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Notes to Pages 55-72 285
17. Needless to say, there are also some differences, since Christians regard Jesus as
divine, while Shi'ites consider Hussein a mortal designated by God as the leader of the
community (Browne 1956, 4:172-94).
18. Some royalist sources have even suggested that he was financially supported by
Nasser and other opponents of the shah (Hashemi 1 994).
19. Estimates of the dead have varied. The Islamists published the names of four
martyrs, but claimed that several thousand had died. The government admitted that
eighty-six people were killed, and the u.S. Embassy estimated the number at around two
hundred (Cottam 1988, 129).
20. This book has some resemblance to Frantz Fanon's Blach Skin, White Masks:
The Experiences of a Black Man in a White World ( 1 9 67). Like Fanon, AI-Ahmad linked
indigenous men's intermarriage with white Europeans to a desire to adopt Western culture.
However, AI-Ahmad remained oblivious to what Fanon, in another book Wretched of the
Earth, famously termed "the pitfalls of national consciousness" ( 1 968, 148). AI-Ahmad also
singled out Western scholars of the Orient for harsh criticism and regarded them as agents
of imperialism, somewhat in the manner of Edward Said's later Orientalism. Several English
translations of his book exist, with the title sometimes translated as "Westoxication." On
the influence of Western philosophy, including that of Heidegger, in Iran in this period,
see Boroujerdi 1996 as well as Gheissari 1998; Mirsepassi 2000; and Vahdat 2002.
21. Another writer who helped construct a new narrative about Muharram was
Kh o meini's student Ne'matollah Salehi Najafabadi. His Shahid-i lavid (Eternal martyr)
created heated debates in Iran ' s religious circles. At the end of his account of Karbala,
Najafabadi concluded: (1) Rulers who impose an illegal (un-Islamic) form of government
on their people must be opposed. (2) This should be done in consultation with the
people, and with adequate military preparation. (3) If military victory is not possible,
then the righteous leaders must wait until such time when they have the proper force
to propagate true Islam. (4) If the leader of the rebellion is surrounded by the enemy,
then he should fight back, and even face martyrdom, rather than submit to a humiliating
death (Najafabadi 1982, 361-66). As can be seen from the above, the language of the lay
theologian Shariati was much harsher.
22. Already in 1970, a series of his lectures had appeared under the title "Islamic
Government, " wherein he presented the outlines of an Islamic theocracy and his theory
of Velayat-i Paqih (Rule of the Jurists). Drawing on the earlier Usuli principles of Shi'ism,
which claimed legal and religious authority for the mojtahed (high-ranking clerics),
Khomeini stated in unequivocal terms that "it was the duty of the religious scholar to
establish an Islamic government" (Khomeini 1970, 37).
Chapter 3
1. On gender and culture in twentieth-century Iran see Sanasarian 1982; VatandouSl
1985; Haeri 1 989; Kar 1987; Moghadam 1991; Tohidi 1991; Friedl 1991; Najmabadi
1993; Paidar 1995; Moghissi 1996; Matin-Daftari 2001; and Afkhami 2002.
2. For studies of the Constitutional Revolution, see Martin 1989; Bayat 1991; and
Afary 1996. On its impact on European diplomacy, see Bonakdarian 1991.