Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-08T04:36:13.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Ideology and Praxis of Shi'ism in the Iranian Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Shahrough Akhavi
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina

Extract

The Iranian revolution of 1979 presents a case in which religion has stimulated profound social change, rather than serving only as a basis for social integration. Although scholars have recently been reminded of the revolutionary potential of religious commitments, the view that religion tends to inhibit large-scale social change continues to enjoy currency. It may be that, in the light of events in Iran in the last five years, observers of Islamic societies will now be tempted to overstress the revolutionary tendencies of that great world religion. Yet it is difficult to exaggerate the force and depth of feeling which Shi'i belief and practice has generated in Iran for the purpose of the structural transformation of society.

Type
Religion and Communal Power
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Lewy, Guenter, Religion and Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

2 Ashraf, Ahmad, “Historical Obstacles to the Development of a Bourgeoisie in Iran,” in Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East, Cook, Michael, ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), 308–32.Google Scholar

3 Bill, James A., “Class Analysis and the Dialectics of Modernization in the Middle East,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 3:4 (10 1972), 417–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Abrahamian, Ervand, “Oriental Despotism: The Case of Qajar Iran,” International Journalof Middle East Studies, 5:1 (01 1974), 331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 M. Crawford Young, personal communication. For the Iranian example, see Mahdavy, Hossein, “Patterns and Problems of Economic Development in Rentier States: The Case of Iran,” in Studies in Economic History, Cook, ed., 428–67.Google Scholar

6 Halliday, Fred, Iran: Dictatorship and Development (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1979),3863.Google Scholar

7 Weiner, Myron, “Political Participation,” in Crises and Sequences of Political Development, Binder, Leonard, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), 161.Google Scholar

8 Schmitter, Philip C., “Still the Century of Corporatism?“ in The New Corporatism, Pike, Frederick and Stritch, Thomas, eds. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1974), 9394.As Houshang Chehabi has pointed out, classical corporatism features—in the case of authoritariantypes of corporatism—very strict vertical integration of capitalists and labor by branchof activity. In the Iranian case, such rigorous integration did not exist, although the regime hadbegun this process in the 1960s so that, by the time of the revolution, one could speak of it in embryo.Google Scholar

9 A debate is taking place in the literature on the question of doctrinal principles and rule.Arguing in the tradition that the doctrine sanctions clergy assertiveness and revolutionary rejectionof impious rule (zulm) are Lambton, A. K. S., “Quis Custodiet Custodes?” Studia Islamiea, 5:2 (1956), 125–48, and 6:1 (1956), 125–46;Google ScholarKeddie, Nikki R., “The Roots of the ‘Ulama’'s Power in Modern Iran,” Studia Islamiea, 29 (1969), 3153;Google ScholarAlgar, Hamid, Religion and State inIran, 1785–1906 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969);Google ScholarBinder, Leonard, “The Proofs of Islam,” in Studies in Honor of Hamilton Gibb, A. R., Makdisi, George, ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1965), 118–40;Google Scholar and Eliash, Joseph, “The Ithna'ashari Shi'i Juristic Theory of Political and Legal Authority,Studia Islamiea, 29 (1969), 1730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar In a later article, Some Misconceptions ConcerningShi'i Political Theory,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 9:1 (02 1979), 925Google Scholar, Eliash admonishes against too literal an interpretation of Shi'i doctrine on zulm. Asagainst the traditional view, the revisionists suggest that Shi'i doctrine has been quietistic on thequestion of rule. Consult Said Arjomand, Amir, “Religion, Political Action and LegitimateDomination in Shi'ite Iran: Fourteenth to Eighteenth Centuries A.D.Archives européenes desociologie, 20:1 (1979), 59109Google Scholar; and Bayat, Mangol, “Islam in Pahlavi and Post-Pahlavi Iran: ACultural Revolution?” in Islam and Development: Religion and Sociopolitical Change, Esposito, John L., ed. (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1980), 8994.Google Scholar

10 Binder, Leonard, Iran: Political Development in a Changing Society (Berkeley: Universityof California Press, 1962);Google ScholarBill, James A., The Politics of Iran: Groups, Classes and Modernization(Columbus, Ohio: Charles Merrill, 1972);Google ScholarCottam, Richard, Nationalism in Iran, 2d ed.(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979);Google ScholarZonis, Marvin, The Political Elite of Iran (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971).Google Scholar

11 Abrahamian, Ervand, “The Structural Causes of the Iranian Revolution,Middle EastResearch and Information Project Reports, 87 (05 1980). 25.Google Scholar

12 Halliday, , Iran, 76.Google Scholar

13 Abrahamian, Ervand, Iran between Two Revolutions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 347–71.Google Scholar

14 Halliday, , Iran, 205.Google Scholar

15 Bill, , Politics of Iran, 5372.Google Scholar

16 Issawi, Charles, “The Iranian Economy, 1925–1975: Fifty Years of Economic Development,” in Iran under the Pahlavis, Lenczowski, George, ed. (Stanford: Hoover Institution,1978), 137.Google Scholar

17 Data for the United States in 1978 indicate that the top two quintiles showed about the same skew as that for Iran in 1973–74. However, the middle quintile in the case of the United Statesrevealed a figure of 17.5 percent of expenditures, whereas in the Iranian case the analogousstatistic was 11.8 percent, “suggesting the old'small middle class equals low stability' equation.” I am grateful to George E. Delury for bringing this fact to my attention.

18 Tuma, Elias, “The Rich and the Poor in the Middle East,” Middle East Journal, 34:4(Autumn 1980), 420.Google Scholar

19 Liaghat, Gholam A., “Changes in a New Middle Class through the Analysis of. CensusData: The Case of Iran between 1956–1966,” Middle East Journal, 34:3 (Summer 1980), 349.Google Scholar

20 Keddie, Nikki R., “The Iranian Village before and after Land Reform,” Journal of ContemporaryHistory, 3:3 (1968), 87.Google Scholar

21 Halliday, , Iran, 122. Halliday's italics.Google Scholar

22 Akhavi, Shahrough, Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran: Clergy-State Relations inthe Pahlavi Period (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1980), 183.Google Scholar

23 Sachedina, Abdulaziz A., Islamic Messianism: The Idea ofMahdi in Twelver Shi'ism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1980), 105.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., 101. Eliash, “Some Misconceptions,” has shown that ex ante appointment neveroccurred.

25 Algar, , Religion and State, passim.Google Scholar

26 Lewis, Bernard, “Islamic Concepts of Revolution,” in Revolution in the Middle East, Vatikiotis, P. J., ed. (London: Weidenfeld, 1972), 33.Google Scholar

27 Madelung, Wilfred, “Imama,” Encyclopaedia of Islam (n.s.), Ill, fasc. 5960 (Leiden: Brill, 1971), 1167.Google Scholar

28 Kippenburg, Hans, “Jeder Tag 'Ashura, Jedes Grab Kerbala,” in Religion und Politik imIran: Mardom Nameh-Jahrbuch zur Geschichte und Gesellschaft des Mittleren Orients, Greussing, Kurt, ed. (Frankfurt am Main: Syndikat, 1981), 217–56.Google Scholar

29 Fischer, Michael M. J., Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press, 1980), 183.Google Scholar

30 Iran Times (hereafter cited as IT), 23 and 30 Azar 1358 H. Sh./14 and 21 December 1979.This paper, published weekly in Washington, D.C., typically consists of fourteen pages inPersian and two pages in English. All references to IT are to the Persian language articles.

31 IT, 3 Isfand 1358 H. Sh./22 February 1980.

32 An examination of the conflicts between Khumayni and Shari'atmadari may be found in Akhavi, , Religion and Politics, 172–80.Google Scholar

33 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Middle East Journal, 34:2 (Spring 1980), 184204.Google Scholar

34 Musalman, Khalq-i, 22 Mihr 1358 H. Sh./14 October 1979.Google Scholar

35 Khumayni, Ruhullah al-Musavi, Hukumat-i Islami (Najaf: Ashraf, 1391 H. Q./1971), 74ff.Emphasis supplied.Google Scholar

36 IT, 18 Khurdad 1358 H. Sh./8 June 1979; 4 Aban 1358/26 October 1979.

37 IT, 4 Aban 1358 H. Sh./26 October 1979.

38 IT, 18 Aban 1358 H. Sh./9 November 1979.

39 Iranshahr, 4 Urdibihisht 1359 H. Sh./24 April 1980; IT, 30 Aban 1359 H. Sh./21 11 1980; IT, 5 Day 1359 H. Sh./26 December 1980; IT, 25 Urdibihisht 1360 H. Sh./15 May1981. Although clearly opposed to communism, Ayatullah Shari'atmadari has declared, asagainst Ayatullah Khumayni's position, “If the people should elect communists as representatives, it will be necessary to tolerate their existence.” Ayandigan, 30 Tir 1358 H. Sh./21 July 1979.

40 Khalq-i Musalman, 22 Mihr 1358 H. Sh./14 October 1979.

41 IT, 16 Shahrivar 1358 H. Sh./7 September 1979.

42 IT, 9 Azar 1358 H. Sh./30 November 1979.

43 IT, 30 Azar 1358 H. Sh./21 December 1979.

44 IT, 14 Shahrivar 1359 H. Sh./5 September 1980; IT, 14 Farvardin 1360 H. Sh./3 April 1981; IT, 25 Urdibihisht 1360 H. Sh./15 May 1981.

45 IT, 23 Azar 1358 H. Sh./14 December 1979. Suggesting that these individuals are patriots, Shari'atmadari again took issue with Ayatullah Khumayni's rejection of nationalist sentimentwhen he declared, “Love of one's homeland is a sound idea-a person's homeland is like hishouse.” Ittila'at, 20 Khurdad 1358 H. Sh./lO June 1979.

46 IT, 30 Azar 1358 H. Sh./21 December 1979.

47 IT, 27 Mihr 1358 H. Sh./19 October 1979.

48 IT, 15 Farvardin 1359 H. Sh./4 April 1980.

49 IT, 4 Aban 1358 H. Sh./26 October 1979. It is true he did so on technical, not substantive, grounds. If, as was possible, the faqih were not an Iranian, what would he do in case of warbetween Iran and his home country, given that he would be commander-in-chief of the armedforces? If he were to order Iranian mobilization, he would be warring against his own country; ifhe demurred, he would be a traitor to Iran.

50 IT, 14 Farvardin 1360 H. Sh./3 April 1981; IT, 4 Urdibihisht 1360 H. Sh./24 April 1981.

51 IT, 1 Farvardin 1360 H. Sh./21 March 1981.

52 Khalq-i Musalman, 22 Mihr 1358/14 October 1979.

53 Voice of America, Persian language broadcast, 22 March 1981.

54 IT, 2 Murdad 1360 H. Sh./24 June 1981.

55 IT, 26 Tir 1360 H. Sh./17 June 1981; IT, 9 Murdad 1360 H. Sh./31 July 1981.

56 Denouncing the concentration of power in Qumm, Ayatullah Abu al-Hasan Shirazi ofMashhad reminded his audience that his city was the site of the tomb of the eighth Imam, a claimno other Iranian city could make. IT, 28 Farvardin 1360 H. Sh./17 April 1981.

57 IT, 25 Urdibihisht 1360 H. Sh./15 May 1981.

58 Khalq-i Musalman, 22 Mihr 1358 H. Sh./14 October 1979.

59 IT, 25 Urdibihisht 1360 H. Sh./15 May 1981.

60 IT, 1 Aban 1360 H. Sh./23 October 1981.

61 IT, 2 Bahman 1360 H. Sh./22 Janaury 1982.

62 IT, 10 Isfand 1358 H. Sh./29 February 1980; IT, 4 Mihr 1359 H. Sh./26 September 1980;IT, 20 Tir 1359 H. Sh./ll July 1980.

63 IT, 13 Tir 1359 H. Sh./4 July 1980; IT, 14 Shahrivar 1359 H. Sh./5 September 1980; IT, 1Farvardin 1359 H. Sh./21 March 1980.

64 IT, 19 Tir 1360 H. Sh./lO July 1981.

65 IT, 18 Day 1360 H. Sh./8 January 1982.

66 Since the original draft of this article was written, the situation has reversed. The moremilitant IRP faction is now dominant in the cabinet and party organs (Politburo, General Secretariat, Central Committee). The less militant appear in significant numbers in the parliament andjudiciary. See Akhavi, Shahrough, “Clerical Politics in Iran since 1979” in The Iranian Revolutionand the Islamic Republic: New Assessments, Keddie, Nikki and Manalo, Kathleen, eds.(Washington, D.C.: The Middle East Institute, forthcoming). This essay was originally presentedas a paper to the Conference on the Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic, SmithsonianInstitution, Woodrow Wilson Center, 22–23 May 1982.Google Scholar

67 Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (New York: CharlesScribner's Sons, 1958), 91.Google Scholar