Iran’s Intellectual Revolution By Mehran Kamrava (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 288 pages.)

Abstract

Iran’s Intellectual Revolution, by Mehran Kamrava, offers an overview of
the three major political orientations that have evolved in Iran since the
Islamic revolution of 1979, especially since the death of Khomeini in 1989.
The first chapter examines the silent, and often not-so-silent, revolution that has taken place in Iran over the past few decades; the second and third chapters
contextualize these emerging Iranian discourses; and the fourth, fifth,
and sixth chapters focus on the religious conservative, religious reformist,
and secular-modernist discourses.
Chapter three surveys the religious conservative discourse of Khomeini,
Khamenei, Montazeri, Mesbah Yazdi, Rafsanjani, and Amoli. The author
focuses on issues of interpretation, emulation, and the rule of the jurist (both
conditional and absolute), all of which are essential if one wishes to understand
the country’s current internal conflict and the varying conceptions of
Islamic government that exist ...