government’s weakening of Islamic influence in society and
its ties with the United States. Looking back, some historians
consider this a surprising development. Dilip Hiro, in his book
Iran Under the Ayatollahs, observed that Khomeini “was by
training, and inclination, a theological teacher, not a politician.
He was certainly not a revolutionary, nor even a serious student
of revolution.”^13 That would change in the coming years.
While Khomeini and other Iranian clerics were concerned pri-
marily with the heritage and lineage of the prophet Muhammad,
Shah Pahlavi was more interested in the heritage and lineage of
the bygone Persian Empire. It has been suggested that Pahlavi
considered himself, in a sense, the modern heir to King Cyrus—
a role that obligated him to revive and even surpass the glory of
ancient Persia. As he concentrated on Iran’s development and
future, Pahlavi was ever mindful of Persia’s glorious past.
By the early 1970s, the shah justifiably was boasting that Iran
had become a unique combination of ancient grandeur and
modern progress. In October 1971, Iran was host to an extra-
ordinary twenty-five-hundredth anniversary of the Persian
Empire’s establishment by Cyrus the Great. Foreign heads of state
and dignitaries gathered to celebrate at Persepolis, site of ancient
ruins dating to the era of Darius. Pahlavi welcomed two dozen
visiting kings, princes, and presidents, plus scores of less eminent
guests. They were housed in richly furnished, air-conditioned
tents and feasted on sumptuous delights prepared by internation-
ally noted chefs. So prestigious was the affair among world leaders
that a royal flap developed over who would be seated in the
most honored positions at banquets. (When Pahlavi awarded the
highest designation to Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, French
President Georges Pompidou snubbed the celebration, sending
his nation’s prime minister in his place.)
It was a lavish exercise in pomp and spectacle that cost several
hundred-million dollars. Shah Pahlavi made a curious, self-
flattering speech at Cyrus’s archaic tomb. He proclaimed to his
historic idol: “We are here at the moment when Iran renews its
pledge to History to bear witness to the immense gratitude of
Shah Pahlavi’s Quest for Glory 31