Neo-Iranian nationalism: Pre-Islamic grandeur and Shi'i eschatology in President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's rhetoric

• Navid Fozi ^[1]
  1. [1] Middle East Technical University in Ankara
• Localización: Middle East Journal, ISSN 0026-3141, Vol. 70, Nº. 2, 2016, págs. 227-248
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In 2009, Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad began to invoke nationalist sentiments by paying homage to Iran's pre-Islamic history; a significant shift from 30 years of disparaging this period. Tracing the religious and political genealogies of Ahmadinejad's discourse, this article analyzes the climate that rendered both the Islamic Republic's Shi'i-oriented nationalism and the secular alternative proposed by the Pahlavi dynasty politically inadequate. Such a climate provided conditions to amalgamate, albeit incompletely, a "neo-Iranian" nationalist discourse based on restoring ancient Persia's grandeur and bolstered by Shi'i eschatology.