The Intellectual Genealogy of the Islamic Revolution of Iran

To strengthen and perpetuate the discourse of the Islamic Revolution, familiarity with its intellectual foundations and goals is essential. This article employs Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory to argue that before the Islamic Revolution, Iranian political discourse was centered around the idea of “Sultanism.” However, this dominant discourse was challenged by two intellectual realms: religious and intellectual. In religious thought, Imam Khomeini’s reinterpretation of the principle of Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist) and his assertion of the incompatibility of Shiism with monarchy rendered his political discourse credible among opponents of Sultanism. In the intellectual domain, while leftist and liberal discourses lost credibility over time, the national-religious discourse of liberal intellectuals (the Freedom Movement) gained traction by better understanding the religious context, aligning with Khomeini’s religious discourse to undermine the neo-patrimonialist narrative. The findings indicate that Khomeini’s discourse, emphasizing social justice, support for the oppressed, and Islamic unity around Velayat-e Faqih, successfully replaced the Sultanism discourse, achieving a level of success that previous religious discourses had not attained.

کلیدواژه ها:

Islamic revolution ، Discourse ، Sultanism ، Iranshahr ، Patrimonialism ، intellectualism