The Twelver Shia in Modern Times: Religious Culture and Political Culture 9004118039, 9789004118034

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
List of Contributors
Part One: Theology and Learning
A Shiite in Mecca: The Strange Case of Mecca-Born Syrian and Persian Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥaydar (D. 1139/1727) • Marco Salati
Casting A Way the Self: The Mysticism of Shaykh Aḥmad Al-Aḥsāʾī • Juan R. I. Cole
An Absence Filled with Presences: Shaykhiyy A Hermeneutics of the Occultation (Aspects of Twelver Shiite Imamology VII) • Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
Madrasa and Learning in Nineteenth-Century Najaf and Karbalāʾ • Meir Litvak
The Clerics of Jabal ʿĀmil and the Reform of Religious Teaching in Najaf Since the Beginning of the 20th Century • Sabrina Mervin
Aspects of the Social Structure of Shiite Society in Modern Iraq • Peter Heine
Part Two: Internal Debates and the Role of Dissidents
Nineteenth-Century Ottoman and Iranian Encounters: Ahmed Midhat Efendi and Ebrāhīm Jān Moʿaṭṭar (Moḥammad Bāqer Bawānātī) • Johann Strauss
Why Do They Cry? Criticisms of Muḥarram Celebrations in Tsarist and Socialist Azerbaijan • Volker Adam
The Controversy about the Shaykhiyya Tendency among Shia ʿUiamāʾ in Pakistan • Syed Hussain Arif Naqvi
The Politics of Shahīd-E Jāwīd • Evan Siegel
A Shiite Cleric’s Criticism of Shiism: Mūsā Al-Mūsawī • Rainer Brunner
Marja‘iyya and Shūrā • Roswitha Badry
“The Tragedy of Fāṭima Al-Zahrāʾ” in the Debate of Two Shiite Theologians in Lebanon • Stephan Rosiny
Part Three: Ideology and Politics in the 20th Century
Shaykh Muḥjammad Al-Khāliṣī (1890-1963) and his Political Role in Iraq and Iran in the 1910s/20s • Pierre-Jean Luizard
The Shiites in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia (Al-Aḥisāʾ), 1913-1953 • Guido Steinberg
Shīʿī-Shuyūʿī or: How to Become a Communist in a Holy City • Silvia Naef
The Struggle for Equal Rights as a Minority: Shia Communal Organizations in Pakistan, 1948-1968 • Andreas Rieck
Foreign Missionaries, Homemade Dissidents and Popular Islam: The Search for New Religious Structures in Azerbaijan • Raoul Motika
Part Four: The Case of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Authority in Shiism and Constitutional Developments in the Islamic Republic of Iran • Said Amir Arjomand
Tehran’s Ecumenical Society (Majmaʿ Al-Taqrīb): A Veritable Ecumenical Revival or a Trojan Horse of Iran? • Wilfried Buchta
The Fear of the Guardians. 24 Army Officers Write a Letter to President Khātamī • Navid Kermani
Bibliography and Abbreviations
Index
Index of Persons
Index of Geographical and Technical Terms

Citation preview

THE TWELVER SHIA IN MODERN TIMES

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL STUDIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA (S.E.P.S.M.E.A.) (Founding editor: C.A. 0. van Nieuwenhui:fze)

Editor REINHARD SCHULZE

Advisory Board (Dartmouth College) Eickelman Dale Roger Owen (Harvard University) Judith Tucker (Georgetown University) Yann Richard (Sorbonne Nouvelle)

VOLUME 72

THE TWELVER SHIA IN MODERN TIMES Religious Culture & Political History EDITED BY

RAINER BRUNNER AND

WERNER ENDE

BRILL

LEIDEN· BOSTON· KOLN 2001

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Twelfer Shia in modern times : religious culture & political history I edited by Rainer Brunner and Werner Ende. p. cm. - (Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East and Asia, ISSN 1385-3376; v. 72) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9004118039 (alk. paper) I .Imams (Shiites) 2. Shiites. 3. ShI 'a-Political aspects. 4. ShI 'a-Doctrines. I. Title: 12 Shia in modern times. II. Brunner, Rainer. III. Ende, Werner, 193 7IV. Series. BPl93.T85 2000 297.8'21 '0903-dc21

00-057936 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnalune The twelver Shia in modern times : religious culture & political history I ed. by Rainer Brunner and Werner Ende. - Leiden ; Boston ; Koln : Brill, 2000 (Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East and Asia ; Vol 72) ISBN 90-04-11803-9

ISSN 1385-3376 ISBN 90 04 11803 9

©Copyright 2001 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part ef this publication mqy be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any farm or by a'!Y means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items far internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers MA 01923, USA. Fees are suiject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

CONTENTS Preface .......................................................................................... List of Contributors ....................................................................

ix xxi

PART ONE

Theology and Learning A Shiite in Mecca. The Strange Case of Mecca-born Syrian and Persian sl!Jyid MuJ:iammad J:Iaydar (d. 1139/1727) ............................................................................ MAR.co SALATI Casting Away the Self: The Mysticism of Shaykh AJ:imad al-AJ:isa'I ...................................... .... .. ......... .. .. ......... .. .... ............ .... juAN R. I. CoLE An Absence Filled with Presences. Shaykhiyya Hermeneutics of the Occultation .................... ...... ............................................ MOHAMMAD Au AMIR-MOEZZI Madrasa and Learning in 19th-Century Najaf and Karbala' .. .. .. .. ...... ..... ............... .............. .. ............... .. .. .... .. ...... .....

3 25 38 58

MEIR LITVAK

The Clerics of Jabal 'Amil and the Reform of Religious Teaching in Najaf since the Beginning of the 20th Century .. .... .. ..... ...... .. .... .. .. .. .. .... .. ........... .. ...... ......................

79

SABRINA MERVIN

Aspects of the Social Structure of Shiite Society in Modern Iraq ................................................................................

87

PETER HEINE

PART TWO

Internal Debates and the Role of Dissidents 19th-Century Ottoman and Iranian Encounters: Ahmed Midhat Efendi and Ebrahim Jan Mo'anar (MoJ:iammad Baqer Bawanatl) ....... .. .... .. ......... .. .. .... .. .... .. .... .. .... joHANN STRAUSS

97

CONTENTS

Vl

Why do they cry? Criticisms of Mul;tarram Celebrations in Tsarist and Socialist Azerbaijan ... ...... ........................ .. .. .... ... ....

114

VOLKER ADAM

The Controversy about the Shaikhiyya Tendency among Shia