ABSTRACT
Islam in Iran, although it is now a subject that attracts attention by virtue of the revolution of 1978-9 and its reverberating aftermath, needs to be viewed in the perspective of a long historical process. Indeed, no other subject could provide a more powerful justification for the discipline of history: the present resurgence of traditional elements is incom-prehensible without an examination of the distant past. Moreover, the varying interpretations of that past form a major and integral part of contemporary political activity.
