Investigates how women, religion and culture have interacted in the context of 19th and 20th century Iran, covering topics as seemingly diverse as the social and cultural history of Persian cuisine, the work and attitudes of 19th century Christian missionaries, the impact of growing female literacy, and the consequences of developments since 1979.

In this volume, Vanessa Martin makes a groundbreaking contribution on the dynamics of the Iranian Revolution and the Islamist revival especially relevant in the context of the debate arising out of Iran's recent elections. Political Islam and its recent violent bi-products first became the focus of international attention following the success of the 1979 Iranian Revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. This extraordinary book is the first to analyze the ideological roots of an Islamic state as conceived by Khomeini. Martin finds much of the inspiration behind Khomeini's political thinking...

Born out of a fundamental tension between the old-fashioned and inadequate Qajar monarchy of Mozaffar al-Din Sah and Mohammad Ali Shah, and new reformist democratic ideals, the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906 represents a pivotal moment in the formation of modern Iran. The collapse of the state through financial indigence and foreign pressure - which in the end also consumed the new regime - created a vacuum, which became the subject of many different visions. These included the anti-constitutionalist arguments of Fazlollah Nuri; the moderate Shi'i vision of Tabatabai'I; the more...