Religious Intellectualism, Religion and Typology of Intellectualism (The Challenge of Tradition and Modernity in 19th century Iran)

Intellectualism is one of the notions emerged in France in late 19th century following trial of Captain Dreyfus. Four years later, the writer Emile Zola issued a manifesto, resulting in his arrest; other writers denounced his arrest in a manifesto entitled "Intellectual's Manifesto". The terms "intellectualism" and "intellectuals" prevailed gradually. The notion had a special connotation in the west, which was used in the course of the evolutions in Iran. Some of the westerner educated Iranians introduced themselves as intellectuals – with the same meaning – in Iran; in 19th century, they formed modern political and social trends based on western models. Since this mentality was inconsistent with the epistemological structures and political discourse of that age, religious elites (scholars) and grass root confronted these trends. National Iranian identity has long been mixed with Islam and Shiism. Iranians would confront any things which they felt to be an invasion on their religious beliefs and knowledge. Many Islamic movements have emerged throughout Iran's history, many of which rooted in these very internal feelings. The role and effects of the religious elites in these evolutions is much prominent.Here, we have dealt with the reasons for struggles between religious elites and other elites, introducing the views of each group to identify various types of intellectualism in Iran; these types include: anti-tradition; Islamist, and modern western intellectuals.The religious elites and scholar's views have been selected randomly from views presented by Mirza Shirazi and Sheikh Fazl Allah Nuri; these views have then been compared and contrasted to sort out the positive and negative trends of intellectualism.