Sayyida Zaynab in the State of Exception
Shiʿi Sainthood as “Qualified Life” in Contemporary Syria
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8966129 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Edith Szanto (0000-0001-8896-8742, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 285-299 |
| Publication date | 2012-04-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020743812000050 |
| OpenAlex | W2074449067 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 24 |
According to Giorgio Agamben, a “state of exception” is established by the sovereign's decision to suspend the law, and the archetypical state of exception is the Nazi concentration camp. At the same time, Agamben notes that boundaries have become blurred since then, such that even spaces like refugee camps can be thought of as states of exception because they are both inside and outside the law. This article draws on the notion of the state of exception in order to examine the Syrian refugee camp cum shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab as well as to analyze questions of religious authority, ritual practice, and pious devotion to Sayyida Zaynab. Though Sayyida Zaynab and many of her Twelver Shiʿi devotees resemble Agamben's figure of homo sacer , who marked the origin of the state of exception, they also defy Agamben's theory that humans necessarily become animal-like, leading nothing more than “bare lives” (or zoē ) in states of exception
Epistemology · Nazism · Nothing · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Sovereign state · Sovereignty · State (computer science · State of exception · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Middle East Politics and Society · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy
Still There
Joyous events
Bare Life and the Production of Docile Sects
Refugee youth identity formation at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa district, Malawi
Creating a Diasporic Public Sphere in Britain
Ethnicity on the Sleeve and Class in the Heart
The world is a garden
The Islamic State, Shia religious clerics and the mobilisation of Shia militias in Iraq and Syria
Colonial conquests and the politics of normalization
Ethnic cleansing and the formation of settler colonial geographies
Layers of religious and political iconoclasm under the Islamic State
Remembering Karbala in the diaspora
Zainab's traffic
Asad of Syria
Shia Lamentation Rituals and Reinterpretations of the Doctrine of Intercession
Redemptive Suffering in Islam
Heirs of the Prophet, The
An Enchanted Modern
Politics of Piety
Homo Sacer
Formations of the Secular
Ritual, Blood, and Shiite Identity
Pilgrimage, Commodities, and Religious Objectification
The Zaynabiyya awza in Damascus and its Role in Shī‘ite Religious Instruction
The Flagellations of Muḥarram and the Shi ̔ite ‘Ulamā’
Redemptive Suffering in Islam. A Study of the Devotional Aspects of Ashura' in Twelver Shiism
Shia Lamentation Rituals and Reinterpretations of the Doctrine of Intercession
Gift Exchange in Iran
The Pure and Powerful
Unspoken Worlds
Beyond Norm and Exception
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2026 (14) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |