1. IRAN
John McCarthy

3. GEOGRAPHY
 Capital: Tehran
 Religious Capital: Qom
 Seminary
 Holiest place: Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad

5. ETHNICITY
 Persian: 61%
 Azeri: 16%
 Kurd: 10%
 Others: 13%
 Persian, official language
 Azeri Turkic, Kurdish, Luri also spoken

7. RELIGION
 Islam is official religion
 Shiite’s 89%
 Sunni 9%
 Jews, Christians, Baha’is, Zoroastrians 2%

9. ECONOMY
 Oil accounts for 85% exported goods
 2/3rds of earnings
 Most in services (48%)
 Industry- 35%
 Ariculture-16%
 After oil and petrochemical, fruits, nuts and
carpets are their main exports
 #1 pistachios, saffron, pomegranates
 Top 5 dates, figs, cherries, walnuts, apples

12. HISTORY
 Persia
 Achaemenid (550-330 BC)
 Parthian (247 BC-224 AD)
 Sasanian (224-651 AD)
 Saffarid (861-1000 AD)
 Seljuk (1037-1194)
 Safavid (1501-1736)
 Qajar (1785-1925)
 Pahlavi (1925-1979)

13. Persepolis Ruins near Shiraz

14.  1971 Shah celebrated 2,500 years of
monarchical rule in Persia/Iran

15. THE FARR
 Shah’s not chosen by divine right
 Though Guardians of the Faith
 Farr: Shah governed as benevolent father
 Force could not be used to hold farr
 People’s will allowed the shah to rule
 Many coups

16. THE PAHLAVIS
 Brigadier General
Reza Khan took
control of government
in 1921
 Overthrew Qajars and
proclaimed shah in
1925
 Aggressive
modernization
 Emancipation of
women
 Banned chador
 1935 renamed Persia

17. PAHLAVIS
 1941 Reza Shah overthrown by joint Anglo-
Soviet force and replaced by son Mohammad.
 22 years old
 1951 Mossadeq named Prime Minister
 Nationalized oil fields
 Anti-Pahlavi
 Consolidated Power
 1953 Shah went into exile
 CIA led coup and genuine civil unrest led to
Mossadeq’s arrest and the return of the Shah

18. THE SHAH
 1963 seized authoritarian
power and launched White
Revolution
 Expanded and modernized all
levels of society
 SAVAK- secret police of the
Shah
 1973 oil shock greatest
transfer of sovereign wealth
in history
 Invested back into economy
 Created inflation

19. Street in Tehran: 1970

20. BEGINNING OF THE END
 Inflation caused the middle class to resent
the Shah
 The left thought the Shah too authoritative
 The religious right thought him too secular

21. KHOMEINI
 Led uprising in 1963,
made ayatollah to limit
his influence
 Left for Najaf, Iraq in
exile
 Rhetoric worried
moderate clergy
 Too frightened to speak
out
 Denounced Shah

22. KHOMEINI
 Public Relations
helped him
 Paris, moderated his
views
 Civil unrest
 Forty-forty strategy

23. REVOLUTION
 Shah refused to allow
troops to fire on crowds
 Felt he had lost the farr
 Left for exile in Feb.
1979, opposition
collapsed
 Khomeini establishes
Islamic Republic
 Hostage Crisis
 52 Americans, 444 days

24. POST REVOLUTION
 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War
 Maritime border dispute, “weak Iran”
 Iraq invades Iran
 Use of chemical weapons
 ̴300,000 Iranian casualties
 ̴160,000-240,000 Iraqi casualties
 Stalemate

25. POST REVOLUTION
 Purges and crackdowns
 U.S. ally and top oil exporter to Israel before
 Now state sponsor of terror
 Hezbollah, Hamas
 Ally of Syria
 Close Egyptian relations with Shah led to tense
relations with the ayatollah

26. GOVERNANCE
 Revolutionary experiment, theocracy
 One of the four true revolutions in history
 Supreme Leader safeguards the revolution
and the Shiite faith
 President elected by universal suffrage and
governs along with parliament
 Guardian Council chooses who may run

28. Top, Supreme Leader
Khamenei. Bottom,
President Rouhani

29. QUESTIONS
 Is the Islamic Republic of Iran sustainable in
its present form?
 Would the overthrow of the Islamic Republic
result in the offer of restoration for the
Pahlavis in some capacity?
 Is the recent interest in the Imperial family
and Zoroastrianism leading to a backlash not
only of the regime but also Islam itself?