ABSTRACT
The most pervasive myth concerning Iranian politics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is the role of a supposedly independent religious institution as the champion of the nation, of the people oppressed by an autocratic and repressive state. The Iranian Revolution of 1978—1979, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's rise to absolute power, have reinforced such misperceptions, and threaten to distort even more our understanding of - contemporary Iranian society and politics. Mahmud Taleqani insisted that in Shi'ism it is the just ulama and just believers, elected from among others, who should determine social policy. The Shah's controversial agrarian reforms were to distance Taleqani yet further from the religious establishment. Taleqani developed his views of Islamic principles of ownership, which contrasted sharply with the more conservative view which then prevailed among the ulama. Taleqani asserts that Islam grants individuals the right to own "the fruit of their labor," and complete freedom to dispose of it within the limits set by the appropriate ordinances.
