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The "Islamic-fundamentalist" nature of that Revolution and the emergence and relative stabilisation of the only fundamentalist-theocratic state since WWII, in a region of great global-strategic (political and economic ) significance, has been nothing less than dramatic.

The ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST character of the REV...prompted many commentators to ask....WHAT WAS THIS REV....? political...social...economic....WHAT?

The recent ISLAMIC REVIVAL....is indeed perplexing....in some ways...it is NEW and in others...it recrystalisation of centuries old, historically-rooted traditions.....the expression of socio-economic grievances in a religious idiom...

To understand the nature of the theocratic-fundamentalist state in Iran, it is necessary to develop some understanding of the different, historically-rooted traditions in Islamic thought and the meaning and historical origins of the concept of "statehood" in this tradition.

However, before doing so, we should consider some key methodological considerations as per follows:

In the first instance, if we accept that like all ideology, religious philosophies/ideologies are not a product of obscure thought processes which occur in a socio-historical vacuum. On the contrary, all such constructions are, in the last analysis, the outcome of concrete socio-historical processes. From this viewpoint...... the conceptualisation of the notion of "the State" in Islamic theology obtains a particular significance.

 Second; Following from the above, look at the specific role and expression of fundamentalist ideology in the formation of theocratic state in Iran. This should be contrasted with, sat those states like Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia which in the case of the former, was a military dictatorship with strong Islamic overtones and in the case of the latter, were the role of the state is epitomised by the institution of patrimonial despotism; in the traction of the Suni'ism in Islam.

 Third; Consider the following key questions:

i) Is the theocratic-fundamentalist Islamic state compatible with national capitalist development?

ii) To what extent does the espousal of "anti imperialist" slogans - characteristic of much of fundamentalist rhetoric - merely an expression of anti "Western" sympathies, directed at mobilising and procuring legitimacy amongst particular social groupings - typically, the millions of dispossessed and landless peasant who migrate to the cities ?

iii) To what extent does the emphasis placed on purely external agencies for all socio-historical calamities, mask the role of internal agents ( i.e. socio-economic forces ) in the continued stagnation, constriction and extraversion of the national economy.....?

most plausible theory regarding the rise of Islam in the 7th century AD is centre upon concrete, historically-rooted socio-economic circumstances prevailing at the time....and revolved around the cities of MECCA ( the Prophet's home city where he met opposition ) and MEDINA ( his adopted town ).

By the 7th century, both these cities had developed into relatively advance trading and agricultural centres, with increasingly complex class-stratified economies and on the verge of STATE formation.

Both cities had developed independently, i.e. outside of the sphere of influence of Byzantine and Persian (Sasanid) Empires and as a result, had not assimilated the competing Empires' institutional/legal frameworks - the prerequisites to STATE FORMATION......

Islam emerged as the unifying ideology.....bringing with it the prerequisites to statehood; tribal unity, and a specific identity under the banner of a new religion. The unity of the many tribes reorientated the hitherto internecine rivalries towards expansionism and conquest; PREDICATED UPON the concept of JIHAD- HOLY WAR which became the doctrinal legitimation for MUSLIM EMPIRE BUILDING and survives today.

Furthermore, the predominantly nomadic/tribal character of the indigenous inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula, had hampered the development of the traditional institutional prerequisites to state formation.

The expansion of the Muslin Empire was characterised by showing great tolerance towards ....THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK..... in contrast with the intolerance of the Byzantine Rulers. This facilitated the rapid spread of Islam.....

The two principle strands in Islamic theology agree upon the following:

Divine Unity (Tohid); ii) the Prophet Mohammad; iii) the Quran as the revealed book. There however the unanimity ends.......The origins of the two principle strands of Islam, Shi'ism and Suni'ism and their subsequent differentiation crystalised around the issue of the succession to the Prophet: I.E.; the nature and articulation of the MUSLIM community on the earthly plane.....

In essence, their contemporary manifestation - both doctrinal and politico-economic - are the product of protracted historical events..

According to commonly held views, following the Prophet's death in 632 AD, the majority of the converted, who were to form the SUNI strand ( i.e. the followers of the Prophets Sunah...tradition ) contended that since he (i.e. the prophet) had not specifically named a successor, the issue of succession should be determined by the MUSLIM community as a whole; this effectively meant the legitimisation of temporal rule over the Muslim community.

In contrast, a substantial minority wanted the succession to pass on to ALI ( the prophet's son-in-law) and by heredity to his successors, the IMAMS. Such ideas as the MAHDI - the rightly guided one - and the Twelfth, occulted IMAM were later additions and not found in the Quran.

The origins of the differentiation can be traced back to the emergence of the emerged of the UMAYYAD CALIPHATE

(661-749 AD) where the principle of HEREDITARY SUCCESSION first appeared.....castigated my many as ILLEGITIMATE DESPOTISM.

 The UMAYYED dynasty predicated on old aristocratic group was overthrown by the ABBASIDS....with the help of the Shi'a minority...

 THUS.......Shi'a developed and factionalised through the first and second caliphate dynasties of the UMAYYADs and the ABBASIDs (749-1256); from where the three different lines of Shi'ism originate; The FIVERS ( who revere the 5th Imam and follow a legal system similar to the Sunnis); The SEVENERS or ISMAILIES....AGA KHAN...and the TWELVERS or IMAMIs.

 the doctrine of Occultation first emerged in the Abassid court in Baghdad.... in its original form was a "Doctrine of Compromise" for the Shi'i with the Sunni rulers..... It is much later that it became the doctrinal legitimation for the rejection of all temporal authority

The "militant" character of modern Shi'ism can be traced to the institutionalisation of Twelver Shi'ism by the SAFAVID dynasty in Persia - c 1501 AD.

From a doctrinal point of view......

Last Imam is believed to have gone into OCCULTATION while still an infant......to return as the MESSIAH....... the only legitimate source of authority are the Imams.....in the absence of the occulted one therefore all forms of temporal authority are regarded as illegitimate.

In the absence of the occulted Imam and pending his return...his will, i.e. the leadership of the Muslim community was to be entrusted to leading religious authorities....the MOJTAHEDS... who came hold the power of adjudication and interpretation and arbitration....for the guidance and good order the Islamic community in accordance with their own discretion.

Those Mojtaheds ( the Grand Ayatollahs ) who reached the highest levels of religious learning and seniority became the Fountain of Imitation; the interpreters of Islamic custom and tradition.

Within this framework, all secular rulers were to be regarded as mere usurpers.

The above distinction lies at the root of the historical divide in Islam which has reverberated through the centuries.....

Historically, the conceptual roots of modern fundamentalism can be traced back to the religiously inspired " anti-imperialist movements" in the nineteenth century, in Persia, Egypt etc.

One of the major figures in the politicisation of Islamic thought along an anti-imperialist agenda was the cleric SYED JAMAL-AL-DIN AFGHANI who was active in the region at the time.

Much of the this anti-imperialist posturing was directed at what was seen as the increasing assimilation of WESTERN SOCIO-POLITICAL, CULTURAL-INSTITUTIONAL CREDO; growing secularisation and democratisation; i.e. the increasing threat of the rise of secular-nationalism.

EXAMPLES: throughout the 19th century, the institutionalised clergy vehemently opposed tentative attempts at judicial/educational/financial reforms based on Western experience. This was seen as a direct threat to their continued domination of the socio-cultural/institutional/ judicial life of the society.

On the eve of the constitutional Revolution in 1906, the traditionalist alliance between the Bazaar (merchants) and the landed oligarchy, the clergy etc. attempted to impose the RELIGIOUS EXPERTS ASSEMBLY, on the Constitution without success; it took them some 70 years to realise their ambition.

The First systematic attempts at ideological revitalisation and modernisation of Islam was made by IQBAL in the 1920s which helped shape the radical tradition in Islam.

The monarchy started sharing economic\political power with the clergy......in Iran from the beginning of the 19th century, and in the aftermath of substantive the historical decline of the Persian Empire.

WHAT OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST/ANTI-DESPOTIC TRACK RECORD.....?in the Sunni world, the clergy played a similarly regressive role against the tide of social, economic and political changes.....

ii) IN ALGERIA....it was the secular/radical NLF which won the war of independence.

iii) IN TURKEY....it was the secularist Kamal Ataturk who overthrew the OTTOMANs and later..abolished the CALIPHATE.

iv) IN INDONESIA....nationalist/secular SUKARNO.....led the struggle for independence

v) IN EGYPT....the corrupt monarchy was overthrown by secular/socialist army officers......

SO......notwithstanding rhetoric/aspirations etc....the historical track record does not inspire confidence in the emancipatory pedigree of fundamentalist....despite their social presence and potential for mass mobilisation in many of these societies...

Persia emerged as an independent political entity for the first time in the 16th century, after the Muslin conquest of 7th century A.D. under the SAFAVID dynasty.

The Safavids forged a link to the Prophet to legitimise the imposition of Shi'ism on the emergent Persian Empire by way of securing a sense of national unity and separateness from the Ottoman Turks - Sunni Muslims - with whom The Safavids were engaged in a struggle for supremacy in the West.

Following the events of the 19th century; i.e.the progressive and intensified penetration of Muslim societies........institutionalised Shi'ism - i.e. the Ulama - were being increasing co-opted by the monarchy into the political/economic organisation of the state through the bestowal of large parcels of land - whole villages - and other privileges......the increasing economic status and power of the ulama lies at the ROOTS OF THE CLERICAL/MERCANTILE/LANDED OLIGARCHY as the main pillars of the institution of patrimonial despotism....

 During the Constitutional Rev. of 1906,in league with secularist/democratic forces, the ULAMA initially opposed the institution of patrimonial despotism on the following grounds:

i) The progressive mortgaging of the country's resources/trade concessions to the competing imperial powers of Britain and Russia in a succession of Concessions; to the obvious detriment of indigenous mercantile interests..i.e.... .THE BAZAAR.

ii) The beginnings of "modernisation" and "secularisation" of civil society....education, jurisprudence, institutional organisation....clearly seen as a threat to socio-cultural hegemony of he ULAMA and the economic domination of the BAZAAR...traditional bourgeoisie.

Later however, the bulk of the ULAMA shifted ground and began opposing fundamental democratic/constitutional aspirations of the secularists and demanded the establishment of a ISLAMIC UPPER CHAMBER - with the authority to veto all legislation...

This thread, i.e. the identification of the ethos of democracy and democratic aspirations as symbols of Western decadence runs deep in the psyche of culture characterised by traditional Islamic doctrine.

The Reforms of the early 1960s (60-63)......land reforms affected some 50% of the rural population; estimated at some 12,000,000 families.....however, in consequence of the policies large numbers of landless peasants unaffected by the reforms were released into the cities............a fertile recruiting ground for the fundamentalist message and cause..

 Fundamentalist inspired uprising of 1963........crushed by the monarchy..........a reaction to the "reforms" which were being introduced by the Monarchy; these concerned:

 1) LAND REFORM; 2)VOTE FOR WOMEN; 3)PROGRESSIVE SECULARISATION ETC.

The REFORM programmes of the early 60s was inspired by the incoming Kennedy admin. in Jan 1961 - intent upon pre-emption of the impact of the CUBAN REV. and anti-imperialist movements in LA - in view of this...........The US made the payment of a $35,000,000 loan.......conditional on the implementation of a REFORM programme - with land reform at its core....

Ayatollah Khomeini emerged as the leading figure of Militant fundamentalism in the aftermath of the events of 1963 and was exiled to Iraq.

In broad terms, Khomieni succeeded in locating the struggle against the Monarchy in an anti-Western and Anti-imperialist framework and gave the struggle religious legitimacy through invoking his authority as the FONT OF IMITATION.

 In general terms, the anti-Western centre of gravity of the ascendant fundamentalist doctrine in generally mistaken as its anti imperialist character.... critically confusing HOLLOW Rhetoric with concrete reality; historical reality with revolutionary romanticism; in other words.....the absence of any substantive understanding of the concrete socio-economic forces that underpin specific doctrines; and the specific socio-economic alliances which these doctrines serve.

 The association of all things Western....with all things decadent was not limited to the militant ULAMA...indeed, one of the foremost intellectual thinkers of the 1960...JALAL AL AHMAD...not generally identified as a fundamentalist clearly espoused the anti-Western aspirations.. His book WESTOXICATION

 a clear example of this......His confusion on the matter led him to attacking the 19th century "MODERNISERS" and defending such notorious anti constitutionalist reactionaries as FAZLOLLAH NURI.

 This confusion is generally predicated upon equating the national struggle with the anti-imperialist struggle, and the latter with all things pertaining to Western Civilisation.

 I would argue that the historical unfolding of this "misperception" is recognition of the anti-imperialist pedigree of fundamentalism.

 The following figures, though aggregate clearly indicate the general trend which has characterised the Regime's economic track record over the years...

it certainly was not a social revolution in so far as social revolutions entail the revolutionisation of the social-productive system.... it was a political revolution.....in the sense that a state-led, extraverted capitalist-developmentalist agenda was overthrown and in its place emerged a socio-political alliance of the traditional petty bourgeoisie, the traditional - i.e. mercantile and landed bourgeoisie. As such, in terms of its socio-economic base and doctrinal aspirations it is not conducive to intensified and progressive ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; CAPITALIST OR OTHERWISE; EXTROVERTED OR AUTARKIC.

The following statements...some 96 years apart ..... exemplifies the ethos of the "theocratic-fundamentalism" both then and now....

"Freedom, this most despicable of words, is good and beautiful in appearance only. In essence it is entirely defective and imperfect. It is against all the edicts and principles of the Sultan, the religious scholars and eminent men of authority. It is against the interests and objectives of government and dynastic rule to allow anyone to say whatever one pleases because there is freedom"

Letter to the PM, by one Mullah Ali, the clerical leader of Teheran on the issue of proposed press freedoms and independent newspapers: dated 1884

 " All the troubles afflicting mankind have their roots in the universities" (Ayatollah Khomieni 1980)