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The causes of Mostafa's death were likely natural but Iranians blamed SAVAK
Khomeini's relevance had been waning until October 1977 when his son Mostafa suddenly died
Saddam asked if it would be OK to kill Khomeini
Rebellion spread through graffiti chants and songs more than top-down orders.
Being near a protest could mean prison
Khomeini insisted there was no difference between music and opium and demanded they eliminate music completely when meeting with state-radio employees.
Universities were closed for years.
The Shah appointed a new Prime Minister placed him in charge and took off for Egypt on January 16 1979.
Subterranean pressures mount unnoticed until they erupt
The fact that the Revolution was unexpected doesn’t mean it was contingent
If it hadn’t been Etalaat’s editorial some other jostle would have released that stored political energy
The rest will fall into line
The Bolshevik Revolution had been preceded by two smaller revolutions in Russia
Mao Zedong described China as dry tinder awaiting a spark before his own revolution prevailed
The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran 2004 by Charles Kurzman considers various explanations but rejects them all in favor of an anti-explanation
Leo Tolstoy dismissed the great-man theory of the Napoleonic Wars in War and Peace 1869
Ferguson is an outlier among academics
The Shah had cancer
Wars and revolutions happen for reasons rooted in economics ideology geography and climate
Any sense that history trends in a general direction is confounded by a large prosperous country becoming a hard-line semi-theocracy