The Other Shiites
The Other Shiites

Author: Alessandro Monsutti

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9783039112890

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Shia Islam is a central issue in contemporary politics. Often associated with Iran, Shiite communities actually exist in many Islamic countries. Focusing on the «other Shiites» outside Iran, this book offers a survey of their diversity and multiplicity in the last two centuries. The contributions cover three major topics. The first part deals with the relationship of Shia minorities to the Sunni regimes. Secondly the public affirmation of their identities through specific rituals and social attitudes is analysed. Finally, the third part of this volume examines the strengthening of these identities through traditional religious rituals and cultural performances, or through the re-interpretation and adaptation of these to present-day life. Coming from various academic backgrounds, the authors have used different methodologies and have been engaged in field-work.

The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule, 1516–1788
The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule, 1516–1788

Author: Stefan Winter

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-03-11

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1139486810

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The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule provides an original perspective on the history of the Shiites as a constituent of Lebanese society. Winter presents a history of the community before the 19th century, based primarily on Ottoman Turkish documents. From these, he examines how local Shiites were well integrated in the Ottoman system of rule, and that Lebanon as an autonomous entity only developed in the course of the 18th century through the marginalization and then violent elimination of the indigenous Shiite leaderships by an increasingly powerful Druze-Maronite emirate. As such the book recovers the Ottoman-era history of a group which has always been neglected in chronicle-based works, and in doing so, fundamentally calls into question the historic place within 'Lebanon' of what has today become the country's largest and most activist sectarian community.

Extremist Shiites
Extremist Shiites

Author: Matti Moosa

Publisher: Syracuse University Press

Published: 1988-02-01

Total Pages: 614

ISBN-13: 9780815624110

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Little is known in the West about the division of the Islamic world into Shiites and Sunnites and even less about the stratification of these two groups, with most of the attention going to the Sunnites. Moosa's comprehensive study of the origins and cultural aspects of the different extremist, or Ghulat, Shiite sects in the Middle East is a ground-breaking work. These sects whose 'extremism' is essentially religious are generally a peaceful people and, except for the Nusayris of Syria, are not political activists.

The Other Saudis
The Other Saudis

Author: Toby Matthiesen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1107043042

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This book traces the politics of the Shia in the oil-rich Eastern Province of Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia since the nineteenth century.

Shia Islam and Politics
Shia Islam and Politics

Author: Jon Armajani

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-05-20

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1793621365

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This book argues that ever since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, which established a Shia Islamic government in Iran, that country’s religious and political leaders have used Shia Islam as a crucial way of expanding Iran’s objectives in the Middle East and beyond. Since 1979, Iran’s religious and political leaders have been concerned about Iran’s security in the face of the hostility and expansionism of the United States and other western countries, and the threats from powerful neighboring Sunni leaders and countries. While Iran’s government has attempted to align itself with Shia Muslims in various countries, such as Iraq and Lebanon, against American and Sunni expansionism, the Iranian government has attempted to religiously nourish and politically mobilize those Shias as a matter of principle, not only because of the Iranian government’s desires to protect Iran from external threats. The book analyzes Shia Islam and politics in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon which have among the largest proportional Shia populations in the Middle East and are vibrant centers of Shia intellectual life. The book's clear and jargon-free approach make it especially accessible for students and general readers who would like an introduction to the book's topics.

My Story with the Shiites
My Story with the Shiites

Author: Khalid Amayreh

Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency

Published: 2017-08-07

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1681819635

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Journalist Khalid M. Amayreh points out the Major Contradictions in the Shiite Imami Religion in his book My Story with the Shiites. He says the real contentious issue between Muslims and Shiites is not Yazid or Mu’awiya, Hassan or Hussein, Fadak or al-“Zahraa’s limb,” the Karbulaa tragedy or the so-called Raziyatul Khamis (Thursday’s calamity), Hadithul Manzela or the Saqifa of Bani Sa’ada, or the Ghadeer Khom event. In fact, these issues can be reduced to mere “red herrings” used by the Shiites to discredit Islam and undermine the entire Muhammadan message. This timely and eye-opening book clears up misconceptions as it tells the truth about Shiites and Shiism.

The Shiites
The Shiites

Author: NA NA

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-30

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1137066938

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This book describes what Shiism means to those who actually practice it and serves as both an excellent introduction to the subject and an original work of scholarship.

Shi'ite Islam
Shi'ite Islam

Author: Yann Richard

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1995-02-27

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9781557864703

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The return of Ayatollah Khomeyni to power and the installation of a Shi'i theocracy in Iran in 1979 brought the revolutionary aspects of Shi'ite Islam to the Western centre stage. Fuelled by pictures of bloodshed and atrocities, images of violence linked to Shia states have left their mark on Western perceptions. Shi'ism has today become synonymous with militancy and violence - Hezbollah, Islamic Jehad, hostage taking... Yet, the media has taken merely one aspect of this important phenomenon: namely a contempory Shi'ism firmly anchored in militancy. Yann Richard's careful narrative counters naive explanation, offering both a portrait of the spiritual and mystical faith which explains the deep history and mythology of Shi'ism up to the present. Islam is no more an Arab religion than Chritianity is a uniquely Western religion - not confined to the Arab world, the largest number of Muslims today are found in Asia, Indonesia, and the Indo-Pakistan peninsula, whilst the Iranian nation today represents the great centre of Shi'ite Islam. Not only does the narrative chart the spread of Shi'ite influence over the Imanite communities, it uncovers the fundamental beliefs of Shi'ite identity on which a polity has been built. Richard examines both the development of Shi'i as theology and as a cultural history. This book will stand the test of time to become a seminal text in Middle Eastern history and the study of world religions.

Shiism and Politics in the Middle East
Shiism and Politics in the Middle East

Author: Laurence Louer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-12-01

Total Pages: 119

ISBN-13: 0197644163

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In this timely book, completed before the current outbreak of unrest in Bahrain that has formed part of the Arab Spring, Laurence Louer explains, the background of the Bahraini conflict in the context of the wider issue of Shiism as a political force in the Arab Middle East, amongst other issues relating to the role of Shiite Islamist movements in regional politics. Her study shows how Bahrain's troubles are a phenomenon based on local perceptions of injustice rather than on the foreign policy of Shiite Iran. More generally, the book shows that, though Iran's Islamic Revolution had an electrifying effect on Shiite movements in Lebanon, Iraq, the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, local political imperatives have in the end been the crucial factor in the direction they have taken. In addition, the overwhelming influence of the Shiite clerical institution has been diminished by the rise to prominence of lay activists within the Shiite movements across the Middle East and the emergence of Shiite anti-clericalism. This book contributes to dispelling the myth of the determining power of Iran in the politics of Iraq, Bahrain and other Arab states with significant Shiite populations.