Sacred Space And Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi'ite Islam (original) (raw)
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Using sources in Arabic, Gujarati, Ottoman, Persian and Urdu, this article examines the foundation of Bohra and Khoja pilgrimage institutions straddling western India and Iraq's Shı̄ʿıshrine cities between and . As manifestations of 'locative piety', these institutions were an outgrowth of the commercial capital Bohra and Khoja merchants had acquired in Indian Ocean trade over the previous half century, and the distinct caste and sectarian identities this wealth augmented. The Bohra and Khoja (both Twelver and Ismāʿı̄lı̄) mercantile and religious elites supplied their constituents with a well-ordered pilgrimage to Iraq, certainly by the standards of contemporary Hajj. To achieve this, community-run institutional nodes in Karachi, Bombay and the Shı̄ʿı̄shrine cities were integrated into wider transport, administrative, and financial infrastructures connecting India and Iraq. Yet at a time when Najaf and Karbala's economic and religious fortunes were plagued by sectarianism, political upheavals and divisions among the mujtahids, the growing presence of western Indian Shı̄ʿı̄s in the shrine cities was fiercely condemned by some Twelver Shı̄ʿı̄clerics. One of their number, Muḥ ammad Karı̄m Khurāsānı̄, published a substantial polemic against the Bohras and Khojas in , signalling how these pilgrimage infrastructures worked to exacerbate intra-Shı̄ʿı̄disputes.
Iranian Shiite ulema played a key role in the prevalence of Shiite population in Iraqi provinces of Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. The Iranian ulema’s first missionary activities began in cities which were accepted as sacred by Shiite believers and it was gradually expanded to all lands of Iraq. As a counter-policy to the Iranian ulema’s missionary activities, the Ottoman government took some measures to restrict the activities of Iranian ulema and the number of Shiite populations in Iraq. However, Ottoman government could not prevent the change of demographic map of Shiite population from the minority to the majority in Iraq. In this respect, this article will examine the Ottoman governmental policies towards Shiite groups in Iraq by rethinking the subject of sectarianism within a broader historical context, specifically within a late imperial framework. In other words, the main purpose of this study is to show the policies of the Ottoman administration to cope with the spread of Shiite belief among Iraqi people. This study will also explain the reasons for the growth of the Shiite supremacy in Iraq by basing on a number of documents from the Ottoman archives which reflect the ideology of government’s officials in the late- nineteenth century.
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2015
such as freedom and equality, the nature of the ancien régime and what the future might hold. Plumbing these internal discussions affords Der Matossian the opportunity to demonstrate the range of opinions held in and the various factions that comprised these ethnic groupings. He carefully shows the ways in which each community was divided over important questions of the day. The fall of Sultan Abdülhamid II was shadowed by important changes in all three of the populations under study. The Armenians, who had their own national assembly, were represented by a number of political parties and tendencies that differed on important issues such as how far to cooperate with the CUP, whether or not to push for political autonomy and, generally speaking, the extent to which further reforms should be demanded after the revolution. The empire's Jewish groups were similarly divided between, on the one hand, progressives who demanded reform within the community and greater participation in the politics of the empire and, on the other, conservatives who were closely associated with the pre-revolutionary system. It was also split between Zionists and non-Zionists. The post-revolutionary period witnessed similar tensions among the Arabs. Absent a central religious figure like the Patriarch or the Chief Rabbi, the main areas of difference concerned whether or not to demand autonomy for the Arab provinces and the proximity of individual notables to the governing CUP. The following chapters trace these groups through the Ottoman parliamentary elections of 1908, subsequent debates in the legislative chamber and the tumultuous events of the counter-revolution of 1909, including the Adana massacres. The narrative trajectory of the book thus leads from one of high optimism in its opening pages to one of calamity and despair in its final chapters. Particularly poignant is the treatment of the Armenians of Adana in light of what we know will happen to the Ottoman Armenians during the First World War. In this light it is interesting to note that one of the main Armenian parties, the Dashnaks, continued its policy of cooperation with the CUP even after the Adana massacres, testifying to the many ambiguities and contradictions for which the subsequent historical and historiographical trajectories leave us unprepared. If pressed for a criticism, I would only say that, given the extent to which the book highlights the important points of tension and disagreement that characterized the three groups during the period under review, the final pages, which include a comparison with the events of the "Arab Spring", seem to retreat to a stance that treats the three groups as more or less homogenous entities once again. Nevertheless, the abiding impression left by this work is of meticulous scholarship and clarity of expression that usefully complicates and enriches our understanding of this decisive period of late Ottoman history.
Roots of North Indian Shiʿism in Iran and Iraq: Religion and State in Awadh, 1772-1859
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1991
This book could not have been written without the help of many friends and advisers. As a doctoral dissertation submitted in 1984 at the University of California, Los Angeles, it benefited from the direction of Amin Banani and the comments of Nikki Keddie. Virendra Deo Pandey codirected the original dissertation while I was in India. I have been helped in extensively rewriting it by the comments of
Between Mezhep and Minority: Twelver Shiʿism in the Turkish Public Sphere
International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 2023
Despite the growth in scholarship on diverse religious communities in Turkey, little attention has been paid to Twelver Shiʿi Muslims. Since the founding of the Republic, the Turkish state's foundational secularist agenda has attempted to control and promote a single hegemonic form of Islam, and Shiʿa have faced continuous issues practicing their faith in public as a result. While the liberalization of the past three decades has allowed Shiʿism to enter the public sphere, the community has had to continue navigating limitations on their expression of religious difference. Based on fieldwork in Eastern Anatolia, this article deepens understandings of Islam in Turkey by showing how Shiʿa have negotiated their position vis-à-vis both secularist and Sunni-majority actors and policies across various religious and political currents. Rejecting categorization as either mezhep (sect) or minority, Shiʿa have demanded independence from state religious control while also asserting their allegiance to the Republic and nation as Turkish Muslims.