The Mantle of the Prophet
“It takes a man with deep inner conviction and attained professional knowledge to make a mark in our today society”, so goes an Islamic quote.

This book, (“The Mantle of the Prophet”) is a detailed, well arranged and interesting book. I must however keep note that I was a little nervous as I began going through the book since am not very conversant with the English language. Am a Muslim and I use English language as a second language. The size of the book was also crazily scary and the deep vocabulary used in the book was quite a stumbling block to me and gave me relatively enough challenge through out the book. However, through the expertise cultivated in the book and my previous acquaintance with the Muslim religion, I really found it interesting to go through it (by the help of an English Dictionary) and by the end of the day was able to get a good understanding of Iran and its ideology that left me satisfied that I went through it. It has greatly increased my knowledge of Iran and its ideologies. Roy has guided his readers through 2000 years.
Introduction:
ROY MOTTAHEDEH is a professor of Islamic history at Harvard University born on July 3rd in 1940 in the city of New York. He graduated in 1960 there after spending the next year (1961) doing tours in the Middle East and Europe. After one year of doing studies ROY MOTTAHEDEH took a B.A. test in Arabic and Persian at the England’s Cambridge University. Here he received a Bronze prize – known as The E.G. Bronze. He later got back to Harvard University and continued his Islamic History studies with a guy by the name Sir Hamilton. Sir Hamilton Gibb had a series of seminars in Arabic Poetry and Islamic History which ROY attended for the two years. Roy was elected a three year term as a Junior Fellow in 1967 at “The Harvard University Society of Fellows.” He later in 1970 was appointed as an assistant professor and got tenure in later in 1976 at the Princeton University. In 1986 Roy received an appointment in Harvard University as a professor in Islamic History. He became Director of the Harvard Centre for Middle East studies where he served for three years (from 1987 – 1990.) Roy has authored two books, – (“The Mantle of the prophet” and “The Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islam Society”) and quite a huge number of articles. ROY and his family (wife and two children) reside in Brookline. Roy has written widely in the history of Islam and religion.
The Mantle of the Prophet is one of the books that Mottahedeh wrote. In this book, Mottahedeh covers different aspects that include our Islamic faith, Iranian city of Qom, traditions derived from the history of Iran, political change in Iran and secular Islamic learning among other issues. In the book, Ali Hashemi and Parviz studied together in the same elementary-school courtyard. However, each of them took different turns. This paper is a review of The Mantle of the Prophet by Roy Mottahedeh. It will discuss the similarities and differences of the ideologies of Hashemi and Parviz and their oppositions to the Shah. It will also discuss their social backgrounds and cultural influences on their outlook of the world.
The book begins with a detailed description of Qom, an Iranian city where Ali Hashemi, the main point of reference, in the book was born. Mottahedeh also describes the Shi’ite faction of the Islamic faith that entails learning and tradition, in Iran. Mottahedeh managed to introduce readers to political climate, history and tradition from the middle of the twentieth century. Mottahedeh recounts the life of Ali Hashemi from his childhood through his education into adulthood.. The book portrays Ali Hashemi as an alias of a mullah in the University of Tehran. This presents Ali Hashemi as a scholar just like Parviz. However, Hashemi is still engrossed in the Islamic religion unlike Parviz. Mottahedeh used Hashemi to bring a clear picture of culture and history in Iran, in different times and to create a scenario that depicts trends and issues that influence the revolution, in 1979 (Mottahedeh 7).
In the description of the early life of Hashemi, the author uses the accounts of Hashemi’s childhood memories of shopping in Qom, to show certain aspects that influenced public life and way of living in Iran. For instance, Mottahedeh mentions that the bazaar and the mosque were an essential part of the Iranian community (Mottahedeh 32). People went to the bazaar to have public discourse. They could discuss issues that affected the society and shaped their culture and beliefs. They talked of the problems of the society and other issues that were related to public interest and domain. On the other hand, the mosque still functioned as a place where people could go and reveal their personal opinions regarding life issues. The mosque was not a place where people could discuss issues that affected the whole society, in a group sense. However, personal opinions and viewpoints about issues of life dominated the talk, in the mosque (Mottahedeh 35). Ali Hashemi, the main character, in the book was born in 1943 and became a Sayyed and mullah entitled to put on prophets’ clothing. Prophets wore green colored attire. Ali shares his life experiences through his childhood and formal years. For example, he shares his faith, anger, doubts, despair and elation that were an essential part of his life. Mottahedeh introduces the reader to the turning point of Ali’s life through a newspaper article that showed a scene where French troops trapped Algerian freedom fighters in a cave and burned them alive. Ali cannot find consolation in God because he wonders why such an act could happen under the watch of God (Mottahedeh 55). He studied Sufi Mysticism that helped him acquire knowledge hidden, in secrecy. During the revolution, Savak, Shah secret police arrested Ali Hashemi and imprisoned him. While in prison, Ali remembered the voice of his friend Parviz, the baker that studied with him, in Qom. Hashim almost despaired but he thanked God because he recollected himself before coming out of jail after the end of the revolution (Mottahedeh 282).
Parviz and Ali Hashemi had certain characteristics and issues in common. They were students of secular educationalists, for instance Isa Sadiq and students of religious teachers like the Shariatis and Taleghanis. The fact that Parviz took a secular root after discovering science and other forms of studying Islamic learning; he still had Islam, as a central factor that identified him and Ali Hashemi (Mottahedeh 53). Parviz rediscovered Islam through informal discussion groups that included the Dowrehs and Hayats. The Shah could not suppress informal group discussions. The author guides the reader through the book revealing issues such as the Madreseh curriculum that both Hashemi and Parviz studied. These help the reader to understand Islamic religion. For example, issues such as the revival of juris-consult school at the end of eighteenth century, the establishment of religious hierarchy and the succession of Marja-e-Taqlid in the twentieth century led to the revolution that took place, in 1979 (Mottahedeh 211).
Although that the book covers a lot of information in four hundred pages, Mottahedeh takes the reader through two thousand years of Iranian history. Mottahedeh introduces the reader to Persian culture, as he talks about poetry as part of Persian culture (Mottahedeh 161). He states that Persian culture has always survived through different political and social times. The book asserts that Persian poetry acted as an emotional home where the ambiguity that existed in Iranian culture became open and freely exposed. Mottahedeh derives his main theme from the Persian culture and changing times that characterized the twentieth century. It is at this time that a resurgence of traditional religious values of Islamic faith merged with political values and beliefs, in Iran (Mottahedeh 164).
Mottahedeh presents a clash between Islamic learning and secular learning. The author has given several examples of contrasts and conflicts that exist in the national culture of Iran. For instance, mullahs battle the secularists over religious and value teachings. The author presents situations that show traditional culture resisting westernization and Islamic jurisprudence that disdains religious mysticism and reverence towards pagan and Persian history. These depict Darius and Cyrus differing with Islamic heritage (Mottahedeh 313). These issues help the author to suggest that an ambiguous culture results from a mixture of Western and Asian experiences. The book presents a geopolitical domain. Throughout the history of Iran, it has continued to change and redefine its identity where its culture transforms, in a flexible exterior and interior manner. This shows the multiplicity of cultural experiences in Iran that shaped political values and beliefs that led to the revolution that took place, in 1979. The author shows a situation where the multiplicity of cultural experiences in Iran led to the ambiguity in the identification of cultural belief, in Iran (Mottahedeh 380).
Mottahedeh grew to become a lecturer of Islamic history. Despite the fact that Parviz grew up and studied with Ali Hashemi during the first years of their age, they took different turns, in life. While Hashemi took the religious route, Parviz decided to become a scholar and teach Islamic history out of religious quarters. Despite the difference of their professions, their ideologies are similar. Mottahedeh uses Ali Hashemi to present his ideological views. Mottahedeh uses the life of Hashemi to explore different centuries and different aspects of Iranian culture and history that marked that time. Mottahedeh is a professor of Islamic education, at Harvard University (Mottahedeh 426). When enters into the mosque school, Mottahedeh uses him to get into the history of Islamic education. Mottahedeh uses this to discuss Shi’ite hybrid and traditional methods used to transmit Islamic traditional education. When Hashemi gets into higher education, he helps Mottahedeh to discuss issues of Islam learning and philosophy in a scholastic perspective (Mottahedeh 426).
Parviz differs from Ali Hashemi in the sense that he uses an Islamic-Marxist perspective to explain Islamic learning. He is an old seminary colleague to Hashemi. He shattered his interest in religion when he discovered the world of science. Mottahedeh gets into the world of Islamic learning through secular and religious perspectives. Ali Hashemi helps Mottahedeh study Islamic learning through a religious viewpoint. In a secular perspective, Mottahedeh uses his experience as a professor, with science and culture (Mottahedeh 231).
Therefore, Parviz represents a secularist view of Islam learning whereas Ali Hashemi represents a religious view of Islamic learning. Both of them present a conflicting view of Islamic learning that existed in Iran and led to the 1979 revolution (Mottahedeh 426). As adult, Ali Hashemi presents the Islamic Iranian culture and political environment, as a mullah. On the other hand, Parviz represents a secularist and perhaps western view of Iranian history and culture that has shaped the history of Iran (Mottahedeh 426).
In conclusion, Roy Mottahedeh presents a historic Iran and its political development and growth over Islamic and secularist perspectives. The ambiguity of culture captured in the book helps the reader understand the history of Iran through several centuries and the 1979 revolution. The author presents Iran through the leadership of mullahs and Shah Tradition. The book has rich information covering the history of Iran. Mottahedeh managed to develop an impressive book that satisfies the curiosity of a reader wanting to understand the history, culture and political atmosphere of Iran through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century. Roy Parviz Mottahedeh and Ali Hashemi represent two views of Islamic learning and Iranian history and culture. While Ali Hashemi represents a religious view of Islamic learning and history of Iran, Parviz represents a secular view of Islamic learning and ambiguity of culture in Iran. The two views help to bring out the ways in which Islamic religion and culture influenced political atmosphere, in Iran especially at a time when politics in Iran was shaped by religion.
Work cited
Mottahedeh, Roy. The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran. 2nd ed.Michigan: Oneworld Publications, 2008. (Anonymous)
Anonymous. Homepage. 4-6 February 1999. 16 November 2011 http://coloradocollege.edu/Academics/Anniversary/Participants/Mottahedeh.htm>.