Living Shi'ism: Instances of Ritualisation Among Islamist Men in Contemporary Iran (Iran Studies)

277 Pages·2006·0.81 MB·English

by  David Thurfjell

"
Living Shi ism
Iran Studies
Editorial Board
Ali Gheissari
University of San Diego, CA
Roy P. Mottahedeh
Harvard University
Yann Richard
Sorbonne Nouvelle
VOLUME 1
"
Living Shi ism
Instances of Ritualisation Among Islamist
Men in Contemporary Iran
by
David Thurfjell
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2006
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thurfjell, David.
Living Shi"ism : instances of ritualisation among Islamist men in
contemporary Iran / by David Thurfjell.
p. cm. — (Iran studies ISSN 1569–7401 ; 1)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN-10: 90–04–15345–4 (hardback : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978–90–04–15345–5
1. Religious life—Shi"ah. 2. Shi"ah—Rituals. 3. Shi"ah—Customs
and practices. 4. Religious awakening—Iran. 5. Iran—Religious life
and customs. I. Title. II. Series.
BP194.7.T59 2006
297.3'8095595—dc22
2006049188
ISSN 1569-7401
ISBN-13: 978 90 04 15345 5
ISBN-10: 90 04 15345 4
© Copyright 2006 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ...................................................................... vii
Chapter One Points of Departure .......................................... 1
The Beginning ........................................................................ 3
The Informants ...................................................................... 4
My Position in the Community ............................................ 8
Purpose and Disposition ........................................................ 13
History of Religions and Iranian Studies ............................ 16
Chapter Two Setting the Scene ............................................ 21
The Macroscene .................................................................... 21
The Microscene ...................................................................... 25
Material .................................................................................. 41
Chapter Three Embodying Virtue ........................................ 47
The Body and Embodiment—A Theoretical Background . 48
Theorising Islam in Everyday Life ...................................... 53
Living Islam in Everyday Life .............................................. 74
Conclusions .............................................................................. 90
Chapter Four The Poetics of Emotion .................................. 95
Emotion and Ritual—Some Theoretical Remarks .............. 96
The Bliss of Sorrow .............................................................. 106
Ritualised Practice .................................................................. 114
The Case of Amir .................................................................. 121
Conclusions .............................................................................. 127
Chapter Five Tools of Authorisation ...................................... 131
Authorisation .......................................................................... 134
Tools of Authorisation in the Rituals of the Mosque ........ 142
Chapter Six Crumbling Authority? ........................................ 157
Exaltation of Authority—The Case of Mosta'àr ................ 159
Rebuking the Mollàs—The Case of Jamie .......................... 171
Discussion ................................................................................ 177
vi contents
Chapter Seven Lectures and Lamentations .......................... 183
Lectures .................................................................................. 186
Lamentations .......................................................................... 204
Chapter Eight The Creativity of Ritual ................................ 211
Summary ................................................................................ 211
Methodological Reflections in Retrospect ............................ 214
Ritualisation and Meaning .................................................... 223
The Purposes and Meanings of Ritualisation—
Conclusions .......................................................................... 238
Life goes on... ...................................................................... 243
Summary in Persian .................................................................. 247
References .................................................................................... 251
Subject Index .............................................................................. 263
Name Index ................................................................................ 267
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to express my sincere gratitude to the five individuals who
in this book will be referred to as 'Ali Bakhtiyàri, Amir, Jamie,
Mohamad Mahdi and Mosta'àr. It is only thanks to their incom-
parable generosity and warmth that I have been able to complete
this study. I am highly indebted to them.
This book was originally my doctoral thesis in History of Religions
at Uppsala University. My supervisor there, David Westerlund, was
an invaluable asset for me throughout the time that I worked on
this book as he has remained one after that as well. It was he who
introduced me to the idea of postgraduate studies in the first place
and through the years he has followed my work with relentless
encouragement and interest. I am very grateful for his support, his
accessibility and his excellent scrutiny of my drafts. I am also much
indebted to my assistant supervisor, Gudmar Aneer, whose profound
knowledge on Iranian religion and culture has been of great value
to me.
My colleagues at the department for the History of Religions at
Uppsala University have provided advice and encouragement for
which I am very thankful. I would especially like to thank: Jenny
Berglund, the late Jan Bergman, Rannveig Haga, Christer Hedin,
Eva Hellman, Peter Jackson, Pia Karlsson, Maria Liljas, Ulrika
Mårtensson, Leuben Njinya-Mujinya, Susanne Olsson and Lena Roos.
I also want to express my appreciation to the members of the higher
seminar for Iranian studies under the chairmanship of Bo Utas and
the higher seminar for Sociology of Religion under the chairman-
ship of Alf Linderman and Thorleif Petterson. Thanks also to
Mohammad Fazlhashemi, Catharina Raudvere and Eva Evers-
Rosander, who all have taken time to read and comment on my
drafts, and to Yann Richard for his valuable comments in the last
phase of my work. Special gratitude I like to convey to Håkan
Rydving for his thorough reading and invaluably substantial advice
concerning my work. His suggestions have had a great impact on
the final form of this book. Thanks also to all those who have assisted
me with the Persian language, not least my first Persian teacher
Carina Jahani and Forogh Hashabeiky in Uppsala. I am also grateful
viii acknowledgements
to Zakir Hussayn for being my living encyclopaedia of Shi'ite matters.
Finally, I want to express my deepest appreciation to my parents,
Inger and Bengt Thurfjell, for their ceaseless confidence and encour-
agement of the paths that I have chosen; and to my wife, Anna-
Karin Brus, for her admirable endurance and serenity. I dedicate
this book, with love, to her.
Uppsala, May 11th 2006
David Thurfjell
CHAPTER ONE
POINTS OF DEPARTURE
Iran is going through a period of rapid societal change. The gen-
eration that was born in the baby boom following Khomeyni’s rev-
olution has now grown up. People belonging to this generation are
leaving the universities and are trying to make their way in a soci-
ety burdened by inflation, unemployment and political repression. A
growing majority of young people channel their frustration through
calls for change. Those who were born and raised under the rule
of the jurisprudents now abandon the path of their leaders—or so
it seems. But there are exceptions. Among certain layers of the pop-
ulation the ideals of the revolution are still highly esteemed. Here
the dream of a just and prosperous society, governed by the prin-
ciples of Islamic law, is still vivid and the loyalty to the present con-
servative leader is strong. Here, attempts at reform and liberalisation
are looked upon with distress as symptoms of deceit and ignorance,
as signs of a growing public oblivion of God. This is a study of this
pro-regime movement at a grass-roots level. It is a story of a group
of men belonging to a mosque-community with a conservative profile
in Esfahàn, about their lives and thoughts during a period of four
years.
In 1996 I spent a semester in Esfahàn studying the Persian lan-
guage at the city’s state university. At that time I learned to appre-
ciate Iran strongly—the beauty of its landscapes, the friends I made
there, the generosity and passion of its people. It was an experience
of wonder and excitement to study there but also, I must admit, an
experience associated with certain anxiety. Back then, in 1996, the
Islamic Republic was different. The liberalization movement of the
last years had not yet begun and the feared life-style policemen of
the komite were still patrolling the streets harassing anyone who dared
to challenge the officially sanctioned rules of conduct and clothing.
I was often afraid in those days, as were many Iranians, and my
presence was often regarded with suspicion by official authorities.
During my stay I experienced, for the first time, the sorrow ritu-
als of Iranian Shi'ism. Through the university, I was introduced to