Selected by Fred Rhodes

THE PERSIAN SPHINX

Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution

By Abbas Milani published by IB TAURIS

ISBN 1 86064 528 3

price £17.95 hardback

Amir Abbas Hoveyda was a young Iranian intellectual, more comfortable with Sartre than with the classical Persian poet Saadi, who rose to become his country’s Prime Minister, faithfully and for 13 years serving a king who had few illusions about his own power and ambitions. Eventually the king had him arrested to save his own throne, and when the king himself was toppled his hapless, faithful servant was abandoned to his grisly fate at the hands of ‘the Hanging Judge’ of the Iranian Revolution, Sadegh Khalkhali

The tragic Shakespearean-style tale of Hoveyda, the elegant, cultivated and dandified wit who allowed himself to be seduced by the illusion of power and the trappings of office is one of the most fascinating and yet little known dramas of our time. Born into a comfortably off but modest diplomatic family, Hoveyda was catapulted forward by his charming amiability, his ability to discern political trends and above all — paradoxically — by his weakness. Hoveyda never posed a threat to eclipse the tortured personality of his patron, the Shah of Iran. Therein lay the secret of Hoveyda’s political survival — but only until the Shah was persuaded to offer up Hoveyda as a scapegoat for the failings of his own regime by jailing him. In the confusion of the Iranian Revolution Hoveyda chose not to flee. He offered himself to the new Islamic authorities, expecting a public trial. Instead, the notorious ‘Hanging Judge’ of the Revolution presided over a secret and summary hearing, which ended with Hoveyda’s immediate execution.

Hoveyda’s extraordinary full story has never been told before. The Persian Sphinx is the first full biography. Through careful and critical use of hitherto unexamined archival materials, unpublished letters, personal journals and extensive interviews with more than 100 of Hoveyda’s friends, foes and relatives, this book provides a compelling narrative which not only illuminates the life of one of the Middle East’s most pivotal and enigmatic 20th-century figures but also sheds important light on Iran’s contemporary history.

ISLAM AND MODERNITY

Muslim Intellectuals Respond

Edited by John Cooper, Ronald Nettler and Mohamed Mahmoud

Published by I.B. TAURIS

ISBN 1 86064 531 3

price £14.95 paperback

Islam and Modernity brings together the ideas of a number of contemporary modernist and liberal Muslim thinkers. It exposes an important intellectual current in Islamic thought, which will be new to many western readers. Responding to the challenges brought by the post-colonial situation this current proposes new conceptions and interpretations of Islam.

Although their concerns and emphases vary, the thinkers presented in this book share certain ideas and methods in their approaches to the issue of religion and modernity. A reconsideration of the relationship between religion and politics; a reinterpretation of sacred sources — which highlights their more universalistic elements — and a conception of Islam as moving with historical change whilst remaining rooted in Koranic values.

Together these add up to a shared assumption that Islam must grapple with the complexities of modernity and contain certain intrinsic features, which, if properly used and understood, might enable it to forge its own unique form of religious modernity.

Disputing the widespread contemporary view of modem Islam as essentially political, Islam and Modernity shows instead a quite different face of the Muslim tradition.

AVARICE AND THE AVARICIOUS

By Abu ‘Uthman ‘Amr ibn Bahr al-Jahiz

Translated by: Jim Colville published by Kegan Paul International

ISBN 0 7103 0645 8

price: £65 00

In the opinion of many Arab literati, Abu ‘Uthman al-Jahiz is one of the finest writers of Arabic of all time, described as ‘the sultan of style’ and the very symbol of literary ability. It is, therefore, curious that he has remained a largely unknown figure in the English-speaking world. This translation of Avarice and the Avaricious (kitâb al-bukhalâ’ - literally, The Book of Misers) seeks to lift the veil of neglect and introduce one of the best known works of this great writer to a new and wider readership:

This book is an exposé and analysis of what is a sometimes amusing and infuriating — but always perculiarly defining — trait of character, and its attendant vices.

OMAN IN EARLY ISLAMIC HISTORY

By Isam Al Rawas published by Ithaca Press

ISBN 0 86 372 238 5

price £35.00 hardback

This book provides an in-depth study of the history of Oman from the advent of Islam until the fall of the second Ibadi Imamate in AH 280 pulling together scattered fragments of historical material Dr Al Rawas gives a vivid account of Oman’s position in the early Islamic community during a hitherto underexamined period of its history.

Oman, following the death of the Prophet Muhammad, was successfully targeted for conversion to Islam by the nascent Islamic govenment in Medina. After embracing the new religion Oman fell under the influence of the heterodox Islamic movements in Basra particularly the Kharijite revolt It eventually chose the Ibadi doctrine, a moderate offshoot of Kharijism, as its national creed.

After exploring the teachings of Ibadism the author examines in detail the establishment and subsequent collapse of the two Ibadi imamates in Oman against a background of conflicting tribal loyalties and the opposition of the Islamic caliphate. During this time Dr Al Rawas maintains, Oman underwent a number of far reaching changes which totally transformed the socio-political face of the country, securing its position as an independent entity with its own distinctive brand of Islam — a position it has held until the present day. He concludes his study by charting Oman’s gradual descent into civil war, resulting from internal disputes between the various factions of the Ibadi ulema, and its eventual subjection to Abbasid rule.

A MODERN HISTORY OF THE KURDS

By David McDowall published by IB TAURIS

ISBN: 1 86064 535 6

price £15.95 paperback

The division of the Kurdish people among four modern nation states — Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran — and their struggle for national rights has been one of the constant themes of recent Middle East history. There are also issues which, particularly in Iraq and Turkey, have never been so pressing as they are today.

The Kurdish lands have been contested territory for many centuries: a perilous mountain tract through which trade caravans and armies have had to march; a bulwark against hostile powers and a source of defiance against state authority. From the 16th to the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire and Persia vied to control the Kurds whose tribal leaders would compete in turn for state recognition. During the 20th century, however, rapid political and economic transition and conflicting attempts by the Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish governments on the one hand and by Turkish nationalists on the others have radically changed the conditions under which the struggle for Kurdistan takes place.

In this detailed history of the Kurds from the 19th century to the present day, McDowall examines the interplay of old and new aspects of the struggle, the importance of local rivalries within Kurdish society, the enduring authority of certain forms of leadership and the failure of modem states to respond to the challenge of Kurdish nationalism. Extensively revised to include recent events and an updated bibliography, this book is useful for all who want a better understanding of the underlying dynamics of the Kurdish question.

MANAGING THE OIL WEALTH

OPEC’s Windfalls and Pitfalls

By Jahangir Amuzegar Published by IB TAURIS

ISBN 1 86064 292 6

price £35.00 hardback

In a carefully reasoned narrative, based on extensive research, Managing the Oil Wealth unravels the puzzle that has confounded oil experts, economists and international relations specialists: why did countries with such major divergences in size, population, resources, economic development, governmental systems, culture and ethnicity all fall into the same ‘oil trap’? Why did they all follow the same path to political and economic development and with such wretched results? What did OPEC members do with their three trillion dollar windfall the largest transfer in history? Where did all that money go?

OPEC invested enormous sums in an ambitious range of development projects. These invariably failed to produce a minimum reasonable return. Why? Why did the anticipated plenty, affluence, political stability and liberation all turn into austerity, deficits, debts, disappointment and decay?

This is the first work to analyse the common factors which led to OPEC’s rise, decline and virtual irrelevance as a major economic force in the world. Meticulously researched and written in a highly accessible style, Managing the Oil Wealth is an essential text for students of economic history; international relations, development studies and the oil industry; while general readers interested in world affairs will find it fascinating reading.

MUHAMMAD IN EUROPE

A thousand years in western myth-making

By Minou Reeves published by Garnet

ISBN 1 85964 123 7 price £25.00 hardback

From the crusades of the 11th century down to the present day, presentations of Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, in European literature and religious writing alike have often been used as a foil to Christian Europe’s search for its own religious identity and to its search for identity through religion.

It has been a foil whose original intention was to warn an insecure Christian world of the potential dangers of the emerging Islamic religion, thus the representations sought to dissuade, to deter and to terrify. Consequently for centuries of European writing the Prophet Muhammad has been attributed characteristics that bear practically no relationship to those of the historical man.

Prefaced by a biographical sketch of the prophet Muhammad’s life this book takes the reader on a journey through the defining eras of European history and thought. It traces this persistent mythical representation of the founder of Islam in works dating from the Middle Ages to the last decade of the 20th century, spanning Latin, Italian, French, German and English language sources, and culminates with a critical analysis of Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses. The author has however taken care to highlight the positive interpretations that have enriched European poetry and thought.

It is the author’s conviction that as we enter the new millennium, it is only by unravelling the strands of fact from those of fiction in European literature that a solid foundation for mutual understanding between the Islamic and western worlds can be reached.

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