SHIITE STUDIES
Year:2015 | Volume:13 | Issue:1 (49)|Papers Count:11

Every country, based on its power, is interested in increasing its territory and role in surrounding region or regions.One of the sensitive geopolitical spheres surrounding Iran is the eastern Mediterranean region. After the victory of Islamic Revolution of Iran and changes in geopolitical structure of Middle East, Iran played an important role in geographical scope of the Shiites and the Shiite regions in the east of Mediterranean coast enjoyed a strategic importance. This can play a role in Iran's seeking territory and its regional interests.In the present study, which is a descriptive-analytical one, we have tried to use library resources to answer the following question: considering the importance of eastern Mediterranean region in the geopolitical sphere of Shiism, what are the elements and implications of setting a strategic model for delineating a territory outside the geographical frontiers of Iran?The findings of the study show that Iran, enjoying the central situation in the geopolitical sphere of Shiism and its effective role in the evolutions of the region, is attempting to spread its territory in the east of the Mediterranean region. This part of Middle East, due to the presence of a large number of the Shiites neighboring Zionist regime, enjoys the necessary conditions for Iran's constructing territory and an important position in Iran's regional strategy.

"Political trust" deals with the relationship between government and the people. In Iran, political trust has gone a descending tract since the early days of Islamic revolution. The present article maintains that in political jurisprudence there are rules from which we may extract methods for increasing political trust. These are as follows: equality, counsel, justice, preserving regime, attracting hearts, cooperation, fulfilling contracts, goodness and der' (excepting someone from punishment due to a reasonable doubt). The factors effective in increasing political trust are divided into two groups: trust regarding the government, and trust regarding the people and society. In the first group, strategies are presented that address the political system and the authorities. These strategies are as follows: relationship between authorities and people, presenting welfare services, lessening hardships in people's life, not forcing people to do what is not their duty, avoiding false promises removing people's distrust of authorities functions, establishing justice among people and entrusting responsibilities to qualified persons.As for the citizen's political trust, two affirmative and negative strategies have been offered. The former are: enjoining good and forbidding evil, fraternity, trustfulness, fulfilling one's promise. The negative strategies are: avoiding lies, rancor, deception, maligning, backbiting, and deceiving Muslims.

Islam's entrance into Iran made many of Iranians' theoretical bases faced with serious challenges in the intellectual sphere. Among them, the royal institute and its musts as one of the basic axes of the political thought of Iran-state was held to be in opposition to the new intellectual system. With the decline of Abbasid dynasty and formation of Iranian governments, there were attempts to restore some of the elements of political thought of Iran-state. Success of failure in achieving this goal depended on various factors. Al Buya were more successful to restore Iranian traditions of Sasanid period due to their intellectual credit. Therefore, the subject of the study has been investigated in the period under Azudu-Dowla as the greatest and most powerful king of Buwahid dynasty to assess his power in achieving this goal. The findings of this study show that Azudu- Dowla was seeking, deliberately, to gain the position of Sasanid kings with the same necessities and functions. Of course, he as a true Shiite ruler understood the conditions of his society and was seeking to create a combination of Iranian-Islamic models with Shiite leanings, and was most successful in his attempt.

After the incident of Ashura in Karbala, the month of Muharram gained a special place throughout Iran. Cultural plurality in the context of ethnic variety in Iran has caused qualitative differences in holding mourning ceremonies in Muharram. Considering the historical background of Lahijan, the people of that city have special customs for ceremonies in Muharram. This can be found out by considering the position of graves in the central part of the present city. Therefore, the people of this region pay much attention to the rites and ceremonies, especially in certain days of the year and in mourning ceremonies of Muharram. Among them is the morning ceremony called karb zani. In view of the exclusive nature of that ceremony, the writers of this article try to explain the reason and the method of holding it. This is because the speed of changes causes the method of holding the ceremonies to alter and lose their original forms. Meanwhile, the origin of some of those customs has been studied. The research method is descriptive-analytical in the form of a field study.

A variety of means and methods are being used these days to investigate and dig into religions, however many of them are effective and led to valuable results that have been authored for studying or criticizing reciprocal views and theories of the scholars and theoreticians of a religion and whatever is found in manuscripts of scientist and researchers of a religion (and not necessarily follower of that religion).The methodology of Islamology and religiology are not easy of course, since there are different ways of studying religions especially Islam in these centers. Each of these methodologies have differences compared to other ones that could be complimentary sometimes. On the other hand, not all the scholars are impartial neither have the same research style. Therefore it's necessary to perform an especial edit on this scientific language to be more digestible for internal followers.In this manuscript, our approach is towards the methodology of studying Imamiyeh (or Shia Asna-Ashri) in French universities, with emphasis on Sorbonne University and its subsidiary schools.Performed studies on the field of this religion (Shia) and investigating various methodologies and different scientific approaches will be the basis and focus point of this manuscript that we briefly go through it considering the background.

The social history as a new approach to history of the societies attempts to study the everyday life of ordinary people. The people's occupations as a major pillar in their social and economic life enjoy a special importance.While studying this section of the Shiites' social history as an important part in the Islamic society of Iran and Iraq from the 3rd up to the 6th century, the present article attempts to show the equality between this group and other Muslims in various occupations and participating in economic prosperity and florescence of Islamic world. It also attempts to introduce the Shiites offices and occupations in that period.

The spread of Shiism in Rey happened in two phases: a) familiarity of people of Rey with Shiism, and b) establishment of Shiism in Rey. The present article investigates two important political and social factors effective in affluence and establishment of Shiism in Rey. The government as an important political factor supported Shiism in the period from government of Abul-Hassan Madarani and his support of the Shiites and Shiism up to the government of a branch of Buwahids. In that period, the Shiites entered the political, social and cultural scene and held, supported by the government, scientific meetings and theological debates, wrote books and revived Shiite rites such as reciting eulogies, and created evolution in the position of naqib to diffuse Shiism. The second factor (i.e. social) includes the role of the Shiites themselves (especially the imami Shiites), their behavioral policies and the way they would interact with other groups and sects settling in Rey; this factor was in itself the reason why they remained in the social scene.

With the fall of Safawid dynasty (1135 AH.), the religious and political structure of Iran was emasculated. The government of Afghans (1135-1145 AH.) led to a ten-years fighting, and the statesmanship of Nader Shah (1148-1160 AH.) led to numerous foreign and domestic campaigns due to frequent internal oppositions. These wars and the lack of social security as well as the growing pressure on people led to the migration of many people from Iran. The political governance and the short-term peace under Zand dynasty (1163-1209 AH.) were restricted to some parts of Iran. Due to these changes, the religious structure was weakened, because in addition to Sunnite Afghans, Nader faced religion with the political instrument and marginalized the religious scholars by disregarding them. Zand dynasty, while respecting the scholars, did not attempt to revive the social status they enjoyed under Safawids. As a result of that crisis and lack of affiliation between the scholars and the rulers, some of the scholars had to migrate. The dispersal of scholars is the subject of this study. Thus, this fact is studied geographically and by assuming the three following trends: seclusion in cities and migration to villages, migration to Najaf, and migration to India. Then, the motivations and the results are studied and explained. The research method is descriptive-analytical and is done using library resources.

The present article tries to investigate the historical line of writing amali (sing. Imla meaning 'dictation') in Shiite hadith. The precedent of writing amali in Shiite hadith goes back to the period under the Prophet. The first amali was organized under the Prophet by his dictation and Imam Ali's handwriting. Under the infallible Imams, many amalis were written such as the followings: Husham bin Hakam's amali, Nowbakhtai's amali, Abu Bakr bin Ayyash's amah. After that period, i.e. in the Occultation Period, there were a considerable number of amahs written by traditionist scholars. Some of the most important works among them are the amalis written by Sheikh Mufid, Sheikh Tusi, Sheikh Saduq, Abul-Fazl Sheybani, and Naser Kabir.

The present study analyzes the poems composed by Andalusian poet, Ibn Hani from the religious and doctrinal viewpoint. Ibn Hani, Andalusian Shiite poet, used his poems to express his belief and religion, using it as a tool to show his religious beliefs. The present study shows that imamate is a major principle in the Shiite doctrinal principles; and in his eulogistic odes, Ibn Hani expresses this fact. The main pillars of imamate can be shown as follows: a) the necessity to know imam; b) Imam's knowledge of invisible world, c) imam's intercession, d) leadership of the society, e) imam's justice, f) the spiritual essence and the virtues of the purified imams, g) the rightness of infallible imams and their verification in in the Quran and other celestial books, h) the necessity to have imams, i) imams' knowledge of interpreting the Quranic verses.The writer uses a descriptive and analytical method to explain the views of this poet on the principle of imamate and the doctrinal principles regarding it.