Iran and the Deccan
In the early 1400s, Iranian elites began migrating to the Deccan plateau of southern India. Lured to the region for many reasons, these poets, traders, statesmen, and artists of all kinds left an indelible mark on the Islamic sultanates that ruled the Deccan until the late seventeenth century.
Shi’i division over the Iraqi state: decentralization and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq
This article traces the evolving political platform of one of Iraq’s oldest and most powerful Shi’i political parties, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI). Drawing on an analysis of 15 years of primary materials produced by ISCI, it focuses principally on their promotion of decentralization as a path towards peace and stability in Iraq.
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Religious Healing and Sacred Health Curing: Online Documentary Film Program and Debate (week 1). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
A virtual documentary film presentation and debate organized by the Network of the Anthropology of the Middle East and Central Eurasia of EASA in collaboration with the Religion and Society Research Cluster, Western Sydney University. Introduction to the program by Dr. P. Khosronejad (Western Sydney University), and debate by Dr. R.
Week 1 Film Presentation:
THE SMELL OF DUST
Majed Neisi, 2002, 11 minutes, Iran.
Synopsis
During the sacred month of Moharram in Iran, Shiite Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. A rumour spread throughout the city of Ahwaz in the south of Iran: Imam Hossein had been sighted in an earth soccer field where the annual passion play (Taziyeh) commemorating him was being performed. The earth of the field was said to be blessed and to miraculously heal the infirm. People came out in droves, often with their infirm in tow; people unable to speak, blind people, cripples, and many more, brought together by their faith in miracles.
Al-Karkh: the Development of an Imāmī-Shīʿī Stronghold in Early Abbasid and Būyid Baghdad (132-447/750-1055)
Abstract Following the foundation of Baghdad by Caliph al-Manṣūr (r. 136-158/754-775) in 145/762, the neighbourhood of al-Karkh attracted many Imāmī scholars, becoming the centre of the Imāmī wikāla (network of deputies of the Imām) in the late 3rd/9th century, and then the heart of the Imāmī ḥawza (seminary) and the rationalist school of theology which developed under the Būyids (333-447/945-1055).
Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art – Saqi Books
Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art Home> Books> Saqi>Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art The experience of colour in Islamic visual culture has historically been overlooked. In this new approach, Idries Trevathan examines the language of colour in Islamic art and architecture in dialogue with its aesthetic contexts, offering insights into the pre-modern Muslim experience of interpreting colour.
The seventeenth-century Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, represents one of the finest examples of colour-use on a grand scale. Here, Trevathan examines the philosophical and mystical traditions that formed the mosque’s backdrop. He shows how careful combinations of colour and design proportions in Islamic patterns expresses knowledge beyond that experienced in the corporeal world, offering another language with which to know and experience God. Colour thus becomes a spiritual language, calling for a re-consideration of how we read Islamic aesthetics.
Protecting the Citadel of Islam in the Modern Era: A Case of Shiʿi Mujtahids and the Najaf Seminary in Early Twentieth‐Century Iraq
The concept of protecting the Citadel of Islam ( Hifẓ Bayzat al‐Islam) , is common in the lexicon of Shiʿi political jurisprudence. It refers to those Islamic principles and foundations without which the existence of Islam and the Muslim community would be in danger.
Shi’a Minorities in the Contemporary World
New comparative perspectives on Shi’a minorities outside the Muslim world Key features Provides comparative insights into Shi’a Muslim communities across the globe, set in Muslim minority contexts Makes an important contribution to understanding the glob
Khandan-i-Ijtihad: Genealogy, history, and authority in a household of ‘ulama in modern South Asia | Modern Asian Studies | Cambridge Core
Revisiting the debate on how Islam’s ‘learned men’ (‘ulama) have sustained their religious authority through changing historical circumstances, this article offers a longue durée account of the so-called ‘Khandan-i-Ijtihad’: a family of renowned scholars and jurists who have held scholarly and popular precedence within South Asia’s Shi’i clerical networks for some 250 years.
Norm and Dissidence: Egyptian Shiʿa between Security Approaches and Geopolitical Stakes
Valter, Stéphane. “Norm and Dissidence: Egyptian Shiʿa between Security Approaches and Geopolitical Stakes.” CIRS Occasional Paper no. 23. Doha, Qatar: Center for International and Regional Studies, 2019.
