Con Coughlin

I received this book through a Goodreads "First-Reads" Giveaway.

This well written, very readable account is a good background read when considering what is going on in Afghanistan today.

The early chapters explain the Churchill family circumstances that led Winston Churchill to volunteer for service in Afghanistan. Then the history of the British involvement in the region is discussed. Then Churchill’s actual participation with the Malakand Field Force is covered. Churchill was twenty-one years old at the time (1897) and this operation, and his subsequent writing about it, was the basis of the reputation that led to his later political successes.

An excellent read for anyone interested in Churchill’s career and/or the troubled Afghan region.… (meer)

I picked up Khomeini’s Ghost in the hopes it would answer a number of questions I was left with after reading Marina Nemat's autobiography Prisoner of Tehran. Con Coughlin did indeed provide the answers.

The first half of Khomeini’s Ghost is Khomeini’s biography, charting his rise from life in a small Iranian town to becoming a powerful Mullah to exile in Paris and his return to take control of the Iranian revolution. The second half of the book covers events which occurred after Khomeini’s death and is much more focused on internal Iranian politics and the ramifications of Iran’s actions throughout the Middle East in particular, but also Iran’s strained relationship with the United States and the West.

This is a book which is written in a clear and concise way, although at times the timeline can become a little unclear. It is very much about Iranian politics, rather than a theological analysis of militant Islam, although the rise of militant Islam is of course covered. Coughlin gives a good insight into Khomeini and how he developed his beliefs, although we only get a sense of his closest political allies through their deeds. Coughlin also clearly articulates the Iranian power structure, in particular the position enjoyed by the Revolutionary Guards, and the brutal crackdowns they periodically undertook to maintain their grip on power.

Given my knowledge in this area of modern history is seriously limited, I had a look at some other reviews before writing this. From what I could gather, the first half of Khomeini’s Ghost is handled well, but the second half is much more controversial. The latter part of the book for the most part deals with Iran’s links to terrorism, the supposed extent of their influence with other Muslim countries, and Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Various reviewers have cited problems with some of the conclusions Coughlin draws, including some which are apparently misleading, and in a couple of cases issue is also taken with some of the sources he draws on.

I would still recommend this book for anyone looking for an introduction into modern Iranian history and politics. But for anyone with a more in-depth knowledge of the situation, the potential inaccuracies may be more of an issue.

Below are reviews, which between them, seem to cover the biggest issues reviewers had with the text:

From The Independent
From The Guardian
And from The New York Times… (meer)

The title is a misleading. The coverage isn't as broad as it implies. It's a workmanlike biography of Khomeini. Very much a journalist's account. It isn't like Steve Coll's books, which draw on loads of interviews with intimates and give you a sense of place (for example, Riyadh in the 1930s when bin Laden's peasant father arrived there) . Probably most of it is public record. Coughlin doesn't seem to speak either Arabic or Farsi.

It's still a good capsule political history of Iran in the the 20th century: how the business class (bazaaris) and the religious establishment were historical allies in the face of corrupt kings, how the last shah's father originally had their support. The chain of events through WW1, British occupation, the Anglo-American oil company issue, etc.

A la Ataturk, Shah pere instituted very sudden and radical attempts at "modernization" like banning the wearing of the hijab. Some of the feudal-style clerical class had vast landholdings threatened by reforms, so they were not so sympathetic.

His son, the last Shah, was actually more of a compromiser with the imams, at least for a time. Tho I've read quite a few books on Iran, this book gave me more of a sense of the positive contributions of his White Revolution.

But then we circle back to Khomeini. You don't get much sense of the range of anti-Shah forces. Forget the communists, what does "liberal" or "moderate" mean here? Why did they rally around Khomeini in France? What did they expect he would do after victory? You won't learn much about the terror unleashed by Khomeini on all these erstwhile allies along with Shah forces. Nor on the Iran-Iraq war.

Finally, I was hoping to get more info about the links between militant Iranian Islam and the rise of militancy in the rest of the world in the past 30-40 years. True, we see how Iran spawned Hezbollah and contributed to the war in Lebanon but I was hoping for the connections to Malaysia and Indonesia and Africa.

Could be more on Afghanistan, but it's good on why Iran doesn't care for the Taliban or Saudi Arabia's Wahabis--and thus has quietly supported US troops movements there. Still, I'm shocked to see the 2010 date; this book feels a lot older.… (meer)