Preface
Acknowledgements
Origins : Zoroaster, the Achaemenids, and the Greeks
The Iranian revival : Parthians and Sassanids
Islam and invasions : the Arabs, Turks and Mongols : the Iranian reconquest of Islam, the Sufis, and the poets
Shiʻism and the Safavids
The fall of the Safavids, Nader Shah, the eighteenth-century interregnum, and the early years of the Qajar dynasty
The crisis of the Qajar monarchy, the revolution of 1905-1911, and the accession of the Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavis and the revolution of 1979
Iran since the revolution : Islamic revival, war, and confrontation
From Khatami to Ahmadinejad, and the Iranian predicament.