فصلنامه شیعه شناسی
پیاپی 39 (پاییز 1391)

The city of Kūfa was established under Umar (the second caliph) for the settlement of the Muslims’ Army. It was situated about six kilometers from the ancient city of Hīra. The first foundations of Shiism were established with the governorship of Ammār Yāser there and completed with the selection of that city as the center of caliphate by Imam Ali. Iranians, who formed a major part of the inhabitants of that city from the onset, were converted to Shiism under the influence of some factors such as pro-Arab policies of Umar and Uthmān, the justice and equality they observed under Imam Ali, and the Shiite movements taking place in that city. Later on, the Shiism of Kūfa was extended to Iran by these very Iranian inhabitants of Kūfa, the Ash’arite families and the immigrant Sayyids, and as a result of scientific interaction between the scientific centers of Iran (Qom in particular) and Kūfa. This Shiism was to a great extent a pure one, because a large part of its teachings was directly coming from the Infallible Imams without any alteration.

The Ash’arites were the members of a Yemeni tribe converted to Islam before the conquest of Mecca. They actively participated in the battle of Hunayn and the conquests under the caliphs. When the Uthmān was murdered, they were, like other Muslims, involved in the Alawid-Uthmanid struggles and divided into two branches of Sunnite and Shiite Muslims. The Shiites among them were the offspring of Mālik bin ‘Āmir Ash’ari, one of Imam Ali’s companions, who were mostly inhabitants of Kūfa. However, when Hajjāj seized the power, this group migrated to Qom in the last years of the first century AH. After widespread economic improvements and using a tolerant policy, they managed to establish a city-state in Qom through their unity and with their large number of people and plenty of wealth. There, the Abbasid governors were only mediators between the rulers of that city-state and the higher levels of Abbasid caliphate. The governance of the city was in the hands of the Ash’arite aristocrats and elites. This government was dominant about three decades and finally it ended with the rise of Buwahids to the power; however, it left a great and unique heritage for the Imamiyya religious school.

The Kurdish regions, due to the religious diversity and a wide variety of ritual customs, are one of the complex domains in regard with religious schools and sects; this complexity is amplified by the scantiness of scientific researches and studies in this regard. Most of the Kurd populations are followers of Sunnite school of Hanafism. This is true for Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria; and this religious characteristic is their distinctive point as compared to their neighbors. This is because their Arab, Turk, Lur and Fars neighbors are followers of Twelver Shiism or are Hanafi Sunnites. In addition to Kurds who are followers of Islamic sects, there are some other groups of Kurds who are Christians, Ashuris, Kalimis, and Yazidis, which form a large part of their population. What variable or variables influence the spread and dispersal of Shiite Kurds in Kurdish regions? Which group of Shiite Kurds is the largest one and where do they inhabit? Which Kurdish rites and practices are in the domain of Shiism? What are the reasons for accepting and diffusing Shiism by Kurds? And why is there a greater variety of religions among Kurds in comparison to their neighboring people? These are the most important questions dealt with by the present article.

The Bahmanid kings (ruled: 748-934 AH), as the first independent Muslim rulers in Deccan, established Sunnism as their official religion. Nevertheless, the actions taken by some of them prepared the ground for Shiism to prosper in Deccan. This was done by supporting Sufis, scholars, Shiites and Sayyids, and attracting them from various Islamic regions. The present article is seeking to deal with the status of Shiism in that period so that it may clarify how Shiite leanings under Bahmanid kings became widespread in a way that in the last years of their rule, Shiism was proclaimed as the official religion by some of the military commanders in some parts of Deccan.

Due to the political-social condition of Iran as well as confrontation with the Ottoman emperor and in order to create political-religious unity, to reinforce and to legitimize their government, the Safawid kings proclaimed Shiism as the official religion and would give special importance to pilgrimage as one of the important rites for Twelver Shiites, going to numerous pilgrimages. In the present article, we have tried to investigate the historical trend and the political-social dimensions of pilgrimages of Safawid kings through a descriptive-analytical method.

Undoubtedly, a precise recognition of the nature and content of the movements and revolutions largely depends on investigating the role and the effect of social groups and forces influential before and after those movements. Because of the role they play in most societies, the clergy are of particular importance as a social institution. The Shiites clergy, at least from the Safawid period onward, were among the powerful social forces and one of the important kingpins of the civil society in Iran. Just like other social forces and groups, they played political roles – besides their spiritual roles – in confronting the political power of that day, playing functions such as participation and infiltration in the government, political isolation or passivity, internal opposition, and leading social riots and revolutions. The modern history of Iran witnessed two great revolutions which brought about many evolutions and transitions in the Iranian society. Comparatively, the two revolutions had differences as well as common points both in periods before and after them. Among them, we may refer to the following ones: struggling with colonialism and autocracy, the type of political regime, constitutional law, the role of the people, ideology, leadership and some other factors like these. The present article is seeking to have a comparative study of the presence of the clergy three decades after the Islamic revolution and three decades after the Constitutional Movement as well as the thoughts and ideas presented by the scholars and the clergy on those two revolutions, extracting and analyzing their difference and common points.

Among the most effective measures taken by Shiites for spreading out and deepening the Islamic culture and the Imams’ jurisprudence is a non-stop attempt to create scientific interaction and jurisprudential link between Islamic religious schools. In the present article, we have attempted to enumerate and introduce three periods (scientific interaction, scientific confrontation, and return to interaction period), and to present examples of interactions or confrontations among followers of different religious schools. Besides, we have showed, by mentioning related examples, that in the period of returning to interaction, the Shiite jurisprudence attracted the attention of jurists of other religious schools in a way that some of those jurists acknowledged the strength and certainty of the Shiite jurisprudence, and found the solution to some of the jurisprudential problems just in following it.

The present article uses a historical approach to realizing the meaning of anfusanā (i.e. ourselves) in the 61th verse of the third chapter of the Quran entitled Āl-e Imrān. It makes use of historical evidences and refers to occasions where the Prophet used anfusanā in times of political evolutions to prove the political and spiritual meaning of the term anfusanā. The battle of Tabūk, delegation of Thaqīf, delegation of Banū Walī’a, and the occasions of proclaiming the verses of chapter Tawba (chapter 9 of the Quran) are special historical events which have been anatomized here to realize the meaning of anfusanā and to prove that this Quranic term encompasses all the meanings used by the Prophet on various historical occasions in regard with the spiritual priority and political competence of Imam Ali.