فصلنامه شیعه پژوهی
پیاپی 8 (پاییز 1395)

Shia has been explicitly and implicitly influential in formation of Iranian identity, in addition to cultural factors and elements such as customs, language and history.Shiism, especially from the Safavid period, has played a key role in the formation of identity and the restoration of Iran. Following the Arab conquests and dominance of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs over the territory now called Iran; efforts to revive its political and cultural life have begun by Iranians. Along with political and military activities, some scholars have begun discussing Iranian identity in different ways in their works. One of the identifying factors was to pay attention to a religion other than the religions supported by the Caliphate system. Despite the fact that until the collapse of the Caliphate system, and even afterwards, most of Iranians followed one of the Sunni sects, historical sources shows that Shiite ideas are visible in their contents. This attention led to the familiarity of society with Shia despite the fact that during the period prior to the fall of the Abbasid, no serious change happened. This antecedent field became a factor in the identity of Shia following the collapse of the caliphate system and later the Safavid victory. The present study uses a descriptive-analytical method to study the reflection of Shiite doctrines in historical and literary sources before the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate's system and explain its role in shaping the appropriate context for more familiarity with Shiites. It also answers this question: Can a link between the issue of Iranian identity and Shia be found in the early centuries?

Mutarrafiyyah is one of the most important branches of Yemeni Zaidi that emerged in the fifth century AH. Raising some challenging beliefs different from theological tradition of Zaidi, this sect provided a basis of theological conflict and polemics between other Zaidi sects and themselves. Establishing various places called Hijrah used for dwelling and educating, they succeeded in freely promoting and disseminating their thoughts among Yemeni people. The reformist attitude of Mutarrafiyyah which was based on equality of men as well as their following of Mu`tazilite theological attitude of Baghdad was considered as intellectual rebellion against Zaidis. For the reason it was ended by the Zaydi rulers after two centuries of presence in Yemen. Nevertheless, scrutinizing the few sources left from them along with the sources of the Zaidi sects opposing them, one can say Mutarrafiyyah’s tendency toward naturalism, scientism, rationalism as well as adherence to Zuhd (piety) constituted their most important differences with the mainstream of Zaidis in Yemen. This article tries to examine the origins of Mutarrafiyyah and then shed light on the true nature of it

History of Imami theology in the direction of their growth and development, has experienced many schools that each has played effective role in the development of theological thought in Imamiyya. In the first two schools of Medina and Kufa, all beliefs and beliefs of Shiite beliefs were developed and elaborated. Then the Qom and Baghdad schools transcribed the previous heritage with two different approaches. After the decline of Qom and Baghdad, the school of Hilla rose that was one of the most important Shiite schools in terms of excellence, diversification and innovation. The school of Hilla, in addition to causing other Islamic sciences and techniques great development, was the source of many developments with different approaches to the Shiite theological thought. The approach most attended in this school was a philosophical-theological approach; other approaches were neglected or did not come to the sidelines of the dominant approach. Therefore, in this paper, we report the formation of different theological approaches in the school of Hilla and their role in the evolution of Imami theology, and recognize the angles of this school of theology

The debate is one of the logical and methodical techniques in the scientific and theological discussions that always has been taken into consideration of Islamic scholars and theologians. One of its outstanding examples in the last century is the ten meetings of debate among a group of religious scholars in the city "Peshawar" that have been held as sincerely and without prejudice. The main axis of these debates is explaining the true position of Imamate and Guardianship also resolving doubts about it. The description of these discussions has been written by eloquent story of "Sultan al-Waizin Shirazi" namely the "Dai" in the book "Peshawar Nights". Investigating in this book and analysis of components of its debates can lead to a suitable pattern of the method in the field of theological debate. Actually "Dai" according to the teachings of the Quran and the tradition of Ahl al-Bayt (AS), plays a major role in defending the boundaries of guardianship and often debates axiomatic method and by basics of the Quran and traditions and sometimes controversial manner or in the form of sermon. But his opponents that often played the role of the question designer are composed of a group such as "Hafez", "Sheikh" and "Nawab" that their method is often polemical and also is not empty of fallacies

Kufan's invitation for 'Imam Hussein (AS) to leave for Kufa is considered one of the main phases in 'Imam Hussein's rise. To know the number of letters sent by Kufans to him is one of the burning issues to analyze the way 'Imam Hussein dealt with the Kufan's invitation. Although the statistics of the letters were offered differently, this issue has been tackled briefly in the works concerning 'Imam Hussein's movement. In this paper, having searched for accounts in early historical sources, having set up an inquiry into data relevant to Kufan's invitation and having analyzed them, I tried to offer the statistics based on research on the number of the Kufan's letters. Additionally, towards compiling the statistics, I came up with the process of writing the letters, the text and the writers. Evaluating the data of the early sources, the number of the letters, some of which written down by some people, does not reach sixty

Following the news of the martyrdom of Imam Musa al-Kazim (AS), Shia community was faced four different reactions: The first group confirmed the news and believed in the Imamate of Imam Ali ibn Mua al-Reza (AS). The Second group denied the martyrdom of Imam; the third group was told that the Imam is dead but would return; and the fourth group remained skeptical. The similarities between the second and third groups are to end the chain of Imamate by Imam Kazim (AS), belief in his being "Mahdi" and belief in the Imam's return. The second and the third group in the history of the sect are known Vaqefeh. Rise of Vaqefeh is due to two reasons: the first one is due to a misunderstanding of the political activities of Imam Kazim (AS) and contradictory news about his martyrdom and the second is due to the greedy companions of Imam. Imam Ali ibn Musa al-Reza (AS) coped with Vaqefeh through: awareness to the community, social and ideological struggle, disclosure; and paranormal habits. The leading article explores these practices with the help of authentic sources of cultology and narrative books