'Ali Shari'ati and the Shaping of Political Islam in Iran

by Chatterjee, Kingshuk

• ISBN13: 9780230113336
• ISBN10: 0230113338
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

An essential study of how political language of Islam emerges in a particular historical, economic, and cultural conjuncture, this book goes contrary to the widely prevalent notion that political Islam is determined by confessional peculiarities associated with Islam. The methodology adopted closely follows the one developed by scholars like Quentin Skinner and Hans Baron for the study of the western intellectual tradition. Ideas are situated in the context they emerged--temporal and spatial as well as personal. The approach lays considerable emphasis on who is the agent behind the thought and explore the range of social, economic, political, and intellectual influences that influence the agent.

Author Biography

Kingshuk Chatterjee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Calcutta University. He looks after the West Asia Program of the Institute of Foreign Policy Studies, Calcutta University and is a member of the editorial board of the Calcutta Historical Journal. He was Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the United States Naval Academy during 2006-07. He has published a number of articles on international relations of the Middle East, political Islam, and Iran.

Table of Contents

The Languages of Power and Politics in Modern Iran * Language of Opposition Politics in Late Pahlavi Iran * The World as Tauheed: Envisaging an Islamic Alternative * The Purpose of Political Order: the State or the People? * Sovereignty as Responsibility: Mazhab-e Aitraz * The Individual as an Agent of Change: Khudsazi-ye Inqilabi * The Ripples of a Revolution * Appendix: Shi’ism – A Brief Sketch of the Early Years * Appendix II: Selected Works/Lectures of ‘Ali Shari’ati