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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
Among the factors influencing the psychology of historical individuals are the “great” cultural tradition in which he or she participates, the local expressions of this tradition, the sex roles defined by society, the traditions of one's economic class, the local child-rearing practices, and the personal history of the individual. For the Near East, the study of the influence of such factors on individuals is in its infancy, and any remarks made here will be tentative. After listing some cultural factors operative in Islamic and Iranian society, we shall look at one leader--Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī--who both reflects the interaction of some of these factors and shows some highly individual features.
Islam as a comprehensive religio-political-legal theory inculcates considerable conformity of behavior--more of behavior than of belief, unlike some religions. The central importance of religious law and of conformity to it have frequently been noted.
1. The Times, August 30, 1879, and September 8, 1879, quoted in Keddie, Nikki R. Sayyid Jamāl ad-Dīn “al Afghānī”: A Political Biography (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 116-118.Google Scholar (Henceforth cited as Afghani.) Points about Afghānī's life not footnoted below are discussed and documented in this biography.
2. On traditions of esoterism and dissimulation in Islam, see Keddie, Nikki R. “Symbol and Sincerity in Islam,” Studia Islamica, XIX (1973), 27-63.Google Scholar
3. See Keddie, Nikki R. “Religion and Irreligion in Early Iranian Nationalism,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, IV, No. 3 (April 1962), 265-295CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the sources discussed therein.
4. Afshār, Īraj and Mahdavī, Aṣghar Majmū'ah'i asnād va madārik-i chāp nashudah dar bārah'i Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn mashhūr bi Afghānī (Documents inédits concernant Seyyed Jamal al-Din Afghani) (Tehran: University of Tehran, 1963).Google Scholar (Henceforth cited as Documents.) These were used effectively in the first very good biography of Afghānī, Pakdaman, Homa Djamal-ed-Din Assad Abadi dit Afghani (Paris, 1969).Google Scholar
5. I was not entirely surprised to find that the reviews of my first book on Afghani, An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Views of Sayyid Jamāl ad-Dīn al-Afghānī (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968)Google Scholar, were divided neatly into two categories: the non-Muslim reviews were all favorable and the Muslim reviews all unfavorable. This occurred despite the fact that the book is not hostile to Afghānī.
6. Keddie, Afghānī, pp. 33-35, and Documents.
7. Afghānī, p. 16, citing Khāṭirāt-i Ḥājjī Sayyāh (Tehran: Ibn-i Sina, 1967/68), pp. 290-291.Google Scholar Mīrzā Rizā almost surely referred to Afghānī as the Mahdī during his cross-examination after assassinating the Shah. See Browne, E. G. The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910), p. 82Google Scholar and n.; and Afghānī, p. 406 n.
8. Afghānī, p. 45, citing the Government of India's “Cabul Diary.”
9. Afghānī, p. 54, citing Documents.
10. Afghānī, pp. 58-80; and Berkes, Niyazi The Development of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1964), pp. 181-188.Google Scholar
11. Afghānī, p. 193; from al-Afghani, Jamal ad-Din Refutation des materialistes, trans, by Goichon, A.-M. (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1942), pp. 184-185.Google Scholar
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13. Afghānī, pp. 333, 437, from Documents.
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26. Fenichel, Otto The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1945).Google Scholar Many thanks to my colleague Peter Loewenberg and to Dr. Marshall Cherkas for the psychoanalytic references.
27. Browne, E. G. The Persian Revolution 1905-1909 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910), 28-29.Google Scholar
