Word: ayatullah
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...model for learning, has become less presumptuous and ambitious, its theorizing about cosmic astronomy closer to theology, its promise as savior and absolute explainer of the world somewhat tarnished. In the era of quarks, black holes, physics can seem as baffling as foreign policy in the age of the Ayatullah. Philosophers of science, such as Thomas Kuhn of Princeton, have applied relativism, formerly employed against religion, to scientific knowledge. Cornell President Frank Rhodes, a geologist, once observed that "the qualities that [scientists] measure may have as little relation to the world itself as a telephone number has to its subscriber...
...Iran's traditional new year celebrations,* Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini made an uncharacteristically conciliatory gesture. The spiritual leader of Iran's revolution declared an amnesty for everyone accused of collaborating with the deposed Shah's regime except for "murderers, torturers and plunderers." That was good news to tens of thousands of technocrats, industrial managers, professional people and university professors who fled Iran after the overthrow of the Shah. Calling upon the exiles to return home, President Abolhassan Banisadr declared: "It is only here, and nowhere else, that you will find the opportunity to be perfect human beings...
...with solving his country's enormous economic problems, and Washington had hoped that his moderate supporters would win a majority in the new 270-member Majlis (National Assembly). But in the first round of elections, the biggest winner turned out to be the Islamic Republic Party, led by Ayatullah Mohammed Beheshti, who is Banisadr's main political opponent. Of the first 80 seats filled so far, the I.R.P. won 35, and Banisadr's supporters carried only 15. If that trend continues in runoff elections, to be held early next month, the I.R.P. is likely to emerge with...
...secretary of the ruling Revolutionary Council, president of Iran's Supreme Court and an ayatullah-the highest spiritual title in the Shi'ite branch of Islam. He is, in the view of Western diplomats, an ambitious powerbroker who puts personal game above political and even religious scruples. And as head of the Islamic Republic Party, the Ayatullah Seyyed Mohammed Beheshti, 51, represents the most serious opposition within Iran to President Banisadr. Beheshti, says a senior civil servant in Tehran who knows both men well, "won't let Banisadr sit back and enjoy...
...time recall that Beheshti remained studiously noncommittal. "Beheshti would never side with anyone " says one clerical colleague. "The man was intelligent, capable, knowledgeable and charismatic, but his politics were cynical." Two years ago, with opposition to the Shah growing, Beheshti finally joined the forces led by the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, which were calling for an end to the monarchy. Yet even then Beheshti attempted to hedge his bets. During the revolution, he tried to ensure that the instruments of the Shah's power-the secret police and the army -would remain intact and would merely shift allegiance...