Creating an Islamic State: Khomeini and the Making of a New Iran

How did the Ayatollah Khomeini create his Islamic state? What were the ideas which drove him and his movement? What organization and methods helped bring him to power? This book analyses the ideaological roots of an Islamic state as conceived by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Surprisingly, the author finds much of the inspiration behind Khomeini's political thinking being influenced by Western sources - his writing on the supreme Islamic Jurist being affected by Plato's notions of the philosopher-king and his views of state power and centralism being closely linked to his understanding of Marxist/Leninist totalitarianism. Vanessa Martin considers the dynamics of the Iranian Revolution and the Islamist revival in a book which is especially relevant in the context of the debate arising out of Iran's elections.

Vanessa Martin is lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern History at Royal Holloway College, University of London. She is author of *Islam and Modernism: The Iranian Revolution of 1906* (I.B. Tauris).