Dustin Byrd’s intention in his Ayatollah Khomeini and the Anatomy of the Iranian Revolution is to analyze the role of Ayatollah Khomeini in the Iranian Revolution of 1978/79 as a revolutionary figure as opposed to a statesman. In so doing he aims to “explore the various reasons why Khomeini was able to lead the Iranian Revolution to victory over the well-entrenched and powerful Shah” (p. viii). He bases his approach on Max Weber’s “theory of prophetic charisma” and Erich Fromm’s “critical theory of society” (p. viii). Using this framework, Byrd attempts to describe what he calls Khomeini’s “natural abilities” (p. viii) that coincided “with his prophetic Islamic, and Hussein inspired faith.” These two qualities were essential—in Byrd’s opinion—for Khomeini’s effectiveness in the revolution. Furthermore, Byrd analyzes Khomeini’s convergence with the secular left in Iran, which he believes proved invaluable for the overthrow of the regime. He thus concentrates on the period leading up to the revolution, not the revolution itself. And he is also not interested in what he calls the “routinization” of Khomeini’s charismatic authority after the success of the revolution.

Byrd also attempts to shed light on the contributions of two other and earlier thinkers of the revolution, namely Ali Shariati and Jalal Al-e Ahmad, whose works he argues were important to Khomeini’s success. Last but not least, he aims to demonstrate that Khomeini drew on Marxist language in his Islamic discourse to create a language that was understood by both leftists and Islamic revolutionaries. In doing so, Byrd follows Ervand Abrahamian’s approach in his well-received collection of essays, Khomeinism.

Having described his aims and methods in the introduction, Byrd gives an overview of Khomeini’s political biography in the second chapter. He first covers the years 1941 to 1960, then 1961 to 1964, and finally 1964 to 1979. This division makes sense since Khomeini’s attitude towards politics changed radically between these three phases: first, Khomeini follows Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s quietism that prescribed staying out of politics in the 1940s and 1950s. It was not until after Boroujerdi’s death in 1961 that Khomeini became politically active. The year 1964 marks another turning point as Khomeini was forced into exile. Between 1964 and 1979 Khomeini lived in Iraq, gradually becoming what Byrd calls the charismatic and prophetic leader of the revolution. In writing Khomeini’s political biography, Byrd already gives several hints as to why Khomeini, in his view, fits the model of prophetic charisma. He writes: “It was clear among Khomeini’s followers that, while other Ayatollahs complained, he denounced. While others compromised, he resisted” (p. 11). Byrd also manages to explain why Khomeini was to oppose the regime of the shah. He gives a detailed account of Khomeini’s political development by describing how and when he made political statements.

In his third chapter, Byrd describes his “theory of prophetic charisma,” which is to explain Khomeini’s successful leadership of the revolution. He first explicates Weber’s sociological conception of charisma and his definition of the prophet and its connection to charisma. In the same chapter he also examines the psychological character of the prophet as expressed by Erich Fromm. Therefore, Byrd examines the nature of the theory‒praxis dialectic and Fromm’s comparison between the prophet and the priest. Byrd’s presentation is very convincing. Khomeini’s talks, actions and reactions obviously fit very well into these two concepts. Byrd demonstrates why Khomeini does not fall into the category of a priest, and establishes a concrete definition of prophetic charisma based on these two scholars:

In order to show that this definition can be applied to Khomeini, Byrd first starts with the Prophet Muhammad, to whom the definition also applies. It is in his discussion of theology that Byrd commits a few mistakes. Muhammad is not “the most sacred figure” (p. 37) in the Islamic tradition, God is. Additionally, it is not in the so-called “six books” (Sahih al-Bukhāri, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dāwud, Jāmiᶜ al-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Nasāʾi, and Sunan Ibn Mājah) that, in the opinion of the Shiᶜa, “the sunnah of Muhammad is predominantly found” (p. 39). This is true for Sunni Islam, but not for Shiᶜa Islam. Shi’is have other collections of hadith than those mentioned by Byrd, and they do not generally accept the authority of the ones Byrd mentions. But apart from that one can conclude with Byrd that “the story of early Islam provides many models and templates for the resistance to irrational and illegitimate power. These templates would come to be used quite effectively by Khomeini as he struggled against what he believed to be a new manifestation of the same powers that martyred Ali and Hussein” (p. 45)—yet I would argue that Byrd puts too much emphasis on the martyrdom of Imam Ali, since it was much more the martyrdom of his son Hussein that made the Shiᶜa a belief distinct from the Sunna.

Having investigated the facets of prophetic charisma, in chapter 4 Byrd examines Khomeini’s political and religious history in order to determine whether the Weberian concepts of charisma are applicable to Khomeini. Here again Byrd is most convincing and one can easily agree with his concluding remarks in this chapter where he summarizes that Khomeini’s prophetic charisma was based on six characteristics:

Byrd draws the conclusions in his last chapter. He describes five political parties or factions of pre-revolutionary Iran and argues that the Iranian underclasses absorbed leftist class struggle and anti-imperialist ideology through Khomeini’s Islamization of leftist concepts and critiques. But Byrd does not offer anything new here as Abrahamian had already argued at length that Khomeini’s language changed throughout the years and Khomeini took over the anti-imperialist language of the leftists yet fit it into an Islamic gown. Hamid Dabashi also discusses this in his Theology of Discontent.

Something else is worth noting: whenever it is suggested that Islam should fight for the oppressed and raise its voice against injustice, for example in Ali Shariati’s writings, these calls are determined as being Marxist or at least being heavily influenced by Marxism. Byrd seems to fall in line with his approach put forward for example by Hamid Dabashi in his Theology of Discontent. But let us just take a closer look at liberation theology for example in South Africa: for many Muslims, there is a mutual relationship between their creed and their fight against injustice. It was their understanding of Islam that told forerunners such as Farid Esack to stand up against apartheid and to fight against the ignorance of many Muslim religious authorities when it came to AIDS. Byrd seems to adopt a rather Eurocentric stance here—not taking into account that while he might have heard these ideas in a Marxist context first, for others they originated within Islam, or, to borrow from Ali Shariati, it was the Marxists who took it from Islam.

Nevertheless, the strength of this book lies in the fact that it manages to explore the reasons why Ayatollah Khomeini was able to lead the Iranian Revolution to victory. Byrd’s usage of the theory of “prophetic charisma” enables him to explain Khomeini’s ability to lead a large coalition against the shah. Overall, this book will be an essential read for scholars of politics as well as those within Iranian studies.