Investigating the Formation and Diffusion Of «Study of Shiism» in Iran

It is more than one decade since a field entitled “study of Shiism” was enacted and established in Iran. This is a field whose main approach is a social one and has managed, in a short time, to introduce itself to the scientific society of Iran. Therefore, there are many universities and academies that began this field. However, the main question is why, despite the initial definition of social approach and introducing it to the academic society of the country, the sociological attitude of that field has not been spread seriously in practice. In the first section of the article, a brief introduction of that field as well as a report of its condition in Iranian universities has been mentioned. In the second section, we have attempted to answer the aforementioned question. The analyses show that the opinion of the seminary expert on sciences in general and sociology in particular is that they are not regarded as seminary sciences and are considered among ihsa’iyat, which are not of primary importance. The university experts regard “study of Shiism” as something related to seminary and avoid entering that challenging sphere. In writing the first section of this article, we have used interviews and in the second section, we have used analytical method.