Abbas Amanat — A historian at Yale University specializing in the modern history of Iran, and author of 'Iran: A Modern History.' He frames Iran's present through centuries of cultural, religious, and political evolution.
The gist
Lex Fridman talks with Iranian historian Abbas Amanat about the 2022 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in morality-police custody. Amanat describes the youth-led, leaderless movement and the regime's violent response, then steps back to give a sweeping history of Iran: the 1906 Constitutional Revolution, the discovery of oil, the Pahlavi monarchy, the 1953 CIA-backed coup against Mossadegh, the 1979 Islamic Revolution and Khomeini's rise, and the creation of the theocratic 'Guardian Jurist' system. The conversation covers Iran's Shia messianic traditions, its demographic and educational transformation, the brutality of the Revolutionary Guards, the nuclear deal (JCPOA) negotiations, and Iran's shifting alliances with Russia and China. Amanat closes on a cautiously hopeful note about Iran's future and its young generation.
Big reveals
- Amanat calls the Islamic Republic not a 'nice Islamic fatherly regime' but a regime with 'clear signs of fascism' willing to use extreme violence to stay in power.
- Describes Khomeini's fatwa at the end of the Iran-Iraq war ordering the execution of roughly 6,000-8,000 political prisoners in a matter of weeks, calling it the regime's 'original sin.'
- Estimates regime support at no more than about 10 percent of the population.
- Notes Iran's Tudeh Party was the biggest Communist Party in the Middle East and one of the largest in the world.
- Says Iran becoming 'subservient' to Putin's Russia is more surprising than its rhetoric on Israel, given two centuries of viewing Russia as its greatest threat.
- His brother, also a historian, suggests Mahsa Amini herself has become the leaderless movement's 'martyr Messiah.'
- Argues 80 percent of Iranians would not approve of the regime's policies on Palestine if a referendum were held.
Things worth remembering
- Iran's population grew from about 9 million in 1900 to roughly 83 million today, doubling since 1979.
- Iran's birth rate fell from around 2.8-3 percent in the 1970s-80s to about 1.1 percent, among the most successful population control in the Middle East.
- Iran has about 86 percent literacy and one million school teachers.
- Iran went from roughly 10-12 universities before the revolution to 56, with the Free University alone running 324 campuses nationwide.
- The regime is estimated to lose about $50 million per day from throttling the internet during protests.
- Oil was discovered in southwest Iran in 1909, but only about one-fifth of revenue reached Iran via royalties; Churchill had the British government buy the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
- Khomeini spread his revolutionary message from exile via smuggled cassette tapes distributed through his clerical network.
- Iran has one of the largest brain drains of any country relative to its population, with roughly 4 million Iranians living abroad.
- About 100,000 Iranians demonstrated in Berlin in a single day in support of the protest movement.
- The early 20th century saw a wave of constitutional revolutions: Russia (1905), Iran (1906), the Young Turks (1908), and China (1910-11).
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Iran: A Modern History
Abbas Amanat
“if I would for a moment talk about what I have written I've written a book that's called Iran and modern history and it does not start in the 20th century” — Abbas Amanat 02:06:31Find it on Amazon