HISTORYAT A GLANCE |
Consolidation of the Revolution(Part 2.)
There were, however, increasing signs of factionalism within the ruling group
itself over questions of social justice in relation to economic policy, the
succession, and, in more muted fashion, foreign policy and the war with Iraq.
The debate on economic policy arose partly from disagreement over the more
equitable distribution of wealth and partly from differences between those who
advocated state control of the economy and those who supported private sector
control. Divisions also arose between the Majlis and the Council of Guardians, a
group composed of senior Islamic jurists and other experts in Islamic law and
empowered by the Constitution to veto, or demand the revision of, any
legislation it considers in violation of Islam or the Constitution. In this
dispute, the Council of Guardians emerged as the collective champion of private
property rights. In May 1982, the Council of Guardians had vetoed a law that
would have nationalized foreign trade. In the fall of 1982, the council forced
the Majlis to pass a revised law regarding the state takeover of urban land and
to give landowners more protection. In January of the following year, In December 1982, the Council of Guardians also vetoed the Majlis' new and
more conservative land reform law. This law had been intended to help resolve
the issue of land distribution, left unresolved when the land reform law was
suspended in November 1980. The suspension had also left unsettled the status of
750,000 to 850,000 hectares of privately owned land that, as a result of the
1979-80 land seizures and redistributions, was being cultivated by persons other
than the owners, but without transfer of title.
The debate between proponents of state and of private sector control over the
economy was renewed in the winter of 1983-84, when the government came under
attack and leaflets critical of the Council of Guardians were distributed.
Undeterred, the council blocked attempts in 1984 and 1985 to revive measures for
nationalization of foreign trade and for land distribution, and it vetoed a
measure for state control over the domestic distribution of goods. As economic
conditions deteriorated in 1985, there was an attempt in the Majlis to unseat
the prime minister. Khomeini, however, intervened to maintain the
incumbent government in office.
These differences over major policy issues persisted even as the Revolution
was institutionalized and the regime consolidated its hold over the country. The
differences remained muted, primarily because of Khomeini's intervention, but
the debate threatened to grow more intense and more divisive in the
post-Khomeini period. Moreover, while in 1985 Montazeri appeared slated to
succeed Khomeini as Iran's leader, there was general agreement that he would be
a far less dominant figure as head of the Islamic Republic than Khomeini has
been.
The projected eight-volume The Cambridge History of Iran provides learned and
factual essays by specialists on history, literature, the sciences, and the arts
for various periods of Iranian history from the earliest times. Six volumes,
covering history through the Safavid era, had been published by 1987.
For the history of ancient Iran and the period from the Achaemenids up to the
Islamic conquest, R. Ghirshman's Iran: From the Earliest Times to the Islamic
Conquest and A.T. Olmstead's History of the Persian Empire are somewhat dated
but continue to be standard works. More recent books on the period are Richard
Frye's The Heritage of Persia and its companion volume The Golden Age of Persia.
For the early Islamic period, there are few books devoted specifically to Iran,
and readers must consult standard works on early Islamic history. A good study
to consult is Marshall G.S. Hodgson's three- volume work, The Venture of Islam.
Much useful information, for the early as well as the later Islamic period, can
be culled from E.G. Browne's four-volume A Literary History of Persia. Ann K.S.
Lambton's Landlord and Peasant in Persia is excellent for both administrative
history and land administration until the 1950s. For studies of single Islamic
dynasties in Iran, the following are interesting and competent: E.C. Bosworth's
The Ghaznavids, Vasilii Bartold's Turkestan to the Mongol Invasion, Bertold
Spuler's Die Mongolen in Iran, and Roy P. Mottahedeh's study of the Buyids,
Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society. On the Safavid and
post-Safavid periods, in addition to the excellent pieces by H.R. Roemer and
others in The Cambridge History of Iran, volume 6, there is also Laurence
Lockhart's The Fall of the Safavid Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia
and his Nadir Shah and Roger Savory's Iran under the Safavids. Said Amir
Arjomand's The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam focuses on the relationship of
the religious establishment to the state under the Safavids. The Zand period is
covered in straightforward fashion by John R. Perry in Karim Khan Zand. For the
modern period, Roots of Revolution by Nikki R. Keddie provides an interpretative
survey from the rise of the Qajars in 1795 to the fall of the Pahlavis in 1979;
Iran Between Two Revolutions by Ervand Abrahamian is a detailed political
the
council vetoed the Law for the Expropriation of the Property of Fugitives, a
measure that would have allowed the state to seize the property of any Iranian
living abroad who did not return to the country within two months.
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