ABSTRACT
Iran is in traditional parlance a part of the Middle East but it is emphaticallynot part of the Arab world. It remembers the Arab conquest of the seventh century more resentfully than the Mongol which is more recent by 600 years. It is the stronghold of Shia Islam, the tense and high-pitched deviant from Sunni orthodoxy: unique because the Shia, although a majority in Bahrain, Iraq and perhaps Oman too, are everywhere except in Iran subject to a Sunni dynasty or ruling class. Iran is rich in oil but, unlike the Arab world, not only in oil. Its dominant Iranians rule over a heterogeneous variety of races and religions. It has never since Alexander the Great been subject to western imperialism, although it has been obliged on occasions to humble itself before them, particularly the British and Russians. The world’s thirst for oil has given it the means to turn itself into an industrial and military power without equal in its surrounding region.
