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Communism and Shia political Islam in the Arab world do not share the same ideological assumptions ; however, they do bear family resemblances, due to their historical relationship – particularly in Iraq and Lebanon – which can be broken down to three time sequences. From the 1950s, communist parties are anchored in marginalized Shia communities : the revolutionary narrative of Marxism and class struggle echoes Shia messianism. In the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution, the dynamic is reversed : the anti-imperialist and eschatological narrative coming from Teheran fascinates the Marxist lefts, and encourages conversions to political Islam. The third sequence opens in the nineties, with the end of the Cold War : since then, Arab communists have displayed a political use of Shiism, that is not religious. By supporting Teheran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, some Arab Marxist activists try to reactivate a neo-thirld-worldist political worldview. Nevertheless, as have the proponents of Shia political Islam, they have abandoned for the moment any revolutionary aspirations.

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Copyright of Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerrannée is the property of Edisud and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the present study, I will try to understand the role and the place of the body in the Shi’ite popular religiosity, such as it is detectable in Afzâd, a little village of Kerman region (Iran). Does the body represent an obstacle in the individuals’ spiritual life and in their relation to the divine world or, on the contrary, is it of a great assistance?In order to bring an answer, I will begin by analysing the place of the body firstly in the villagers’ religious conceptions on Good and Bad, and secondly in their representations of the other world. If the body does not seem to be in itself a source of sin, it is touched by impurity, becoming a potential obstacle in the relation with the divine, and because of that it will be necessary to study all the implications of this notion. Finally, I will study how the body appears as an important mediator, a fact recognizable firstly in the rituals linked with the Imams’ veneration, and more largely, in other many practices which reach their culminant point in the numerous offerings, exchanges and ritual sharing of food.In conclusion, the body appears to be in the core of the Shi’ite popular religiosity because it plays an important role in the construction of the link with the divine, who may reflect its role in the construction of the social bond, which is so prominent in the little peasant society studied.

In Iran, the giving of food for a religious purpose is a widespread act among Shiite believers, which can be observed daily in the city and in the villages, in both affluent and popular milieus. In order to understand the social, material and spiritual virtues of such food in the everyday life and worldview of Shiite devotees, this article proposes to analyse the process of preparation and sacredness of such food, and to study some important occasions of votive food giving in the lives of believers. The information in this article comes from previous research carried out in Iranian popular milieus, in some Shiite shrines and at the Behesht Zahra cemetery in Tehran, as well as from interviews conducted for this specific purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an abstract of the dissertation in history "L'exercice de l'autorité dans le chiisme duodécimain contemporain : doctrines et institutions," written by Constance Arminjon, advised by Christian Décobert and defended at France's École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) on September 15, 2011.

Copyright of LiCArC: Littérature et Culture Arabes Contemporaines is the property of Classiques Garnier and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studia Islamica is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contemporary Journal of African Studies is the property of Institute of African Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Dans ses épîtres appartenant aux Rasāil al-ikma, le corpus des écrits canoniques qui forment la base de la religion druze, amza b. Alī ébauche assez sommairement les principes d'une « loi spirituelle » censée remplacer la šarīa musulmane abrogée par al-ākim, et il y préconise une juridiction spécifiquement druze. Il dit avoir traité de cette loi dans un écrit intitulé al-Šarīa l-rūāniyya fī ilm al-laīf wa-l-basī wa-l-kaīf, qui toutefois ne figure pas dans le Canon, bien que les Druzes actuels en possèdent des manuscrits. Or, il s'agit à coup sûr d'un texte apocryphe, de date incertaine mais de loin postérieure à amza. En contradiction avec la doctrine développée dans les écrits canoniques, le druzisme y est présenté comme une religion révélée et scripturaire, à forte teneur « hermétique ». [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author delves beneath the surface of Shiite higher education in Britain to discover whether it constitutes a case for ‘European Islam’. Juxtaposing the theorisation of Islam in Europe with a commonly unrelated body of scholarship on education and citizenship, it examines a paradox of integrative blending and foreign frames. Understanding Western Shiite education requires recognition of both local identity and transnational ties, as well as the relationships between them. The author focuses on the Shiite Al-Mahdi Institute and the Islamic College in Britain, analysing on the one hand their local profiles, defined by efforts to engage with their Western environment, and on the other hand their organic foreign embedding, whether through state ties or links to educational and religious establishments. Dumont’s concept of hierarchy as ‘encompassment of the contrary’ is invoked to account for this paradoxical relationship, from which emerges a scale of differences between the two institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The history of the formation of the Imāmite madhhab (doctrinal school of law) has been less invested by historians than that of the Sunni legal schools. Notable developments have, however, taken place in recent decades. This essay examines the various theories advanced by scholars to describe the development of legal hermeneutics and substantive law (fiqh) specific to the Twelver community. Three key periods are analyzed: that of the historical imāms, the masters of Islamic esotericism for some, the first founders of a Shīʿite legal doctrine for others. We then focus on the Bouyid period when a proper Imāmite madhhab was born under the leadership of rationalist Shīʿite scholars, in particular al-Shaykh al-Mufīd (d. 413/1022). The question of the "orthodoxization" of Shīʿism is also posed, by integrating the Sunni principle of ijmāʿ (consensus) but also by adopting, over the centuries, personal opinion (raʾy) and analogy (qiyās). Particular attention is finally paid to the aḥkām al-arbaʿa (Four Precepts) in Imāmite law, which distinguish Twelver legal doctrine from Sunni fiqh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions is the property of Editions EHESS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerrannée is the property of Edisud and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Regarding the meaning and relationship between science and religion, there are various views, and most Islamic and Western thinkers have expressed the meaning of science and religion and the relationship between them. This research deals with presenting Imam Khomeini's chosen meaning of science and religion and then explores his opinion about their relationship. The present research, using the analytical-adaptive method, and using library data, has studied and analyzed the works of Imam Khomeini on this subject. According to Imam Khomeini, the meaning of science and knowledge is expressed in two types: true and conventional. Experimental science (both natural and human), as a side of the conflict in the new theological problem of the relationship between science and religion, is defined based on true and conventional knowledge. Imam Khomeini considers natural sciences as conventional sciences, and human sciences as true sciences. Regarding the meaning of religion, Imam Khomeini believes that religion is the True Law, and the great law of God for the management of the individual and social life of man, and his eternal happiness. This does not overlook any point, no matter how insignificant, in the education of man and society, and material and spiritual progress. Imam Khomeini, by rejecting the conflict and distinction between science and religion, believes in the penetrability of science and religion in the case of human sciences, and in the case of natural sciences, believes in the interaction, adjustment, and mutual completion of science and religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general autonomy of Central European authors from a Western power agenda as postulated by the mainstream critique of Orientalism is well known. At the same time, scholars have paid much less attention to the attitude of the modern Hungarian, Czech, Polish, and Slovenian corpus vis-à-vis Shi'ism, a narrow branch of the subject of Orientalism. This study argues that a certain bias in this context can be identified on the part of regional academics of the twentieth century, which might be explained by personal preferences for Sunni Orthodoxy. Simultaneously, this paper seeks to explore the reasons for such a tendency within the context of specific historical development at the frontiers. To this end, it presents case studies that juxtapose the relevant experiences with the classic Orientalist criticism of Western intellectual life introduced by scholars such as Edward Said, Talal Asad, Joseph Massad, and Mahmood Mamdani. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]