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Reza Shah's belief that most of Iran's ills stemmed from its "Arabsadeghi" (literally: being hit by Arabisation) had brought ancient Iran back into official political discourse as the cornerstone of a new national identity. With Reza Shah forced into exile, the re-Iranisation effort had been abandoned in the chaos and confusion of war and political crisis. Mohammad-Reza Shah's own Islamic beliefs made him a far less enthusiastic "re-Iraniser" than his father had been. But in the 1960s Mohammad-Reza Shah rediscovered Persian nationalism as a potentially attractive alternative to two ideologies that, he was convinced, threatened Iran's well-being and independence: mullah-dominated shi'ism and Soviet-sponsored Communism. (p. 173) (it) |
