Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi‘ism

Utilizing a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, Hamid Mavani examines the locus of religious authority and its contemporary expression in Twelver Shi‘ism. Starting with the time of the Prophet, he provides a comprehensive and nuanced analysis of the doctrine of the Imamate and Shi‘i reli...

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Autor principal: Liyakat Takim
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Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2015
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:1e21404e10564323af39b21eed68f8172021-12-02T19:41:33ZReligious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi‘ism10.35632/ajis.v32i2.9762690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/1e21404e10564323af39b21eed68f8172015-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/976https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 Utilizing a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, Hamid Mavani examines the locus of religious authority and its contemporary expression in Twelver Shi‘ism. Starting with the time of the Prophet, he provides a comprehensive and nuanced analysis of the doctrine of the Imamate and Shi‘i religious and political authority from traditional, rational, theological, and political perspectives. The first part of the book, comprising three chapters, focuses on the doctrine of the Imamate and contains some of the material that has already been covered by scholars like Amir Moezzi, Wilferd Madelung, Mousawi, and Maria Massi Dakake. Here, Mavani examines the authority of the Imams and that of the jurists during the Twelfth Imam’s occultation. He stresses the Imams’ spiritual and religious-political authority as well as the ensuing doctrines of taqlīd and ijtihād during this period. Citing Shi‘i sacred sources, he provides a Shi‘i self-understanding of the concepts underpinning the Imamate, namely, those of wilāyah and walāyah (the Imams’ moral-spiritual authority). Mavani argues, convincingly, that Khomeini’s model of governance (wilāyat al-faqīh) has received a disproportionate amount of attention in recent times. His theory was only one among others that have been proposed by such scholars as Montazeri, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Fadlallah, and Mahdi Shams al-Din. Other Shi‘i theories of governance have been largely ignored. His discussion and critique of this model is both incisive and erudite, for not only does he examine the views of its proponents and opponents, but he also provides a detailed and nuanced discussion of other possible forms of government and the dangers involved in Iran’s currently centralized form of leadership. The last three chapters cover material that has been largely neglected by western scholarship on contemporary Islam. This is where Mavani’s major contribution lies: his criticism of traditional ijtihād as being deficient and ineffective as regards meeting contemporary challenges (pp. 226-27) and some of the discriminatory rulings that are based upon it, many of which are casuistic, arbitrary, and often based on the principle of secondary rulings. Most works on religious authority in Shi‘ism focus on the authority of the Imams and the jurists during the Twelfth Imam’s occultation. Mavani proposes other state models to the one practiced in contemporary Iran ... Liyakat TakimInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 32, Iss 2 (2015)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Liyakat Takim
Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi‘ism
description Utilizing a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, Hamid Mavani examines the locus of religious authority and its contemporary expression in Twelver Shi‘ism. Starting with the time of the Prophet, he provides a comprehensive and nuanced analysis of the doctrine of the Imamate and Shi‘i religious and political authority from traditional, rational, theological, and political perspectives. The first part of the book, comprising three chapters, focuses on the doctrine of the Imamate and contains some of the material that has already been covered by scholars like Amir Moezzi, Wilferd Madelung, Mousawi, and Maria Massi Dakake. Here, Mavani examines the authority of the Imams and that of the jurists during the Twelfth Imam’s occultation. He stresses the Imams’ spiritual and religious-political authority as well as the ensuing doctrines of taqlīd and ijtihād during this period. Citing Shi‘i sacred sources, he provides a Shi‘i self-understanding of the concepts underpinning the Imamate, namely, those of wilāyah and walāyah (the Imams’ moral-spiritual authority). Mavani argues, convincingly, that Khomeini’s model of governance (wilāyat al-faqīh) has received a disproportionate amount of attention in recent times. His theory was only one among others that have been proposed by such scholars as Montazeri, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Fadlallah, and Mahdi Shams al-Din. Other Shi‘i theories of governance have been largely ignored. His discussion and critique of this model is both incisive and erudite, for not only does he examine the views of its proponents and opponents, but he also provides a detailed and nuanced discussion of other possible forms of government and the dangers involved in Iran’s currently centralized form of leadership. The last three chapters cover material that has been largely neglected by western scholarship on contemporary Islam. This is where Mavani’s major contribution lies: his criticism of traditional ijtihād as being deficient and ineffective as regards meeting contemporary challenges (pp. 226-27) and some of the discriminatory rulings that are based upon it, many of which are casuistic, arbitrary, and often based on the principle of secondary rulings. Most works on religious authority in Shi‘ism focus on the authority of the Imams and the jurists during the Twelfth Imam’s occultation. Mavani proposes other state models to the one practiced in contemporary Iran ...
format article
author Liyakat Takim
author_facet Liyakat Takim
author_sort Liyakat Takim
title Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi‘ism
title_short Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi‘ism
title_full Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi‘ism
title_fullStr Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi‘ism
title_full_unstemmed Religious Authority and Political Thought in Twelver Shi‘ism
title_sort religious authority and political thought in twelver shi‘ism
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2015
url https://doaj.org/article/1e21404e10564323af39b21eed68f817
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