Reflections on the Iranian Revolution and its Influence in the Muslim World

Abstract

“Beware the Years with Nines” might be the motto for unpopular regimes, as we celebrate, or mourn, as the case may be, in 1989, the two-hundredth anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, the fortieth anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Revolution, the thirtieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, and the tenth anniversaries of the victory of the Iranian and Nicaraguan Revolutions. All this gave rise to a spate of academic conferences and writings about one or more revolutions, out of which there has begun to come some light as well as heat. And, to add to the “nines” phenomenon came, in 1989, a series of revolts and movements in Eastern Europe that overthrew most of their old regimes.