Abbas Amanat is Professor of History at Yale University. His publications include Resurrection and Renewal: the Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850 and he is the co-editor of Imagining the End (I.B.Tauris).

• Introduction - the royal domain: from the tent to the throne; the Shah and his subjects; within fragile frontiers; nobility and the problem of succession. Part 1 The child of Turkmanchay: unhappy union; lonesome childhood; struggle for heir apparency. Part 2 A mirror for the prince: formal education; the fight and the feast; lesson of the mirrors; display of the world; rehearsal for the throne; the prophet and the priests. Part 3 Ascending the throne: departing for the capital; people's council and power contest; wearing the Kayanid crown; machination and mutiny. Part 4 The shah and his atabak: learning to rule; the sublime cradle; castle of mirrors, cannonballs of sedition; killing the atabak. Part 5 A narrow escape: return to the old ways; the assassination attempt; the Babi bloodbath; an inadvertent victim. Part 6 Playing the power game: the Herat debacle; the king of the Shi'ites; the curse of the protected; alliance with Russia; royal rights ridiculed. Part 7 Youthful ambitions: bully-boy diplomacy; uprooting the Victorian tree; conquest of Herat; in search of friends - France and the United States; war in the Persian Gulf; peace with England; saving face. Part 8 Abolishing the Sidarat: the flying gazelle and the absolute potentate; delegating power; ruinous fever; the valley of dismissal; fate of a fallen minister. Part 9 Balancing the old and the new: holding the reins of power; in the house of oblivion; an honest goodwill mission; ominous conjunction; fearing him who fears; the royal prerogative. Part 5 Epilogue - remnants of a reign: precarious order within; from defiance to deference; a personal universe; chaos revisited; legacy of a long reign.