Call to Arms: Irans Marxist Revolutionaries

On 8 February 1971, Marxist revolutionaries attacked the gendarmerie outpost at the village of Siyahkal in Irans Gilan province. Barely two months later, the Iranian Peoples Fadai Guerrillas officially announced their existence and began a long, drawn-out urban guerrilla war against the Shahs regime. In Call to Arms, Ali Rahnema provides a comprehensive history of the Fadais, beginning by asking why so many of Irans best and brightest chose revolutionary Marxism in the face of absolutist rule. He traces how radicalised university students from different ideological backgrounds morphed into the Marxist Fadais in 1971, and sheds light on their theory, practice and evolution. While the Fadais failed to directly bring about the fall of the Shah, Rahnema shows they had a lasting impact on society and they ultimately saw their objective achieved.