Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-5mhkq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-06T09:14:18.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shiᶜite Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi
Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi*
Affiliation:
ISTAC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In Many Respects, Shiᶜism Constitutes the Most Important Element of Iranian culture since the Safavid rule in the sixteenth century. Shiᶜism not only presents a most divergent sectarian character in Islam, but also introduces a variety of rites and rituals, some of them well penetrated into the festive mode of thought of Iranians. The Encyclopaedia Iranica has dedicated numerous entries to Shiᶜite characters, rites and rituals in the first place, and to Shiᶜah thought and concepts in the second place. Looking at Shiᶜism as a culture, indeed, justifies the prominence of rituals. The community, in Heinz Halm's words, “is created through the process of rituals” more than “the profession of belief in dogma.” The Shiᶜite community, since the Safavid period, has been equipped with rituals that ensured a lasting cultural dimension for Shiᶜism. In our survey of Shiᶜism in Iranica, therefore, we deal first with rituals and symbols, second with juristic characters, third with concepts and titles, and finally with some general remarks on the issues.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 3-4: A Review of the “Encyclopaedia Iranica” , Summer Fall 1998 , pp. 639 - 659
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1998

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. Halm, Heinz Shiᶜa Islam: from Religion to Revolution, trans. Brown, Allison (Princeton: Markus Wiener, 1997), 41.Google Scholar

2. Baqir Majlisi, Muhammad Biḥār al-Anwār, 110 vols., 2nd ed. (Beirut: Muᵓassat al-Wafaᵓ, 1403/1983) vols. 97-99Google Scholar; Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hurr al-ᶜAmili, Wasāᵓil al-Shīᶜah, 20 vols. (Tehran: Maktabat al-Islamiyyah, 1397), vol. 10.Google Scholar

3. al-Hurr al-ᶜAmili, Wasāᵓil, 10/334; Majlisi, Biḥār, 11/185.

4. Majlisi, Biḥār, 16/369. In this tradition manār is to be understood as a ‘lighthouse’.

5. Ibid., 16/48.

6. Mustafa al-Shaibi, Kamil al-Fikr al-Shīᶜī (Baghdad: Maktabat al-Nahda, 1966), 51.Google Scholar

7. The author of the article records this date as 351/962 according to Shaikh ᶜAbbas Qummi, Nafas al-Mahmūm, 226; nevertheless, Ibn al-Athir recorded this under the events of year 352, also 353 and 357; al-Kāmil fī'l-Tārīkh, 10 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ᶜilmiyya, 1987), vol. 7, 279, 286, 308.Google Scholar

8. ᶜAbd al-Jalil Qazvini Razi, Kitāb al-Naqḍ, ed. Sayyid Jalal al-Din Muhaddith Urmavi (Tehran: Sipihr, 1952), 402-6.Google Scholar

9. al-Athir, Ibn al-Kāmil, 10 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ᶜIlmiyya, 1987), vol. 7, 387.Google Scholar

10. Kulayni, Furūᶜ al-Kāfī (Beirut: Dar al-Adwaᵓ, 1992) vol. 4, 548Google Scholar; Babuya al-Saduq, Ibn Man lā yaḥḍuruhu al-faqīh, 6 vols. (Tehran: Nashr-i Saduq, 1990) vol. 3, 486-556.Google Scholar

11. Nakhjavani, Hindu Shah Tajārib al-salaf, ed. ᶜAbbas Iqbal (Tehran: ᶜUhuri, 1978) 337, 339, 340, 346, 349.Google Scholar

12. Barazesh, Alireza A Concordance to Wasāᵓil al-Shīᶜa, 7 vols (Tehran: Jelve-ye Pak Pub., 1995)Google Scholar; A Concordance to Biḥār al-Anwār, 29 vols. (Tehran: Ministry of Guidance, 1994).Google Scholar Dastūr al-Mulūk of Mirza Rafiᶜa, written at the beginning of the Afghan period, does not address the Shiᶜite shrines in Iraq; but it refers to the shrines of Qum, Mashhad, and Ardabil as āstāna-yi muqaddasa or mazārāt-i mutabarrika; see Danishpuzhuh, M. T. “Dastūr al-Mulūk,” Majalla-yi Dānishkada-yi Adabiyyāt-i Tehran 63-64 (Murdad 1347sh/1968): 68-69.Google Scholar

13. Muhammad Hashim Rustam al-Hukamaᵓ, Rustam al-tawārīkh, edited by Mushiri, M. (Tehran, 1973), 420.Google Scholar

14. Hindu Shah, Tajarib, 337, 346.

15. ᶜAmili, Wasāᵓil, vol. 10, 297, 347, 355; Majlisi, Biḥār, vol. 98, 1, 28. The jihad is the recommended one (al-mandūb). It does not include the obligatory jihad.

16. The pre-Safavid Persian terms for this notion were taᶜziyat or rasm-e taᶜziyat or just taᶜziya as they have been used in Kitāb al-Naqḍ, 402-06; Hindu Shah Nakhjavani, Tajārib al-salaf, 355. The same term is used in the Shiᶜite writings of Arabic; see Kulayni, Furū’ al-Kāfī, vol. 3, 207; ittikhādh al-ma'tam, ibid., 220; al-Hurr al'Amili, Wasāᵓil, vol. 2, 871. Even Dastūr al-Mulūk of Mirza Rafiᶜa, written in the first years of the Afghans’ takeover of Isfahan, uses the term taᶜziya for the profession of the official muᶜarrif to present condolences and to recite fāṭiḥa for the blessing of the deceased. See Taqi Danishpazhuh, Muhammad “Dastūr al-Mulūk,” Majalla-yi Dānishkada-yi Adabiyyāt va ‘Ulūm-i Insānī 69-70 (Murdad 1348 Sh.); 552.Google Scholar

17. The instances of these latter, witnessed by the present generation of Iranians, include the deaths of Ayatollahs Isfahani (1946), Brujirdi (1961), Taliqani (1979) and Khomeini (1989).

18. Sūkvārī does not have the public connotation that ᶜazādārī conveys. Moreover, ᶜazādārī is often connected to dasta gardānī, another Safavid innovation, while sukvārī is not. The difference between these two is observed by Iranian immigrants in the U.S. who, after 1979, adopted new careers as celebrants of religious rituals. For example, an advertisement published in a Persian journal (Armaghān) from Los Angeles, reads: “Mr. H. Sh. performs marāsim-i izdivāj va sūkvārī” The ad does not include ᶜazādārī because it is generally known that Mr. H. Sh. cannot perform the ritual of ᶜazādārī even if the U.S. were an appropriate place for this kind of procession.

19. See Kulayni, Furūᶜ, vol. 3, 119-233; ᶜAmili, Wasāᵓil, 2nd part of vol. 1, 678-927.

20. ᶜAmili, Wasāᵓil, vol. 2, 915; Kulayni, al-Furūᶜ, vol. 3, 226.

21. Yarshater, E. “Taᵓziyeh and Pre-Islamic Mourning Rites in Iran” in Chelkowski, P. J. ed., Taᵓziyeh, Rituals and Drama in Iran (New York, 1979), 151.Google Scholar

22. Biruni, Abu Rayhan Kitāb al-Jamāhir fī maᶜrifat al-jawāhir (Haidarabad, 1355/1936), 36.Google Scholar

23. Kulayni, al-Furūᶜ, 3/220.

24. Calmard, Jean Le cult de l'Imam Husayn (Ph.D. diss. Paris, 1975), 434-49.Google Scholar

25. Kulayni, al-Furūᶜ, vol. 4, 557-573; Ibn Babuya, Man lā yaḥḍuruhu al-faqīh, vol. 3, 486-556.

26. Īrān Nāmeh, 2/3, 1984, pp. 402-31.

27. Shaykh Ahmad Ahsaᶜi, Jawāmiᶜ al-kalim (Tabriz: Lithograph, 1273/1856), 37Google Scholar; idem, Sharḥ al-Ziyāra al-Jāmiᶜa ‘l-Kabīra, 4 vols. (Kirman: Saᶜadat, 1976), vol. 1, 22-27.Google Scholar

28. Amili, Wasāᵓil, 2/887.

29. In the entry, this term is written as “Motašarreᶜ” without “a” or another “e” at the end which makes it plural and applicable to a sect.

30. Nasr, S. H. Sadr al-Din Shirazi and His Transcendent Theosophy (Tehran: 1978), 58.Google Scholar

31. Shaykh Ahmad Ahsaᵓi, Sharḥ Ziyāra al-Jāmiᶜa, vol. 1, 22-27.Google Scholar

32. For the role of dhikr in Sufi tradition, see ḎEKR (G. Bowering); Hodgson, Marshall The Venture of Islam, 3 vols. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1974), vol. 2, 210-14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33. Abu'l-Fath al-Karajiki, Kanz al-Fawāᵓid 2 vols. (Qum: Dar al-Dhakhaᶜir, 1990), vol. 2, 15-30.Google Scholar

34. EIr, 327.

35. Ibn Abi Jumhur al-Ahsaᵓi, ᶜAwālī al-laᵓālī, edited by Mujtaba Iraqi (Qum, 1983).

36. See Baqir al-Sadr, Muhammad Maᶜālim al-jadida li'l-uṣul (Najaf: Nu'mani, 1965).Google Scholar Jafari Langrudi, Muhammad Jafar Maktabhā-yi ḥuqūqī dar Islam (Tehran: Ganji Danish, 1992).Google Scholar

37. ᶜAli Al-Oraibi, “Shīᶜī Renaissance: A case Study of the Theological School of Bahrain,” unpublished Ph. D. dissertation (McGill University, 1993), 2-3.Google Scholar

38. Some authors, including Professor Algar who wrote the entry, understood mujaddid as renewer of the century. Yet in the absence of a clear theory of tajdīd in Shiᶜism, we interpret this mujaddid as just another title like muᶜassis-i Bihbihani: renewer of Usulism in the Shiᶜite world.

39. Tunakabuni, Qiṣaṣ al-ᶜulamāᵓ (Tehran, n.d.), 119Google Scholar; Saᶜid Nafisi, Tārīkh-i ijtimāᶜī va siyāsī-yi Iran, 2 vols. (Tehran: Intisharat-i Bunyad, 1983), vol. 2, 43-48.Google Scholar

40. See Kazemi Moussavi, Ahmad Religious Authority in Shiᶜite Islam (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC., 1996), 185-216.Google Scholar

41. Jalal Ashtiyani, Sayyid Sharḥ-i ḥāl va ārā-yi falsafī-yi Mullā Ṣadrā (Tehran: Nihdat-i Zanan-i Musalman, 1981), 119.Google Scholar

42. Tunakabuni, Qiṣaṣ, 42.1 am reading “ᶜāmī”, not “ᶜāmmī”.

43. Taimouri, Ibrahim Taḥrīm-i tanbākī (Tehran: Intisharat-i Jibi, 1979), 88.Google Scholar

44. ᶜAbdul-Hosein Majid Kafaei, Margī dar nūr (Tehran: Zuvvar, 1980), 179-82.Google Scholar

45. Muhammad Husayn Naᶜini, Tanbīh al-Umma (Tehran: Intisharat-i Kitab, 1955), 47, 50, 101.Google Scholar

46. In the entry, the title of marjaᶜ-i taqlīd was loosely applied to Bihbihani's father Sayyid Ismaᶜil who was brought from Najaf to Tehran by Nasir al-Din Shah. The source reference is Iᶜtimad al-Saltana, al-Maᶜāthir wa'l-āthār, ed. by Afshar, Iraj (Tehran: Asatir, 1984), 190.Google Scholar The author of this book wrote: “jamᶜī taqlīd-i vay mīkardand” (a group of people followed him in religious affairs). This does not mean that Sayyid Ismaᶜil was regarded as marjaᶜ-i taqlīd by Iᶜtimad al-Saltana.

47. Musavi Khomeini, Ruhullah Kashf al-Asrār (Tehran: Intisharat-i Hajar, n.d), 185-89.Google Scholar

48. The formulation of the doctrine of vilāyat-i faqih made its first appearence in the treatise “al-Ijtiḥad wa'l-taqlīd” written in 1329 Sh./195O. See his al-Rasāᶜil tashtamil ᶜalā mabāḥith, 2 vols. (Qum: Matbaᶜa-yi Qalamiyya, 1385/1965), 100-107.Google Scholar

49. Musaddiq, Muhammad Khatirat-i Muṣaddiq (London: Jibha, 1988)Google Scholar, chapters 2 and 7. For an analysis of this event see Katuzian, Homayoun Muṣaddiq va Nabard-i Qudrat, trans. Tadayyon, Ahmad (Tehran: Rasa, 1971), 327-34.Google Scholar

50. When I was a student at Tehran University in the early 1960s, I had the chance to meet and hear from both Ayatollah Bihbihani and Tayyib Hajj Ridaᶜi, the chief activist who was executed before a firing squad after a court martial in Tehran in 1963. It is noteworthy that the figure of Ayatollah Bihbihani was better known than Ayatollah Khomeini to the people of Tehran in the days leading up to the events of 15 Khurdad.

51. al-Din al-Zirikli, Khayr al-Aᶜlām, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-ᶜilm al-malayin, 1984), vol. 3, 278Google Scholar; ᶜUmar Rida Kahhala, al-Mustadrak ᶜalā Mu'jam al-muᶜallifīn (Beirut: Muᶜassasat al-Risala, 1988), 331.Google Scholar

52. I owe this information to Mr. Muhammad Amini Najafi who, in a letter to me, commented on his father's life and career.

53. Kulayni, Uṣūl al-Kāfī, 1/120.

54. al-Suyuri, Fadil Miqdad al-Bāb al-Ḥādī ᶜashr, ed. by Mohaghegh, M. (Tehran: Danishgah, 1986), 1.Google Scholar In the entry, this usage was mistakenly attributed to the same Ibn al-Mutahhar.

55. Khwansari, Muhammad Baqir Rawḍāt al-jannāt, 8 vols. (Qum: Islamiyya, 1980), vol. 2, 94.Google Scholar

56. ᶜAli Akbar Dihkuda, Lughat Nāma, 1/231.

57. Mufid, Awāᶜil al-Maqālāt, ed. by Mohaghegh, M. (Tehran: Institute of Islamic Studies, 1993), 23, 75.Google Scholar

58. Ibid., 349-50.

59. Astrabadi, al-Fawāᶜid al-Madanīya, 150-51.

60. Bahrani, al-Ḥadāᶜiq al-Nāḍira, 25 vols., (Najaf: Dar al-Kutub, 1957), v. 9, 359.Google Scholar

61. Kashshi, Ikhtiyār maᶜrifat al-rijāl annotated by Muhammad Baqir Astarabadi (Mir Damad), 2 vols., (Qum: Ahl al-Bayt, 1984), v. 1, 381.Google Scholar

62. Jaᶜfari Langrudi, Maktabhā-yi Ḥuqūqī, 315; quoting M. H. Naᶜini, Fawāᶜid al-Uṣūl, vol. 4, 118.