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Michael Axworthy is a lecturer and Director of the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies at the University of Exeter, and is the author of Iran: Empire of the Mind (Penguin).
The term revolution has become a cliché — it is in such common usage that we have forgotten it started its linguistic life as a metaphor. The metaphor was that of a wheel turning upon its axis. The idea, derived from that, is of sweeping change, reminding perhaps of the older, medieval idea of the wheel of fortune (to be found on the tarot card with that name, for example); bringing the mighty low and raising the lowly up on high.
