Preface Contributors 1 Introduction: Shi’ism, Authority, and Political Culture Said Amir Arjomand Part I Essays 2 Imam and Community in the Pre-Ghayba Period Etan Kohlberg 3 The Evolution of Popular Eulogy of the Imams among the Shi’a Mohammad-Dja’far Mahdjoub and John R. Perry 4 The Mujtahid of the Age and the Mulla-bashi: An Intermediate Stage in the Institutionalization of Religious Authority in Shi’ite Iran Said Amir Arjomand 5 In Between the Madrasa and the Marketplace: The Designation of Clerical Leadership in Modern Shi’ism Abbas Amanat 6 Constitutionalism and Clerical Authority Abdol Karim Lahidji 7 Shari’at Sangalaji: A Reformist Theologian of the Rida Shah Period Yann Richard and Kathryn Arjomand 8 Ideological Revolution in Shi’ism Said Amir Arjomand Part II Selected Sources 9 An Annotated Bibliography on Government and Statecraft Mohammad-Taqi Danishpazhouh and Andrew Newman 10 ‘Allama al-Hilli on the Imamate and Ijtihad John Cooper 11 Two Decrees of Shah Tahmasp Concerning Statecraft and the Authority of Shaykh ‘All al-Karaki Said Amir Arjomand 12 The Muqaddas al-Ardabili on Taqlid John Cooper 13 Two Seventeenth-Century Persian Tracts on Kingship and Rulers William C. Chittick 14 Lives of Prominent Nineteenth-Century ‘Ulama’ from Tunika-buni’s Qisas al-’Ulama’ Hamid Dabashi 15 An Exchange between a Mujtahid and a Qajar Official Hamid Dabashi 16 Two Clerical Tracts on Constitutionalism Hamid Dabashi 17 Clerical Authority in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran Index

The recent revival of interest in the Muslim world has generated numerous studies of modern Islam, most of them focusing on the Sunni majority. Shi'ism, an often stigmatized minority branch of Islam, has been discussed mainly in connection with Iran. Yet Shi'i movements have been extraordinarily effective in creating political strategies that have

The Imam, the Divine Guide, is the central point around which the Shi'ite religion turns. The power of Shi'ism comes from the actions of the Imam. This title is reserved exclusively for the sucessors of the prophets in their mission. The author shows that from the beginning of Shi'ite Islam until the tenth century, the Imam was primarily a master of knowledge with supernatural powers, not a jurist theologian. The Imam is the threshold through which God and the creatures communicate. He is thus a cosmic necessity, the key and the center of the universal economy of the sacred. The author presents Shi'ism as a religion founded on double dimensions where the role of the leader remains constantly central: perpetual initiation into divine secrets and continued confrontation with anti-initiation forces. Without esotericism, exotericism loses its meaning. Early Imamism is an esoteric doctrine. Historically, then, at the beginning of esotericism in Islam, we find an initiatory, mystical, and occultist doctrine. This is the first book to systematically explore the immense literature attributed to the Imams themselves in order to recover the authentic original vision. It restores an essential source of esotericism in the world of Islam.

This volume explores the relationship between religion and politics. It brings a varied sample of richly detailed comparative and case studies together with a set of analytical paradigms in an integrated framework. It is a major statement on a timely subject, and a plea for the acknowledgment of normative pluralism as firmly rooted in the history of religion. The editor shows that the fact of political diversity in the history of world religions compels the acceptance of pluralism as a normative principle.

For a Western world anxious to understand Islam and, in particular, ShiÕism, this book arrives with urgently needed information and critical analysis. Hamid Dabashi exposes the soul of ShiÕism as a religion of protestÑsuccessful only when in a warring position, and losing its legitimacy when in power. Dabashi makes his case through a detailed discussion of the ShiÕi doctrinal foundations, a panoramic view of its historical unfolding, a varied investigation into its visual and performing arts, and finally a focus on the three major sites of its contemporary contestations: Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. In these states, ShiÕism seems to have ceased to be a sect within the larger context of Islam and has instead emerged to claim global political attention. Here we see ShiÕism in its combative modeÑreminiscent of its traumatic birth in early Islamic history. Hezbollah in Lebanon claims ShiÕism, as do the militant insurgents in Iraq, the ruling Ayatollahs in Iran, and the masses of youthful demonstrators rebelling against their reign. All declare their active loyalties to a religion of protest that has defined them and their ancestry for almost fourteen hundred years. ShiÕsm: A Religion of Protest attends to the explosive conflicts in the Middle East with an abiding attention to historical facts, cultural forces, religious convictions, literary and artistic nuances, and metaphysical details. This timely book offers readers a bravely intelligent history of a world religion.

55. Ann K S Lambton, ?Quis custodiet custodes: some reflections on the Persian theory of government? in Studia Islamica, Vol. 6 (1956), pp. 125-46. 56. Imam Khomeini, ?Program for the establishment of an Islamic government? in Hamid Algar (Transl.), Islam and revolution: writings and declarations of Imam Khomeini (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1981), pp. 126-49 and 163-66. 57. Norman Calder, ?Accommodation and revolution in Imami Shi?i jurisprudence: Khumayni and the classical tradition? in Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 18 (1982), pp. 3-20. 58. Farhad Kazemi, ?The Fada?iyan-e Islam: fanaticism, politics and terror? in Said Amir Arjomand (Ed.), From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam (London: Macmillan Press, 1984), pp. 158-76. 59. Shahrough Akhavi, ?Islam, politics and society in the thought of Ayatullah Khomeini, Ayatullah Taliqani and Ali Shariati? in Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 24 (1988), pp. 404-31. 60. J G J ter Haar, ?Murtaz? Mutahhar? (1919-1979): an introduction to his life and thought? in Persica, Vol. 14 (1990-1992), pp. 1-21. 61. Vanessa Martin, ?Religion and state in Khumain??s Kashf al-asr?r? in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 56, No. 1 (1993), pp. 34-45 62. Said Amir Arjomand, ?Shi?ite jurisprudence and constitution making in the Islamic Republic of Iran? in Martin E Marty and R Scott Appleby, Fundamentalisms and the State (Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 88-109. 63. Shahla Haeri, ?Obedience versus autonomy: women and fundamentalism in Pakistan and Iran? in Martin E Marty and R Scott Appleby, Fundamentalisms and Society (Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 181-213. 64. T M Aziz, ?The role of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr in Shi?i political activism in Iraq from 1958 to 1980? in International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 25 (1993), pp. 207-22. 65. Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi, ?The institutionalization of marja?-i taql?d in the nineteenth century Sh??ite community? in The Muslim World, Vol. 83 (1994), pp. 279-99. 66. Shahrough Akhavi, ?Contending discourses in Shi?i law on the doctrine of wil?yat al faq?h? in Iranian Studies, Vol. 29 (1996), pp. 229-68. 67. Sylwia Surdykowska, ?The spiritual aspect of jihad and Khomeini?s doctrine? in Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia, No. 13 (2000), pp. 75-84. 68. Evan Siegel, ?The politics of Shah?d-e J?w?d? in Rainer Brunner & Werner Ende (Eds.), The Twelver Shia in modern times: religious culture & political history (Boston: Brill, 2001), pp. 150-77. 69. Mortaza Motahhari, ?The fundamental problem in the clerical establishment? in Linda S. Walbridge, The Most Learned of the Shi?a (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 161-82. 70. Roswitha Badry, ?Marja?iyya and sh?r?? in Rainer Brunner & Werner Ende (Eds.), The Twelver Shia in modern times: religious culture & political history (Boston: Brill, 2001), pp. 188-207. 71. Talib Aziz, ?Fadlallah and the remaking of the marja?iya? in Linda S. Walbridge, The Most Learned of the Shi?a (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 205-15. 72. Charles Kurzman, ?Critics within: Islamic scholars? protests against the Islamic state in Iran? in International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2001), pp. 341-59. 73. Juan Cole, ?Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa?i on the sources of religious authority? in Linda S. Walbridge, The Most Learned of the Shi?a (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 82-93. 74. Mahmoud Sadri, ?Sacral defense of secularism: the political theologies of Soroush, Shabestari and Kadivar? in International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2001), pp. 257-70. 75. Mona Harb & Reinoud Leenders, ?Know thy enemy: Hizbullah, ?terrorism? and the politics of perception? in Third World Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1 (2005), pp. 173-97.

Indispensable for understanding the recent conflicts in Iran, Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran provides a political history of the fluctuating relationships between the Islamic clergy and Iranian government since 1925. How different factions of the clergy, or ulama first lost and then regained a powerful position in Iran is the subject of this book. Akhavi analyzes how various factions within the clergy have responded to the government's efforts to encourage modernization and secularization, giving particular attention to the changes in the madrasahs, or theological colleges. He examines the main themes of the AyatullaH Khymayni's book, Islamic Government, and concludes by examining the alignments among the clergy in the past that indicate how they may develop in the future.

This book examines the development of Shi'i Islam through the lenses of belief, narrative, and memory.

A compelling history of the ancient schism that continues to divide the Islamic world When Muhammad died in 632 without a male heir, Sunnis contended that the choice of a successor should fall to his closest companions, but Shi'a believed that God had inspired the Prophet to appoint his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as leader. So began a schism that is nearly as old as Islam itself. Laurence Louër tells the story of this ancient rivalry, taking readers from the last days of Muhammad to the political and doctrinal clashes of Sunnis and Shi'a today. In a sweeping historical narrative spanning the Islamic world, Louër shows how the Sunni-Shi'a divide was never just a dispute over succession—at issue are questions about the very nature of Islamic political authority. She challenges the widespread perception of Sunnis and Shi'a as bitter enemies who are perpetually at war with each other, demonstrating how they have coexisted peacefully at various periods throughout the history of Islam. Louër traces how sectarian tensions have been inflamed or calmed depending on the political contingencies of the moment, whether to consolidate the rule of elites, assert clerical control over the state, or defy the powers that be. Timely and provocative, Sunnis and Shi'a provides needed perspective on the historical roots of today's conflicts and reveals how both branches of Islam have influenced and emulated each other in unexpected ways. This compelling and accessible book also examines the diverse regional contexts of the Sunni-Shi'a divide, examining how it has shaped societies and politics in countries such as Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon.

This is an anthology of the most significant writing on the doctrinal, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of Shicism. The works included here foster an interpretive understanding of Shicism in its dogmatic and cognitive aspects. The intent of this book is to balance the attention that has been focused on the political aspect of Shicism. Shicism is often seen, not only as an essentially political phenomenon, but as a creed of violence. Understanding Shicism in its total reality will encourage a more balanced approach to issues which are viewed mostly politically. While not denying the importance of political manifestations, this book offers an understanding of the often neglected religious beliefs and spiritual practices of this world community.