Al‐e Ahmad, guardianship, and the critique of colonial sovereignty
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6249407 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eskandar Sadeghi‐boroujerdi (Department of Politics and International Relations at Goldsmiths University of London London UK), Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi (0000-0002-2106-1473, Goldsmiths University of London), Yaacov Yadgar (0000-0001-7736-9314, Department of Politics and International Relations University of Oxford Oxford UK) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 19-33 |
| Publication date | 2022-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Constellations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1351-0487 • E-ISSN: 1467-8675 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-8675.12597 |
| OpenAlex | W4210304743 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 27 |
In this article we seek to think with and against the Iranian intellectual and dissident, Jalal Al-e Ahmad (d.1969), and his exploration of the concept of velāyat in the context of his 1963 visit to Israel/Palestine.Through his idiosyncratic use of the term and its cognates, well-established in Islamic mysticism, Shiʿi theology and jurisprudence, he pursues a decolonial critique of the political theology of sovereignty.By placing Al-e Ahmad's thought in relation to broader debates in the history of political thought visà-vis the "extraordinary" character of political foundings, sovereignty and statelessness, and their complex interrelationship, we contend that in addition to delineating, what he refers to, as the "guardianship state", Al-e Ahmad pursues a critique of the latter as a specific kind of modern sovereign power, which exceeds, but is inextricably bound up with the nation-state and its colonial forms.In contradistinction to this state-form, Al-e Ahmad espouses a distinct kind of being-together and form of life, namely, a being-in-common (ejtemāʿ), which refuses those iterations of difference e.g.national/foreigner, majority/minority, civilized/barbarian that have emerged as staples of the modern nation-state and capitalist modernity.We seek to bring out these aspects of Al-e Ahmad's thought in relation to Arendt's reflections on freedom and plurality
Art history · Colonialism · Legal guardian · Library science · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Asian Studies and History · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law
Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi'ism
Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis
Eichmann in Jerusalem
The Law of Return at Sixty Years
The Conceptualization of Guardianship in Iranian Intellectual History (1800–1989)
The Origins of Totalitarianism
A Land of Two Peoples
Muslim Zion
Adventures of the Symbolic
Political Theology
The Human Condition
Homo Sacer
Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition
Jalal’s Angels of Deliverance and Destruction
Democracy and political theory
Lefort and the Symbolic Dimension
The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam. Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890
Political Theology and Populism
Gharbzadegi, colonial capitalism and the racial state in Iran
Theopolitics Contra Political Theology
Neither Settler nor Native
The Concept of the Political
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |