Introduction

Abstract

In its long history Iran has experienced many eventful moments. The past century was far from exceptional in this respect: the country was ravaged by three major wars (1914–1918, 1941–1945, 1980–1988) in which hundreds of thousands of people died; two coups (1921, 1953) transformed power relations within the political and military elite; and two revolutions (1905–1911, 1978–1979) led to radical changes in social, cultural, and political relationships. The country's appearance has changed completely since the end of the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a large proportion of the population lived in tribal communities; by the end of the century the central state was omnipresent. The capital, Tehran, expanded from a city of around 100,000 inhabitants in 1890 to a metropolis of over ten million.