Shi‘i relations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were fraught with complexity and provide rich material for historical analysis. Nevertheless in academic literature inter- and intra-Shi‘i relations have been often ignored or homogenized to fit within the dominant Sunni-Shi‘i dichotomy. Each of the papers in this panel analyzes how Shi‘i officials have responded to the major questions facing Shi‘ism in the modern period – European imperialism, evolving structures of religious authority, pan-Islamism, etc. Thus, this panel will provide a much-need corrective to the dominant historiographies of the Shi‘a. Three of the papers discuss Shi‘i interactions with the wider Islamic community, a fourth analyzes intra-Shi‘i relations, and a fifth paper focuses on Shi‘i resistance to British rule. The latter paper argues that Shi‘i opposition to Britain in Iraq profoundly altered the development of Iraq as a nation and sowed the seeds of Shi‘i-Sunni sectarianism in Iraq. Two additional papers take up the theme of Shi‘i-Sunni relations in the context of the pan-Islamic movement associated with Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. One of them argues that Iranian Shi‘i clergy were urged towards Sunni-Shi‘i ecumenism as a defensive mechanism against British imperialism and the expansion of the Baha’i community in Iran. The other paper argues that some Shi‘i scholars did not solely support pan-Islamism as a result of perceived internal or external threats to Islam, but rather out of a sincere desire to reconcile sectarian conflicts among Muslims. An additional paper on Iranian Shi‘ism analyzes the relationship between the Shi‘i establishment in Qajar Iran and Sufi orders. This paper elucidates the socio-religious issues of orthodoxy/heterodoxy and inclusion/exclusion. These themes appear again in an additional paper, which explores the relationship between traditional, quietist Shi‘i scholars at the head of the Shi‘i educational system (hawza) in Najaf and Karbala and Baghdad-based, vocal Shi‘i leaders during the final period of the regime of Saddam Hussein (1991-2003).
The papers in this panel use Arabic and Persian primary sources drawn from the writings of Shi‘i scholars at the center of the events discussed. Taken together, these papers illustrate the diversity of Shi‘i responses to some of the most pressing issues facing modern Shi‘ism. They also highlight the challenges of defining mainstream Shi‘ism and its relationship with others in a changing socio-political climate. This panel challenges the notion that a phenomenon as complex as Shi‘i Islam either operates in a vacuum or is completely bound to a certain set of norms.
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Mr. Farhad Dokhani
Shaykh Hadi Najmabadi (d.1902) was a highly influential figure in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Iran who carried tremendous political and intellectual importance beyond his lifetime, particularly in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. An understudied figure, his involvement in the Pan-Islam movement bears further examining and is indicative of a larger trend of thought in the period that elucidates the ideas of some of the most effective advocates of reform and Islamic modernism. This paper will analyze the text of Najmabadi's Tahrir al-'Uqala (Liberation of the Wise Men) in order to complicate the notion of the Pan-Islamic project which is generally depicted as only oriented towards anti-imperialist political goals of reformers like Sayyid Jamal al-Din “al-Afghani” Asadabadi (d. 1897). Some scholars have problematically characterized the group of reformist supporters as “anti-Islam secularists”. Through the case study of Shaykh Hadi Najmabadi, this paper explores the possibility that some reformers in the movement had Muslim identities that defied easy categorization, but that were unmistakably grounded within their own unique Islamic vision. His unique, pluralist approach to Islam should be seen as a pragmatic and evidently sincere attempt to unify Muslims and not merely for political convenience. Since Shaykh Hadi was viewed as a top leader of Shi'ism and held in esteem within that fold by many Shi'is despite his unconventional and inclusive views, the simple dichotomies of Shi'i-Sunni identity and even notions of heretic versus non-heretic can be reexamined. Borrowing from the approach that opposes the exclusive focus on socio-political motivations to understand prominent Muslim figures and their writings on their own terms in Islamic philosophy, this paper argues that it is important to consider the writings and efforts of people such as Najmabadi on their own terms and not merely in a political, anti-imperialist light, particularly because many Muslim thinkers took them at face value. In problematizing the conception of the implications of the Pan-Islam movement it will also shed new light on the mission and understanding of other reformists, including the main advocate of Pan-Islam, Asadabadi, who was a close associate of Shaykh Hadi.
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Dr. Mina Yazdani
The impulse behind Islamic ecumenism the rapprochement between Sunnis and Shi‘as in modern Iranian history originated in the activities of Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1896), and his endorsement of Sultan ‘Abdu’l-Hamid’s notion of ittihad-i Islam (unity of Muslims). The ecumenism of al-Afghani and his immediate followers was essentially political in motivation, inviting Muslims to form a united front against British encroachment. In contrast, the later Iranian attempts at promoting solidarity between Sunnis and Shi‘a was motivated by primarily religious causes. During the twentieth century, and before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, two Iranian waves of ecumenism can be discerned. The first was fostered by “reformist” theologians such as Sayyid Asad Allah Kharqani (d. 1936 ), and by the efforts of Shari‘at Sangalaji (d. 1944) during the decades following the Constitutional Revolution, particularly in the 1930s. The second originated in the activities of Grand Ayatollah Haji Aqa Husayn Burujirdi (d. 1961), the sole marja‘-i taql?d (Source of Emulation) of the Shi‘a during the 1950s. For Kharqani, recovery of a united Islamic front like that which, in his mind, had existed in the first forty years of the religion’s history, was essential in strengthening Muslim interests against threats posed by multiple “Others.” These latter forces of unbelief (kufr) were “the followers of old religions, new religions, the materialists, and naturalists.” Sangalaji, similarly, projected onto the Baha’i minority the extremism (ghuluw) of which the Sunnis accused the Shi‘ites themselves. His objective was to endow mainstream Twelver Shi‘ism with the status of orthodoxy and thus to effect a rapprochement between it and “the other orthodoxy,” embodied in mainstream Sunni Islam. The origin of Burujerdi’s ecumenical commitment, on the other hand, was far more focused. A vitriolic anti-Bahaism is said to have been the passion of his life. For him, Islamic rapprochement was the logical coming together against a heretical common enemy of both Shi‘ites and Sunnis. Based on an in-depth study of the writings and biographies of the figures involved, this paper argues that the rise and expansion of the Baha’i faith created a perceived threat that induced Iran’s Islamic establishment to see Shi‘a-Sunni rapprochement as a necessary defensive maneuver.
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Prof. Zackery Heern
This paper explores Shi‘i-British relations during the early stages of British colonization in Iraq. I argue that Shi‘i resistance to British rule in Iraq profoundly altered the development of the modern Iraqi nation and sowed seeds of Sunni-Shi‘i sectarianism. Attempting to fill the power vacuum that had recently been created by the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Shi‘i religious officials (mujtahids) rejected British rule. When British forces arrived in Iraq at the beginning of World War I, Shi‘is launched an armed resistance (jihad) against foreign invasion. Shi‘i mujtahids also coordinated two additional anti-British revolts in the early 1920s. Historians have generally concluded that Shi‘i resistance to the British failed. However, few scholars have considered the impact of Shi‘i resistance on the social and political development of Iraq. My paper suggests that the antagonistic stance of Shi‘i officials pushed Britain to establish patron-client relations with non-Shi‘i sources of power, such as tribal shaykhs and Sunni notables. In an attempt to increase the non-Shi‘i population of the country, Britain also successfully fought to incorporate Sunni Kurdish territory into Iraq. Further, the political center of Iraq developed measures to exclude Shi‘i mujtahids from politics.
My research is based on British government records and the writings of Shi‘i mujtahids as well as correspondence between British and Shi‘i officials. On the basis of these records this paper analyzes more closely the question of why Shi‘i resistance to Britain did not evolve into Iraqi nationalism more easily. Was Sunni-Shi‘i sectarianism simply an insurmountable obstacle for Iraqi unification? To what extent is Britain’s divide and rule policy to blame for the slow development of Iraqi nationalism? Additionally, were Shi‘i officials excluded from Iraqi politics precisely because they emerged as the most powerful critics of Britain? These are among the questions that this paper will address in an attempt to add more nuance to the role that Shi‘i officials played in the creation of modern Iraq. Far from dismissing the Shi‘i resistance to Britain as a failure, this paper underscores Shi‘i involvement and exclusion in the development of twentieth-century Iraq as integral to its evolution.
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Mr. Robert J. Riggs
Although the Iraqi Shi‘a are often referred to as a collective, a close examination of intra-Shi‘i relations in Iraq reveals multiple centers of power, authority and concomitant conflicts. Conflicts between leaders in the hawza (religious educational centers) and outside of it, populist preachers, religio-political activists, politicians, among others, abound. Has there ever been such a dichotomy as the “vocal” hawza (al-hawza al-natiqa) versus the “silent” hawza (al-hawza al-samita), as Muhammad Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr claimed in his 1990s sermons in the Shi‘i suburbs of Baghdad? In the 1990s, as part of the Iraqi regime’s strategy of divide and conquer with regard to Shi‘i clerical leadership, a widening gap appeared between different constituencies within the Shi‘i community, a period that only now can be accurately studied with the opening of Ba‘ath archives and oral histories that were nearly impossible to access until the 2003 U.S. invasion. The dynamics of intra-Shi‘i relations holds relevance as a corrective to monolithic historiographies of the Iraqi Shi‘a as a united community. Visser, Cole, Patel and Rahimi have made meaningful contributions to the study of the Shi‘a of Iraq during the interwar period (1991-2003), but few studies focus on the dynamics of power and religious politics that characterized the relationship between Muhammad Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr (father of Muqtada) and the so-called “traditional” leaders of the hawza in Najaf, chief of whom was Ayatollah al-Khu’i and his designated successor, Ayatollah Sistani. Were the Shi‘i leaders in Najaf and Karbala antagonist towards al-Sadr and his urban followers in Baghadad? What was the actual relationship between Sadr and the Saddam regime? Did al-Sadr make meaningful and long-lasting intellectual contributions to the Shi‘i hawza curriculum and education system, or was he primarily a Shi‘i religio-political activist, or both? Is it possible to see an evolution in intra-Shi‘i relations during this crucial and understudied period in Iraqi history? This paper will address these questions using several sources – Ba’ath archives, oral histories, new Arabic publications from Najaf, and Sadr’s writings to construct a more complete picture of a community experiencing internal and external dynamic processes of evolution and conflict.
