Nationalist Trends in Iran, 1921–1926

The first quarter of the twentieth century contains a fascinating chapter of modern Iranian history. It was a period of the death agony of the Qājār state; a period of revolutionary upheaval, sociopolitical disorder and disintegration, and cultural and literary transformation, a moment both of joy and of sadness, achievement and failure, which, in an unusually clear way, illuminated the long distance between what there was, and what was desired to be. This period may be analysed in three parts: the first decade, which covers the period of the Persian Revolution; the second decade, which can be described as a period of interregnum, when, in the well-known phrase, power was lying in the streets waiting to be picked up; and the remaining five years which was a period of dual sovereignty, characterized by a ruthless struggle for political power.