Incidents of Anti-Shiism, June 2020

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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.

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).

“Bahrain: Unrest, Security, and U.S. Policy” Updated June 26, 2020

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.

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.

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Digital Technology and Pilgrimage: Shiʿi Rituals of Arbaʿin in Iraq

Since the collapse of the Baʿathist regime after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Shiʿi Muslim rituals, in particular the annual commemorations of Arbaʿin, have seen a revival in popularity. Based on two fieldwork studies conducted during Arbaʿin in 2016 and 2017, the present study attempts to examine the changing characteristics of the rituals.

Being a young British Iraqi Shii in London: exploring diasporic cultural and religious identities between Britain and Iraq

Relying on an ethnographic research conducted both in the UK and Iraq, this article explores issues of cultural and religious identities among London-based young British Iraqi Shiis. Using Stuart Hall’s notions of ‘articulation’ and ‘new ethnicities’, I analyse how different realities and experiences of space and class shape young British Iraqi Shiis self-identification in relation to socio-political, religious and ethnic belongings.

Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-ʿĀmilī’s draft letter to his teacher: The culture of scholarly correspondence and the Islamic republic of letters in the sixteenth century | Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies | Cambridge Core

This study focuses on a draft letter by Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-ʿĀmilī (d. 984/1576) for his teacher Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿĀmilī (d. 965/1558); both were prominent Twelver Shiite jurists from the region of Jabal ʿĀmil in what is now Lebanon. Yūsuf Ṭabājah, who first published the text, argued that Ḥusayn wrote the letter while he was in Iraq c.