Godina izdanja: Ostalo
ISBN: Ostalo
Jezik: Engleski
Autor: Strani

The Spirit of Allah Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution Amir Taheri
Hardcover: 349 pages
Publisher: Adler & Adler Pub; 1 edition (February 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 091756104X
ISBN-13: 978-0917561047
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
This 349-page hardcover was published in 1985 by Adler & Adler (1st U.S. edition).
In 1979 Time Magazine put Ruhollah Khomeini on its cover as ` Man of the Year`.
The Shah had left Iran, a broken man and was being chased out of the United States, where he was being treated for cancer. President Jimmy Carter was trying to curry favor with Khomeini, an obscure mullah who had suddenly become master of Iran.
Carter even wrote a letter to Khomeini- ` from one man of faith to another man of faith`!
Carter`s National Security Council was putting out papers that proposed ` strong support` for Khomeini and urged the multiplication of his model in other Islamic countries.
A CIA memorandum had described Khomeini as ` a kind of philosopher king`, more interested in ` society`s moral well-being than in the exercise of power.`
American Iranologists, including Professor Richard Cottam, were praising Khomeini to the skies as ` the Gandhi of Islam`.
In hindsight it is a pity that Amir Taheri`s fascinating biography of the ayatollah was not available at that time so that the people of Iran, and the world outside, would know exactly who they were dealing with. But, if I understand from the autor`s background, he , too, was not familiar with the ayatollah`s life until after the revolution.
This book shows the art of biography at its best.
It is based on extensive research, including first-hand interviews and documents.
But what is specially interesting is Taheri`s cool analysis of political Islam and its practical consequences.
The author writes with the ease and detachment of a novelist but takes meticulous care to back every assertion with evidence and authority.
The portrait of Khomeini as a child and a young man is of special interest insofar as its reveals the bleakness of life in a small Iranian town in the early years of the last century.
Of all the books written about the ayatollah and his revolution, this is by far the best. A pleasure to read and an object lesson in the strange twists and turns of history.
Khomeini was certainly a monster, and not a saint as his followers suggest. Sadly, the US realised that a bit too late.