Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran (review)

Crane Brinton's Anatomy of Revolution (New York, 1938), published just before the outbreak of World War II, compared the four great revolutions of modern times—the English, the American, the French, and the Russian. In 1979, when Ayatullah Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran, many observers anticipated that Iran would be added to the list as the fifth major revolution of modern times. Brumberg revisits this particular issue—and more—in this challenging book. He attempts to navigate between a grand theory that charts a cookie-cutter approach to revolution and a cultural-specific and "essentialist" theory that treats Iran's case as sui generis. Thus does his book make its considerable contribution to social science theory and controversy. It also helps nonspecialists to understand and appreciate the ongoing conflict among Khomeini's successors in Iran—the reformists (now led by President Muhammad Khatami) and the clerical conservatives (led by the Supreme Guide, Ali Khamanei).

Brumberg commutes skillfully between the facts and the suitable (mid-level) theory to organize them. His first two chapters are theoretical, introducing the issue of charisma in its Shi'i Islamic context and revealing how Khomeini's religious language and references could attract political support. The third and fourth chapters treat those who opposed the late Shah from a variety of ideological stances (principally leftist, but never far from the central Shi'i Islamic traditions), as well as the key concept of "the guardianship of the jurist" (velayet-e faqih), which established Khomeini's authority as the final arbiter of the revolution. The rest of the book takes on the key issues of how the revolution was implemented, how Khomeini's ideological "children" interpreted his legacy, and how the struggle in Iran between reformers (led by Khatami andphilosophers like Abdolkarim Soroush) and "reactionaries" (led by Khamenei and the "conservative" clergy) contests what Khomeini achieved.

The heart of this conflict involves the relationship between Islam and the West. Brumberg says that Khatami argued "that the only way to address the challenge of Western culture was to create a tolerant vision of Islamic civilization. Soroush, a lay intellectual, endorsed this thesis but went further: he argued that the creation of a rational and open Islam required distancing clerics from political power" (186-187). These approaches, however, contained their own dilemmas: "As victims of the very state they had helped to create [the Islamic republic], Khatami and Soroush tried to push the populist and rational aspects of Khomeini's legacy in a new direction without appearing to betray it" (187). Brumberg concludes convincingly, "If today Khatami's call for a 'dialogue of civilizations' has enthusiastic adherents in Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, and some quarters of the Arab world, it is because Khatami's reformist allies know full well that this dialogue is unfolding as much within as between civilizations. Whether their opponents are willing to accept this fact remains to be seen" (250).

Although the book has no formal bibliography, the author's notes rely on the standard literature on the Iranian revolution as well as extensive records of parliamentary debates and the reporting of radio programs Foreign Broadcast Information (FBIS) sources. It has a few minor slips (such as Imam 'Ali's caliphal dates), but they are few and far between in an original and insightful analysis of the Iranian revolution and its aftermath.