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Published by Oneworld Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
On 11 February 1979, a mullah listens to the radio as he plants seeds in his Qom garden. What he hears will define Iran’s modern history: ‘The ill-omened regime of the Pahlavis is finished, and an Islamic government has been established under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini.’ Crowds pour into Qom’s streets, jubilant. In The Mantle of the Prophet , the late pre-eminent scholar of Iran Roy P. Mottahedeh weaves a tapestry of the Islamic Revolution and its deep roots in Persian culture. We witness prisoners chanting Ferdowsi and Rumi verses against the Shah’s regime, mullahs writing about Che Guevara and Islam and students in Paris debating Algeria and Cuba. This is a unique glimpse into the extraordinary Iranian twentieth century, as it was lived and suffered by its people.
Product Details
- Publisher: Oneworld Publications (October 1, 2014)
- Length: 426 pages
- ISBN13: 9781780747385
Raves and Reviews
'A remarkable treasure.' Wall Street Journal
'Mottahedeh has written an intellectual history as stirring and graceful as any novel. He sets the intimate biography of a young cleric against the vast epic of Iranian thought from Zoroaster to Avicenna, Kasravi to Khomeini. The Mantle of the Prophet is literary, learned, and deeply felt; the writing is splendid, and the story is an education for the Western reader unaware of the powerful tides of Shi’ite and Persian thought over a period of centuries.' The New Yorker
'Mottahedeh has drawn on a massive amount of learning, but he has got the scholarly apparatus out of the way and made his book accessible to a wide audience.'
– New York Times Book Review
'He has a sharp feeling for the sensous aspects of the traditional Iranian town - the texture of bricks and tiles, the movement of breezes, the sound of the side alley, the precious burst of greenery and of trees.'
– The Times Literary Supplement
"The beauty of [Mottahedeh’s] book is in his ability to explain sophisticated ideas and difficult subjects in a way which is widely accessible… an extraordinary book."
– London Review of Books
"One of the top 75 books of the twentieth century"
– Foreign Affairs
"The graceful prose and factual command… make [this book] a fascinating read."
– San Francisco Chronicle
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Book Cover Image (jpg): The Mantle of the Prophet
eBook 9781780747385
