Introduction

Abstract

Much of the academic debate on aspects of Islam and Muslim life during the last three decades has been dominated by concern with the rise of a militant brand of political Islam, supposedly aiming at the foundation of an Islamic order characterized by adherence to the shari’ah.¹ The Islamic Revolution that occurred in Iran in 1979 has often been identified by scholars as among the major milestones in this quest for an Islamic order, by virtue of the debate it generated among Muslims as much as among non-Muslims. More importantly, it is sometimes taken to be a catalyst for what has been identified as the “second generation” of political Islam.² Such a narrow identification of the Islamic order frequently distracts attention from the position that such an order is not simply about conforming to the corpus of Islamic laws, but also about the values, issues, and concerns of Muslim societies. In turn, the limited approach to the Islamic Revolution in Iran fails to examine the complexity that marked its political origins and the subtleties of the language of politics that has evolved in Iran, and indeed elsewhere in the Muslim world. Only an intellectual history of the Islamic Revolution—bearing in mind these issues—is capable of setting this record straight. And a firm contribution to such a history is the purpose of this book.