Transformations of mass religious culture in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract

Most studies of Islam in Iran tend to favour a division of history along strictly political lines, subsequent to the schismatic Islamic revolution of 1979. Most histories present the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty as one in which an authoritarian logic of modernization prevailed that aimed to confine religion to the private sphere at the same time as building a centralized, secular state. The regime was then overthrown by popular reaction and was supplanted by an Islamic republic, which promised ‘God’s revenge’ on the impiety of a plan that suffered from the sin of excessive modernity. This view of events is not entirely false even though the subsequent work of historians does suggest some reconsideration is necessary. It is now clear not only that the monarchy had support from many among the clergy but also that it had secured a strong alliance with at least one of the parties in the hierarchy. Even so, the wholly Islamic character of the revolutionary uprising of 1978–9 has now been relativized. It has already been suggested that the republic has unintentionally recreated several of the dynamics of the ancien regime, such as the centralization and rationalization of the bureaucratic system. The constitutional revolution of 1905–9 has been discussed in the same manner.