ABBAS AMANAT, Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). Pp. 554. $55.00 cloth.

Extract

Iran's monarchs have had a special place in the historiography of that country. Before the 1977–79 Iranian Revolution, Iranian and non–Iranian historians devoted hundreds of pages to the lives, habits, courtly life, wars, and customs of Iran's kings, from the ancient Archaemenians to the recent Pahlavis. Following the recent revolution, a spate of works on the late Muhammad Reza Shah filled the bookshelves. Moreover, during the past decade, researchers revived earlier passions for the Safavid family, their financial, commercial, and agricultural practices, foreign policies, and historiography in both article and book form.