Bogen bærer præg af at være skrevet af TV-journalisten - der
altid selv skal være med i billedet.
Den præges også af de holdninger, som jeg ellers har mødt hos de englændere, der lever som efterladt overklasse i de tidligere kolonier. Overlegen, knapt skjult racisme. Læs f.eks. Introductory. Og historien om interviewet med Shariatmadari, 297-8, der klart illustrerer Simpsons mangel på respekt for andre kulturer !!
Som god vestlig journalist får han også med passende mellemrum plantet en anti-kommunistisk sætning: "It is perfectly possible that Khomeini's death will be followed by serious faction fighting, or by an attempted coup; though the Islamic Republic has established an almost Soviet system with its Komitehs in every suburb, town and village" p. 375
Men den er velskrevet og meget let læst. Læses som en roman. Og indimellem får han jo beskrevet noget væsentligt. Afstanden i sider mellem det væsentlige kompenseres af letlæstheden. Derfor er det en nyttig bog, for enhver, der vil forsøge at begribe Khomeiny-revolutionen. Simpson besøgte Khomeiny i Neauphle-le-Chateau nær Paris i efteråret 1978 og var med i hans fly tilbage til Iran 1979. Han fik visum uden begrænsninger i 1986 og var også i Iran i 1988 - bogen er en slags udvidet rejsebeskrivelse, men det er journalisten, der rejser.
Kap.1, The Exile giver en beskrivelse af Khomeinys eksil over Tyrkiet og den hellige by Najaf i Iraq til Paris. Den rejse tog 14 år. Saddam udviste Khomeiny fra Najaf efter demonstrationer for Khomeiny i Irans byer sommeren 1978, p. 17.
Citat fra interviewet okt. 1978: "3. We are hostile to governments which have put pressure on Iran, which have forced the Shah on Iran, and which have made Iran suffer at their hands. But we are not hostile to the citizens of those countries." p. 24
Kap. 2 The Revolutionary Crowds er en meget personlig, overfladisk beskrivelse af selve revolutionen. Shahen troede i 1978, at det var englænderne, der stod bag Khomeiny. (p. 182).
Turen i 1986 starter i Kap. 3 Returning. Det eneste af nogen interesse i det kapitel, er den lille spøjse detalje, at det iranske flys drikkevareudvalg er: Coca Cola & Pepsi ! p. 58.
Der er et kort over Tehran, p. 70 - 71.
I oktober 1986 påbegyndtes bygningen af en metro - med japansk hjælp. p. 77. På vejen gennem byen ser han en indsamling til krigen mod Iraq og konstaterer, at hver 12. giver og det er gennemgående de fattigere, p. 82. Der er et rationeringssystem - og regeringsstøttede fødevarepriser. Rationeringskortene udleveres af Mullahen, p. 83. Der er 3 typer af ordenshåndhævere, Pasdaran (Revolutions Garden), politiet og Komiteh'erne. p. 85.
Iran og Saudi Arabien er ikke på bedste fod. I juli 1987 sang den iranske pilgrimsgruppe ved Den store Moske i Mekka anti-saudiske slagord. Der blev kastet sten mod dem og politiet anvendte skydevåben. Flere hundrede døde. p. 91
Der var 2 hovedkræfter bag revolutionen, det traditionelle præsteskab og dr. Ali Shariatis disciple, p. 100. [Han overser Tudeh, det iranske kommunistparti og måske andre kræfter, OJ].
Hojat-ol-Eslam Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani er elev af Khomeiny, var fængslet under Shahen, og har opnået sin nuværende position i kraft af sin kraftfulde personlighed. p. 100
Simpson skriver (p. 102) at Irans politiske system sædvanligvis er totalt misforstået i Vesten. Det har han formentlig ganske ret i. Hvilket ikke betyder, at alt i den beskrivelse han giver fra side 102 er rigtigt. Han fremhæver Ayatollah Hosayn Ali Montazeri men understreger, at man ikke skal tage hans valg til afløser for Khomeiny, som et styrketegn i forhold til Rafsanjani. Posten som Wali Faqih, åndelig leder, kan nemlig kun en Grand Ajatollah have - og det er Rajsanjani ikke. Han understreger også, at de begge er Khomeiny-elever. Khomeiny trak sig hurtigt efter revolutionen ud af den daglige kontrol og blev en slags overdommer, der især tog silling til om forslag var i overensstemmelse med (hans tolkning af) Koranen. Montazeri er tilhænger af markedet og har Bazarens støtte. Montazeri har protesteret mod behandlingen af oppositionen. Simpson mener også, at Khomeinys søn Ahmed har en politisk fremtid, p. 103. Fra bagklogskabens bekvemme position, kan man med skadefryd citere Simpson om Khamenei: "The president, Hojat-ol-Eslam Ali Khamene'i, who was born in 1940 and has won two terms in office by overwhelming majority (though against little-known opponents) does not have an important power-base, and his role has been eroded to a mostly ceremonial function." (p.104) Værre er det, at han har samme teologiske rang som Rafsanjani - der derfor ikke kunne blive Wali Faqih. [Jeg kender ikke forklaringen på denne modstrid, OJ]
Ayatollah Reyshahri is the man responsible for ensuring the survival of the Islamic Republic.(p.105). Det var ham, der stod for opgøret med Tudeh i 1982. [Simpson glemmer her, at han ikke har haft Tudeh med i sin beskrivelse af de kræfter, der støttede Khomeinys revolution, OJ]. Det var ikke så svært for Reyshahri, han fik en liste med 400 sovjetagenter fra det engelske MI6. Som havde den fra en afhoppet KGBagent. p. 105. Men det sikrede Reyshahris status.
I september 1986 opsatte studenter fra Sephasalar Religious College plakater, der beskyldte en fraktion indenfor regeringen for at have åbnet hemmelige forhandlinger med amerikanerne (Irangate). Det var der jo ingen, der syntes om, så Reyshahris indenrigs/efterretningsministerium ledte efter kilden og fandt den i form af Mehdi Hashemi, leder af Global Islamic Movement med hovedkvater i Qom (den hellige by, hvor også Khomeiny residerer). Hashemis broder er gift med en datter af Montazeri, så det er en familie med forbindelser. (p. 106). Nogle dage senere blev hele historien om Robert McFarlanes og Oliver Norths besøg i Tehran bragt i Ash Shiraa, et libanesisk tidsskrift med forbindelse til Hezbollah. I marts 1987 måtte Hashemi på TV tilstå at have udsendt falske nyheder. Det generede Montazeri, men Khomeiny tilkendegav sin tillid til ham. (p. 107).
Kap. 5. Power to the Mullahs giver det indtryk, at antiimperialisme/antikolonialisme (se også p. 160-1) vejede tungt i revolutionen. Det fremgår bl.a. af udtalelsen af den anonyme mand p. 111. "You have only to read the books by the American ambassador here, Sullivan, or your British amabassador, Parsons, to see how the Shah was under the control of foreign powers. His government was imposed on us. He himself was imposed on us....In 1962 the Shah went to America for forty-two days, and came back with instructions to put American policy into operation here. They told him what to do. He implemented land reform, certainly - and he put one of the biggest feudalists in the country in charge of it. What sort of land reform is that? He took some of the best land in the country, in Khuzestan, and forced the peasants off it, in order to grow - what do you think? Asparagus!" (p. 112). En anden væsentlig faktor var korruptionen. (p. 115).
Kap. 6. Divorce, Crime and Islamic Punishment handler om den islamiske republiks jura, det er et godt og interessant kapitel.. Og juraen er selvfølgelig meget forskellig fra vores. Men når man læser om skilsmissesagerne p. 116 - 124, så ser deres behandling meget menneskelig ud. Det gør vi nok ikke bedre. "A wife is not like a labourer you hire. She's not just a housekeeper and cook. She has the right to be supported by you; that's the Islamic interpretation of marriage." siger dommeren, p. 122. Simpson understreger, p. 131, at faldet i antallet af forbrydelser, specielt voldsforbrydelser, nok lige så meget skyldes Komiteh-systemet, som de strenge korporlige straffe. [Det gælder også her, at politiets tilstedeværelse har større betydning end straffens størrelse. OJ].
Kap. 7. Imperial Echoes beskriver Shahens tid. Mest levende beskrives den sidste del heraf. Da Shahen i 1962 lavede en jordreform, blev Khomeini, der netop var blevet Ayatollah, første gang vred på ham og ledte protester. Shahen ville ikke undtage de religiøse fonde fra pligten til at sælge jord over et vist tilliggende. Khomeiny blev arresteret i juni 1963. Selvom jordreformen var til gavn for mange iranere, så bragte den også en kolonialistisk strøm af amerikanske teknikere og militær. Allerede dengang fik de ekstraterritorial rettigheder (skulle juridisk behandles som diplomater). (p. 159). [Det er mærkeligt, at USAs regering ikke kan bringes til at forstå, at det provokerer stærke anti-amerikanske følelser overalt, når amerikanske tyveknægte, voldtægtsmænd, bilbeskadigere etc. ikke kan drages til ansvar. OJ]. Khomeiny citeres for følgende udsagn p. 159: "If the Shah should run over an American dog, he would be called to account. But if an American cook should run over the Shah, no one has any claim over him."
Kap. 8 The Great Satan, beskriver angrebet på den amerikanske ambassade og Iran-Contra-gate. Som bekendt fandt de besættende studenter en del hemmelige papirer, hvoraf mange offentliggjordes. Simpson mener, at de viser snarere end kriminelle hensigter, at USAs politik byggede på dårlige informationer fra tvivlsomme og upålidelige personer i Shahens omgivelser. Studenterne citeres for et noget anderledes syn "America, Superdevil of the 20th century, has for so many years exerted intense effort to expand its hegemony and impose its policies worldwide. Pigheadedly, she continues her seditious campaigns to exploit, tyranize, intimidate, spy, assassinate ..." og så udtrykker de et håb om, at offentliggørelsen af papirerne vil afsløre denne ondskabens bastions sande ansigt. p. 153 På side 156 beskrives CIAs Operation Ajax, 190853, hvor Kermit Roosevelt gennemførte et royalistisk kup mod premierminister Dr Mohammed Mossadeqs lovligt valgte regering. Det kostede kun 100.000 USD at købe en flok demonstranter og de nødvendige kongetro officerer. Englænderne havde indsat Reza Pahlevi i 1941 i stedet for hans nazi-sympatiserende far Reza Shah. Fra 1953 og til Khomeinys kup var Shahens sikkerhedstjeneste, SAVAK, (som de europæiske, se Ganser) en klient-tjeneste under CIA. CIA havde derfor samme optimistiske vurdering af situationen, som SAVAK gav Shahen, p. 163. Simpson mener, at USA havde en skæv opfattelse af holdningerne, fordi man af hensyn til Shahen undgik kontakt med alle oppositionsgrupper, og fordi man havde for få farsi-talende personer på ambassaden. Ambassaden havde ingen forbindelse til bazaren og ej heller til de gejstlige og det lokalt ansatte personale var overvejende Bahai. (p. 164) [Det er det, jeg kalder tesen om USAs manglende kunnen. Den modstående tese er: Tesen om USAs imperialistiske holdning: "Vi ved bedst. Vi skal nok bestemme." Jeg har selv langt op i 1990erne hældet til "manglende kunnen" tesen - men den blev gradvist svækket fra sidst i 1980erne - og fik sit uigenkaldelige dødsstød i 2007, da jeg læste Ganser - Der er ingen mangel på Italien-kyndige amerikanere og Karamessines, tror jeg, taler græsk. OJ]. Jeg tror dog gerne, at USAs billede af, hvad der foregik blev forstyrret af magtkamp mellem sikkerhedsrådgiver Brzezinski og State Department. Og på at Brzezinski så begivenhederne mere ud fra et kold-krigs-perspektiv, end de kunne bære. "Det er russerne, der står bag" p.164. Studenterne løslod, som en gestus overfor de undertrykte i USA, et antal sorte straks, resten sad 444 dage, p. 166. [Kissinger m. fl. fik det jo maget sådan, at ambassadepersonalet først blev frigivet, da præsidentvalget var ovre.] Carter fik skylden for hele misæren. "The Shah's strongest supporters in Washington, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller (se Gama) and Zbigniew Brzezinski, had urged Carter for months to let him go to New York for treatment of the cancer from which he was suffering. Since equivalent medical facilities were available in Mexico City, their purpose seemed less to do with the treatment than with a signal to America's friends that it would not desert them, whatever' happened. Carter reluctantly agreed". p. 167
"Robert McFarlane and Oliver North landed at Mehrabad Airport shortly after eight o'clock in the morning of Sunday 25 May 1986." p. 168. "The Boeing 707 jet, painted black, was the most conspicuous object on the apron at Mehrabad Airport, but it was nearly an hour and a half before anyone came to greet them. [Det var nemlig Ramadan]. Apart from the crew, there were six of them: McFarlane, the former National Security Adviser to President Reagan; North, a senior member of the National Security Council staff; Howard R. Teicher, another NSC staffer; George Cave, a retired CIA official who served as a full-time consultant to the Agency and spoke fluent Farsi; a CIA communications technician, whose task it was to keep in contact with Admiral Poindexter, the current National Security Adviser, in Washington and Amiram Nir from the office of the Israeli prime minister." p. 169 [Min fremhævelse, OJ]. Simpson har en lang beskrivelse af modtagelsen. Det forberedende arbejde er ikke i orden. Iranerne havde ventet, at halvdelen af de lovede våben var med flyet. Problemet lå, mener han, i mellemmanden, Manucher Ghorbanifar. Han var allerede droppet af CIA i 1980. [Den fejl gentoges jo i Iraq, med Chalabi og Allawi, OJ].
040788, "In circumstances which were never wholly explained, the USS Vincennes, commanded by Captain Will Rogers, mistook an Iran airbus taking off at a scheduled time from Bandar Abbas and following an internationally agreed flight path across the Gulf to Dubai for an F-14 fighter aircraft making an attacking run. A video, shot on the bridge of the Vincennes, showed how the delight of the crew as their missiles hit the mark turned to disbelief and horror as the truth became known. Two hundred and ninety people died on board flight IR 655, in an accident which bore unpleasant similarities to the shooting down of a Korean Air Lines jumbo jet by the Soviet air force five years before." p. 173.
"The curious fact is that the Islamic Republic of Iran has fulfilled at least some of the functions which the United States, following the British line, had originally wanted the Shah to carry out. The revolutionary authorities have been remarkably similar to their predecessor in the mild hostility they have adopted towards the Soviet Union. They have suppressed the Communist Tudeh Party more brutally than the Shah himself did, and they broadcast anti-Soviet propaganda daily to the Muslim Soviet republics on their borders. The square which Iran occupies on the strategic chessboard is no less secure from Soviet encroachment now than it was under the Shah. Iran is a natural regional ally for the United States. But thirty years of faulty judgments about the nature of American interests there cannot be set aside easily" p. 175
Kap. 13. Half the Body of Society handler selvfølgelig im kvindens stilling. I 1935 havde Shahen dekreteret, at skolelærere og skolebørn ikke måtte gå med slør, ligesom hærens officerer ikke måtte vise sig med tilslørede kvinder. Det var selvfølgelig et samfundsmæssigt chok - og Khomeinys revolution måtte vende tilbage til status quo ante. Mange bevidste, uddannede unge kvinder valgte fra 1978 at gå med slør. "The reasons for the change were complex, and had a good deal to do with the growing revulsion for the waste and corruption which the immense rise in oil prices of 1973 had caused in Iran. Opposihon to the Shah took the form among women of a retum to the older Islamic certainties." p. 264. "During the entire reign of Reza Shah, from the 1920s to the 1940s, many women never left their houses for fear of being attacked by the soldiers and police who were under orders to enforce the Shah's laws forbidding the wearing of traditional, religious dress." p. 281. Simpson får lov at filme i en landsby, som ministeriet vælger. "It was a good choice. The village was not a Muslim one at all, but Zoroastrian: one of the few which had kept to the ancient fireworship of Persia after the Arab invasion and the conversion to Islam. Accordingly, the women of the village were not obliged to wear hejab. p. 265. " Persian women have always played an important part in society. They have never been restricted to the home, as women in the Arab world have been. They run offices, they own property, they control businesses." p. 270. "But the improvements which the Ministry of Women's Affaire under the Shah fought to obtain have in many cases been maintained and extended under the Islamic Republic. Because women had played a distinguished part in the Revolution, they were able to command a certain number of jobs as civil servants in the new dispensation, and as the war created a shortage of manpower, women, as always in wartime, were called fill the gap. Partly as a result of that, there there are more women in the civil service now than there were under the Shah..... [They] have kindergartens which take the children of women civil servants from the age of two. Iran has one of the world's best maternity laws: a woman in full-time employment can take three months' paid leave when she has a baby, and until her child is two she can work half-time for half the salary." p. 271. En kvinder der gifter sig, beholder sine egne penge og ejendom, som hun tager med sig ved en evt. skilsmisse. p. 278. [I Ægypten havde man større ballade omkring kvindesagen. Sadat gennemførte en skilsmisselov i 1978 (den gav en kvinde ret til skilsmisse, hvis manden tog en ny kone.) Den blev afskaffet igen i 1985. Ayad, p. 109]. Der er et kvindetidsskrift, Zan-e-Ruz, med 3 redaktører og 4 journalister, alle højtuddannede kvinder. Det har vittighedstegninger, efter Simpsons beskrivelse, Bidstrup-agtige. Han skriver bl.a. at FN heri præsenteres som en pompøs facade, der helt ser bort fra Verdens virkelige problemer [det var da en ret træffende beskrivelse]. p. 273.
De resterende kapitler har kun lidt af interesse.
Simpson har p. 186 - 191 en beskrivelse af en [barnlig] diplomatisk forvikling (1987). Den har sine paralleller nutildags i Iraq. Den iranske vicekonsul i Manchester bliver taget af politiet for butikstyveri (og mishandlet på politistationen). Straks efter bliver første sekretæren ved den britiske ambassade i Tehran standset, slået og tilbageholdt.
Mojaheddin-e-Khalq, Folkets kæmpere, beskrives p. 215 - 217. Det startede som en udbrydergruppe af den Nationale Front, der havde Khomeiny som ledende figur. Fronten blev forbudt i 1963. MEK dannedes så sammen med Fedayeen-e-Khalq af den del af NF,som troed på voldsanvendelse. Begge betragtedes som venstregrupper. Under Khomeinys revolution bidrog MEK med gode og aktive kæmpere, men Khomeiny holdt dem udenfor ledelsen. Gruppen deltog i besættelsen af den amerikanske ambassade og fik øget prestige og tilgang af studenter - der ikke brød sig om den klerikale side af Khomeinyrevolutionen. [Siden gik gruppen i eksil i Iraq og senere igen bruges den af sin ærkefjende USA mod Khomeiny. Herrens og MEKs veje er uransagelige. OJ]. Simpson beskriver også gruppen som værende stærkt islamisk. [Er der tale om forskellige fraktioner ? OJ]. MEKs leder Massoud Rajavi flygtede sammen med Bani-Sadr, 290781, til Auvers-sur-Oise i nærheden af Paris. MEK dræbte over 2000 i terrorangreb sommeren 1981. Det kom til regulære kampe med Pasdaran.
SAVAK, Sazman-e Amniyat Va Ettelaat-e Keshvar, Organisationen for national sikkerhed og efterretningsvirksomhed, dannedes i 1957 med aktiv og fortsat (som Simpson udtrykker det) hjælp fra CIA. Samarbejdede nært med MI6, SDECE og Mossad. 4000 heltidsansatte ved revolutionstidspunktet. Opløstes i 1979. På traditionel efterretningstjenestevis forsøgte en af tomændene General Hosayn Fardoost at give Khomeiny en ny spionageorganisation, SAVAMA, vistnok uden større succes.
Roger Cooper, p. 227 - 230. Journalist, forretningsmand. Arresteret 1985. Simpson mener, at et skrift om Bahai' kan have haft betydning.
Bahai', p. 230 - 236. Adskillige tusinder Bahai's blev dræbt i Persien i 1800-tallet. Siden 1979revolutionen er nær 200 henrettet og 800 sidder fængslet. Bahai' opstod i 1840erne i Shiraz, som en aflægger af Shia. Blev hurtigt beskyldt for kætteri. Sayyed Ali Mohammed, lederen, dødsdømtes i 1848. I 1863 erklærede Mirza Hosayn Ali Nuri at han var Baha'ullah, den Guds universelle manifestation. som var forudsagt. Han blev sendt i eksil i Acre i tyrkisk Syrien. Shahen tillod Bahai', men efter 1975 straffede han dem for ikke at ville være medlemmer af hans parti, Rastakhiz. Bahai' har sit Vedenscentrum i Haifa i Israel. Khomeiny har aldrig angrebet Bahai', som han ahr angrebet kurderne og MEK, selvom han selvfølgelig betragter dem som kættere. Under Shahen blev mange Bahai' rige, mange arbejdede i administrationen. I huli 1982 afskedigedes alle Bahai' embedsmænd og pensionerede embedsmænd af Bahai' tro fik ikke længere pension.
Veje og biler: "Under the Shah, Iran became a freeway society; not just for the wealthy but for the sizeable lower middle-class as well. It was the one enduring social benefit of the tripling of the price of oil in 1973, which the Shah was instrumental in planning, and which so undermined the basis of Iranian society that it brought about the Revolution. Between 1970 and 1978 the ownership of private cars quadrupled, and the length of 'A'-dass roads doubled. An elaborate system of expressways was planned, and although relatively little had been achieved by the time the Shah fell, the Islamic Republic which succeeded him kept to his plans and has managed to continue the road-building programme in spite of the rival demands or money and manpower of the war with Iraq. Road-building and rural electrification are two of the genuinely important achievements of the new régime, and in spite of the shortages and restrictions Iran has remained dependent on the motor-car." p. 246.
Krigen med Iraq. "For years I thought, wrongly as it turned out, that Iran would win the war with some major breakthrough, bringing about the collapse of the regime of President Saddam Hussein. It didn't happen for a number of reasons. One was the role of the great powers, which after the remarkable victory of Iran in the Faw Peninsula in February 1986 were sufficiently nervous about the possibility of an Iraqi defeat to give Iraq an increasing amount of help. There is a strong suggestion that the United States supplied Baghdad with selected satellite and signals intelligence, though this has not so far been confirmed. The Soviet Union certainly provided the technology and some of the manpower needed to create the extraordinary network of canals and lakes defending the city of Basra, which was itself the itself the key to the defence of southern Iraq. The cost, borne by the Soviet Union over a period of years, amounted to more than a billion dollars." p. 303
"Still smarting from the humiliation it had received when a lone Iraqi pilot (later, it is thought, executed after being repatriated) attacked the USS Stark, the United States warned that it would use force, if necessary, to protect itself and its Gulf State friends from attack, and to keep the sea-lanes open. The fact that it was Iraq, and not Iran, which had attacked the Stark and taken the initiative in the war against the tankers was rarely mentioned in the United States; so conditioned had Americans become to the notion that Iran was their natural enemy in the region." p. 316
De iraqiske kurdere kæmpede sammen med iranerne. p. 319. [Det giver en forklaring på de modstridende opfattelser/beskrivelser af hvem der blev gasset i Halabje].
Curzon skrev allerede i 1893 i 'Persia and the Persian Question', at det store skakspil om verdensherredømmet foregik i Turkestan, Afghanistan, Transcaspia og Persia. [Det plejer at være Brzezinski, der citeres for det, OJ].
Simpson har på p. 158 følgende rimelige beskrivelse af Mossadegh "And yet the dangerous, neurotic near-Communist of Anglo-American imaginings was in reality an elderly liberal whose thinking had developed along specifically Western European lines. Dr Mossadeq had studied law at the Ecole des Sciences in Paris and obtained his doctorate in Switzerland, where he was called to the bar and practised for many years. What made him unacceptable in the eyes of British foreign policy was that he regarded Iran much as Western European countries regarded themselves: as independent entities with a right to control their own resources....By blocking liberal, secular nationalism in 1953, the Americans had unwittingly played an important part in ensuring the rise of fundamentalist Islamic nationalism a quarter of a century later." Fra 1950 til 1963 leverede USA ilitærhjælp for 829 millioner USD og våben for 1.3 milliarder USD, p. 158.
Nixon besøger Shahen i 1972. Simpson har en malerisk - men hvor sand ? - beskrivelse p. 160. I hvert fald sker der efter besøget en yderligere vækst i Irans våbenimport fra USA.
"Carter was also prepared to sell Iran the technology for generating nuclear energy." p. 161
Den hellige by Qom er shiiternes væsentligeste. Indbyggerne stammer fra arabiske flygtninge fra Iraq. De flygtede for fjender af profetens barnebarn, Hosayn, der blev dræbt i slahet ved Kerbala [hele den historie betyder bare, at de var shiiter]. De fik de lokale til at skifte fra zoroastrisk til shiitisk religion og skiftede selv sprog til persisk. Fatima, der nedstammer fra Hosayn er begravet i Qom, graven er et af Irans helligste steder. p. 282.
De shiitiske gejstlige har rang efter, hvad de har lært. Der er ingen hierakisk "kirkelig" struktur. p. 285
Løsrevne citater:
"The very rich are not often very tasteful: the money they have spent usually seems to get in the way." p. 145.
"The founder of the Assassins was Hasan-i Sabbah, who was born in the middle of the eleventh century in the holy city of Qom. He was a convert to the Ismaili sect and by instinct a revolutionary, and he selected the mountain valleys near Qazvin as his base of operations. In particular, he chose the castle of Alamut, built on an inaccessible ridge of rock six thousand feet above sea level, and instead of capturing it by force he infiltrated it in 1090 and offered its owner an immense price in gold for it. The owner, having presumably no alternative, accepted and left. The first of the Assassins' murders took place two years later, in 1092. Hasan-i Sabbah, calling his sixty or so devotees to him, asked which of them was prepared to rid the state of Nizam al-Mulk, the all-powerful vizier who represented Seljuk power in Iran. p. 255
Bogen har et rimeligt index med mange navne.
Der er en yderligere formildende omstændighed Simpson holder af Iran og iranere i almindelighed, ikke mindst når de værdsætter noget britisk, " Throughout the area, the streets have been renamed. Shah Reza Avenue has become Revolution Avenue; Los Angeles Road is now Islamic Dress Road; Queen Elizabeth Boulevard has been turned, with particular irony, into Peasant Farmer Boulevard. The Islamic Republic, created under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, is determined to wipe out every trace of Iran's old subjection to the Shahs, and through them to the British, the Americans and the Russians. But the name of Professor Edward Granville Browne, who spent his year amongst the Persians when Persia was at its weakest under British influence, has survived in this small street. [Kuche Porofesor Brown] Browne was a gentle, pleasant man who never returned to Persia after leaving it in 1888, but who studied its literature all his life and wrote powerfully in support of its efforts to win greater constitutional freedom despite the strong opposition of the British Government." p. 7. Her får han så også illustreret (og direkte markeret) at iranerne, trods ideologiske problemer, værdsætter en vanskelig indsats for Iran og iransk kultur.
Orla Jordal, 2007
Må gerne gengives - helt eller delvist -med kildeangivelse. Dog må teksten ikke ændres og der skal være en aktiv link til det oprindelige dokument. Dette web site er absolut non profit og anvendes materialet i anden sammenhæng end non profit, fair use, så forudsætter det skriftlig tilladelse fra Jordal Samfundskritisk.
This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making this article available in my efforts to advance the general understanding. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Rettelser og andre forslag til forbedringer modtages meget gerne - også meddelelse om døde links - på e-mail: orla@jordals.dk
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