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Quietness beyond Political Power: Politics of Taking Sanctuary (Bast Neshini) in the Shi‘ite Shrines of Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Peyman Eshaghi
Peyman Eshaghi*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Cultural Studies of the Free University of Berlin
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Abstract

“The politic” and “the religious” have had many relations with each other in Iranian history and in some cases “the religious” has been defined in a situation beyond the extent of the political power. A case in point is the right of taking sanctuary in Shi‘ite shrines. Throughout Iran’s history, subjects could take refuge in Shi‘ite shrines and some other places related to religious and non-religious authorities. Persecution was delayed or the individual was forgiven, though sometimes they were sentenced when exiting the shrine. By referring to religious texts that have reinforced that tradition, this article seeks to trace continuities between early Islam and modern Iran. It focuses on sanctuary taking and sit-ins at shrines and tombs, and on the interplay between those actions and political power, and discusses the changing mobility and dynamisms of those actions at different periods of Iranian history.

Keywords

PilgrimageShrineCult of SaintsTaking SanctuaryBast NeshiniIranian Judicial System
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , May 2016 , pp. 493 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2016

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