The end of Islamic ideology

Social Research

Volumn 67, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 475-518

  Dabashi, Hamid ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0034195322     PISSN: 0037783X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (45)

1. The classical account of this colonially mitigated encounter with the European Enlightenment is still Albert Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962. A good updating of that account is Hamid Enayat's Modern Islamic Political Thought. Austin: Texas University Press, 1982. For an extension of this account into the specific ideological disposition prior to the Islamic Revolution in Iran see my Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundations of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. New York: New York University Press, 1993. A representative collection of primary sources is to be found in John J. Donohue and John L. Esposito (eds), Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
2. The classical account of this colonially mitigated encounter with the European Enlightenment is still Albert Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962. A good updating of that account is Hamid Enayat's Modern Islamic Political Thought. Austin: Texas University Press, 1982. For an extension of this account into the specific ideological disposition prior to the Islamic Revolution in Iran see my Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundations of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. New York: New York University Press, 1993. A representative collection of primary sources is to be found in John J. Donohue and John L. Esposito (eds), Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
3. The classical account of this colonially mitigated encounter with the European Enlightenment is still Albert Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962. A good updating of that account is Hamid Enayat's Modern Islamic Political Thought. Austin: Texas University Press, 1982. For an extension of this account into the specific ideological disposition prior to the Islamic Revolution in Iran see my Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundations of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. New York: New York University Press, 1993. A representative collection of primary sources is to be found in John J. Donohue and John L. Esposito (eds), Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
4. While many contemporary scholars have added fuel to the fire of this presumed confrontation between "Islam and West," others have persuasively argued against its validity. Among the latter is Fred Halliday's Islam & The Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics in the Middle East, London: I. B. Tauris, 1995.
5. On the ideas of Mulla Ahmad Naraqi see my "Early Propagation of Wilayat-i Faqih and Mulla Ahmad Naraqi," in S. H. Nasr, H. Dabashi, and S. V. R. Nasr (eds), Expectation of Millennium. New York: State University of New York Press, 1989: 287-300.
6. On Shariati see Dabashi 1993: 102-146.
7. The most recent account of this critical phase in Shi'i doctrinal history is Saïd Amir Arjomand's "The Consolation of Theology: Absence of the Imam and Transition from Chiliasm to Law in Shi'ism," The Journal of Religion. 1996: 548-571. For further elaboration see Arjomand's "Crisis of the Imamate and the Institution of Occultation in Twelver Shi'ism: A Sociological Perspective," International Journal of Middle East Studies. Volume 28, no. 4 (1996). For the most comprehensive study of Shi'ism in history see Saïd Amir Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'i Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1984. Specifically on the doctrine of ghaybah see also Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. Equally crucial and groundbreaking in its critical re-evaluation of the historical roots of the doctrine is Hossein Modarressi's Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'ite Islam. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1993.
8. The most recent account of this critical phase in Shi'i doctrinal history is Saïd Amir Arjomand's "The Consolation of Theology: Absence of the Imam and Transition from Chiliasm to Law in Shi'ism," The Journal of Religion. 1996: 548-571. For further elaboration see Arjomand's "Crisis of the Imamate and the Institution of Occultation in Twelver Shi'ism: A Sociological Perspective," International Journal of Middle East Studies. Volume 28, no. 4 (1996). For the most comprehensive study of Shi'ism in history see Saïd Amir Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'i Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1984. Specifically on the doctrine of ghaybah see also Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. Equally crucial and groundbreaking in its critical re-evaluation of the historical roots of the doctrine is Hossein Modarressi's Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'ite Islam. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1993.
9. The most recent account of this critical phase in Shi'i doctrinal history is Saïd Amir Arjomand's "The Consolation of Theology: Absence of the Imam and Transition from Chiliasm to Law in Shi'ism," The Journal of Religion. 1996: 548-571. For further elaboration see Arjomand's "Crisis of the Imamate and the Institution of Occultation in Twelver Shi'ism: A Sociological Perspective," International Journal of Middle East Studies. Volume 28, no. 4 (1996). For the most comprehensive study of Shi'ism in history see Saïd Amir Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'i Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1984. Specifically on the doctrine of ghaybah see also Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. Equally crucial and groundbreaking in its critical re-evaluation of the historical roots of the doctrine is Hossein Modarressi's Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'ite Islam. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1993.
10. The most recent account of this critical phase in Shi'i doctrinal history is Saïd Amir Arjomand's "The Consolation of Theology: Absence of the Imam and Transition from Chiliasm to Law in Shi'ism," The Journal of Religion. 1996: 548-571. For further elaboration see Arjomand's "Crisis of the Imamate and the Institution of Occultation in Twelver Shi'ism: A Sociological Perspective," International Journal of Middle East Studies. Volume 28, no. 4 (1996). For the most comprehensive study of Shi'ism in history see Saïd Amir Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'i Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1984. Specifically on the doctrine of ghaybah see also Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. Equally crucial and groundbreaking in its critical re-evaluation of the historical roots of the doctrine is Hossein Modarressi's Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'ite Islam. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1993.
11. The most recent account of this critical phase in Shi'i doctrinal history is Saïd Amir Arjomand's "The Consolation of Theology: Absence of the Imam and Transition from Chiliasm to Law in Shi'ism," The Journal of Religion. 1996: 548-571. For further elaboration see Arjomand's "Crisis of the Imamate and the Institution of Occultation in Twelver Shi'ism: A Sociological Perspective," International Journal of Middle East Studies. Volume 28, no. 4 (1996). For the most comprehensive study of Shi'ism in history see Saïd Amir Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'i Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1984. Specifically on the doctrine of ghaybah see also Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. Equally crucial and groundbreaking in its critical re-evaluation of the historical roots of the doctrine is Hossein Modarressi's Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'ite Islam. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1993.
12. For an account of Shi'ism as the attempted institutionalization of the charismatic authority of Prophet Muhammed see my Authority in Islam: From the Rise of Muhammed to the Establishment of the Umayyads. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1989: 95-120.
13. For the most comprehensive account of the Isma'ilis see Farhad Daftary, The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. For an excellent account of the philosophical disposition of Shi'ism underlying the proto-Isma'ili movements see Paul Walker, Early Philosophical Shi 'ism: The Isma 'Ui Neoplatonism of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Matti Moosa's Extremist Shi'ites: The Ghulat Sects. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1988) gives a full historical account of Shi'ism being carried to its rhetorical charismatic conclusions.
14. For the most comprehensive account of the Isma'ilis see Farhad Daftary, The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. For an excellent account of the philosophical disposition of Shi'ism underlying the proto-Isma'ili movements see Paul Walker, Early Philosophical Shi 'ism: The Isma 'Ui Neoplatonism of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Matti Moosa's Extremist Shi'ites: The Ghulat Sects. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1988) gives a full historical account of Shi'ism being carried to its rhetorical charismatic conclusions.
15. For the most comprehensive account of the Isma'ilis see Farhad Daftary, The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. For an excellent account of the philosophical disposition of Shi'ism underlying the proto-Isma'ili movements see Paul Walker, Early Philosophical Shi 'ism: The Isma 'Ui Neoplatonism of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Matti Moosa's Extremist Shi'ites: The Ghulat Sects. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1988) gives a full historical account of Shi'ism being carried to its rhetorical charismatic conclusions.
16. For an account of Shariati's thoughts see Ervand Abrahamiari, "Ali Shariati: Ideologue of the Iranian Revolution," in Edmund Burke, III and Ira M. Lapidus (eds), Islam, Politics, and Social Movements. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988: 289-297; and Dabashi 1993: 102-146.
17. For an account of Shariati's thoughts see Ervand Abrahamiari, "Ali Shariati: Ideologue of the Iranian Revolution," in Edmund Burke, III and Ira M. Lapidus (eds), Islam, Politics, and Social Movements. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988: 289-297; and Dabashi 1993: 102-146.
18. See "Review with M. Mauss, 'Frazer - Totemism and Exogamy, vol. IV and 'Durkheim - Les Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse. Le systeme totémique en Australie' in Durkheim on Religion: A Selection of Readings with Bibliographies and Introductory Remarks. Edited by W. S. F. Pickering. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975: 180.
19. See also Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York: The Free Press, 1915: 462-496.
20. See Max Weber, On Charisma and Institution Building. Selected Papers, Edited and with an Introduction by S. N. Eisenstadt. Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 1968: 49
21. On Muhammed's charismatic authority see Dabashi 1989: 33-46.
22. On Shi'ism as a charismatic movement see Dabashi 1989: 95-120.
23. As for example evidenced in the following qualification: "But collective consciousness is something more than a mere epiphenomenon of its morphological basis, just as individual consciousness is something more than a simple efflorescence of the nervous system" when read after the superfluous warning that: "Therefore it is necessary to avoid seeing in this theory of religion a simple restatement of historical materialism: that would be misunderstanding our thought to an extreme degree." (Durkheim, 1915, pp. 471).
24. As evidenced throughout Weber's repeated oscillations among the "berserker," the "shaman," the "epileptoid," or the "swindler" in order to locate the ideal-type of the charismatic figure (see Weber, 1868, pp. 48-49).
25. On state as the monopoly of violence see Max Weber, "Politics as a Vocation," in Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1946, pp. 78.
26. For a good introductory account of Mulla Sadra's philosophy see Mulla Sadra, The Wisdom of the Throne: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mulla Sadra. Translated by James Winston Morris. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
27. Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1961, pp. 43.
28. An appendix discussing this conversation is available at www.newschool.edu/centers/socres/vol67/dabnotes.pdf.
29. For a different reading of Baha'ism, sympathetic and inviting, see Juan R. I. Cole, Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth Century Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. For an equally panegyric account of Baha'ism by a practicing Baha'i see Peter Smith, The Babi & Baha'i Religions: From Messianic Shi'ism to World Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. These two Statements, quite erudite and scholarly, are uttered from a position of faith and lack any critical stand in their analytical disposition.
30. For a different reading of Baha'ism, sympathetic and inviting, see Juan R. I. Cole, Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth Century Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. For an equally panegyric account of Baha'ism by a practicing Baha'i see Peter Smith, The Babi & Baha'i Religions: From Messianic Shi'ism to World Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. These two Statements, quite erudite and scholarly, are uttered from a position of faith and lack any critical stand in their analytical disposition.
31. On Mulla Sadra see Morris 1981.
32. On the Shaykhi School and the Babi Movement in general see Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989. But by far the most brilliant study of the Babi Movement is in Persian and richly deserves a translation: Mohammad Reza Fashahi, Vapasin Jonbesh-e Qurun-e Vusta'i dar Duran-e Feudal ("The Last Medieval Movement in the Feudal Period"). Tehran: Entesharat-e Javidan, 2536/1977.
33. On the Shaykhi School and the Babi Movement in general see Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989. But by far the most brilliant study of the Babi Movement is in Persian and richly deserves a translation: Mohammad Reza Fashahi, Vapasin Jonbesh-e Qurun-e Vusta'i dar Duran-e Feudal ("The Last Medieval Movement in the Feudal Period"). Tehran: Entesharat-e Javidan, 2536/1977.
34. As rightly suggested by Fashahi in Fashahi 1977: 66-73.
35. For a systematic examination of the rise of Iranian civil society see Said Amir Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988: 11-90. The most perceptive study of the infiltration of ideas of modernity into religious sentiments is by H. E. Chehabi in Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990. For a similarly perceptive reading of Modernity in the course of the Constitutional Revolution see Vanessa Martin, Islam and Modernism: The Iranian Revolution of 1906. London: I. B. Tauris, 1989.
36. For a systematic examination of the rise of Iranian civil society see Said Amir Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988: 11-90. The most perceptive study of the infiltration of ideas of modernity into religious sentiments is by H. E. Chehabi in Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990. For a similarly perceptive reading of Modernity in the course of the Constitutional Revolution see Vanessa Martin, Islam and Modernism: The Iranian Revolution of 1906. London: I. B. Tauris, 1989.
37. For a systematic examination of the rise of Iranian civil society see Said Amir Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988: 11-90. The most perceptive study of the infiltration of ideas of modernity into religious sentiments is by H. E. Chehabi in Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990. For a similarly perceptive reading of Modernity in the course of the Constitutional Revolution see Vanessa Martin, Islam and Modernism: The Iranian Revolution of 1906. London: I. B. Tauris, 1989.
38. The territorial constitution of Iran as a nation is now the subject of a brilliant study by Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet in her Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804-1946. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
39. As exemplified by phrases such as "... the ulama embodied the aspirations of the people. The adulation accorded their persons proves this more even than their voicing of demands popularly felt, demands that were in any event seldom conscious and frequently stimulated" (Algar 1969: 90) or that "Pretexts were sought and found for the excitement of popular emotions against the state ..." (Algar 1969: 240; for similar sentiments see pp. 245-246 about the site of the Russian Bank in Tehran, or p. 249 about the incident in the Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad). The "exploitation" or alternatively "arousal" of "popular sentiments" and "emotions" is the key conceptual category of Algar's historiography of the "The Role of the Ulama in the Qajar Period." Throughout this book he treats the Shi'i clergy as shepherds in charge of a flock of sheep, shepherds who can use the raw energy of their flock for effective assertion of power. It is a peculiar combination of inanity and hubris to assume that the material misery of a people is not sufficient reason to generate moral outrage, and that people are to be "stimulated" and "aroused" to put their lives on the line for demands of which they are not even fully conscious.
40. Still the most insightful study of the relationship between Islam and Socialism is Maxime Rodinson's Marxism and the Muslim World. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1981. Although Rodinson's attention to Shi'ism in this study is quite limited, his general observations remain quite critical.
41. See Ervand Abrahamian, "Ali Shariati: Ideologue of the Iranian Revolution." in Burke, III and Lapidus 1988: 292.
42. For an introductory essay to the ideas of Abdolkarim Soroush see John Cooper, "The Limits of the Sacred: The Epistemology of Abd alKarim Soroush"," in John Cooper, Ronald Nettler and Mohamed Mahmoud (eds), Islam and Modernity: Muslim Intellectuals Respond. London: I. B. Tauris, 1998, pp. 38-56.
43. As suggested and celebrated by now the chief ideologue of the American right Francis Fukuyama in the End of Ideology and the Last Man. New York: The Free Press, 1992.
44. As suggested by Oliver Roy in The Failure of Political Islam. Translated by Carol Volk. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. Oliver Roy's specifics on Shi'ism and Iran in his general assessment of the failure of political Islam is simply too random to be taken seriously. Identifying Shi'ism as "a history" and "not as a corpus" (168) and then reaching for the outlandish conclusion that "nothing in Shi'i thought. .. predisposes the clergy to play a contestant political role" not only suffers from the inner contradiction that how could Shi'ism, not conceived as corpus but as history, have a "thought" but far more seriously lacks a rudimentary grasp of this religion as a metaphysical corpus with a very long history and with a constitutional claim on political life matched only by the twenty-two years of the Prophet's own career. What boggles the mind is the imperial audacity with which Roy dismisses an entire faith, of which he knows next to nothing, and its monumental architectonic achievement of a metaphysical corpus, in its full scholastic panorama of jurisprudence and theology, philosophy and mysticism. But the critical reading of the pathology that Roy shares with other self-appointed coroners of political Islam demands a much wider space.
45. As diagnosed by a wide array of observers ranging from Oliver Roy and Bernard Lewis to Fatima Mernissi, Daryush Shayegan, Bissam Tibi, and Fouad Ajami.