Spiritual Subjects: Central Asian Pilgrims and the Ottoman Hajj at the End of Empire. Lâle Can (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2020). Pp. 272. $85.00 cloth, $25.00 paper. ISBN: 9781503610170

Abstract

posal, which included both faith ... and firepower” (p. 191). Although I do not necessarily disagree with this conclusion, I believe other sources need to be consulted as well for it to have sufficient support. This is my main qualm with an otherwise praiseworthy book. For the book to provide not just an analysis of the IRGC’s historiography but also, as stated early on, a factual report of “[its] roles in the Iran-Iraq War and that conflict as a whole” (p. 5), an analysis of the IRGC’s highly ideological self-productions is a great first step, yet insufficient. Other IRGC productions that have not been used in this volume, for instance, include many documents that scholars can use independently of the producers’ interpretations. Iran’s regular army has also been prolific in publishing and making available original documents as well as military analyses that complement and sometimes correct the IRGC’s selective representation of battlefield realities. Consulting such complementary sources would help us better assess the IRGC’s retrospective self-image as a passionate yet professionally minded military by, for instance, revealing how they sometimes actively avoided professionalism and insisted on the alleged revolutionary way of fighting, or how they sometimes downplay the Iranian army’s role in providing the required professional planning, equipment, and backup while the IRGC lacked it. Regardless, Tracy Samuel’s book will be an undeniable resource for future research in this direction, as the source it meticulously explores is still one of the major published historiographies in Farsi. In addition to laying the grounds for an engaged study of sources produced in Iran, The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War offers an important analytical path forward, as well. Tracey Samuel demonstrates in great detail that in the Revolutionary Guards’ selfperception, religious ideological motivation and material concerns about the conduct of war are complementary assets. Faith fuels motivation and provides meaning, while firepower propels the actual battle. Using other sources to document the actuality of this balance could also reveal how it worked in practice, addressing the age-old contradiction between revolutionary passion and professionalism, between loyalty and competence. Did the IRGC differ from other revolutionary militias in how it combined faith and firepower? Were the Revolutionary Guards able to reach a balanced fusion, one that propelled them to the heights of power in Iran’s political system? Or did they follow the historically tested path of taming revolutionary passion—tied to Shiʿi faith, in this case—in the service of professionalization? I believe that the IRGC is a rich case for studying this dilemma, and Tracy Samuel’s book provides invaluable material for anyone thinking about it.