Iran

Richard Cavendish describes the events leading up to the nationalisation of Iranian oil fields on May 2nd, 1951.

Juan Cole looks at the pacifist, prophetic and millenarian 'world religion' whose leader emerged from the social and political unrest of 19th-century Iran and whose followers have since been persecuted by shah and ayatollah alike.

Whatever may be history’s verdict on the Ayatallah Khomeini, there can be no doubt that he has forced us to question some of our most fundamental assumptions about power in the twentieth century.

After the appointment in 1811 of Britain's first Resident Ambassador in Persia, a number of English women braved the hazards of travel in that country and, according to Denis Wright, have left us invaluable accounts of their lives there.