li kulli fir'awn musa: the myth of moses and pharaoh in the iranian revolution in comparative...

8/8/2019 Li Kulli Fir'awn Musa: The Myth of Moses and Pharaoh in the Iranian Revolution in Comparative Perspective

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H. E. Chehabi

LI KULLI FIRAWN MUSA:The Myth of Moses and Pharaohin the Iranian Revolution inComparative Perspective

Brandeis UniversityCrown Center for Middle East StudiesCrown Paper 4 November 2010


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Crown PapersEditorNaghmeh Sohrabi

Consulting EditorRobert L. Cohen

Production ManagerBenjamin Rostoker

Editorial BoardAbbas Milani

Stanford UniversityMarcus NolandPeterson Institute for International EconomicsWilliam B. QuandtUniversity of VirginiaPhilip RobinsOxford UniversityYezid SayighKings College London

Dror ZeeviBen Gurion University

About the Crown Paper SeriesThe Crown Papers are double-blind peer-reviewed monographs coveringa wide-range of scholarship on the Middle East, including works of

history, economics, politics, and anthropology. The views expressed inthese papers are those of the author exclusively, and do not reflect theofficial positions or policies of the Crown Center for Middle East Studiesor Brandeis University.

Copyright 2010 Crown Center for Middle East Studies, BrandeisUniversity. All rights reserved.


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Table of Contents

Myth and Revolution 1

The Mosaic Myth in the Abrahamic Religions 7

Moses and Pharaoh in Iranian Political Islam 13

Conclusion 23

About the Author 26


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1

Myth and Revolution

M a plad impan l in man lin. The very use of thewor revouto to eote jor socootc uhev tht reces oeorer wth other ttests to ths, for revouto orgy referre to theoveet of oe ceest boy rou other fu crce, testfyg to thefct tht otc revoutos were orgy see s ebg the reestbshet

of ror orer, ot the estbshet of ew oe.1

Thus, the Frechrevoutores of 1789 were sre by cet Ro es, the Frechrevouto ws tur oe source of srto for the Ir revoutores of1906 the Otto revoutores of 1908.2 Revoutos cot eeets of thecycc eter retur tht chrcterzes yths the rtus ssocte wththe, tht t est soe revoutores terret ther stuto s costtutg rey of rgtc revous evet, tter ther ctos, coscousy orucoscousy, o those who cte out tht rgtc revous evet. Kr Mrx

sw ths cery whe he wrote the Eighteenth Brumaire: Just whe they seeegge revoutozg theseves thgs, cretg soethg tht hsever yet exste, recsey such eros of revoutory crss they xousycojure u the srts of the st to ther servce borrow fro the es,

btte cres costues orer to reset the ew scee of wor hstory ths te-hoore sguse ths borrowe guge. A he etey gvesexes: Thus Luther oe the sk of the Aoste Pu, the Revouto of1789 to 1814 re tsef tertvey s the Ro reubc the RoEre, the revouto of 1848 kew othg better to o th to roy, ow1789, ow the revoutory trto of 1793 to 1795.3 Oy eough, two yerserer Mrx hsef h kee the revouto of 1848 to ror oe whehe wrote: The revouto, whch s here ot ts e, but ts orgzto

begg, s o short-ve revouto. The reset geerto s ke the Jews


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who Moses e through the weress.4 Tht the ogy to the story of Mosesrebeg gst Phroh thereby bertg hs eoe seegy occurreto Mrx soteousy whe, ore ytc oet, he wou ke fuof such oges, ots to the ower of the Mosc yth the gto ofrevoutores.

The Aerc socoogst Lews Feuer hs Ideology and Ideologists wet so frs to stte tht [e]very eoogy soe fsho reets the Mosc yth,thertc story of the berto of the Hebrew trbes by Moses. For h, ths ythhs the foowg seres of stutos cets:

1) A eoe s oresse;2) youg , ot hsef of the oresse, ers;

3) ove by sythy, he tervees, strkes ow oressorshech;4) he ees, or goes to exe;5) he exereces the c to reee the oresse eoe;6) he returs to e freeo for the oresse;7) he s sure by the tyrc ruer;8) he es the ctos whch, fter t efets, overwhe theoressor;

9) he rts ew scre octre, ew w of fe, to hs eoe;10) he bertes the oresse eoe;11) the ewy berte eoe rese fro oyty to ther hstorcsso;12) ost susoe, ther eer oses coectve sce othe eoe to re-eucte the ory for ther ew fe;13) fse rohet rses who rebes gst the eers uthortrrue, but he s estroye; []

14) the eer, ow the revere wgver, es, s he gses fro fr ew exstece.5

Usg the Mosc yth, Feuer scusses we vrety of eooges, oveets, schoos of thought hghghtg the efrous ct eooges eoogstsof the eft the rght hve h o the vceet of cvzto. He cocuestht whe teectus cese to be eoogsts ... they w vocto oreeurg th y tht yth c cofer, ore scere becuse wthout sef-

uso.6

A ore sythetc cutury bou terretto of the ct tht thestory of Moses Phroh hs h o subsequet revoutores s gve byMche Wzer hs book Exodus and Revolution. He cocues tht tht story st


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story to everywhere; t st uvers tter; t beogs to the West, orertcury to Jews Chrsts the West.7

But though the story of Moses Phroh y ot be uvers tter, toes ot beog excusvey to the West ether, for t s so kow to Muss

resotes owerfuy wth the. Ths rtce yzes the roe tht the Moscyth ye Ir Iss, the revouto of 1978/79, the estbshetof the Isc Reubc. The ter yth s use here ot the csu, byow coo, sese of cto or eve e, but the sese of ror oetht ees rety tht s ofte reecte erocy the for of rtu.I Mrce Ees eto, yth rrtes scre hstory; t retes evettht took ce ror Te. ... I other wors, yth tes how, throughthe ees of Suertur Begs, rety ce to exstece, be t the whoe

of rety ..., or oy frget of rety ... [such s] rtcur k of hu behvor. ... Myth tes oy of tht whch really hee. ... I short, yths

escrbe the vrous soetes rtc brekthroughs of the scre ... tothe wor. It s ths sue brekthrough of the scre tht rey establishes thewor kes t wht t s toy.8

Most schors toy t the hstorcty of Moses,9 but ths oes ot reer useof the ter yth rorte, for s Ee wrote esewhere, our eory

s cuty retg vu evets re gures thus oesthe hstorc evet fter two or three cetures, such wy tht t c eterto the o of the rchc etty, whch cot ccet wht s vu reserves oy wht s exery.10 I the cse t h, s Sgu Freu utt, o hstor c regr the Bbc ccout of Moses the Exous s otherth ous yth, whch trsfore reote trto the terest of tsow teeces.11 The ythoogzto of the brth, fe, exots of Moses scery evet fro the fct tht the ccouts the Bbe the Kor re

those of other ythc heroes here to tter observbe such gures sOeus, Theseus, Wtu Guug (Jv), Kg Arthur.12

By eto, yth beogs to coectve, fuctos to justfy, suort, sre the exstece cto of couty, eoe, rofesso grou,or secret socety.13 I cote tht the scre hstory of Mosess strugge gstPhroh s yth whose reectet by the eoogues of the Isc revouto,esecy Aytoh Khoe hs foowers, s s ortt to uerstg

the revouto the rege tht t begot s re the uquey Shte yths rtus o whch schors hve htherto focuse ther tteto: seccy, theexectto tht the he twefth I, who sere fro vew, wretur oe y s Mh (Messh), to reestbsh justce the true fth; the


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rtyro of the thr I, Husy b. A, who ws ke 680 t Kerbwhe efeg hs kth k gst the forces of the Uyy ch Yz I. 14

The truht retur of Ruhoh Khoe to Ir ery 1978, foowe by hsssuto of the tte Imam, whch Ir (but ot Arb) Shtes h trtoy

reserve for ther tweve fbe Is of the Twever brch of Shs, wsterrete by y s fuet of the er execttos of the TweverShtesthe ore so sce t occurre t the e of the fourteeth cetury t te whe, s t the e of y cetury, eschtoogc ressures15 r hgh. At y ee be tht the cuture of wtg for essc svor tht ervesShte socety resose Irs to ccet Khoe s chrstc eer.16

Myths obze eoe ore f they re ssocte wth rtu, for oy the

c they be reve regury by vus.17 No rtu coeortes theserce of the twefth I,18 hs Prous ot yet hvg tke ce, rtu reectg hs retur s ogc ossbty. By cotrst, the ythof Husy, whch cots the scre hstory of the ec strugge betwee theforces of goo ev s exee by the Prohets grso Husy thech Yz resectvey, s coeorte oce every ur yer urg the rstte ys of the oth of Muhrr uber of rtus, the best kow begthe rocessos of gets.19 As the cetr thee of these rtus s Husys

strugge gst oressve rue, the rocessos hve ofte ture to rotesteostrtos gst the goveret of the y, whch o these occsos

becoes ete wth the (fro Shte ot of vew) egtte chYz. Arey Jue 1963, Khoe use the fervor egeere by Muhrrto rech gst the Shh, hs rrest t the heght of the festv geerterots whch hures were ke. I 1978, t-rege eostrtors reguryvoke the Lor of the Mrtyrs, s Husy b. A s kow og Shtes, s roeoe, cutg the Muhrr ys of Deceber, whe os of eoe

wke through the streets of Tehr eg the Shhs erture. Theseeostrtos ye key roe ersug rst the Shhs Wester bckers the hsef tht hs ys s ruer were ubere.20

The future cerc ruers of Ir qute coscousy exote the yth of Husyto obze beevers, fter they ce to ower they orgze uberof schory sers to yze ceebrte ts reevce to the revoutossuccess.21 I the rst schory book bout the revouto to er Egsh,

the throoogst Mche Fscher coe the ter Kerb rg for theeoogc trx rove by the story of Husy.22 It s oteworthy, however,tht the cover of the book showe revoutory oster ectg Khoe sMoses the Shh s Phroh, wth cto syg Arbc: Li kulli rawnMusaFor every Phroh there s Moses.23


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The Kerb rg ws of gret use to the Ir revoutores whe thestrugge gst the Shh, the Yz of the ge, ste, but the success of therevouto cotrste shry wth the eoueet of the btte of Kerb, whch Husy but oe of hs e retves foowers ershe. The

yth of Husy h ot becoe obsoete just yet, however, for 1979, Muhrrcoce wth the sezure of the Aerc hostges, whch ture the wrth ofthe gets-ture-eostrtors gst the Ute Sttes;24 fter thevso of Ir by S Husse Seteber 1980, the Isc Reubc use


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the Kerb rg to otvte ts soers the wr gst Irq.25 But therews oe thg the yth of Husy cou ot o: ey, rove roroe for goverg. For ths, the Isc reubcs h to tur to the rue of theProhet Muh hsef to the chte of A b. Ab Tb, who Shtescoser ther rst I who ws the oy Twever I ever to exercse hs

rght to rue.26 I cotrst to the Prohet Muh, however, the rst, thr, twefth Twever Shte Is, ech of who sre sect of the Irrevouto the subsequet estbshet of ew otc orer, the gureof Moses ws srto ot oy the strugge gst the Shh but sowth resect to the Isc Reubc tht foowe, for he ws, Freus cocsechrcterzto, Jew who wte to free hs cotrots fro the servce of Egyt overor e the out of the coutry to eveo eeet sef-coet exstecea feat he actually achieved.27

Before evg to the ctu use e of the yth of Moses, I wou ke toroose tht theoogs, eoogues, sttese, regous eers rete to t( to other yths) two wyswhch, foowg Ish Ber, I c ve setet. Ber ve rtsts to two ctegores bse o these ters,28 hs thkg o the ssue hs bee surze s foows:

The ve rtst s whoe uve, t oe wth hsef hs

wor; he s ot sef-coscous, hs rt s tur ustorteexresso of wht he recty sees fees, for ts ow ske ot ursut of y uteror urose. The setet rtst, othe other h, hs fe fro the ror stte of uty hroy, whch he seeks, ofte wth eserte sese of urgecy, torestore through hs work; but he ursues e whch s utteyuttbe y te eu.29

Ae to the Ir cse, ke Khoe ws qutessety ve,whe ke A Shrt, who soe coser the eoogue of the Irrevouto,30 fs squrey to the setet ctegory.31 But before exg wht wys Ir Issts hve rw o the story of Moses Phroh, I wuce few exes fro other regous trtos, the ot beg to showtht Irs revouto the eoogy tht gue ts ot cooets reuch ess e utegbe to Wester uece th hs bee ge.


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The Mosaic Myth in the Abrahamic Religions

Moses s cetr gure Abrhc wor regos.32 Much k hs bee

se the ttet to ex how the Kors Nabi Musa retes to the Jueo-Chrst Moses of the Bbe;33 but these ebtes re ot reevt to ths rtce,whch s cocere wth res rther th tos.

Judaism

It s oy Jus tht the yth of the Exous s ssocte wth yery

rtu, Pssover, whe the evets re rrte urg the Seer, the rtue.34 The rtu es wth the wors Next yer Jeruse, whch hsket ve the coscousess of exe og Jews over the cetures hse aliyah, the retur to the Hoy L fter the serss of the Jews the sxth cetury the rst cetury , syboc rey of theberto fro Egyt rue. No woer, the, tht the fouto of theStte of Isre ws for y Jews vey ( Bers ters) rescetof the Exous.35 As Mche Wzer uts t, Exous hs wys stoo t

the very ceter of Jewsh regous thought hs ye rt echof the reterte ttets t Jewsh otcs, fro the Mccbe revotto the Zost oveet.36 If the Exous rg s ot s ot soe wou exect t to be Zost thought, ths s becuse y Zosts,such s Be-Guro, wshe to ke ew begg ook to the futurerther th to the st.37 Regous Zosts, oreover, hve cresgytee to see the estbshet of Jewsh stte essc ters.38 As

exe of setet use of the Mosc yth, oe c ucethe evcuto of Ethos Jews to Isre the 1980s, whch ws ceOerto Moses.39 Sce the t hs bee estbshe tht the Bet Isre(Fsh[s]) re ot escets of Jews who h grte fro Pesteto orthester Afrc.40

Christianity

For Christians, the Exodus is a preguring of Christs death and resurrection,which represent what is seen as a greater and more universal liberationthan that of the biblical Exodus.41 Nonetheless, the story of Moses andPharaoh, unmediated by Jesus, has directly inspired a great many Christianmovements and individuals. Savonarola referred to Pope Alexander VI, who


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had excommunicated him, as Pharaoh, implying that he himself was Moses.42The Puritans who crossed the Atlantic in their own mind left the Egypt ofold England for the Canaan of New England;43 in fact, the leader of thesecond group of settlers, John Winthrop, regarded himself as the Moses andthe leader of a new and even more important exodus.44 But this ight from

Pharaoh did not prevent the Puritans descendants from acting pharaonicallyvis--vis the Mormons, who ended up eeing to distant Utaha migrationwhich they, too, likened to the biblical Exodus.45 In fact, the story of Moseshas played a major role in American culture,46 including in the culture andnarratives of African Americans. Examples of black leaders who have beenlikened to Moses include Henry Adams, an illiterate ex-slave who led anexodus of thousands of cotton workers from the South to Kansas in 187980;47 Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican-born intellectual who boasted that he had

discovered fascism before Mussolini;48 and most recently Martin Luther King, Jr., who made copious use of the Moses topos in his utterances, including inhis famous last speech before his assassination.49

I South Afrc, the Dutch setters, ove by ther sec br of Cvst ety,core the weress of the froter to tht wth whch Moses joureye.50Whe they ce uer ressure fro the Brtsh ove to the teror ofthe cotet wht bece kow s the Gret Trek, the ror yth

of the Exous ws soo use to rove retroctve eg.51 It bece oubyreevt: Not oy were eoe hyscy o the ove,52 but Phroh h owfou coteorry vtr the she of the Brtsh.53 Preset Pu Krugerof Trsv voke Moses to ex hs cts;54 t hs fuer, oe of thesekers observe tht

[t]he reto betwee Preset Kruger hs eoe res oeof the reto betwee Moses the Isretes, ot wthout

reso. Eve s the Isretes were e fro the uthorty of theEgyts, so so Krugers eoe were tke fro the goveretuthorty, both fou ther freeo other , where theye ther ow ws serve Go ther ow wy.55

I ght of the revece of the Exous otf Afrker otc ythoogy, ts roc tht the 1970s 1980s t so bece key eeet the rhetorcreertore of the otc ooets of the structures set u by Krugers hers.56

I fct, coecto of essys yzg vrous sects of the Exous the Jueo-Chrst trto feture exor stteet by the Cthoc theoogHs Kg whch he tke only bout South Afrc the ee to overthrowrthe.57


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If refereces to Moses the Exous the scourse of Purts, Moros, robby Afrkers were stces of ve receto of the yth, the reexe of ts setet vocto s furshe by the berto theoogyof the 1970s 1980s, whch, uece by Mrxst otos of css strugge Lest otos of ers s ree by Lt Aerc eeecy

theory, terrete the wor s beg ety ve betwee oressors oressewth the strugge betwee the two, cug the evtbevctory of the oresse, beg foreshowe by Mosess strugge wth vctory over Phroh, ror evet berto theoogs ce to c theExous rg.58 Eve by the verbose strs of eoogues, the bertotheoogs hrke bck to Moses Phroh wth reettveess tht woutet oe to sek of cch were t ot for the rezto tht they otwrte for the ecto of schors but for the obzto of Chrsts o the

sfvore se of css, rc,59 cotet,60 geer61 es, so s to hstether ecto.62 At the hert of the rguetto y ythoogc -set, s s cer fro the foowg two quottos. The Protestt Brzberto theoog Rube Aves rgue tht

[t]he Exous ws the exerece whch crete the coscousessof the eoe of Isre. The eoe fore the structurg cetrewhch etere ts wy of orgsg te sce. Note tht I

ot syg sy tht the Exous s rt of the cotets of thecoscousess of the eoe of Isre. If tht were the cse, the Exouswou be oe te of forto og others. More th teof forto, t s its structuring centre, tht t eteres thetegrtg ogc, the rce of orgsto terrettoof hstorc exerece. Tht s why the Exous oes ot erssts secory exerece. ... It hs coe to be the paradigm for theterretto ofall space and all time.63

The terretto of Exous coveye these es s cosot wth Eeseto of yth s story tht tes how, through the ees of SuerturBegs, rety ce to exstece.

A work etrey ecte to Exous, Jos Severo Crotto, ArgeteCthoc berto theoog, ows tht

the Hebrews were ot cotet wth the uore t o Moses the Exous ccouteve though the eer of the bertoh already bee ythoogze. So they erge hs gure wthuerbe ocryh esoes, ech ore extrorry th thest. Ths s ot to be vewe s egeress to uge fbuto


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but s hereeutc exresso of rofou uerstg of thekey-ersoge of ther hstory.64

Athough the ythoogzto of Moses s tte by Crotto, the otvto beh t s, the true er of eoogues, re rther th rove

whch es tht to reer who oes ot shre Crottos sychoogc sghtsto the cet Hebrews true otvtos, Ees foreetoe extosees ore usbe. Aso of terest s wht Crotto oers s rce ofhereeutcs: A hu evet oes ot exhust tsef sy by occurrg, or the chroce tht escrbes t. It hs the ccty to geerte other hegs.The eg of the ore recet evet s fou to be rey cue wththe ror evet. As the ch of evets egthes, ts sgcce retrosectveyccuutes tht reote strtg ot.65 Ths res s though evets h

gecy. I fct, t s hus who ssg sgcce to evets, the cousoto re oe evet ters of revous oeor, coversey, to vest revousevet wth the eg of subsequet oehs othg to o wth the evetstheseves everythg to o wth the hu roesty to ythoogze.66

The use of the Exous rg by berto theoogy hs bee the object of sorts of crtcs o theoogc grous.67 Oe oteworthy sect of the bertotheoogc verso of the yth of Moses the Chrst trto s tht t s

tructe. The Exous rg eves out the ess efyg rts of the story,such s the jucto to the Levtes to k those who succube to otry,68s we s the sscre of the Ctes fter ther ws tke by theIsretes.69 Mchve recogze ths whe he wrote: He who res the Bbewth sceret w see tht, orer tht Moses ght set bout kg ws sttutos, he h to k very gret uber of e who, out of evy othg ese, were oose to hs s.70

O ths ssue, the ve New Eg Purts South Afrc Boers, whocoscousy ete the tves of ther rose sresectvey, NtveAercs Afrcs (or, s they wou hve s, Is Krs)wth the Ctes juste ther sossesso of these tves byvokg the yth of Moses Phroh,71 were ore hoest th coteorrysetet berto theoogs, who te to gore both those who chooseto worsh goe cf (ot uresobe thg to o, fter , fro theersectve of the regous urs tht heres toys sococutur rety,

rety tht roves the cotext whch, ccorg to the hereuts, scrtureshou be terrete!), the Ctes.72 I ths regr, the Methostster hstor Joh A. Newto hs wrtte:


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The show se of Exous, the -tretet exrorto ofthe Ctes or Getes, however, s wrg tht the Exoustter, costrue terst O Testet ters, hs excte hevy to hu suerg ... oy Mrt Luther Kgs o-voetcg for Negro rghts gty, for recocto of Bck

Whte, ots ubguousy to wht s for Chrsts the Exous,the Exous whch Jesus, by hs eth resurrecto, ws toccosh Jeruse (Luke 9:31).73

Islam

The scre hstory of Is oes ot beg wth the rohecy of Muh, the Kor fct cues ccouts of the gush strugges of revous

rohets, ost of who re so etoe (though ot ecessry s rohets) the Bbe.74 I the Kor, stores tht the Hebrew Bbe uses to ex rtcurchters the hstory of the Jewsh eoe hve the fucto of ustrtg howthe true beever ust behve; Korc chrcters re thus or rgs,ebetc of who re goo or ev.75 Aog these chrcters, Moses Phroh re rtcury roet: the Kor etos Moses 126 (by othercouts, 136) tes, Phroh s referre to 74 tes.76

Moses s see s the rohet ost ke Muh, for Muss terretDeuterooy 18:18, I w rse the u Prohet fro og ther brethre,ke uto thee [Moses], w ut y wors hs outh; he sh sekuto the tht I sh co h, s foreteg the cog of the Prohetof Is, for the tters fe creer foow the se tter s Mosess,kg h uch ore ke uto [Moses] th Jesuswho, cog betweeMoses Muh, ght be thought of rst ths cotext.77 As oe wouexect, Mus trto ccors Muh hgher rk th Moses, rgug

tht whe the tter swooe whe he her Gos voce (7:143), the forer wsctuy strog eough to ber the sght of Go whe he wet o the mirj.78 Butthere s so hth ccorg to whch Muh ske hs foowers ot torefer h to Moses.79 Lke ost other tes of re-Muh rohets,the verses tht e wth Moses hs strugges were s to be revee toMuh the e ero of hs creer, te of crss whe he h toovercoe gret cutes they were et, Muss beeve, to cosoe herte h.80 The stores of Moses thus serve s trx tht ebes Muh

to uerst hs ow rohetc exerece.81

Phroh, for hs rt, s the chef v of the Kor;82 eve he he s the eerof the e (Kor 28:41). I Isc trto, the Phroh of Moses (Firawn


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Ms) s the etoe of the swggerg rrogt esot. But Phroh s oterey esot; he eboes bsheous reteso to vty.83

O the whoe, the ccout of Mosess fe oere the Kor s rerkbysr to tht gve the Hebrew Bbe, but there re subte ereces. Most

ortt for uroses of ths scusso s tht the Kor, Moses s set byGo to Phroh ot erey to seek the berto of hs eoe, the Isretes, butto cofrot the ruer, who regre hsef s go. I the Kor, Moses vtes

both the Phroh hs subjects to subt to Go. Phroh refuses, for whchhe uttey ys wth hs fe; by cotrst, hs court sorcerers, bete t therow ge by Moses, o subt the e (26:47). The trto vew ogMuss, ccorgy, s tht Moses ws set by Go to rogte Is ghtthe Phrohs fse rego, whch h ee the ruer; hs essge, therefore, ws

uvers. By the se toke, the e of grto tht s so cetr to the bbcverso of the story, tht eoe o the ove such s the Egsh setters North Aerc Dutch setters South Afrc fou so eg, s otroet the Isc trto.

The Kor s ot the oy source for Muss uerstg of Moses hs fe.They kew of the Exous rrtve ( other stores) fro trstos of theTorh the Pssover Hggh,84 soe of whch fou ther wy to gere of

books ce Qisas al-Anbiy (Stores of the Prohets), of whch cot chtersrecoutg the story of Moses whch the refereces the Kor re coectewth forto gee fro erer scrture. But t s reveg, wth resectto Muss uversstc uerstg of Moses, tht the scees fro the fe ofMoses tht Mus rtsts hve ost ofte chose to grhcy ect rete to hsstrugge gst gs ts fo festtos.85 The ushot s tht justs Mosess essge ws vcte, so wou, te, be tht of Muh.

It s ot surrsg, therefore, tht og coteorry Muss, the story ofMoses Phroh hs cqure the sttus of yth whch gves eg to therow exerece. If Phroh s gure whose ythooec eects cotue to befet ow to the oer er,86 the se s true of Moses. To gve few exes, Pkst, soe cosere the ot very ous fouer of Pkst, M. A. Jh, Moses,87 whe Egyt, Syy Qutb, oe of the fouers of oer Iss,evote sgct rt of hs ssve coetry o the Kor, Fi zill al-Qurn, to exctg the exery ture of Mosess strugge gst Phroh,

whch hs cse ws esecy eotoy chrge sce he ete PresetNsser, o whose orers he ws uttey ke 1966, wth the Phroh ofthe Kor.88 Whe Nssers successor, Awr St, ws tur sssste 1981, the ssss, Kh -Isbu, shoute fter oeg re: I Kh -Isbou, I hve ke Phroh, I o ot fer eth.89


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Gve the currecy of the Moses Phroh otf South Afrc, t s ottogether stoshg tht the yth of Moses Phroh hs bee gve thegretest Isc eborto by South Afrc thker Fr Esck, t-rthe ctvst who, fter stuyg rs Pkst, ce to cotctwth Chrst berto theoogy. Whe coservtve South Afrc Mus

eers rgue for ccetg the rthe reges oer of cosutto byotg out tht eve Moses h ccete Phrohs vtto to tk to h,Esck oose ther coctory stce srcstcy tte booket.90 Hvg

bee e wre, fro hs reg of A Shrt (bout who ore beow),91of the rgtc ower of Mosess strugge gst Phroh, Esck took overthe oto of the Exous rg fro berto theoogy e t Mus cotext.92

I ght of the revece of the ter Exous rg, the reer ght woerwhy I vo t. I o so for three resos. Frst, the ter erves fro the HebrewBbe, ts Korc equvet wou robby be Shur rg, for t s the Sur Shur tht the story of Moses Phroh s to ost exsvey.Seco, I o ot kow of y Arbc or Pers equvet of the wor exoustht evokes ssoctos sr to the oes t ects og Jews Chrsts.The cocet tht coes cosest to t, hijra, refers to the Prohet Muhsteorry erture for Me fro Mecc. Whe soe hve rgue tht ths

ove ws sre by the Isretes erture fro Egyt,93 for the urosesof Mus ythoogy t s ore ortt to ote tht the hijra tsef bece ythsrg, to e oy three exes, the khrjtes;94 y of theMus Is who wet to Pkst fter Prtto bece kow smuhajirs; the terrorst grou tht ke Awr St tht ce tsefTakr wa l-hijra (Excoucto Derture). Fy, the wor exousrefers to sect of the story whch s cetr the Hebrew Bbeey, theerture of the Isretes ther foug of ew otybut whch oes ot

occur the Kor, where the ehss s o cofrotg the e Phroh.

Moses and Pharaoh in Iranian Political Islam

Whe the Isc trto regrg Moses Phroh s shre by MusIrs,95 there s oe et of tht story tht gves t e resoce to Shtes, tht s the beef tht A b. Ab Tbs reto to the Prohet Muh,hs cous fther--w, s ogous to Aros reto to hs brother Moses.Ths s bse o Kor 20:29-30, A gve e s ssstt fro y fy / Aroy brother / to stregthe y tsk / shre y tsk, o the Hth of


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Mz, rohetc trto ccorg to whch Muh kee Asretosh to hsef to tht of Aro to Moses.96 Whe ths trto s cooto Sus Shtes, the tter erve fro t roof of As c s successor tothe Prohet, whch Sus ey.

Ths ogy hs eft trces our regosty. Thus the eev Is Shteoet Nser Khosrow97 wrote:

Cho Hrun-e Mus bud Ali dar dinHam anbz o ham neshin-e MohammadBeh mahshar bebusand Hrun o MusRad-ye Ali o stin-e Mohammad.

Lke the Aro of Moses, A ws regoThe ssocte coo of Muh.At the Lst Juget, Aro Moses w kssThe Mte of A the Seeve of Muh.98

Aog South As Twever Shtes, As sos Hs Husy re frequetyreferre to by the es of Aros sos, Shbbr Shbbr, resectvey.99I Husy, for hs rt, s cosere her to rohets, cug Moses.100

As he eves Me to swer the c of the eoe of Kuf, Husy s reeof Mosess ght fro Egyt to My t eret stges of the tr rectesverses 2124 of Sur -Qss, whch e wth tht evet.101

Not surrsgy, the strugge of Moses gst the Phroh s ofte etoeogse tht of Husy gst Yz.102 The Mrxst Io-Pkst oet ShbbrHs Josh (18981982) eve wet so fr s to c Kr Mrx Hamdam-e Shabbir obadkhvh-e Yazid, Mus-e nowbahr-e feron-e jadid, or the sou te of Shbbr (the

Uru reerg of Shubyr.e., Husy) the eey of Yz, the Moses of theew se of the ew Phroh. Thus Mrx hsef s resse u the costues ofthe st.103

The Naive Reenactment of the Myth: Khomeini

The fouer of the Isc Reubc of Ir, Aytoh Ruhoh Khoe (190289), rst burst o the otc scee of Ir 1943, whe he ubshe bookette The Exposure of Secrets.104 I ths book he severey ttcke the rege ofRez Shh Phv (r. 192641), whch h ee the wke of the Ae vsoof Ir 1941. Athough the vso h e to berzto of Ir otcstht owe the ue to rec soe of the uece o ubc fe they h


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ost uer Rez Shh, ost ue refre fro eterg the otc fry, tttue ecourge by Aytoh Hosey Borujer (18751961), who bece thehghest regous uthorty of Twever Shtes 1946 sette Qo. Aogthose cercs who were otcy ctve, the ost roet ws AytohAboqse Ksh (18821962),105 otc uch re by Khoe.106 I

the srg of 1944, Ksh ws hg Sher, orth of Tehr (o Jue 18he ws rreste by the Aes exe to Lebo), t y very we be thethy show o ths occso by other ue tht uce Khoe to crtczethe essge ssue o My 4, 1944. He ce o hs coegues to efy thegoveret, the justcto he gve ws tke fro the story of Moses.After quotg the Kor, he stte, It s rsg for Go whe Moses wth hs stefete the Phros estroye ther throe crow. It s rsg forGo whe the Lst of the Prohets sge-hey truhe over the hbts

beefs of the jhiliya (re-Isc ge of gorce), overthrew the os Gos house, estbshe oothes ety.107

But the cosesus of the Shte ue ws ot to get vove otcs, ocytht bece oc t coferece o the subject of otcs the cergy he Qo ery 1949, whch cocue tht those who choose to wer cerc grb ...shou bst fro tergg the rs of otcs otc rtesor becog toos for ther gos.108 Khoe gruggy here to ths e, ut

the eth of Aytoh Borujer 1961 free h of the obgto to be by thetters quetst st.

Khoes cofrotto wth the orchy recoece 1963, wheMoh Rez Shh Phv (r. 194179) beg estbshg ore cttorrege th the oe tht h reve sce the cou tt of 1953. As votosof the costtuto of 1906 bece ore grt, Khoe rst etrete theruer to e hs wys here to the bsc w of 1906. Ths c be terrete

s euto of Moses, who, s recoute Sur 26 (Shur) of the Kor,suoe Phroh hs courters to ccet Go. The cofrotto ce to he o Ashur, the teth of the ur oth of Muhrr (Jue 5, 1963). At te whe the gref of the beevers ws ekg, Khoe resse the crows Qo. After reg the steers of the ev ogs of Yz rwgct res wth the Shh, soe of whose oces he hrshy crtcze, heresse the Shh recty:

Let e gve you soe vce, Mr. Shh! Der Mr. Shh, I vse you toesst ths ocy ct ke ths. I ot wt the eoe to oeru thks f your sters shou ece oe y tht you ust eve. Iot wt you to becoe ke your fther.


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After reg hs uece tht Rez Shhs force erture fro Ir the wke of the Ae vso of 1941 h e eoe hy, he cotueressg the Shh:

Shh, I ot wsh the se to he to you; I ot wt you to

becoe ke your fther. Lste to y vce, ste to the [ue]of Is. ... You serbe wretch, forty-ve yers of your fe hvesse; st t te for you to thk reect tte, to oerbout where ths s eg you, to er esso fro theexerece of your fther?109

Fr fro steg to Khoe, however, the Shh ersevere hs oces, 1964 he exe Khoe, rst to Turkey the to Njf Irq.

The Shh soo rove Khoe wth the otvto to rcze hs oostoto the rege. I the te 1960s, rertos beg for bg ceebrto to rkthe 2,500th versry of the foug of the Pers Ere by Cyrus. Ths wsto be the otheoss of the orchy, kg the curret Shh to the Acheeruer, but the eyes of Khoe the cost of the vsh ceebrto ( erhsthe extto of re-Isc Ir) erve the Shh of the st shre of egtcytht he h ejoye uer the costtuto. Fro oshg the ruer to

be by the fuet w, he ow ture to eegtzg the costtutotsef. Ths took the for of seres of ectures o Isc goveret, gve 1970, whch were ter ubshe s tretse uer the tte Hokumat-e Eslmi(Isc goveret). I t, Khoe rgue for Velyat-e Faqih (ofte trstes Doo of the Jursruet),110 syste of cerc theocrcy tht, thoughtkg ts cue fro soe rg erer strs Twever Shs,111 oute to cer brek wth coveto Shte thkg.112

As ght be execte work tht breks wth trto, Khoe uses ste-by-ste oe of resog to covce the reer of the egtcy of hsovto.113 I hs justcto of cerc rue, Khoe rst quotes trtoto the eect tht the ue re the hers to the Prohetwho, we ght ,ws so wory ruer. But corg hsef to the Prohet wou hve beeresutuous, eve erhs bsheous, so Khoe s two ore hthccorg to whch the Prohet Muh s, The [ue] of y coutyre ke the rohets receg e The [ue] of y couty re ke

the rohets of the Chre of Isre, og wth trto ttrbute to theeghth I, ccorg to whch [t]he rk of the faqih (jurst) the resetge s ke tht of the rohets of the chre of Isre.114 Hvg estbshe thecoecto betwee hs ow sttus grou (the ue) the rohets of the


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Isretes, Khoe turs to the ost ustrous og these. Notg tht Mosesws ere sheher, he s:

[A]s resut of hs te bty hs stefstess, he overthrewthe rue of the Phroh wth st. Now ge tht st the

hs of you e; wou we hve bee be to cheve the seresut?115

A he cocues:

It s obvous tht Moses hsef ws oe of the rohets of thechre of Isre, tht of the fuctos tht exste for[Muh] so exste for Moses, wth erece, of course,

rk, stto, egree. We euce fro the geer scoe ofthe wor rk ths trto, therefore, tht the se fuctoof ruersh goverce tht Moses exercse exsts so for the

fuqaha [jursts].116

He the excty cores the Shh to the Phroh,117 terrets the Korsverso of Mosess strugge gst Phroh s jucto to Muss to oosetter-y Phrohstht s, the Shh.118

A few oths before the ctu ceebrto, Khoe ssue stteet whchhe exhorte the ue to sek u oose the Shh orer to sve Is,eve f they theseves were trete we by the rege. Fro the begg ofhstory, oressve (jber) goverets hve bee oose by the rohets theue. D they ot kow wht they were og?! If Go ses Moses to etethe shhanshh, he ot kow ... tht oe ust ot oose the shh? ... Tbrretes tht the Prohet s tht malik al-muluk [the kg of kgs, = shhanshh] s

the ost curse (manfur) wor for e, eg shhanshh, ths s curse wor fe to hu beg, t beogs to Go.119 I the suer of 1972, otheressge to the Ir eoe, Khoe reture to the thee of Moses whehe exhorte soers to wt for the rght oet to rse gst the Shh: Ohsoers, Moses-ke, the ebrce (ghush) of Phroh, wt for the y whe theroots of corruto w be cut o. You gt soers of the Ruer of the Age (yGo hste hs vctory) [.e., tht of the twefth I] who hve bee rgge tothe brrcks, wth fu courge stregthe your try trg. Hoefuy, ke

Moses, who ws brought u the househo of Phroh [but] ut e to hsoresso, you too w oe y uer the co of rghteous ocehoer(maqm) cut o these wcke hs root out corruto oresso.120


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The Sentimental Reenactment of the Myth: Ali Shariati andZahr Rahnavard

Where Khoe use the we-kow stores of Moses hs strugges to sre

hs foowers or justfy hs oces, A Shrt, the eoogue of the IscRevouto, wet further ttete to costruct etre eoogc ecerou the eter strugge betwee goo ev. He returs to ths thee y of hs seeches wrtgs, rovg strkg corto of Feuersobservto tht [] eoogy s ever cotet wth the rrtve of the yth;the r ust be show to be eucbe fro the ws of exstece tsef.121Moses Phroh y oy or roe ths eter coct, howevertherchetyc strugge betwee oressors oresse, betwee exoter

exote, beg tht betwee C Abe.

122

The two brothers st t thebegg of two og es of tgostc gures, ech resectvey eg theforces of goo ev ther te. I tk o I Husy, Shrt observetht

[] these two gets, whch hve wys everywhere beet wr wth ech otherrght wrog, justce justce,oothes oythes, fth sbeef, eoe obes, erve (mostazaf) rrogt (mostakbar), two chs ofhertce ssue the eersh of the two fctos: Abe C, Abrh Nro, Moses Phroh, Joh [the Btst] Herous, Jesus Cesr, Muh Qurysh ... A Muwy, ... ow, Husy Yz!123

The ter Shrt use to sgfy ervemostazaf/mustadaferves frothe story of Moses s to the Kor, where we re (28:4) tht Phroh sths eoe to eret grous overshe oe of the, but t s ths grou

tht s este to hert Phrohs ght. Esewhere the Kor, those who hve bee overshe/erve re esgte s mustadaf, roouce mostazaf

Pers.124 Shrts revv of the ter cught o fter the revouto, s we wsee.

Shrt exctes the ture of oresso justce by vg t to threecoeetry tyes. Throughout hstory, he cs, C hs h three fces:wory ruer, ecooc ruer, regous ruer. The rohets, of who hve

bee shehers or ustr workers, hve rse gst these owers. I the cseof Moses, these three owers were ersoe Phroh, Qru, B-eBur.125 Lke C Abe, B oes ot er the Kor, where 40:23-24we re: We set Moses wth Our sgs cer uthorty to Phroh, H, Qru. However, soe Korc coetres o eto h. 126


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If Shrt referre to Moses oy ssg s oe exe of the ever-eg strugge betwee oressors oresse, oe of hs foowers, ZhrRhvr,127 evote etre book, ette Accompanying the Uprising of Moses, toexctg the coteorry reevce of Moses.128 The books ccout of the feof Moses essety foows the sequece of evets s set forth the Qisas al-anbiy

terture, the sese tht rrtve of the fe of Moses s costructe usgverses fro the Kor whch re the coecte wth ssges tht ex thesgcce of the verse gs the story. 129

The eoogc fucto of the book s cery otcebe whe Rhvrschoce of wors betokes coteorry reoccutos or cocetuztos, orwhe she rws fereces bout the reset er. The jrgo of the Ir Lefteves trces, such s Whe Moses rebee he ws st youg ot hve

cer css bss, whe he ws chose s rohet he ws toer. 130 Theurb geogrhy of Tehr, wth ts oor, subrous, hot South tsuet, Westerze, cooer North, coes to whe we re tht Mosessoetes vste the oresse eoe the eths of the oorest rts of thecty, whe t other tes, resse the best cothes, he wou socze wthhs gurs the ost we-eque houses the ost ctcy estrts of the cty.131 The Ir revoutores obsesso wth the cesst fu thecoutrys etes were beeve to be hvg132 s reecto the sserto tht

whe Moses wtesse the reveg of the Phros, he wou be ree ofhs wek oresse cotrots.133 Cosequety, he fought for the toersof Egyt eft the coy of the ce weers.134 Rhvr grees wthShrt tht Phroc oresso h three fces, but she etes the threber of ths uhoy trty s the Korc H, who for her reresets the

bureucrcy.135 The coectvs t-cts of the Ir revoutores s evece whe she sserts tht Phroh hs suorters og the obtyh roteerg vust vues.136

Exct refereces to the reset ge re rre the book, whe they occurthey re oge og foototes o ot vove Ir. The org grtoof the Isretes fro C to Egyt, the roe they ye the ourshgof Egyt cvzto, res her of Bcks ecet Aerc, who reccetg Is growg ubers.137 Jews, for ther rt, h becoe corruteowg to the og te they set og the Egyts, they rove cbeof reeyg ther et, rctc, hstorc shortcogs eve whe they

were gue by Moses other rohets. They bequethe ther corruto tother osrg, s evece by ther oosto to the Prohet Muh.She cocues: You see how ther rch owerfu ress the ecooc exottve use wth ther forcbe gers, erhs the Kors scussoof the Jews c reve to us the eret rues (qavaed) [tht gover] the


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ther roe hstory.138 Fy, the gues tht Go set ow o the Egytsre kee to the r outo tht cuses so uch ess the ecet eveoe socetes139 cotrst, oe ssues, to the rste r of Tehr.

Lest t be thought tht ths ttet to t cet ege to the Procruste

be of coteorry otc reevce s uque to the teectuy cofusegry of revoutory Thr Wor eoogues, et t be ote out tht resecte Aerc otc scetst ( st reset of the AercPotc Scece Assocto), Aro Wvsky, ubshe thck voue whchhe yze wht he thought oe cou er regrg eersh fro the Bbestes bout Moses.140

The excerts gve bove show tht whe Khoes rhetorc uses the strugge

betwee Moses Phroh usefcoscousy soteousyveyShrt Rhvr rereset setet reg of the yth of Moses Phroh. The story of Moses hs coct wth Phroh s hresse tore-crete the stte of uty hroy betwee trto beefs theoer wor hroy tht, ccorg to these beevers, the chggfestyes of the e css the eoogc cheges of the Mrxst Left hestroye.

The Social Reenactment of the Myth: The Revolution of197879

Agst the bckgrou of such wrtgs s those weve resete bove, thevocto of Moses Phroh urg the revouto of 1978 ce tury.Posters, hets, trcts ere tht ce Khoe the Moses of theAge.141 Rhye sogs grt ye jor roe the revouto of 197879, ost of the forer beg e u by rhyester who ter ce to be ce

ster of sogs. Two reevt w sogs were: If Phroh hs troos, f the Qurysh obes were ot be to rev over the foowers of Ah, theShh hs executoers w ot be vctorous over us ether, , whe theShh h eft, Fy we hve bee be to brg Phroh the Phros tother kees. A whe the Shh sette Egyt uo hs erture fro Ir,oe rhye sog ecre:

Beh hemmat-e Khomeini Pahlavi darbedar shod

Feron-e qarn-e bistom dar Mesr mostaqarr shod.

By the eort of Khoe, Phv hs becoe hoeessThe Phroh of the tweteth cetury hs sette Egyt.142


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Hvg stche oe Phroh to exe, Khoe ture hs tteto to theoe ext-oor to Ir: Aressg the ebers of the Hgh Mjs of the Iscrevouto of Irq, Shte exe orgzto bse Ir, Khoe urge the,o Seteber 20, 1983, to foow the exe of Moses, who rebee gst thePhroh to estbsh justce rther th to estbsh hs ow rue143vce ot

evo of cert roy, gve the estbshet of cerc rue Ir few yerserer.

A ece ter, Moses bece reevt to Irs eghbor to the Est. I theery 1990s, tte book ette Lessons for Struggle from the Uprising of Moses wsubshe Qo; t s ecte to the Moses of the ge, the o-ssher ofthe cetury, the I of the U, the gret Khoe, the ght of whosetechgs we hve fou true Is g.144 The rst rgrh of the book

exs the coteorry reevce of the story of Moses, whch s ce thegretest oe for revoutory jhst (jehdgar) eoe. The tctcs(tktik) use by the sheher gst the Phroh, t ts, re so ove structve tht t wou see tht the Kor ys out the ghtg ethosfor toy. The books , t rocs, s to show tht the ethos tctcsuse by Moses gst the tyrc Shh [sic] of Egyt c sre Afghs whore ghtg jh gst the Phroc Mrxst rege Afghst rove rebutt to those who c tht Is oes ot ossess the scece of

how to ght gst corrut reges who sst tht the ethos of struggehve to be ere fro the Mrxsts.145 To cch the ot, the uthor wrtes thtthough the Phroh etoe the Kor ws robby Rses II or hs soMereth, hs e s ever etoe, tht s becuse Go wte toke us uerst tht He oes ot cre bout ersos, tht wht tterss the rege (rezhim), tht oe hs to strugge gst Phroc otcsystes. 146

Whe the vocto of Moses Phroh hs becoe rre the revoutoryscourse of the Isc Reubc, t reer the -1990s, whe t wsretroctvey e to I Mus Sr (192978), the chrstc eer ofLebos Shtes, who ysterousy sere Lby 1978.147 I bookette Imam Musa Sadr, the Hope of the Deprived, the uthor cs tht AytohSr -D Sr e hs so Mus, beutfu e tht res everyhu beg of strugge gst oresso oosto to Tghut, becuse hews bor 1929, te whe eoe were subjecte to the svge behvor of

the Phros of the ge (.e., Rez Shhs rege).148

Here we rech the heghtof setet yth rorto, for the fct of the tter s tht Aytoh Sr-D Sr ws fr ore key, s Twever Shte cerc, to e hs so fter theseveth Twever Shte I, Mus -Kz, th fter the rohet of the see. I fct, Sr, ogte reset of Mshh, e hs three sos Rez,


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Mus, A, the three eeets of the e of the eghth Twever Shte I,A b. Mus -R/Rez, who s bure Mshh.149

The Institutional Reenactment of the Myth: The IslamicRepublic of Iran

Athough the bbc Moses ot ve to see hs eoe estbsh ther rue theHoy L, the gure of Moses the e of theocrcy re cosey tertwe Wester thought.150 The estbshet of the Isc Reubc, the rst theocrcyof oer tes, by Aytoh Khoe, the Moses of the ge, sees to ctetht ths tertwg occurs outse the Jueo-Chrst West s we.

The ter theocrcy tsef ws coe rou 94 by the Jewsh hstor

Fvus Josehus, who ote tht soe hve etruste the ower of goveretto orches, others to the rue of the few, others g to the sses. But ouregstor took o otce of y of these, but sttute the goveret s wht oeght c to force exresso theocrcy, scrbg to Go the rue ower. Wht ths es rctce s see out ter the text:

For us, who re covce tht the w ws orgy ow ccorce wth Gos w, t wou ot be ous to f to t

t. Wht rt of t wou oe chge? Wht er w cou oe vet?Wht cou oe brg fro esewhere s roveet? Wht boutthe whoe structure of the costtuto? Wht cou be er ore

just th [ structure] tht h e Go goveror of the uverse,tht cots to the rests cocert the geet of the ostortt tters, , tur, hs etruste to the hgh rest of the goverce of the other rests? The rests exercse cosesuervso of the w of the other fe-hbts; for the rests hve

bee ote s geer overseers, s juges sutes, wthresosbty for ushg those coee.151

Roughy etee cetures fter Josehus, Khoe echoe these es whe hewrote hs Isc Goveret: The fuet erece betwee Iscgoveret ... costtuto orches reubcs ... s ths: Wheres thereresettves of the eoe or the orch such reges egge egsto, Is the egstve ower coetece to estbsh ws beog excusvey

to Go Aghty. Sce Gos ws were ot revee erey for the te of theProhet, oy to be boe therefter, t foows tht Isc goveret s goveret of w. A s ruers shou ey kow the w they re suoseto y, the true ruers re the [ue] theseves, they ust, og otherthgs, so tte to the e rovsos of Is.152


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The resebce betwee the forutos of Josehus, who ws rest hsef, those of Khoe, eber of the ue, s ot ccet, of course. As

Jew, Josehus cosere the rests (kohanim) to be by eto successors ofAro, whe, s we sw erer, Khoe rgue tht the ue fu the seroe s ruers s the rohets , og the Moses Aro. 153 The res

o ot e there. The Ir costtuto of 1979, s ee 1989, rovefor Isc Reubc, ter rescet of the theocrtc reubc thtBruch Soz thought ecsute the costtuto for of the Jewsh eof theocrcy.154 Both re chrcterze by resty/ue oversght of otcsyste whch soe strtve fuctos re crre out by ye.

After the truh of the revouto, the vocbury of the Kor bece roet rt of the ew reges jrgo. Perhs to reet ther eftst rvs,

whose scourse soke of exotto gve gret roece to the togsses, the Issts ote the ter mostazaf, whch h bee ourze

by Shrt, to esgte the oorog who, to the sotet of theLeft, they fou ther ower bse. Exrorte coes were cobe to hog gve to the ewy estbshe Mostzf Fouto, whch owcotros bout fourth of Irs ecooy.155 The eretrtors ofistidfthe oetewere gve the esgto tghuti, fro tghut,156 whch es o, eo, or y object worshe (excetg Go), rtcury cet o

Mecc. Itertoy, the wor istikbr (rrogce) ce to eote ers hs bee e to the Ute Sttes.

Conclusion

The Protestt Pgr Fthers the Cthoc frr Svoro, Afrkertrekkers t-rthe berto theoogs, the fouers of the Stte of

Isre three eces ter those of the Isc Reubc: They were sre,to greter or esser egree, by the yth of Moses Phroh. Tht ythshou be so verste ee ot stosh, sce, s Roger Cos res us, t s the very ture of yths tht they reso to the ost verse etretes.157

The ubquty of the Mosc yth hs bee xe bessg for huty, however.I the wors of the Dutch regous hstor Ato Weer, Exous hs, thecourse of Chrst hstory, rove to be ot oy rg tht gves hoe, butso oe tht s very gerous.158 I ght of the ght of the Pests tht of the os of Irs rve to exe by the Ir revouto, to syothg of the y others who hve bee ersecute se Ir for sgreegwth the Moses of the ge or hs egcy, ths stteet s v wth resect to

Jewsh Mus hstory s we.159


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Three eces fter the Isc revouto, os of Irs rske ther ves the suer of 2009 to eostrte gst wht they beeve to be egregousyrgge reset eecto whe Zhr Rhvrs husb, Mr Hose Musv,who h cught the gto of youger Irs by rosg ore resectfor the se vust vues hs wfe h eouce her book o Moses,

ws ecre the oser by usby rge rg. Ths our oveeths bee wey ( correcty) terrete s rotest gst the cresgyoressve oces of the rege sce 2004. But sese t ws so ogcresut of the revouto tsef, for t ws the successfu outcoe of the 197879revouto tht rove to the ctzery tht they were cbe of tkg theresty to ther ow hs. Oe s ree here of Hrvey Cox cg theExous evet securzto of otcs becuse t ws ct of surrectogst uy costtute orch, hroh whose retosh to the su-

go Re costtute hs c to otc soveregty becuse t sybozethe everce of out of scr-otc orer to hstory socchge, out of regousy egtte orchs to wor where otceersh wou be bse o ower ge by the ccty to ccosh seccsoc objectves.160

The st Shh ce ve grce s source of egtcy,161 the IscReubc ut e to hs rue. Fr fro rocg tsef essc oveet,

however, the revouto of 197879 rose to crete ore just syste ofgoveret here ow, whe beevers wte for the Mh to festhsef. Khoe ws qute exct bout ths: He rgue tht sce theresos for the twefth Is occutto were beyo hu uerstg,162

beevers shou ot wt for h to reve hsef but shou try to estbshIsc goveret eve hs bsece.163 Of the otc quets of egcerc (ossby Gr Aytoh Khu?), to who Khoe scrbe thefoowg rguetIf the I of the Age ... thks t ecessry, he w

coe. I cot c to be ore cocere for Is th he s; so f the Isees wht s heg, et h coe hsef to reey our rs! Why shouI o ythg?Khoe s 1978 tht t ws the ogc of eoe whowte to vo resosbty.164 As eoe took resosbty, yc wsueshe whch, este the costtutoy te oversght of the otcsyste by the cergy, h the utcte cosequece of eg to certsecurzto of otcs, where securzto eotes ot wg of regous

beef er se but, to rec Hrvey Coxs foruto, the everce of out of

scr-otc orer to hstory soc chge.165

Thrty yers fter theestbshet of the Isc Reubc, ths yc took ew tur.

I coutry of 70 o eoe, however, vrety of otc regoussesbtes coexst coete, cv rghts oveet kee o rog


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bck theocrcy s ot, therefore, the oy cosequece of the sechtet wthcerc rue; there re other otos, other resoses. Exous, to quote McheWzer oe st te, begs wth cocrete ev es (or oest qute e)wth rt success. ... So fr s the e of the story fro the e of ys thtthere s ore th eough roo for the bcksg reewe oresso

tht reetey transform the hope of Exodus into messianic fantasy. Messs hsts orgs sotet.166 It s recsey the ute sotetstht Irs hve exerece over the st three eces, s cerc theocrtswho rose ore just or socety bece theseves corrut oressve, tht go og wy towr exg the rse essc execttosog y Twever Shtes Ir. Toy the Jkr Mosque south of Tehr,

beeve to be the ce where the twefth I w reer y y,167 ttrctsore vstors th Khoes erby usoeu.168 But tht s other story.


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Endnotes

I would like to thank Kamran Aghaie, Patrice Brodeur, Nick Burk, Wade Cutler,William Graham, Sohail Hashmi, S. Akbar Hyder, Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, James

McCann, Hassan Mneimneh, Vera Moreen, Roy P. Mottahedeh, Haggai Ram,Cyrus Schayegh, Hossein Ziai, two anonymous readers, and especially RobertCohen for their numerous ideas, insights, and corrections.

1 Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, (New York: CharlesScribners Sons, 1973), s. v. Revolution.

2 Bernard Lewis, The Impact of the French Revolution on Turkey,Journal of WorldHistory 1 (1953), pp. 10525, and various articles in La Rvolution franaise: La Turquie

et lIran, special issue of Cahiers dEtudes sur la Mditerrane Orientale et le MondeTurco-Iranien (CEMOTI) 12 (JuneDecember 1991). See also Nikki R. Keddie, TheFrench Revolution and the Middle East, in The Global Ramications of the FrenchRevolution, ed. Joseph Khalis and Michael H. Haltzel (Washington, DC: WoodrowWilson Center Press, 1994), pp. 14057; Mohammad Tavakkoli Tarqi, Asar-e ghiaz enqelb-e farnseh dar sheklgiri-ye enqelb-e mashrutiyat der Irn, Irn Nmeh8:3 (Summer 1990), pp. 41139.

3 Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (New York: International

Publishers, 1984), p. 15. For an in-depth discussion of this passage, see MichelChaouli, Masking and Unmasking: The Ideological Fantasies of the EighteenthBrumaire, Qui Parle 3:1 (Spring 1989), pp. 5371.

4 Karl Marx,The Class Struggles in France: 1848 to 1850, in Karl Marx andFrederick Engels, Collected Works (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1978), p. 117.

5 Lewis S. Feuer, Ideology and the Ideologists (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1975), pp. 1-2.

6 Ibid., pp. 210 and xi.

7 Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution (New York: Basic Books, 1985), p. 133.

8 Mircea Eliade,Myth and Reality, trans. Willard R. Trask (New York: Harper & Row,1963), pp. 56. Emphasis in original.

9 See T. L. Thompson, The Joseph and Moses Narratives: Historical Reconstructionsof the Narratives, in Israelite and Judaean History, ed. J. H. Hayes and J. M. Miller

(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977), pp. 14966.

10 Mircea Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return: or, Cosmos and History (Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press, 1974), pp. 4244.


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11 Sigmund Freud,Moses and Monotheism, trans. Katherine Jones (New York: VintageBooks, 1967), p. 38.

12 Lord Raglan [Fitzroy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan], The Hero: A Study inTradition, Myth, and Drama (New York: Vintage Books, 1956, rst published 1936),

pp. 17385. In fact, the adherence of Moses to the ideal-typical Oedipus is equaledonly by Theseus, and surpassed by none. These parallels need not disconcert all butthe most literal-minded believers, for, as medieval scholastics used to say, Quidquidrecipitur modo recipientis recipitur: Whatever is received is received in the manner ofthe recipient, and the manner of the recipient in ancient times was informed bya mythological understanding of the world.

13 Roger Caillois, Le mythe et lhomme (Paris: Gallimard, 1938, 1987), p. 154.

14 See Moojan Momen,An Introduction to Shii Islam (New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityPress, 1985), pp. 2833, 16171, 23843; and Heinz Halm, Shia Islam: From Religionto Revolution (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 1997), pp. 821, 2830, and 4185.

15 As the term is used by Paul J. Alexander in Medieval Apocalypses as HistoricalSources, The American Historical Review 73:4 (April 1968) p. 1002.

16 Sad Amir Arjomand, Millennial Beliefs, Hierocratic Authority, and Revolutionin Shiite Iran, in The Political Dimensions of Religion, ed. Sad Amir Arjomand

(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), pp. 21939. Although a fewzealots suggested sotto voce that Khomeini might be the hidden Imam who hadnally come out of occultation, he himself considered this suggestion too absurd todignify with a denial.

17 Caillois, Le mythe et lhomme, p. 29.

18 Though his birthday on the fteenth of Shaban is an annual occasion of greatjoy among the Twelver Shiites in Iran, this holiday was introduced only in the

nineteenth century.

19 These processions resemble those of Christian penitents on Good Friday and mayhave Christian origins. See Yitzhak Nakash, An Attempt to Trace the Origin of theRituals of shr, Die Welt des Islams 33:2 (November 1993), pp. 16181.

20 Donald A. Brane, Shii martyr conscience and the Iranian Revolution, Encounter45 (Autumn 1982), pp. 37793; Abdolrahman Mahdjoub, La manifestation, lemartyre: Du rvolutionnaire ltatique, Peuples Mditerranens 29 (1984), pp. 17

40; Farhad Khosrowkhavar, Le martyre rvolutionnaire en Iran, Social Compass,43:1 (March 1996), pp. 83100; and Farhad Khosrowkhavar, Lislamisme et la mort: Lemartyre rvolutionnaire en Iran (Paris: LHarmattan, 1995).


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21 SeeMajmueh-ye maqlt-e kongereh-ye beyn al-melali-e Emm Khomeyni (S) va farhang-eshur, 3 vols. (Tehran: Moasseseh-ye Nashr-e sr-e Emm Khomeyni, 137475[199597]).

22 Michael M. J. Fischer, Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press, 1980).

23 On revolutionary posters, see Peter Chelkowski and Hamid Dabashi, Staging aRevolution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic Republic of Iranian (New York: NewYork University Press, 1999).

24 Fischer, Iran, pp. 23239.

25 Werner Schmucker, Iranische Mrtyrertestamente, Welt des Islams 27 (1987),

pp. 185249; Dawud Gholamasad, Weltanschauliche und sozialpsychologischeAspekte der iranischen Kriegsfhrung, Orient 30 (1989), pp. 55769, 65354; andHaggay Ram,Myth and Mobilization in Revolutionary Iran: The Use of the FridayCongregational Sermon (Washington, DC: The American University Press, 1994).

26 Haggay Ram, The Myth of the Early Islamic Government: The Legitimization ofthe Islamic Regime, in Iranian Studies 24:14 (1991), pp. 3754.

27 Freud,Moses and Monotheism, p. 30. Emphasis added.

28 Isaiah Berlin, The Navet of Verdi, inAgainst the Current: Essays in the Historyof Ideas, ed. Henry Hardy (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982), pp. 28795. Berlinborrowed this distinction from Friedrich Schiller, who had applied it only to poets.Schillers ideas are contained in his essay ber Naive und SentimentalischeDichtung, in Schillers Werke, vol. 10, ed. Ernst Jenny (Basel: Birkhuser, 1946), pp.208321.

29 Roger Hausheer, Introduction to Berlin,Against the Current, p. xlvi.

30 For critical analyses of Shariati, see Shahrough Akhavi, Shariatis SocialThought, in Religion and Politics in Iran, ed. Nikki R. Keddie (New Haven, CT:Yale University Press, 1983), pp. 12544; Ali Reza Sheikholeslami, From ReligiousAccommodation to Religious Revolution: The Transformation of Shiism inIran, in The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, ed. AliBanuazizi and Myron Weiner (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1986), esp.pp. 24849; H. E. Chehabi, Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation

Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini (London: I.B. Tauris, 1990), pp. 6884

and 2047; and Hamid Dabashi Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundationsof the Islamic Revolution in Iran (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp.10246. For a more sympathetic analysis, see Ali Rahnema,An Islamic Utopian: APolitical Biography of Ali Shariati (London: I.B. Tauris, 1998).


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31 The fall from the primordial state of unity and harmony on the part ofideologues like Ali Shariati is magisterially analyzed by the Iranian philosopherDaryush Shayegan in a number of works. See his Quest-ce quune rvolutionreligieuse? (Paris: Les Presses daujourdhui, 1982); Cultural Schizophrenia: IslamicSocieties Confronting the West (London: Saqi, 1992); and Sous les ciels du monde:

Entretiens avec Ramin Jahanbegloo (Paris: Editions du Felin, 1992).

32 See H. Cazelles at al.,Mose: Lhomme de lalliance (Tournai: Descle, 1955).

33 For a good introduction to the problems involved, see Brannon M. Wheeler,Mosesin the Quran and Islamic Exegesis (London: Routledge Curzon, 2002), Introduction.This book does not analyze the story of Mosess confrontation with Pharaoh,however.

34 For a discussion of the association between the Exodus and Passover, see IrvingGreenberg, Judaism as an Exodus Religion: Passover, chapter 2 in The Jewish Way:Living the Holidays (New York: Summit, 1988). See also footnote 159, below.

35 See, for instance, Pinchas Lapide, Exodus in the Jewish Tradition, in Exodus: ALasting Paradigm, ed. Bas van Iersel and Anton Weiler (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark,1987), pp. 4755.

36 Walzer, Exodus and Revolution, p. 6. See also pp. 13738.

37 Anita Shapira, Ben-Gurion and the Bible: The Forging of an Historical Narrative?Middle Eastern Studies 33:4 (1997), pp. 654, 659. However, other Zionists devotedsubstantial place in their mythology to the Maccabean revolt and the Hasmoneanwars and the later uprisings against the Romans. (Ibid., p. 658). Cf. YaelZerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli NationalTradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), where among all thefoundational myths of Zionism the Exodus is given very little room. The same istrue in Nurith Gertz,Myths in Israeli Culture (London: Frank Cass, 2000).

38 Walzer, Exodus and Revolution, pp. 13641.

39 Tudor Partt, Operation Moses: The Untold Story of the Secret Exodus of the Falashafrom Ethiopia (Briarcliff Manor, NY: Stein & Day, 1985). Two years later anotherwriter averred that the Ethiopian Jews were remnants of one of the lost tribes ofIsrael who were determined to go back to their ancestral home. Claire Safran,Secret Exodus (New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1987), p. ix. Continuing the practiceof naming resettlement schemes after biblical gures, there was subsequently

an Operation Solomon and even an Operation Joshua. See Stephen Spector,Operation Solomon: The Daring Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 2005), p. 13. One might add a third and more cynical invocationof the Mosaic myth. An example would be Leon Uriss novel Exodus, whichdepicts Arabs, in Wesley Korts analysis, as unruly, undisciplined, dirty, and


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unproductive, and ascribes to the Jewish settlers the task of establishing a societythat will guard His laws, which are the cornerstone of mans moral existence.To dissociate prejudice from Jewish characters in the novel, it is an AmericanChristian, Kitty, who makes the most racist statements about Arabs whilecomplimenting the settlers. See Wesley Kort, Exodus and its Biblical Paradigm,

in van Iersel and Weiler, Exodus, esp. pp. 7678; see also Aziz S. Sahwell, Exodus: ADistortion of Truth (New York: Arab Information Center, 1960).

40 The ethnogenesis of the Jews of Ethiopia is exceedingly complicated. For thedenitive study see Steven Kaplan, The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia: From EarliestTimes to the Twentieth Century (New York: New York University Press, 1992).

41 Jay Casey, The Exodus Theme in the Book of Revelation against the Backgroundof the New Testament, in van Iersel and Weiler, Exodus, pp. 3443.

42 Roberto Ridol, The Life of Girolamo Savonarola, trans. Cecil Grayson (New York:Alfred A. Knopf, 1959), p. 217. In his last year, Savonarola gave a series of sermonscommonly referred to as the Exodus sermons; they are collected in GirolamoSavonarola, Prediche sopra lEsodo (Rome: A. Belaretti, 195556).

43 John Newton, Analysis of Programmatic Texts of Exodus Movements, in vanIersel and Weiler, Exodus, p. 56.

44 Anton Weiler, The Experience of Communities of Religious Refugees, in vanIersel and Weiler, Exodus, p. 68.

45 Newton, Analysis of Programmatic Texts of Exodus Movements, pp. 6062. Seealso Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (New York: Knopf, 1995).

46 See Melanie J. Wright,Moses in America: The Cultural Uses of Biblical Narrative (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 2003).

47 Morgan Peoples, Seeking a Promised Land for Freedmen: A Decade of SecretActions by a Shreveport Moses, 18701880, North Louisiana Historical Association

Journal 11:1 (Winter 1980), pp. 1322. For a study of the Kansas Exodus,see Robert G. Athearn, In Search of Canaan: Black Migration to Kansas, 187980(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1978).

48 E. David Cronon, Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal NegroImprovement Association (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1955).

49 Dave Dennis, A Modern Day Moses, in Rhetoric, Religion and the Civil RightsMovement, 19541965, ed. Davis W. Houck and David E. Dixon (Waco, TX: BaylorUniversity Press, 2006).


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50 J. Alton Templin, Ideology on a Frontier: The Theological Foundation of AfrikanerNationalism, 16521910 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984), p. 33.

51 If in later times analogies would be drawn between the Trek and the departure ofIsrael from Egypt, however, it was certainly not true that at the outset the Trek

was conceived in terms of a long wished-for emancipation or inspired by politicalvisions of a promised land. Andr du Toit and Hermann Giliomee, eds.,AfrikanerPolitical Thought: Analysis and Documents, vol. 1: 17801850 (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1983), p. 200.

52 Ibid., pp. 115, 117, 142n4, 282, 286.

53 Ibid., pp. 99, 181, 287. President Pretorius referred to the British as a Pharaoh: Ibid.,pp. 87, 209.

54 Ibid., pp. 216, 226.

55 Coenraad Beyers, Laaste Lewensjare en Heengaan van President Kruger, inArgief-Jaarboek vir Suid-Afrikaanse Geskiedenis 4 (1941), p. 60.

56 One thinks, of course, of Chief Albert Luthulis book Let My People Go (New York:World, 1969).

57 Hans Kng, The Hour of Truth for South Africa, in van Iersel and Weiler,Exodus, pp. xixii. For an overview of how black South African theologians drewon the Exodus theme in their struggle against apartheid, see Jannie Malan, AComplement to the Exodus Motif in Theology,Journal of Theology for Southern

Africa 61 (December 1987), pp. 313.

58 See, in particular, Enrique Dussel, Exodus as a Paradigm for LiberationTheology, in van Iersel and Weiler, Exodus, pp. 8392, and J. Severino Croatto,Exodus: A Hermeneutics of Freedom, trans. Salvator Attanasio (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,

1981).

59 Josiah Young, Exodus as a Paradigm for the [sic] Black Theology, in van Ierseland Weiler, Exodus, pp. 9399.

60 For Africa, see Jean-Marc Ela, Une lecture africaine de lExode, in Le Cri delhomme africain (Paris: LHarmattan, 1980), pp. 4051; for Latin America, seeCroatto, Exodus: A Hermeneutics of Freedom.

61 Dianne Bergant, Exodus as a Paradigm in Feminist Theology, in van Iersel andWeiler, Exodus, pp. 100106.


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62 One might speculate whether inhering in liberation theologians constantinvocations of liberation is the primitive belief that naming is equivalent tocreating. Cf. Caillois, Le mythe et lhomme, p. 48.

63 In Pueblo de Dis y la liberacin del hombre, Fichas ISAL 3/26 (1979), p. 9, as

quoted in Dussel, Exodus as a Paradigm for Liberation Theology, p. 84. Emphasisin original.

64 Croatto, Exodus, p. 26. Emphasis in original.

65 Ibid., p. 1. This line of thought is based on what H. G. Gadamer called thehistorical effectthat is, the capacity of a human event to generate otherhappenings.

66 The origins of this propensity are still mysterious. Roger Caillois sought them inbiologysee his Le mythe et lhomme.

67 See, for example, J. Loader, Exodus, Liberation Theology and TheologicalArgument,Journal of Theology of Southern Africa 59 (July 1987), pp. 318.

68 The reference is to Exodus 32:2528, where the sons of Levi are ordered to slayevery man his brother, ... his companion, ... and his neighbor if they had taken toworshiping the golden calf, which resulted in three thousand deaths.

69 To get around this, George E. Mendenhall argued that the conquest of Canaan waspart of a revolution against tyrannical oppression. See his The Hebrew Conquestof Palestine, in The Biblical Archaeologist 25:3 (September 1962), pp. 6667.

70 The Discourses of Niccol Machiavelli, trans. Leslie J. Walker (New Haven, CT: YaleUniversity Press, 1950), p. 486.

71 See F. A. van Jaarsveld, The Ideas of the Afrikaner on his Calling and Mission,

in van Jaarsveld, The Afrikaners Interpretation of South African History (Cape Town:Simondium, 1964). pp. 132, and Newton, Analysis of Programmatic Texts ofExodus Movements, pp. 5960.

72 Although, given their Leninist inspiration, one would not be surprised to readsomewhere that in order to cook an omelet, Moses had to break some eggs . . .

73 Newton, Analysis of Programmatic Texts of Exodus Movements, p. 62.

74 Roberto Tottoli, Biblical Prophets in the Qurn and Muslim Literature (London:Curzon, 2002).

75 Angelika Neuwirth, Erzhlen als kanonischer Proze: Die Mose-Erzhlung imWandel der Quranischen Geschichte, in Islamstudien ohne Ende: Festschrift fr


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Werner Ende zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Rainer Brunner, Monika Gronke, Jens PeterLaut, and Ulrich Rebstock (Wrzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2002), p. 323.

76 See Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., s.vv. Ms, Firawn. On Moses, see alsoTottoli, Biblical Prophets in the Qurn, pp. 3135.

77 The similarities are as follows: Both Moses and Muhammad, but not Jesus, hadordinary births, married and had children, experienced normal deaths, wereboth prophets and rulers, had to emigrate as adults, gained victories over theirenemies that were both moral and physical, had their revelations written downin their own lifetime, dispensed teachings that were both spiritual and legal, andhad their leadership rst rejected and then accepted by their people. Furthermore,it is argued, the brethren of the Israelites were Ishmaelites, which points toMuhammad rather than to Jesus, who was an Israelite himself and thus not one

among their brethren. H. M. Baagil, M.D., Christian-Muslim Dialogue (London:Dar al-Dawa Book Shop, n.d.), p. 40. This interpretation differs from the classical

Jewish interpretation of this text, according to which brethren means specicallyother Jews, thus excluding Ishmaelites. Early Christians took the prophetmentioned here to mean Jesus, but contemporary Christian exegesis does not. Ithank the Reverend Donald Deer for this information.

78 This has led to a saying in Persian (shenidan key bovad mnand-e didan) whichconnotes that being an eyewitness to something outweighs knowing about it from

hearsay. It has been quoted by a number of poets, such as Ashraf al-Din al-Hoseyni(better known as Nasim-e Shoml), who wrote: Mohammad didan o Mus shenidan

/ Shenidan key bovad mnand-e didan (Muhammad saw and Moses heard; hearingis not like seeing). Mohammad-Ali Haqiqat Semnni, Zarb al-masalh-ye manzum-e

frsi (Tehran: Gozreh, 1374 [1995]), pp. 28990.

79 Annemarie Schimmel, Und Muhammad ist Sein Prophet: Die Verehrung des Prophetenin der islamischen Frmmigkeit (Munich: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1981, 1995), pp.9194.

80 Ibid., p. 15.

81 Neuwirth, Erzhlen als kanonischer Proze, p. 343.

82 William C. Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-Arabs Cosmology(Albany: SUNY Press, 1998), p. 53.

83 Eric Ormsby, The Faith of Pharaoh: A Disputated Question in Islamic Theology,Studia Islamica 98/99 (2004), p. 7.

84 In fact, Jewish and Muslim traditions regarding Moses have fertilized each other.See A. Fodor, The Rod of Moses in Arabic Magic,Acta Orientalia AcademiaeScientiarum Hung 32:1 (1978), pp. 121; H. Schwarzbaum, A Jewish Moses Legend


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96 See, for instance, al-Shaykh al-Sadduq, al-Hidya (Qom: Muassisa al-Imm al-Hdi, 1418 [199798]), p. 160, and al-Shaykh al-Tusi, al-Amli (Qom: Dr al-thiqfali latba wa l-nasr wa l-tawzi, 1414 [199394]), pp. 55657. The analogy can beobserved in daily life as well: Iranian Jews frequently swear by Moses and Aaronas Muslims do by Muhammad and Ali. See Sorour S. Soroudi, Judeo-Persian

Religious Oath Formulas as Compared with Non-Jewish Iranian Traditions, inPersian Literature and Judeo-Persian Culture: The Collected Writings of Sorour S. Soroudi,ed. H. E. Chehabi (Boston: Ilex Foundation and Washington, DC: Center forHellenic Studies, 2010), p. 289.

97 On whom see Alice C. Hunsberger, Nasir Khusraw, The Ruby of Badakhshan: APortrait of the Persian Poet, Traveller, and Philosopher(London: I.B. Tauris, 2001).

98 Loghatnmeh-ye Dehkhod, 1st edition, vol. 46, s.v. Mus, p. 80.

99 Syed Akbar Hyder, Reliving Karbala: Martyrdom in South Asian Memory (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 79. The names Shabbar and Shabbir do notappear in the Koran and seem to belong to Islamic folk tradition.

100 One of the most popular prayers during Muharram is Ziyrat-e Vres (Prayer ofthe Heir), where Husayn is successively saluted as heir to Adam, Noah, Abraham,Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Ali, Hasan, and Fatima.

101 See Abd al-Ali Bzargn, Dar syeh-ye sarv-e zdi (Tehran: Enteshr, 1378 [1999]),pp. 21315, for a contemporary rendering of the connection.

102 It is noteworthy that in his study of the Sunni Sayyid Qutb, Olivier Carr surmisedthat for Qutb, Nasser was a Yazid, showing the power of the Kerbala paradigmeven among Sunnis. See hisMystique et politique: Lecture rvolutionnaire du Coran parSayyid Qutb, frre musulman radical (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1984), pp. 125, 137.

103Josh does not stand alone. For an attempt to read Mao Zedong in terms of Moses,

see Ita Sheres and Arthur Springer, Moses, Mao, and the Messiah: The Politics ofRedemption, The Centennial Review 17:4 (Fall 1973), pp. 37999.

104 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Kashf al-asrr(Tehran: Daftar-e Nashr-e Khalq, n.d.).

105 On Kshni, see Yann Richard, Ayatollah Kashani: Precursor of the IslamicRepublic? in Keddie, Religion and Politics in Iran.

106 Baqer Moin, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah (London: I.B. Tauris, 1999), pp. 6364.

107 Ruhollah Khomeini, in a message dated 11 Jumdi I 1363 [May 4, 1944], Sahifeh-yeNur, vol. 1 (Tehran: Vezrat-e Ershd, 1361 [1983]), p. 3.


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108 Majid Yazdi, Patterns of Clerical Political Behavior in Postwar Iran, 194153,Middle Eastern Studies 26 (July 1990): p. 286.

109 The Afternoon of Ashura, in Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations ofImam Khomeini, translated and annotated by Hamid Algar (Berkeley, CA: Mizan,

1981), pp. 178, 179.

110 On Khomeinis doctrine, see Hamid Enayat, Iran: Khumaynis Concept of theGuardianship of the Jurisconsult, in Islam in the Political Process, ed. James Piscatori(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).

111 Hamid Dabashi, Early Propagation of Wilayat-i Faqih and Mulla Ahmad Naraqi,in Expectation of the Millennium: Shiism in History, ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, HamidDabashi, and Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr (Albany: State University of New York Press,

1989), pp. 288300.

112 Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, Islamic Government, in Algar, Islam andRevolution. An earlier English translation was published in the United States underthe title of Khomeinis Mein Kampf, showing that even in America some could notcomprehend Khomeini except as an avatar of a previous archetype.

113 See Michael M. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialoguesin Postmodernity and Tradition (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), pp.

12843, for an analysis of Khomeinis reasoning.

114 Khomeini, Islamic Government, pp. 100101, 107.

115 Ibid., p. 134.

116 Ibid., pp. 1078.

117 Ibid., pp. 21920.

118 Ibid., pp. 22627.

119 Ruhollah Khomeini, Message to the Iranian Nation of 6 Khordd 1350 (May 27,1971), Sahifeh-ye Nur, vol. 1 (Tehran: Vezrat-e Ershd, 1361 [1983]), p. 173.

120 Ruhollah Khomeini, Message to the Iranian nation of 20 Shahrivar 1351(September 11, 1972), Sahifeh-ye Nur, vol. 1 (Tehran: Vezrat-e Ershd, 1361 [1983]),pp. 19091.

121 Feuer, Ideology and the Ideologists, p. 17.

122 Cain and Abel are not named in the Koran, and Shariati probably got this ideafrom Ren Gunon, who elaborated on this theme in his Le rgne de la quantit et


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les signes des temps (Paris: Gallimard, 1945), pp. 195204. In a footnote that Shariatimay have liked, Gunon explains that the conict between Iran and Turan (aleitmotifof Irans mythical history as contained in the Shhnmeh) is not ethnic butrather is due to the former being agriculturalists and the latter pastoralists. This isshown, he avers, by the common roots of Aryan and the Latin verb arare (Ibid., p.

198n1).

123 Ali Shariati, Hoseyn vres-e lam, in Hoseyn vres-e lam, Majmueh-ye sr 19(Tehran: Enteshrt-e Qalam, 1361 [1982]), p. 17.

124 See R. B. Serjeant, The Daif and the Mustadaf and the Status Accorded Them inthe Quran,Journal for Islamic Studies 7 (1987), pp. 3247.

125 Ali Shariati, Binesh-e trikhi-ye shieh, in Hoseyn vres-e lam, Majmueh-ye asar

19 (Tehran: Enteshrt-e Qalam, 1361 [1982]), pp. 24243.

126 See Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., s.v. Balam, and Fred Leemhuis, Balam inEarly Quranic Commentaries, in The Prestige of the Pagan Prophet Balaam in Judaism,Early Christianity and Islam, ed. George H. van Kooten and Jacques van Ruiten(Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2008), pp. 3038.

127 Zahr Rahnavard became an Islamist in the 1970s; between 1998 and 2006 she waspresident of al-Zahr University.

128 Zahr Rahnavard, Hamrh b qiym-e Mus, new ed. (Houston: Book DistributionCenter, 1356 [1977]).

129 Rahnavard does not reference any Qisas work but refers often to the Tafsir al-Miznof Allmeh Tabtabi.

130 Rahnavard, Hamrh b qiym-e Mus, p. 13n5.

131 Ibid., p. 23.

132 Cf. Savonarolas condemnation of Florentine vanities, which he likened to theEgyptians luxuries. Quoted in Walzer, Exodus and Revolution, p. 34.

133 Rahnavard, Hamrh b qiym-e Mus, p. 26.

134 Ibid., pp. 80, 81.

135 Ibid., p. 98.

136 Ibid., p. 61.

137 Ibid., p. 1n1.


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138 Ibid., p. 11n4.

139 Ibid., p. 110n105.

140 Aaron Wildavsky, The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader(University:

University of Alabama Press, 1984).

141 In something of a sideshow to the revolution, Jews, who had much to fear,legitimized their status in Iranian society by emphasizing that they werefollowers of Moses. On occasion they were advised by sympathetic Muslimactivists who helped them draft pro-revolutionary pamphlets in a language thatMuslim revolutionaries would recognize as being in a kindred spirit. I have thisinformation from Professor Mohieddin Mesbahi, who was himself involved inShiraz. Personal communication, February 8, 2000, Oxford.

142 Farhang-e sherha-ye enqelb-e eslmi (Tehran: Markaz-e Asnd-e Enqelb-e Eslmi,1379 [2000]), pp. 364, 217, and 46, respectively.

143 Sahifeh-ye nur, vol. 18 (Tehran: Vezrat-e Ershd, 1986), pp. 11314.

144 Hoseyn-Ali Yazdni, Dars-e mobrezeh az qiym-e Hazrat-e Mus (Qom: Daftar-eEnteshrt-e Eslmi, 1994), p. 4.

145 Ibid., pp. 67.

146 Ibid., pp. 8485.

147 Fouad Ajami, The Vanished Imam (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986).

148 Abd al-Rahim Abzari, Emm Mus Sadr: omid-e mahrumn (Tehran: Sazemn-eTablight-e Eslmi, 1374 [1995]), pp. 1819.

149 Personal e-mail message from Professor Hossein Modarressi of PrincetonUniversity, November 19, 2009.

150 See Dr. Adolf Jacobus, Der Gottesstaat (Berlin: C.A. Schwetschke, 1923), pp. 2936,and Ernst Michael Drrfuss,Mose in den Chronikbchern: Garant theokratischerZukunftserwartung (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1994).

151 Steve Mason, ed., Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, vol. 10: AgainstApion, trans. John M. G. Barclay (with commentary) (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 261-63;

273-75, 294. Brackets in original.

152 Khomeini, Islamic Government, pp. 55, 41, 56, 60, 63.

153 On Aaron as a Muslim prophet, see Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., s.v. Hrun.


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154 Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise, in The Chief Works, trans. R. H. M. Elwes (NewYork: Dover, 1951), chap. 17.

155 See Houshang Amir-Ahmadi, Bonyads, Oxford Encyclopedia of the ModernIslamic World, vol. 4 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), and Suzanne

Maloney, Agents or Obstacles? Parastatal Foundations and Challenges for IranianDevelopment, in The Economy of Iran: Dilemmas of an Islamic State, ed. ParvinAlizadeh (London: I.B. Tauris, 2001), pp. 14576.

156 Two etymologies have been proposed for this word. One would derive it fromthe root t-gh-y, of which the derivatives tughyn (rebellion, sedition) and tghi(rebel, tyrant) are used in Persian. The other etymology derives the word from theEgyptian god Thot.

157 Le mythe ... rpond par sa nature aux plus diverses sollicitations. Caillois, Lemythe et lhomme, p. 18.

158 Weiler, The Experience of Communities of Religious Refugees, in van Iersel andWeiler, Exodus, p. 71.

159 For a suggestive meditation on how Passover has been used in Israel to otherArabs, see Adi Ophir, From Pharaoh to Saddam Hussein: The Reproduction ofthe Other in the Passover Haggadah, in The Other in Jewish Thought and History:

Constructions of Jewish Culture and Identity, ed. Laurence J. Silberstein and Robert L.Cohn (New York: New York University Press, 1994), pp. 20535.

160 Harvey Cox, The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in TheologicalPerspective (New York: Macmillan, 1966), pp. 2526.

161 Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi did not make use of the Qajar title Shadow ofGod (Zellollh/Dhill Allh), but the pre-Islamic concept of divine grace,fareh-e izadi,was often used in ofcial rhetoric, although its application to him was more often

implied than stated; it was triumphantly spelled out in all its historical inevitabilitya year before the monarchy collapsed. See Pio Filippani-Ronconi, The Traditionof Sacred Kingship in Iran, in Iran under the Pahlavis, ed. George Lenczowski(Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1978), pp. 5183.

162 For a discussion of this concept, see Jassim M. Hussain, The Occultation of the TwelfthImam (London: Muhammadi Trust, 1982).

163 Sabine Schmidtke, Modern Modications in the Shii Doctrine of the Expectation

of the Mahdi (Intizr al-Mahdi): The Case of Khumaini, Orient 28 (1987), pp.389406.

164 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, In Commemoration of the First Martyrs of theRevolution, in Algar, Islam and Revolution, p. 220.


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165 For a discussion of this seemingly paradoxical outcome of the revolution, seeYasuki Matsunaga, The Secularization of a Faqih-Headed Revolutionary IslamicState in Iran: Its Mechanism, Processes, and Prospects, Comparative Studies of South

Asia, Africa and the Middle East 29:3 (2009), pp. 46882.

166 Walzer, Exodus and Revolution, p. 146. Emphasis added.

167 On the Jamkaran site, see Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Jamkarn et Mhn:Deux plerinages insolites en Iran, in Lieux dislam: Culte et cultures de lAfrique Java, ed. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi (Paris: ditions Autrement, 1996), pp.15467.

168 See Mariella Ourghi, Schiitischer Messianismus ind Mahd-Glaube in der Neuzeit(Wrzburg: Ergon, 2008), pp. 20540, and Abbas Amanat, Messianic Aspirations

in Contemporary Iran, in Amanat,Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shiism(London: I.B. Tauris, 2009), pp. 22151. On the messianism of President MahmudAhmadinejad, see Mohebat Ahdiyyih, Ahmadinejad and the Mahdi,Middle EastQuarterly (2008), pp. 2736, and Mariella Ourghi, Ein Licht umgab mich ... : Dieeschatologische Visionen des iranischen Prsidenten Mahmd Ahmadned, DieWelt des Islams 49:2 (2009), pp. 16380.


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About the Author

H. E. Chehabi s Professor of Iterto Retos Hstory t BostoUversty. He hs tught t Hrvr, Oxfor, UCLA, hs he Aexervo Hubot Woorow Wso feowshs. Professor Chehb ubshe two

books, Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran underthe Shah and Khomeini (1990) Distant Relations: Iran and Lebanon in the Last 500Years (2006). He hs so co-ete Politics, Society, and Democracy: Comparative Studies(1995) Sultanistic Regimes (1998). Professor Chehb hs so wrtte uerousrtces, book revews, trstos.


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