-Iran has a theocracy: government ruled strictly by religion, and the second leads the country toward secularization: the belief that religion and government should be separated
-Only theocracy pol system multi-faceted and cannot be boiled down simply to a monolithic representation of the Islamic world.
Sovereignty, Authority, and Power
-Iran’s greatest rival was ancient Greece, West vs. East
-King Darius-authority was supported by a strong military as means of
Zoroastrianism: a state sponsored religion
Importance of Shism:
-shiism: 16th C by islmail (founder of safavid empire)
-sunni: Muslims that favored choosing the caliph (leader) of the Sunni based on hereditary passed by Ali
-imams: hells of Ali 9th C, 12th descendant disappeared to be known as “Hidden Imam.”
Legitimacy in the Modern State:
-Pahlavi: shahs (king of kings) ruled from 1925 to 1979
-Ayatollah Khomeini: personified the union of political and religious interests from ancient days, 1st leader returned from exile
-Revolution of 1979: led by 5, an event that transformed legitimacy of the state, by shiism
-Constitution of 1979: most important document that legitimizes the 40 amendments of 1989, highly complex mix of theocracy
~afirms faith in god, divine justice, the quran, prophet of Muhammad, the 12 imams and the
-Qom: city states of Tehran
Political culture:
-authoritarianism, but not totalitarianism
-union of political and religious authority
-shiism/ shara as central components
~sharia: important source of legitimacy than the modern government particularly emphasizes
-escape from European colonization
-geographic imitations
-the influence of ancient Persia
-strong sense of iraninan nationalism
Political and Economic Change
-established itself as first large empire in world history- a military powerhouse with strong leadership and centralized government structures
4 eras:
The Safavids