ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses several aspects of Iranian society on the eve of the Islamic Revolution, such as the main urban social groups and political opposition to the Reza Shah. It also discusses the transformation of the traditional civil society of Iran. New social groups, modern institutions, and political groups violated the traditional settings of civil society and marginalized its core alliance, i.e., the ulama and the bazaris. The ulama, as many other traditional groups of Iranian society, faced a decrease in their number and importance. The chapter discusses the occupational groups of Iranian society in urban and rural areas. Iran's traditional upper and middle occupational groups mainly consisted of the bazaris and small shopkeepers situated within the bazaars or related to it. The only rural occupational group discussed is the peasants because of their importance for the formation of marginal urban groups, the 'dispossessed'.
