Chapter One

The birth of this book is in the combination of ecstasies and agonies, joys and sorrows, the innocence of a child and experience of a man. A number of factors, however, have given birth to this book. Leaving one's homeland and all relatives, friends and objects that one has become used to during childhood, creates a mental vacuum. This vacuum is filled partly with new impressions, experiences and the cultural wealth of other countries. To fill the other part one uses the imagination and begins to recreate, perhaps out of intellectual necessity, one's own past memories. This is a kind of rediscovery which is indeed essential for human existence and identity, especially when one is surrounded by an alien social and political atmosphere, which often ignores the identity and cultural values of other nations.
I became acutely conscious of the identity of the Iranian people, who have taken the blame for the misdeeds of ignorant and irresponsible rulers both in the past and the present who, ironically, have been discreetly supported by the West. I used my inner rediscovery of my childhood memories, or rather self-awakening, as a bridge between a child's memories and a man's experience and between Eastern and Western cultures.
In my talks and lectures I have referred, and still do, to my own past experiences and memories of Iran during 1940-1969 and in the later years of 1970-1979. A number of friends and scholars had suggested that I record on paper these memories and experiences.
I once gave a talk to the North American Studies Seminar at Edinburgh University on the modern history of Iran, in which I referred to my experience of the periods during the government of the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (1945-1946) and Mossadeq's government (1951-1953). After the talk, my distinguished colleagues and friends Mr Owen Dudley Edwards and Professor Victor Kiernan strongly urged me to write my memories of Iran during the Revolution of 1979 which ousted the Shah. Owen Dudley Edwards kindly encouraged me to the extent that he not only introduced me to Mainstream Publishing in Edinburgh, but also helped me to actually start on the book. I perhaps owe most to him, but, indeed, without the encouragement of all my friends both in Iran and Britain the birth of this book would not have taken place. Mr Rahim Raisniya (historian) and Mr Muhammad-Ali Mahmid (poet and writer), both from Tabriz, and Dr H. Philsooph (University of Edinburgh) also gave me valuable suggestions.
When I returned from Iran in 1979 (after spending almost a year there during and after the Revolution) and expressed my observations to my friends and my wife, they suggested that I record my impressions as soon as possible.
Now the product of all those ideas is born in the form of this book. It combines my childhood experiences through society and history both in Iran and Britain. Here and there I have included some photographs to help give a visual idea of the environment in which I grew up. This book is thus a social, cultural and political history of Iran related through my own impressions and experience. Whenever I refer to the social conditions of women or criticize the unjust social relationships in Iran, I do not intend to use either the capitalist or the socialist world as criteria in my observations. I have not lived in a socialist country, but I have lived for over 20 years in Britain, and know that there are many anomalies and injustices in the position of women and the different social classes in the West as a whole; but there are many competent native writers who can tell about these and record their own stories. Whatever I tell in this book is essentially about what I have seen and experienced and I hold myself responsible for all shortcomings and errors.
Many of the names in the following pages have been transliterated by different writers in different ways. Since this book is intended for the general reader I have not wished to burden the text with a large number of diacritical marks. In addition, I have always tried to give the better known names in the forms in which they will be familiar to the Western reader. I hope therefore that specialist colleagues will not be alarmed if they find certain vulgarisms in the spelling of these names.
Finally, I wish to express again my deep gratitude to Owen Dudley Edwards and also Dr Reza Navabpour (University of Durham), Dr M. McDonald (University of Edinburgh) and my wife, who kindly read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions. I also thank Miss J. Crawford, our departmental secretary, for her kind assistance, Michelle Kendrick, my editor, Mrs Bonnet for her patience in typing from my handwriting and'
Tackling so many Persian and Azerbaijani names and the staff of Edinburgh University Library and the National Library of Scotland for their generous assistance. I must add that I am in debt, above all, to the peoples of Iran and my students and friends in Britain who have been the source of my inspiration ard encouragement in writing this book.
Humai, my nurse, and my mother bore most of my childhood troubles and also suffered most during my absence from home during the past 25 years or so. Knowing that the heaviest burden of life is on the shoulders of mothers, who live on through their children, I have therefore decided to dedicate this book to the world's mothers:

0 Mother, 0 Mother, I wish I was an ocean, millions of fish would swim in my heart, Or I was land, millions of flowers would blossom in my heart, Or at least I was a clod of clay, When the cattle returning in the evening from the mountains to our village Pass over me - Mother.

Introduction
Iran occupies a key strategic position in the world, being bounded to the west by Turkey and Iraq, to the north by the USSR, to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan and to the south by the waters of the Persian Gulf. When Iran has been strong, it has been the centre of a succession of mighty empires, and when it has been weak its geographical position, together with its oil and other rich resources, have ensured that outside powers have competed for influence or domination over the country.
Iran covers a very large area, six times the size of the United Kingdom, and despite the fact that much of it is desert or mountain, it has a population of over 50 million. The climate varies greatly, from the scorching heat of the Gulf to the moist and rainy shores of the Caspian Sea, where much of the country's rice crop is grown. The major part of Iran, however, consists of a vast highland plateau ringed by mountains, from which rise the rivers on which the country's irrigation depends. Much of the land is best suited to grazing and until recently a large part of the population has consisted of nomadic tribal peoples.
The central plateau contains the major cities of Tehran, Esfahan, Shiraz and, in the east, Mashhad, and is the home of the major linguistic group, the speakers of Persian, or Farsi, who have traditionally dominated the state. However, there are many other languages spoken in Iran, including Azerbaijani, with ten million speakers and the second most important language, as well as Kurdish, Arabic, Baluchi, Turkmen and many others.
The history of Iran goes far back into the past, but the country rose to prominence after the arrival of the Indo-European tribes who were to become the Persians. The first Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, lasted from 550 to 320 BC and included the' Middle East, Egypt, the territory which is today Turkey, Central Asia and much of today's Pakistan. This empire was followed by the Parthians (247 BC to AD 224) and the Sasanians (AD 226 to 651), It was particularly under the rule of the latter dynasty that the Zoroastrian religion was most fully developed and became the state religion of Iran.
The Sasanian period was one of the great artistic, literary and musical achievements, but the full flowering of Iran's cultural talents was to come after the Arab conquest of the seventh century and the adoption by Iranians of the religion of Islam.
The new Islamic state absorbed influences from Arabia, Greece, Iran and India which, combined with a dynamically evolving Islam, produced the characteristic Islamic civilization, of whose leading exponents so many were themselves Iranian or had Iranian blood.
As the Islamic state began to decline and the control of Baghdad weakened, political independence reasserted itself in Iran and there was a revival of literature in the Persian language. Poetry has always been the most important literary form in Iran, and we should mention especially the national poet of Iran, Firdausi, as well as Sa'di, Hafiz and Omar Khayyam.
Iran has suffered much from its proximity to Central Asia, and was periodically overrun by various nomadic Turkish tribes before being overwhelmed by the Mongols.
It was not until the foundation of the Safavi dynasty at the beginning of the 16th century that Iran was recreated as a nation-state. Under the Safavis also, Shia Islam was adopted as the religion of the state, thus distinguishing Iran from its neighbors in terms of religion as well as national identity. Under the Safavis Iran was strong and united, but by the beginning of the 19th century, under the Qajar dynasty, it was beginning to find that it was no match for the aggressive, newly industrialized European nations. It was forced to cede much territory to the Russians, including the northern part of Azerbaijan, while British influence in the south grew stronger and stronger.
By the beginning of the 20th century Iran was virtually partitioned between Russia and Britain, and its economy too was largely foreign dominated. With Western political domination, however, there also came Western ideas and it was as a result of both factors that the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909 took place. Although the gains of the Constitutional Revolution were largely destroyed by Russian intervention, its ideals did not die and continued to inspire those struggling for Iranian freedom and independence.
After the First World War Reza Shah Pahlavi succeeded in winning a measure of political independence for Iran and laid the foundations for the modernization and industrialization of the country. However, his authoritarian and ruthless methods allowed no room for individual freedom or political evolution, and contributed to the social problems facing the country. Reza Shah was deposed by Britain during the Second World War because of his attempts to maintain Iranian neutrality, and the next few years saw a measure of free speech and political activity This period culminated in the premiership of Mossadeq, whose nationalization of Iran's oil provoked a royalist coup and the installation of Muhammad Reza Shah as absolute ruler of Iran. During the latter part of his reign, increasing popular dissatisfaction was met with increasing repression, mostly at the hands of the dreaded secret police, SA V AK, and the destruction of all political opposition finally meant that the only force capable of confronting the regime was Islam and the ayatollahs.
The fact that the Shah had relied so heavily in the latter years upon the United States meant that the Islamic Revolution, when it came, was strongly anti-Western in character. It is too soon tb pass judgment on this latest revolution, but it is clear that much still has to be achieved before the ideals of the Constitutionalists of 1905 are realized.
The events recounted in the following pages took place during the later years of Reza Shah's reign and the disturbed period of the Second World War and after. At this time the influence of the West was beginning to affect the lives of ordinary Iranians, but by and large the traditional life of the country continued undisturbed. The way of life described here has almost vanished today, but I hope that I have been able to preserve a little of it in my description of the life of one ordinary Iranian family in these years.