Introduction to JavaScript Object Notation

A superstitious reading of the world based on religion may be harmless at a private level, yet employed as a political tool it can have more sinister implications. As this fascinating book by Ali Rahnema, a distinguished Iranian intellectual, relates, superstition and mystical beliefs have endured and influenced ideology and political strategy in Iran from the founding of the Safavid dynasty in the sixteenth century to the present day. As Rahnema demonstrates through a close reading of the Persian sources and with examples from contemporary Iranian politics, it is this supposed connectedness to the hidden world that has allowed leaders such as Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mahmud Ahmadinejad to present themselves and their entourage as representatives of the divine, and their rivals as the embodiment of evil.

Ali Rahnema's work is a meticulous historical reconstruction of the Iranian coup d'état in 1953 that led to the overthrow of Mohammed Mosaddeq and his government. Mosaddeq's removal from power has probably attracted more attention than any other event occurring during his tenure because of the role of foreign involvement, the political, economic and social impact on Iran, and the long-term impact the ousting had on Iran-US relations. Drawing on American, British and Iranian sources, Rahnema closely examines the four-day period between the first failed coup and the second successful attempt, investigating in fine detail how the two coups were conceptualised, rationalised and executed by players on both the Anglo-American and Iranian sides. Through painstaking research into little-studied sources, Rahnema casts new light on how a small group of highly influential pro-Britain politicians and power brokers revisited the realities on the ground with the CIA operatives dispatched to Iran and