 328; see also, Etela’at, 2 Dey 1349/December 23, 1970.
- 34.
SAVAK files, Third Bureau directive dated January 13, 1969, printed in Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 2–1114.
- 35.
Ibid., 146–8.
- 36.
Ibid., 2.809–10.
- 37.
Letter dated 28 Shawwal 1390/December 27, 1970, to Ahmad Khomeini (his younger son), printed in Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 811–12.
- 38.
Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 2.567–8.
- 39.
Moin, Khomeini, 147.
- 40.
Full text of the communication by Khomeini to Hassan al-Bakr, dated December 22, 1971 (original in Farsi), is printed among Khomeini papers vol. 2, Jamaran website; see also Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 3.695–6.
- 41.
Sabeti-Qaneei-Fard, 328,
- 42.
Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 3.737–8.
- 43.
Charles Tripp, A History of Iraq (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 160.
- 44.
Williamson Murray and Kevin M. Woods, The Iran-Iraq War: A Military and Strategic History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 132; Roger Shnahan, “The Islamic Da’wa Party: Past Development and Future Prospects,” Middle East Review of International Affairs, June 2, 2004.
- 45.
Muhammed Baqir Al-Sadr, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (London: ICAS, 2003), 15, cited in several web biographies of Al-Sadr.
- 46.
Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam, 3.733–35.
- 47.
Yazdi, shast sal sabouri va shokuri, 2–366.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
Hanna Batatu: “Iraq’s Underground Shi’a Movements: Characteristics, Causes and Prospects,” Middle East Journal 35, no. 4 (1981).
- 50.
The event coincided with a visit to Tehran by Vice-President Richard Nixon. The protest was against the resumption of diplomatic relations with Britain.
- 51.
Régis Debray (1940 –) was a French philosopher, former revolutionary companion of Che Guevara and author of Révolution dans la révolution? Lutte armée et lutte politique en Amérique latine. Carlos Marighella (1911–1969) was a Brazilian Marxist revolutionary who devised strategies for urban guerrilla warfare.
- 52.
Mahmoud Naderi, Cherik’hay fada’ei khalq az nakhstin konesh’ha ta bahman 57 (The FK from early activism to February 1979), vol. 3 (Tehran: Institute of Political Studies and Research, 1387/2009), 247ff (digital version).
- 53.
This thread proved barren. Not only was the peasantry impervious to revolutionary propaganda, but Nikkhah and his teammates were implicated in the 1965 assassination attempt against the Shah. Parviz Nikkhah famously changed sides while in prison and was rehabilitated but did not survive purges by the Islamic Revolution in 1979. See Parviz nikkhah be ravayat asnad savak (The SAVAK files on Parviz Nikkhah), published by Ministry of Information, Esfand 1385/March 2007.
- 54.
Ahmad Yaghma, bohran dar tashkolhaye siasi chap (Crisis in leftist movements [in Iran]), section 2, web version, http://ahmadyaghma.blogfa.com/cat-84.aspx; Yaghma (unnumbered web essay; Hamid Ashrsf, jambadi she saleh.
- 55.
Kianouri memoirs, 438–9.
- 56.
The Ahmdizadeh-Puyan group—even some in Jazani’s own network (e.g., Suraki and Ashraf)—were supportive of the Chinese party line; see Ahmad Yaghma: section 4; see also FK–-MKO coalition dialogue between delegations headed by Hamid Ashraf (FK) and Taqi Shahram (MKO) in 1975–1976, tapes of which have survived, published on the Peykar party website.
- 57.
Ahmad Yaghma, bohrān dar tashkolhāye siāsi’e chap.
- 58.
Bijan Jazani, cheguneh mobarezeh’e mosallahaneh tudeh’i mishavad (How armed struggle becomes a mass movement) (Tehran: Maziar Publishers, 1358/1979), cited by Naderi, Cherik’hay fada’ei, 3–329. Yaghma, bohrān dar tashkolhāye, section 2.
- 59.
Sabeti/Qanee-Fard, 234; Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam Khomeini, citing the SAVAK files, 3.407–8.
- 60.
Sabeti/Qanee-Fard, 235.
- 61.
Five non-commissioned police officers and one civilian were killed and ten others were wounded.
- 62.
The Siahkal plot has been the topic of analysis in scores of published, essays and web pages both in Iran and abroad. For an insider’s analysis, see Hamid Ashraf, Jam’bandi seh sal [The three-year balance sheet]. http://www.siahkal.com/publication/Rafigh-Hamid-Ashraf-jamae-bandi-seh-saleh.pdf.
- 63.
Sazeman’e Mojahedin Khalq az Peydayi ta Farjam, 1344–1384 (A three-volume compilation of documents and narratives on the MKO) (Tehran: Center for Historical Studies and Research), hereafter MKO, az pedayesh ta farjam, 1–294; Ervand Abrahamian, The Iranian Mojahedin (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), 140–3.
- 64.
Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1996), 119; Abrahamian, The Iranian Mojahedin, 89.
- 65.
Rouhani, Nehzat’e Imam Khomeini, 3.572–3; MKO: Peydayi ta farjam, 1.421–22; Sabeti/Qaneei-Fard, 272; Abrahamian, The Iranian Mojahedin, 128.
- 66.
MKO: Peydayi ta farjam, 1.437–8, 1.545–6, 1.643.
- 67.
The first cells of the original Hezbollah were formed in 1969; their main figures were Abbas Aqa-Zamani (Abu-Sharif) and Javad Mansuri, who later took turns as the top commanders of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution in the early 1980s.
- 68.
Mohsen Hashemi (ed.), doran’e mobarezeh, khaterat Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (The period of struggle: Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani), 2 vols. (Tehran: Daftar Nashr Ma’aref Enqelab, 1376/1997), 1–258.
- 69.
Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, 480–1; Emad Baghi (a former revolutionary turned human rights activist) did a full inventory of victims of political turmoil in Iran from 1962 to 1978, commissioned by the Martyrs Foundation of the Islamic Republic, http://www.emadbaghi.com/en/archives/000592.php#more, retrieved January 17, 2009. He also puts the dead at 340. The ex-SAVAK Internal Security Director Parviz Sabeti insists that the total number of militants killed was 312: see Sabeti/Qaneei-Fard, 314.
- 70.
The figure of 100,000 is cited from various sources: see Afshin Matin-Asgari, “Confederation of Iranian Students, National Union,” Encyclopaedia Iranica; Sabeti/Qaneei-Fard, 195.
- 71.
Details in Afshin Matin-Asgari, Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- 72.
Nicholas Kulish, “Spy Fired Shot that Changed West Germany,” New York Times, May 26, 2009; see also Justus Leicht, World Socialist Website, June 3, 2009. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/06/stas-j03.html.
- 73.
The incident had wide media coverage; New York Times, June 3 and 4, 1967.
- 74.
Quinn Slobodian, Foreign Front, The Third World Politics in 1960’s West Germany (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012), 101–34.
- 75.
Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Khomeini et sa Révolution (Paris, 1983), p. 77; Houchang Shahabi (ed), Distant Relations: Iran and Lebanon in the Last 500 Years, (I. B. Tauris, 2006):182–4.
- 76.
Ebrahim Yazdi, shast sal sabouri va shokuri (Three-volume memoir of Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi) (Tehran: EV, 2009), 2–353 ff.
- 77.
An acronym for Afwāj al-Muqāwmat al-Lubnāniyya or Lebanese resistance army.
- 78.
Khosrow Shakeri (a former NF student activist and Confederation official) in Harvard Oral History interview with by Zia Sedghi, August 1983, tape/page 2.11–12.
- 79.
Matin-Asgari, Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- 80.
Matin-Asgari, Iranian Student Opposition to the Shah (Santa Ana, CA: Mazda, 2001), PT: 360ff.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bayandor, D. (2019). The Opposition. In: The Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the United States. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96119-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96119-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96118-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96119-4
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)