The Shah by Abbas Milani

The much lavished mistress who had been unfaithful all along…...

The book is a beautifully crafted account of the Reza Shah Pahlavi's life and times. Every revolution is unique in nature but the Iranian one has always intrigued me as the Iranian people were not exactly famished either financially or physically , which is a common factor almost mandatory in most revolutions. The author pitches the same question; how could the people hate Shah so much, even after the Shah did so much for them?

The attention to context details personal life of the Shah and his immediate family in a very vivid detail. The author has blended the art of Eastern story telling with Western detail to produce a real page turner.

The book offers the best story of the Islamic revolution right from its inception to its peak in 1979. It seems that the Shah did not defend monarchy in modern state of Iran, choosing instead to counter the external threat of communism with counter propaganda, thus delivering the common man to the mosque and its clergy, making the Islamic revolution inevitable. It is pretty strange that the Shah although educated in Europe failed to follow the example set by a number of European monarchies as they successfully transformed from ruling absolutely to reigning in name only. How did the Shah see his own rule? He portrayed himself as doing a thankless job almost like some sort of humanitarian philanthropic endeavour which must have further enraged the young Iranians.

I loved the gradual manner in which the author brought the Islamic revolution to a crescendo in the last chapters with many astute observations of the some of the contemporary players. This biography presents a unique and whole picture of the Shah, from a humble beginnings to the height of his career to his end as an international pariah.

The book left a strong feeling of compassion for the Shah, like a true lover spurned by his beloved who ultimately paid the ultimate price for his true love.

The only question left is the main reasons for the Islamic revolution in Iran. As the author points out, none of the major reasons for a revolution were present. There was no poverty, jobs were aplenty, democracy in some way and form was there. It isn't still clear to me what prompted the Iranians to revolt. The most ardent followers of revolution were from the new urban class, the peasants uprooted from their villages living in cities. The Shah choose provide more economic and personal growth to try and assuage threat from the new class instead of providing them with their own political representation which is the common practice among most third world sham democracies. But unfortunately this move only provided an already frustrated class further reasons for blame and impetus for revolution. Further during the lean period of democracy clerical figures like Khomeini were able to proclaim their democratic credentials. The Shah was also dumped by the Americans right towards the end who seemed to be more than happy to deal with the new revolutionaries giving credence to the new Islamic regime.

So I guess the Islamic revolution was hardly a revolution but a takeover in reality, by a very shrewd Islamic clergy, the only resort to democracy in an era of political vacuum.