Rethinking the Role of Religion in Iran's History and Politics, 1796–2009

Bibliographic Data

ID12458293
AuthorsBehrooz Moazami (corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume31
Issue1
Pages69-75
Publication date2011-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Studies of South Asia Africa and the Middle East (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1089-201X • E-ISSN: 1548-226X
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/1089201x-2010-053
OpenAlexW2157272797
LanguageEN
References cited6

Two basic related arguments have informed and shaped much of the scholarly discourse and public consciousness of recent Iranian history. The first is that Shiism is an integral part of the Iranian religious and cultural landscape. The second is that the ulema have played a crucial role in the Iranian political structure despite their internal theological differences and political divisions. I challenge these assumptions and propose a different line of inquiry in studying the role of the religious institution and the ulema in Iranian history and politics. My overall argument is that certain historical conditions and adopted strategies of state making in Iran gave rise to the power and the institution of the ulema and consolidated Shiism as a part of the Iranian national identity. Ironically, this process was intensified during the Pahlavi secular regime (1926–79), and the Islamization of the 1979 revolution and the formation of Iran's first theocratic state, the height of the power of religion and the ulema, could be also the starting point of the constitutional separation of the state and the religious institution

Argument (complex analysis · Institution · Islamization · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Theocracy · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Religion and Society Interactions

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