Algar Roots of the Islamic Revolution in Iran

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4835-5707-6
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

In the summer of 1979, at a time when the viability of the Islamic Republic of Iran was being widely questioned in the Western media and the historical background of the revolution that had led to its establishment was largely unknown, Hamid Algar delivered four lectures on the Islamic Revolution at the Muslim Institute in London. In clear and concise fashion, he examined the historical links between Iran and Shi'a Islam; the life an personality of Imam Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Revolution; the career and ideas of Ali Shari'ati, 'religious intellectual;' and the course of the events that in little more than a year led to the overthrow of one of the most deeply entrenched dictatorships in the Muslim world. Now reissued in substantially revised form, the text of these lectures remains a useful introduction to the revolution, arguably the most important event in modern Muslim history. New translations made by the author from the writings of Imam Khomeini and Ali Shari'ati enhance the utility of the work.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Algar, Hamid

Leseproben

SECOND LECTURE

Imam Khomeini: the embodiment of a tradition

The Islamic Revolution differs from other events of the present century that have been given the designation "revolution" by being firmly rooted in history. Far from being a radical break with the essential and profound developments of the Iranian nation, it is on the contrary a continuation and fruition of long years of political, spiritual, and intellectual development.

I laid particular stress last week on the development of the institution of the Shi'i ulama, beginning with their migration to Iran in the Safavid period. Then I described their gradual emergence as a class providing not only religious leadership in the narrow and technical sense but also leadership of a national and political nature, given increasingly to contesting the authority monarchical institution.

Inevitably I was obliged to omit certain topics and names, and by way of introduction to today's topic -- the culminating figure of this whole tradition of the ulama, Imam Khomeini -- I would like to make more detailed reference to some aspects of what I briefly touched upon last week.

First, it would obviously be a distortion of the institution of the ulama to regard it simply from the viewpoint that most interests us today -- namely, the political. We should bear in mind that the ulama, not only within the Shi'i and Iranian context, have been the guardians above all of a certain body of traditional learning and devotion that has been the whole underpinning and basis of social and political action.

If we look at the specific case of the Shi'i school of thought in Iran, we see that again since the early Safavid period -- beginning in the sixteenth century of the Christian era -- the ulama have studied and cultivated a wide variety of different disciplines. These have included not merely the familiar theological disciplines of Qur'an, hadith, tafsir, fiqh, and so on -- but philosophy, a certain form of philosophy appropriate to the Islamic context; and mysticism, again a certain form of mysticism appropriate to the Islamic and specifically the Shi'i context.

Indeed, if we look at the person of Imam Khomeini and his achievement, we find that he is the culmination of the tradition of the Shi'i ulama in Iran, not merely in exercising an unusually comprehensive, wide, and profound influence in political and social affairs, but also with respect to the purely learned dimension of the tradition. Here, too, he is an unparalleled figure.

This, then, is one thing. In order to understand the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the role played in it by the ulama, particularly Imam Khomeini, it is necessary to consider not merely their political theory, not merely their sensibility and strategy and their identification with popular aspirations, but also the background of cultivation of Islamic learning and piety from which they sprang.

Secondly, as a footnote to last week's presentation, I would like to go into more detail on two figures who provide the immediate background to the emergence of Imam Khomeini. The first is Shaykh 'Abd Al-Karim Hairi and the second is Ayatullah Burujirdi. The first is of great importance as the reviver of the religious learning institution in Qum, from which Imam Khomeini went forth and which has become in a certain sense the main stronghold of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and also the spiritual capital of the country, given the residence there of Imam Khomeini.

Qum is one of the oldest centers of Shi'i school of thought in Iran. Not coincidentally, it is also one of the few cities in Iran by where Arabs settled in large numbers. It has traditionally been a stronghold of Shi'i learning. However, until the present century the major centers of Shi'i learning that exercised great authority within Iran were generally situated outside the country in the cities known as the 'atabat -- that is, the cities of Iraq where certain of the imams are buried: Karbala, Kazimayn and above all Najaf. Almost all the prominent ulama received their essential education in Iraq. Many, even though Iranian by birth, would spend most of their lives there.

This situation has continued to a certain extent, but in Iran the city of Qum came to great prominence as a result of the activities of a succession of important ulama, the first of whom was Shaykh 'Abd Al-Karim Hairi (1859-1936). In 1922 he founded in the city what is known as the Hauza-yi 'Ilmiya, which roughly translated is "the teaching institution." It is a conglomerate of different colleges and institutions of learning, informally organized and containing a number of teachers, offering the entire spectrum of the traditional religious sciences, joined by philosophy and mysticism.

There is a tradition, attributed to the sixth imam of the Shi'a, that in latter times knowledge would arise in Qum and be distributed from there to the rest of Iran and to the rest of the Islamic world. Shaykh 'Abd Al-Karim Hairi, in fulfillment of this tradition, consciously decided to revitalize Qum as a center of religious learning and teaching. This took place in 1922, a couple of years before the foundation of the Pahlavi dictatorship. Although Shaykh 'Abd Al-Karim Hairi was consistently apolitical, it can be said that his achievement indirectly contributed to the ultimate overthrow and destruction of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Although he failed to exercise any effective opposition to Reza Khan and the institution of the Pahlavi dictatorship, Shaykh 'Abd Al-Karim Hairi came to repent his inactivity in this respect.

The second of these two figures who form the immediate background to the emergence of Imam Khomeini, is of course Ayatullah Burujirdi (1875-1962). He is the major mujtahid and marja'-i taqlid of the immediate postwar period. He continued the twin emphases of Shaykh 'Abd Al Karim Hairi -- the strengthening of the teaching institution in Qum as the center of spiritual and religious direction and a certain quietism in political affairs. He organized a network throughout Iran for the collection of zakat, khums, and other religiously sanctioned taxes, which gave a greater financial independence and stability to the religious institution in Qum. The network established for these purposes later became of great utility in the course of the Islamic Revolution. At the same time, Ayatullah Burujirdi on the purely religious plane instituted an important development which has not received sufficient attention -- a deliberate attempt by the leading authorities of Shi'i Muslims to affect a rapprochement with the Sunni Islamic world. Through his efforts and those of the then Shaykh al-Azhar, Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut, an institution was established for taqrib, the rapprochement between the different schools of thought in Islam. This theme has also been taken up by Imam Khomeini, who has repeatedly expressed the need for collaboration and unity between the different segments of the Islamic world.

Politically, however, Ayatullah Burujirdi was open to considerable criticism. Throughout the tumultuous events of the first decade of the postwar period, years that saw the rise of a large and threatening communist party in Iran, the Tudeh Party; the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry; the rise of Dr. Musaddiq; and the CIA coup d'etat, we find almost complete silence on the part of Ayatullah Burujirdi. Even after the royalist coup d'etat of August 1953, he received emissaries of the Shah's regime at his residence in Qum.

This seemed in the eyes of many Iranians to exclude any role for the ulama, for the religious leaders, in the opposition to the Shah's regime that was now intensifying after the downfall of the Musaddiq regime, particularly because the role of Ayatullah Kashani (d. 1962), one of the previous supporters of Dr. Musaddiq and the campaign for the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, also seemed ambiguous on many points.

In the first years after the downfall of Dr. Musaddiq and the institution of the royal dictatorship under American patronage, we find a certain current of religiously inspired opposition to the Shah's regime. But it has no leading personality; it is relatively weak; and it is overshadowed by secular and leftist forms of opposition to the Shah's regime.

However, almost a decade after the overthrow of Musaddiq, in 1962 there emerges for the first time in prominence on the Iranian scene the great figure of Imam Khomeini. He overshadows not only all his predecessors in this tradition of ulama that I have attempted to sketch for you but also the figure of Musaddiq himself and certainly all other secular politicians and potential leaders of opposition to the royal regime.

The life of Imam Khomeini before his emergence in the public eye in 1962 deserves some attention.1 As the final element in his name indicates, he was born in the little town of Khomeini in 1902 of a family that for many generations had cultivated religious knowledge and learning. His grandfather was a certain Sayyid Ahmad, who was also known as Sayyid Ahmad Hindi, because he had lived in India before settling in Iran.

The family was of Iranian origin, an earlier ancestor having migrated from Nishapur to India in the eighteenth century. Ultimately, since the Imam is a sayyid -- a descendant of the Prophet -- the origins of the family of course go beyond Iran. But throughout recent generations the family is Iranian. It is simply that one branch was established in India.

There are apparently even now a...