In January 1979, a very different revolution was taking part in Iran. The rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic of Iran not only deposed a corrupt American ally─the shah─but also represented the end of the leftist parties in Iran. The ayotallah and his followers had little use for godless Marxism, and the Soviet Union was as much an enemy for the ayotollah's followers as the U.S. A young Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was among the radical students who urged, without success, a siege of the Soviet embassy instead of the American one. 1979年1月，伊朗发生了一场迥然不同的革命。宗教领袖霍梅尼的上台和伊朗伊斯兰共和国(Islamic Republic of Iran)的成立不仅废黜了一个腐败的美国盟友──伊朗国王──而且也标志着伊朗左翼政党执政的终结。这位宗教领袖和他的追随者不怎么喜欢无神论的马克思主义，对霍梅尼的追随者而言，苏联与美国一样是敌人。一位名叫马哈茂德•艾哈迈迪-内贾德(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)的年轻人就是激进的学生之一，他力主包围苏联大使馆而不是美国大使馆，但没有成功。
For the Soviet Union, the Islamic Revolution ushered into power an enemy of its enemy, but not a friend. For the United States, it was a wake-up call that the march of communism was not the only global threat. What nobody could predict was that the new threat would long outlive the old one. 对苏联而言，这场伊斯兰革命(Islamic Revolution)让其敌人的敌人上台执政，但却不是它的朋友。对美国来说，这场革命敲响了警钟，共产主义的蔓延并不是唯一的全球威胁。大家没能预料到的是，新威胁比旧威胁历时更久。
But the broader effect of Khomeini's revolution was on the rest of the Islamic world. For the first time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire an overtly Islamic movement had seized political power. This achievement reverberated beyond Iran, inspiring even the country's natural enemies in the Arab Sunni world. 'After Khomeini, the Islamists did not just talk,' Mr. Caryl writes. 'They acted. The most potent legacy of the Islamic revolution in Iran was simply to show it could be done.' 然而霍梅尼革命更广泛的影响产生在其它伊斯兰世界。自从奥斯曼帝国覆灭以来，一场公然展开的伊斯兰运动首次攫取了政治权力。这一成果产生的反响超出了伊朗之外，甚至对这个国家在逊尼派阿拉伯世界的宿敌起到了鼓舞作用。“霍梅尼革命之后，伊斯兰教徒不再只停留在语言上，”卡里尔写道，“他们行动了。伊朗伊斯兰革命最有影响的遗产就是向人证明，革命是可以成功的。”
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December was also one of the major stories of 1979 and, like the others chronicled in 'Strange Rebels,' one that was historically significant in ways not apparent until later. The long, costly and ultimately fruitless war pushed the Soviet Union closer to collapse, helping to bring an end to the Cold War. It also helped set the stage for the next global conflict by providing a rallying point and training ground for militant Islam. After all, it was to fight the Soviets that Osama bin Laden first came to Afghanistan. 苏联12月入侵阿富汗也是1979年的主要历史事件之一。就像《奇怪的叛道者》中记录的其它事件一样，它的历史重要性要在事后才显现出来。这场旷日持久、代价高昂、最终无果的战争将苏联进一步推到了崩溃的边缘，促进了冷战的结束。这场战争为伊斯兰武装分子提供了集结点和训练场地，因而为下一场全球冲突创造了条件。毕竟，奥萨马•本•拉登(Osama bin Laden)首次到阿富汗是为了与苏联人战斗。
'Strange Rebels,' though engagingly written, is occasionally repetitive, and Mr. Caryl's effort to craft a coherent narrative out of a series of disparate and chaotic events is at times a bit forced. But the reader comes away convinced that the forces set in motion, for good and for ill, in 1979 set the stage for the world we see today, in ways that were hard to see at the time. We'll no doubt face another turning point (maybe we already have?), and when we do, there is no guarantee that it will be any more obvious than it was in 1979. 《奇怪的叛道者》虽然文笔动人，但是偶尔也有赘述之处，卡里尔力图将一系列互不相关、杂乱无序的事件进行有机连贯地叙述，这个尝试有时有点牵强。但是读者放下书时会相信，1979年启动的大事，不管是好是坏，都为我们今天看到的世界做好了铺垫，而这一点当时是很难看到的。毫无疑问，我们还会面临新的转折点（也许我们已经在面对了？），当我们真的面对它的时候，没人能保证它会比1979年的转折更明显。
