SHIITE STUDIES
Year:2009 | Volume:7 | Issue:3 (27)|Papers Count:10

This study has dealt with the Shi'ite geopolitical changes in Lebanon before and after the thirty three-day war. The essential question is that what kind of geopolitical changes has this thirty three-day war brought about for the Shi'ites of the country? The pre-war period can be divided into three time intervals: 1. Period of geopolitical weakness concerning the time before 1960s BC; 2. Inception of the geopolitical credence which began with Imam Musa's. action; 3. Beginning of the extension of geopolitical territory which was initiated by the unofficial resistance against the Zionist aggressors in 1992 and was perpetuated with the official military measures entitled as Islamic resistance and active political participation in parliament and city / village councils elections.The basic difference between pre and post war periods lies in the fact that post-war period is considered to be the time of expansion' and stabilization of the geopolitical territory of Shi'ite in Lebanon so that decision making in Lebanon without respect to the volition and will of Shi'ites is imposible. Most of the states and nations have legitimized and supported the political and military actions of Hezbollah at the international level. Accordingly, Seyyed Hasan Nasrollah has become the most beloved and popular political figure of the Arab world.

The Republic of Azerbaijan not only is a Muslim state, but also has been a cradle of the Shi'ite and Iranian identity, as seventy five percents of its population are Shi'a. The republic's identity is constituted by the Shi'ite faith, the Turkish language, as well as shared history and cultural norms. Five issues discussed in this paper are: the clergy, the shrines, traditional religious leaders, Islamic parties, and Islamic intellectuals, in the country. These elements have been the reasons why Salafism and fundamentalism have not been influential in the Azerbaijan Republic.

In this paper, the issue of a plane tree in the village of Zar-Abad, located in the Alamoot of Qazveen (Iran), known as "the bleeding plane" is examined, from an anthropological perspective. The author regards the issue as a "totally social phenomenon", and tries to look at it from different angles, exploiting various techniques. It is found that the plane's secretion is not blood, but is a type of resin that, unlike others, dries out,. No link was also established between the secretion and the day of 'Ashoora, as it can be noticed in other times during the year.There is, however, no deception, because what people conceive is the result of their attitude towards the phenomenon, and what they feel counts more than the reality perse.

The shi'ite state of Awad was established by Mir Mohammad Amin, an Iranian known as Sa'adat Khan, in the Awad region of India, in 1722. His successors regarded themselves as the agents of the Mughal Empire based in Delhi, and were called nawabs. In 1819, the British encouraged them to use the title of shah, indicating their independence. In the famous Buxar battle, nawab Shoja' ud-Dowla, the Awad ruler, trying to help Mir Qasim, the former ruler of Bengal, fought the British East India Company, which spearheaded British colonialism. His defeat led to the Benares treaty, in 1765, which provided the British with many concessions.They were allowed to have a representative at the Awad court, who had a significant role in encouraging Awad's high ranking officials to work for the British. In the early nineteenth century, the Awad state, which was very important for the Shi' a in India, became a British protectorate.Eventually, in 1857, Awad was annexed by the British, and became part of British India.

In this paper, it has been attempted to describe the role played by the Shi'ite faith in the development of the Iranian civilization and culture, in both spiritual and material aspects. Resisting the cultural invasion the West, the faith has proved its effectiveness, giving rise to various social movements and leading to the Islamic Revolution of 1979.As a result, the religious elements of the Iranian culture have been strengthened.

The events of Karbala have been portrayed in verse by many Persian poets, particularly Shi'ite ones. Living in the late ninth and early tenth centuries of the Islamic calendar, Mowlana Mohammad Ahli-e Shirazi is one of such poets, whose poems enriched the Persian literature with regard to the events of Karbala. In this paper, the way that he was influenced by the 'Ashoora event, his poetic style, and his reference to positive and negative figures of the. event, the nature and stars for describing the event are considered.

In this paper, the author explains the true meaning of free will and its significance for morality, the knowledge of the self as well as mysticism, according to the Qur'an and hadith.She argues that free will give rise to responsibility, but as such it cannot be valuable, as it may lead to degradation, making the man worse than the beast. Free will must be accompanied with divinely guided reason.

If Shi'ite clerics as an active force in socio-political arenas of Iran, specially during the last one hundred and fifty years, are still willing to play an effective role in the current and the coming processes of the society, they are required to acquire more knowledge and dominance on the recent situations and conditions."Recent situation" in terms of the traits pointed out in this paper is the, result of a number of developments which have occurred at the global, structural, and communicational levels and left their consequences on the "clerics" and the "addresses", and the relationships between them. In addition to the comprehensive realization of the recent situation, the clerics need to revise their role, function, and traditional and current procedures through detecting their essence and with the adoption of some voluntary, conscious and on-time changes, prepare to manage the necessary devolopments in the environment and the outside.