The Twelver Shia in Modern Times : Religious Culture & Political History

This volume - grown out of an international conference at Freiburg University in 1999 - deals with various aspects of Shiite Islam since the 18th century. It is divided into two major parts, the first of which is dedicated to traditional institutions of theology and learning and their transformation in modern times. The second part treats internal debates and the activities of Shiite dissidents, showing that Shiism is far from being uniform. Ideological and political developments in the 20th century and especially the Islamic Revolution in Iran have shaped the image of modern Shiism more than any other tendencies and are therefore also discussed in greater detail in Parts three and four. This book reflects the state of the art in this field of Islamic studies, its 21 contributions covering three centuries and a vast geographical range.

A Shiite in Mecca: The Strange Case of Mecca-Born Syrian and Persian Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥaydar (D. 1139/1727)
Author: Marco Salati
Pages: 3–24

Casting A Way the Self: The Mysticism of Shaykh Aḥmad Al-Aḥsāʾī
Author: Juan R. I. Cole
Pages: 25–37

An Absence Filled with Presences: Shaykhiyy A Hermeneutics of the Occultation (Aspects of Twelver Shiite Imamology VII)
Author: Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
Pages: 38–57

Madrasa and Learning in Nineteenth-Century Najaf and Karbalāʾ
Author: Meir Litvak
Pages: 58–78

The Clerics of Jabal ʿĀmil and the Reform of Religious Teaching in Najaf Since the Beginning of the 20th Century
Author: Sabrina Mervin
Pages: 79–86

Aspects of the Social Structure of Shiite Society in Modern Iraq
Author: Peter Heine
Pages: 87–93

Nineteenth-Century Ottoman and Iranian Encounters: Ahmed Midhat Efendi and Ebrāhīm Jān Moʿaṭṭar (Moḥammad Bāqer Bawānātī)
Author: Johann Strauss
Pages: 97–113

Why Do They Cry? Criticisms of Muḥarram Celebrations in Tsarist and Socialist Azerbaijan
Author: Volker Adam
Pages: 114–134

The Controversy about the Shaykhiyya Tendency among Shia ʿUiamāʾ in Pakistan
Author: Syed Hussain Arif Naqvi
Pages: 135–149

The Politics of Shahīd-E Jāwīd
Author: Evan Siegel
Pages: 150–177

A Shiite Cleric’s Criticism of Shiism: Mūsā Al-Mūsawī
Author: Rainer Brunner
Pages: 178–187

Marja‘iyya and Shūrā
Author: Roswitha Badry
Pages: 188–206

“The Tragedy of Fāṭima Al-Zahrāʾ” in the Debate of Two Shiite Theologians in Lebanon
Author: Stephan Rosiny
Pages: 207–219

Shaykh Muḥjammad Al-Khāliṣī (1890-1963) and his Political Role in Iraq and Iran in the 1910S/20S
Author: Pierre-Jean Luizard
Pages: 223–235

The Shiites in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia (Al-Aḥisāʾ), 1913-1953
Author: Guido Steinberg
Pages: 236–254

Shīʿī-Shuyūʿī or: How to Become a Communist in a Holy City
Author: Silvia Naef
Pages: 255–267

The Struggle for Equal Rights as a Minority: Shia Communal Organizations in Pakistan, 1948-1968
Author: Andreas Rieck
Pages: 268–283

Foreign Missionaries, Homemade Dissidents and Popular Islam: The Search for New Religious Structures in Azerbaijan
Author: Raoul Motika
Pages: 284–297

Authority in Shiism and Constitutional Developments in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Author: Said Amir Arjomand
Pages: 301–332

Tehran’s Ecumenical Society (Majmaʿ Al-Taqrīb): A Veritable Ecumenical Revival or a Trojan Horse of Iran?
Author: Wilfried Buchta
Pages: 333–353

The Fear of the Guardians. 24 Army Officers Write a Letter to President Khātamī
Author: Navid Kermani
Pages: 354–364