Theology of discontent: the ideological foundation of the Islamic revolution in Iran (1st edition.)

Hamid Dabashi's 1997 work 'Theology of Discontent' reveals a creative thinker capable not only of understanding how an argument is built, but also of redefining old issues in new ways.

The Iranian Revolution of 1978-9 was front-page news in the West, and in some ways remains so today.

Though it was an uprising against authoritarian royal rule, with a coalition of modernisers and Islamists, the revolution saw the birth of a new Islamic Republic that seemed to reject pro-Western democracy.

Dabashi wanted to analyze the real reasons for this change, while examining how Islamic ideologies contributed to the revolution and the republic that followed. 'Theology of Discontent' examines different Islamic thinkers, analyzing how views with seemingly little in common contributed to the modern Iranian belief system.