The Principle of Homeostasis Considered in Relation to Political Events in Iran in the 1960's

Roger M. Savory

doi:10.1017/S0020743800025022

The Principle of Homeostasis Considered in Relation to Political Events in Iran in the 1960's

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009

Roger M. Savory

Show author details

Roger M. Savory: Affiliation:
University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

The dictionary definition of ‘homeostasis’ is: ‘the tendency of an organism to maintain a uniform and beneficial physiological stability within and between its parts; organic equilibrium’. As applied to a political organism, it denotes the tendency of that organism to ‘maintain as much of its former condition as is practically possible’, however determined the attempts to alter its shape. In a paper presented to the meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 1967. I suggested that the principle of homeostasis was inherent in the Persian polity.Iran's ancient civilization has produced social attitudes and deeply ingrained characteristics which do not admit of rapid change,except by means of the disruptive force of violent revolution. The 2,500-year tradition of the Persian monarchy, a tradition fostered and preserved under a succession of alien rulers — Arab, Turk, Mongol, Tatar and Afghan - has given to the Persian polity, and to Persian society, an organic stability which places Iran in a category completely apart from most other countries in the Middle East, and from the majority of the so-called 'emerging' and 'underdeveloped'nations in general. As E. G. Browne noted at the time of the Persian Constitutional Revolution in 1906, the chief characteristics of the Persians are: (i) the stability of the national type and (ii) the power of national recovery.

Type: Articles
Information: International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , July 1972 , pp. 282 - 302

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800025022 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 282 note 1} Quotation from a paper by William H. Hallman, made available to me through the courtesy of Professor T. Cuyler Young, Senior.

^{page 282 note 2} At the plenary session of the First Annual Meeting of MESA, held at Chicago, Illinois, on 8−9 December 1967.

^{page 282 note 3} Browne, E. G., ‘The Persian Constitutional Movement’, Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 8, p. 312.Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 1} Hafez, Farman-Farmayan, ‘The Politics of Iran during the 1960s’, Conference on ‘Iran in the 1960s’, Columbia University 6−9 11 1968, p. 4. (Hereinafter quoted as ‘Farman-Farmayan’).Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 2} Leonard, Binder, ‘The Proofs of Islam: Religion and Politics in Iran’, in Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honor of H. A. R. Gibb. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.. 1965), p. 121.Google Scholar

^{page 284 note 1} Ibid. pp. 127–8.

^{page 284 note 2} Manfred, Halpern, Dialectics of Continuity, Change, Collaboration, Conflict and Justice in Traditional Muslim Societies, a paper presented to the Plenary session of the Second Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, 11 1968.Google Scholar

^{page 285 note 1} James, A. Bill, Iran: The Safavi and Pahlavi Political Systems, a paper delivered at the Second Annual Conference of the MESA, 11 1968, p. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 285 note 2} Halpern, , op. cit. p. 9.Google Scholar

^{page 285 note 3} Roger, M. Savory, The Evolution of the Safavid State (to be published shortly).Google Scholar

^{page 285 note 4} Bill, J. A., op. cit. p. 31.Google Scholar

^{page 286 note 1} Amin, Banani, The Modernization of Iran 1921–1941 (Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1961), p. 42.Google Scholar

^{page 287 note 1} Lambton, A. K. S., ‘Dustûr’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, vol. 2, p. 653.Google Scholar

^{page 290 note 1} Lambton, A. K. S., ‘Rural Reconstruction: Land Reform and the Role of the Rural Co-operative Societies’, a paper presented to the Conference on Iran in the 1960's, Columbia University, 6−9 11 1968, p. 5. (Hereinafter referred to as Lambton, ‘Land Reform’.)Google Scholar

^{page 290 note 2} Lambton, , ‘Land Reform’, p. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 290 note 3} Farman-Farmayan, , p. 4.Google Scholar

^{page 290 note 4} Ibid. p. 9.

^{page 290 note 5} Ibid.

^{page 290 note 6} Ibid.

^{page 291 note 1} Sepehr, Zabih, The Communist Movement in Iran (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966), p. 236.Google Scholar

^{page 292 note 1} Norman, Jacobs, The Sociology of Development (Praeger, New York, 1966), p. 220. (Hereinafter referred to as Jacobs.)Google Scholar

^{page 293 note 1} See Savory, R. M., ‘Persian Nationalism’, in Cambridge History of Islam, vol. I (Cambridge University Press, 1970), pp. 617–26.Google Scholar

^{page 293 note 2} Farman-Farmayan, , p. 24.Google Scholar

^{page 293 note 3} Lambton, , ‘Land Reform’, p. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 293 note 4} Farman-Farmayan, , p. 14.Google Scholar

^{page 294 note 1} Ibid. pp. 13–14.

^{page 294 note 2} See Marvin Zonis's recent work on this subject.

^{page 294 note 3} Arberry, A. J. (ed.), Fifty Poems of Höfiz (Cambridge, 1953), p. 31.Google Scholar

^{page 294 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 295 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 295 note 2} Elie, Kedourie, Nationalism, p. 87.Google Scholar

^{page 295 note 3} Gholam, Hossein Razi, ‘Religion and Politics in Iran’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, U.C.L.A. 1957), p. 167.Google Scholar

^{page 295 note 4} Ibid. p. 342.

^{page 295 note 5} Wilber, D. N., Contemporary Iran (London, 1963), p. 89.Google Scholar

^{page 296 note 1} Razi, , op. cit. p. 319.Google Scholar

^{page 296 note 2} Rouhallah, K. Ramazani, The Foreign Policy of Iran, 1500–1941 (Charlottesville, Va., 1966), p. 118.Google Scholar

^{page 296 note 3} Farman-Farmayan, , p. 15.Google Scholar

^{page 296 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 297 note 1} Ibid. p. 21.

^{page 297 note 2} Ibid. p. 23.

^{page 297 note 3} McLachlan, K. S., ‘Land Reform’, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 1, pp. 684–713, esp. p. 690.Google Scholar

^{page 297 note 4} Farman-Farmayan, , p. 4.Google Scholar

^{page 297 note 5} Ibid. p. 25.

^{page 298 note 1} Ibid. p. 26.

^{page 300 note 1} See Lambton, , ‘Land Reform’, pp. 26 ff.;Google ScholarJacobs, , p. 476.Google Scholar

^{page 300 note 2} Lambton, , ‘Land Reform’, p. 29.Google Scholar

^{page 300 note 3} Farman-Farmayan, , pp. 26–8.Google Scholar

^{page 300 note 4} Ibid. p. 30.

^{page 301 note 1} Jacobs, , p. 234.Google Scholar

^{page 301 note 2} Farman-Farmayan, , p. 33.Google Scholar

^{page 301 note 3} Charles, Issawi, ‘Iran's Economic Upsurge’, Middle East Journal, vol. 21 (1967), p. 448.Google Scholar

^{page 302 note 1} Sepehr, Zabih, The Communist Party in Iran, p. 233.Google Scholar

^{page 302 note 2} Ibid. p. 244.

^{page 302 note 3} Farman-Farmayan, , p. 33.Google Scholar

Article contents

The Principle of Homeostasis Considered in Relation to Political Events in Iran in the 1960's

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests