Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T00:19:17.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Iranian Exceptionalism and Twelver Shi‘ism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mohammad Nafissi
Mohammad Nafissi*
Affiliation:
Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Homa Katouzian’s exceptionally perceptive, influential, and wide-ranging scholarship has been marked by three mutually reinforcing characteristics: a profound and detailed mastery of Iran’s multi-civilizational heritage; a comparatively informed focus on the country’s distinct historical trajectory; and an existentially grounded pluralist perspective in examining and evaluating the country’s major political turning points and actors. These features are already fully displayed in his early magnum opus, The Political Economy of Modern Iran (1981), whose historical and political conclusions have been underlined time and again by the subsequent and often shocking national and international turns. In the intervening period, Katouzian has developed the cyclical theory of Iran’s history as an “aridosolatic,” “pickaxe” or “short-termist” society. Of the important questions that his contributions raise or address, this paper examines the long-term continuity of Twelver/Imami Shi‘ism’s trajectory which uniquely in the twentieth century Muslim and other worlds produced the leaders of two great revolutions. The result entails the addition of a still unfolding evolutionary-institutional layer within Katouzian’s research program which may enhance its explanatory power and reinforce its political vision.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 5: Special Issue: Dedicated to Homa Katouzian , September 2016 , pp. 753 - 789
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society For Iranian Studies 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrahamian, Ervand. Radical Islam: The Iranian Mujahedin. London: I. B. Tauris, 1989.Google Scholar
Abrahamian, Ervand. “Review of Mirza Malkum Khan: A Study in the History of Iranian Modernism by Hamid Algar.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 96, no. 2 (1976): 308–309. doi: 10.2307/599850CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adamiyat, Fereydoun. Fekr-e Azadi va Moqaddameh-ye Nehzat-e Mashrutiyyat. Tehran: Sukhan, 1961.Google Scholar
Ajudani, Masha’allah. Mashruteh-ye Irani va Pishzamineh-ha-ye Nazariyyeh-ye Velayat-e Faqih. London: Fasl-i Kitab, 1997.Google Scholar
Akhavi, Shahrough. “Islam, Politics and Society in the Thought of Ayatullah Khomeini, Ayatullah Taleqani and Ali Shariati.” Middle Eastern Studies 24, no. 4 (1988): 404–431. doi: 10.1080/00263208808700754CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al Ahmad, Jalal. Dar Khedmat va Khiyanat-e Rowshanfekran. Tehran: Ferdows, 1997.Google Scholar
Al Ahmad, Jalal. Occidentosis: A Plague from the West. Translated by Campbell, R. Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Algar, Hamid. “Shi‘ism in Iran since the Safavids.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica (2006). Accessed December 10, 2015. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-ix23-Shi‘ism-in-iran-since-the-safavidsGoogle Scholar
Algar, Hamid. “Religious Forces in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth- Century Iran.” In The Cambridge History of Iran: From Nadir Shah to the Islam Republic, vol. 7, edited by Avery, Peter, Hambly, Gavin, and Melville, Charles, 705–731. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Algar, Hamid. “Shi‘ism and Iran in the Eighteenth Century.” In Shi‘ism, vol.1, edited by Luft, P. and Turner, C., 325–340. London: Routledge, 1977/2008.Google Scholar
Algar, Hamid. Mirza Malkum Khan: A Study in the History of Iranian Modernism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Algar, Hamid. Religion and State in Iran, 1785–1906: The Role of the Ulama in the Qajar Period. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
al-Hilli. “‘Allama al-Ḥilli on the Imamate and Ijtihad.” Translated by Cooper, John. In Authority and Political Culture in Shi‘ism, edited by Arjomand, Said A., 240–249. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Ali, Tariq. ““Between Past and Present: Reply to Asef Bayat.” New Left Review 80 (2013): 61–74.Google Scholar
al-Mawardi. The Ordinances of Government. Translated by Wahba, W. H. Reading: Garnet, 1996.Google Scholar
Amanat, Abbas et al. “Roundtable”, International Journal of Middle East Studies 44, no. 1 (2012): 147–165. doi: 10.1017/S0020743811001292CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Amanat, Abbas. “In Between the Madrasa and the Marketplace: The Designation of Clerical Leadership in Modern Shi‘ism.” In Authority and Political Culture in Shi‘ism, edited by Arjomand, S. A., 98–132. Albany: State University of New York Press Authority, 1988.Google Scholar
Arjomand, S. A. The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Arjomand, S. A. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi‘ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arjomand, S. A. “The Ulama’s Traditionalist Opposition to Parliamentarianism: 1907–1909.” Middle Eastern Studies 17, no. 2 (1981): 174–190. doi: 10.1080/00263208108700465CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayat, Asef. “Revolution in Bad Times.” New Left Review 80 (2013): 47–60.Google Scholar
Bayat, Mangol. Iran’s First Revolution: Shi‘ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1909. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Bayat, Mangol. Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Bharier, Julian. Economic Development in Iran, 1900–70. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Issawi, Charles, ed. The Economic History of Iran, 1800–1914. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Boroujerdi, Mehrzad. Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Browne, Edward. The Persian Revolution, 1905–9. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 1995.Google Scholar
Chehabi, Houshang. Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini. London: I. B. Tauris, 1990.Google Scholar
Cole, Juan. “Imami Jurisprudence and the Role of the Ulama: Mortaza Ansari on Emulating the Supreme Exemplar.” In Religion and Politics in Iran: Shi‘ism from Quietism to Revolution, edited by Keddie, N., 33–46. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Crone, Patricia. Medieval Islamic Thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Daftary, Farhad. “The Earliest Ismailis.” In Shi‘ism, vol. 1, 132–157. London: Routledge, 2008.Google Scholar
Floor, Willem. Guilds, Merchants, and Ulama in Nineteenth-Century Iran. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 2009.Google Scholar
Garton Ash, Timothy. The Magic Lantern. New York: Vintage, 1993.Google Scholar
Garton Ash, Timothy. “Revolution, the Springtime of Two Nations.” The New York Review of Books, June 15, 1989.Google Scholar
Hairi, Abdulhadi. Nokhostin Ruyaruyi-ha-ye Andisheh-garan-e Iran ba du Ruyeh-ye Tamaddon-e Burzhuvazi-ye Gharb. Tehran: Amirkabir, 2001.Google Scholar
Hairi, Abdulhadi. Shi‘ism and Constitutionalism in Iran: A Study of the Role Played by the Persian Residents of Iraq in Iranian Politics. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977.Google Scholar
Hallaq, Wael. “Was the gate of ijtihad closed?” International Journal of Middle East Studies 16, no. 1 (1984): 3–41. doi: 10.1017/S0020743800027598CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khaldun, Ibn. The Muqaddimah, 3 vols. Translated by Rosenthal, Franz. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Kadivar, Mohsen. Hokumat-e Velay’i. Tehran: Ney, 1998.Google Scholar
Kadivar, Mohsen. Nazariyyeh-ha-ye Dowlat dar Feqh-e Shi‘eh. Tehran: Ney, 1997.Google Scholar
Kamrava, Mehran, ed. Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East. London: Hurst, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katouzian, Homa. Iran: Politics, History and Literature. London: Routledge, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katouzian, Homa. The Persians: Ancient, Medieval and Modern Iran. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Katouzian, Homa. Iranian History and Politics: The Dialectic of State and Society. London: Routledge, 2003.Google Scholar
Katouzian, Homa. Musaddiq and the Struggle for Power in Iran. 2nd ed. London: I. B. Tauris, 1999.Google Scholar
Katouzian, Homa. Eqtesad-e Siyasi-ye Iran. 2nd ed. Tehran: Nashr-e Markaz, 1993.Google Scholar
Katouzian, Homa. The Political Economy of Modern Iran. London: Macmillan, 1981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keddie, Nikki. Iran and the Muslim World. London: Macmillan, 1995.Google Scholar
Keddie, Nikki. “The Roots of the Ulama’s Power in Modern Iran.” In Scholars, Saints, and Sufis: Muslim Religious Institutions in the Middle East since 1500, edited Keddie, N., 211–229. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Keddie, Nikki. Religion and Rebellion in Iran: The Tobacco Protest of 1891–1892. London: Frank Cass, 1966.Google Scholar
Khomeini, Ruhallah. “Islamic Government.” In Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, edited and translated by Algar, Hamid, 27–149. Berkeley, CA: Mizan, 1981.Google Scholar
Khomeini, Ruhallah. “Address at Bihisth-e Zahra.” In Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, edited and translated by Algar, Hamid, 254–267. Berkeley, CA: Mizan, 1981.Google Scholar
Kurzman, Charles. The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Lambton, Ann. “Secret Societies and the 1905–6 Revolution.” In Qajar Persian: Eleven Studies, 301–318. London: I. B. Tauris, 1987.Google Scholar
Lambton, Ann. “Social Change in Persia in the Nineteenth Century.” In Qajar Persia: Eleven Studies. London: I. B. Tauris, 1987.Google Scholar
Lambton, Ann. “The Persian ‘Ulama’ and Constitutional Reform.” in Qajar Persia: Eleven Studies, 277–300. London: I. B. Tauris, 1987.Google Scholar
Lambton, Ann. State and Government in Medieval Islam: An Introduction to the Study of Islamic Political Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Lambton, Ann. “Quis Custodiet Custodies: Some Reflections on the Persian Theory of Government.” In Shi‘ism, vol. 4, edited by Luft, P. and Turner, C., 1–16. London: Routledge, 1956/2008.Google Scholar
Madelung, Wilfred. The Succession to Muḥammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Martin, Vanessa. Islam and Modernism: The Iranian Revolution of 1906. London: I. B. Tauris, 1989.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. Pre Capitalist Economic Formations. New York: International Publishers, 1965.Google Scholar
Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi‘i Islam. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Na’ini, M. H. Tanbih al-Umma va Tanzih al-Milla: Hokumat az Nazar-e Islam. Edited and annotated by Taleqani, Mahmud. Tehran: Enteshar, 1955.Google Scholar
Nafissi, Mohammad. “Shiism and Politics.” In Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics, edited by Haynes, Jeffrey, 102–121. 2nd ed. 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nafissi, Mohammad. “Reformation as an Idealtype: A Comparative Exercise.” Max Weber Studies 6, no. 1 (2006): 69–110. doi: 10.15543/MWS/2006/1/4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nafissi, Mohammad. “Reformation, Islam, and Democracy: Evolutionary and Antievolutionary Reform in Abrahamic Religions.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 25, no. 2 (2005): 407–437. doi: 10.1215/1089201X-25-2-408CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nafissi, Mohammad. Negahi beh Seyr-e Andish-ye Eqtesadi dar Asr-e Pahlavi. Tehran: Tarh-e Noe, 1992.Google Scholar
Nateq, Homa. “Editor’s Introduction.” In Qanun (complete series in one volume), 1–18. Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1976.Google Scholar
Newman, Andrew. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Andrew. “The Myth of the Clerical Migration to Safawid Iran.” In Shi‘ism, vol. 1, edited by Luft, P. and Turner, C., 264–301. London: Routledge, 1993/2008.Google Scholar
Nuri, Fazallah. “Book of Admonition to the Heedless and Guidance for the Ignorant,” translated by Dabashi, H. In Authority and Political Culture in Shi‘ism, edited by Ajrjomand, S. A., 354–370. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1907/1988.Google Scholar
Rahnema, Ali. An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Shari‘ati. London: I. B. Tauris, 1998.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Franz. “Translator’s Introduction.” In Khaldun, Ibn, The Muqaddima, vol. 1, xxvii–lxxxvii. 1967.Google Scholar
Sahabi, Ezzatallah. Moqaddameh-ye bar Tarikh-e Jonbesh-e Melli-ye Iran. Tehran: Enteshar, 1985.Google Scholar
Velayati, Ali Akbar. Moqaddameh-ye Fekri Nahzat-e Mashrutiyyat. Tehran: Daftar-e Nashr-e Farhang-e Eslami, 1994.Google Scholar
Tahmasb, Shah. “Two Decrees of Shāh Ṭahmāsp Concerning Statecraft and the Authority of Shaykh Alī al-Karakī,” translated by Arjomand, S. A. In Authority and Political Culture in Shi‘ism, edited by Arjomand, S. A., 250–262. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1533/1988.Google Scholar
Shariati, Ali, Ma va Iqbal. Tehran: Elham, 1999.Google Scholar
Shariati, Ali. Tashayyo‘-e Alavi va Tashayyo‘-e Safavi. Tehran: Chapakhsh, 1998.Google Scholar
Zargarinejad, Gholamhussain. “Editor’s Introduction.” in Rasa‘el-e Mashrutiyyat, edited by Zargarinejad, Gholamhussain. Tehran: Kavir, 1995.Google Scholar
Zubaida, Sami. Law and Power in the Islamic World. London: I. B. Tauris, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar