Khomeini's Ghost
Iran since 1979
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2.0 • 4 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
On 1 February 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to a tumultuous welcome and the Iranian revolution that that he masterminded has become one of the defining moments of the modern age. Today the challenge of radical Islam represents the greatest threat to world peace seen since the darkest days of the Cold War, and the legacy of Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution lies at the heart of many of the world’s most intractable conflicts.
Khomeini’s Ghost is the definitive biographical account of how an impoverished young student from a remote area of southern Iran came to be the political and the spiritual leader of his country. Drawing on a wide variety of Iranian sources, including religious figures who knew and worked with Khomeini both in exile and in power, Con Coughlin examines in detail the principles of Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution and the impact of his legacy today, whether it is in Iran’s support for radical Islamic groups or Iran’s commitment to developing an atom bomb. Frighteningly topical, compellingly readable and written with authority and profound understanding of the subject, this is political biography at its best.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Coughlin (Saddam) offers a serviceable biography of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902 1989), a brief history of his reign and an even briefer history of Iran in an account that is regrettably taciturn on his continuing influence. The author provides ample evidence that the ayatollah's agenda was always radical, though Khomeini chose to downplay it before the revolution; Coughlin says that, in fact, Khomeini " the revolution from beneath the nose of the very people who had brought him to power," in great part through the creation of the Revolutionary Guards. Coughlin details the bloody chaos that followed the revolution, and the ensuing decades of bloodshed, but what goes unremarked might be the most astonishing detail of all: in spite of chaos, war and a dictatorship to rival that which they had overthrown, the Iranian people clearly loved, and continue to love, the imam. Coughlin places great emphasis on the Iranian commitment to exporting the revolution and achieving nuclear capabilities, and American and Israeli concerns about both, but doesn't always give all the necessary information about the give and take between the countries, the political forces within Iran or why Khomeini's ideology struck a chord for so many.
