Jonathan Spence, Yale University – This is a subtle and absorbing book. Professor Mottahedeh illuminates the Iranian revolution by means of three overlapping lines of narrative and analysis: one line introduces us to the complexity of the Shi'ite inheritance, luminously presenting the philosophy, jurisprudence and aesthetics that lie at its hearts; one line presents the economic and constitutional changes out of which came the attempt to create a modernized Iranian state; and one line – personal and deeply felt – introduces us to the life, thoughts and training of a modern mullah. Cumulatively this technique leads us to a deepened comprehension of the mullah's observation that his life consisted of 'things at once very familiar and very new and newly understood to be very ancient.'

"A masterpiece of imaginitive interpretation... exposes, with dazzling erudition, the subterranean Sufi and poetic heritage lying just below the surface of Khomeini's seemingly granitelike orthodoxy." Highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand Iranian Shi'a. ( )