Title: Az Tihrān tā Kārākās
First published: 1997
Description: Born into Iran's most powerful aristocratic family - so feared by Khomeini that the entire clan was blacklisted - Prince Manucher was raised in a vast harem with his thirty-five brothers and sisters, one of whom married the head of Iran's communist party, while another, who was once foreign minister, lost his life to the upstart Shah's jealousy.

Farmanfarmaian was the primary government negotiator with the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company until its convulsive nationalization by his cousin Mossedeq in 1951. Later, as a director of the National Iranian Oil Company, he pioneered - against the Shah's wishes - the partnership that resulted in OPEC. This is the first account by one of OPEC's original crafters of the politics and intrigue surrounding the international development of the oil industry.

With the flair of a modern-day Arabian Nights, Blood and Oil brilliantly renders the tensions between the excesses of the ancien regime and Iran's increasingly reactionary religious establishment. Prince Manucher's close relationships with everyone from the last Shah to the teary-eyed Mossadeq allow him to provide a fresh portrait of the Pahlavi reign and the revolution that brought it down.

But the real revelation in these pages is his new perspective on British oil imperialism, and its brutal effect on twentieth-century history.
Subjects: Politics and government, Statesmen, Petroleum industry and trade, Biography, History, Princes, Iran, Royalty, Middle East - Iran, History: World, Iran - History, Petroleum Industries (Economic Aspects), Biography / Autobiography, Middle East - General, Industries - Energy Industries, Personal Memoirs, History / Middle East, 20th century, Farmanfarmaiyan, Manuchih, Farmåanfarmåa®iyåan, Manåuchihr, New York Times reviewed, Iran, biography, Statesmen, middle east, Iran, politics and government, Petroleum industry and trade, middle east, Petroleum industry and trade, iran
Places: Iran
People: Manūchihr Farmānfarmāʾiyān
Time periods: 20th century, 1925-1979