Islam in Iran
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Islam in Iran  |
| History of Islam in Iran |
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Islamic conquest of Persia |
| Notable scholars |
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Salman the Persian • Shaikh Saduq |
| Sects |
| Islamic Cities/Regions |
| Culture |
| Architecture |
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Mosques in Iran • Imam Reza shrine |
| Organizations |
Islam has been the official religion of Iran since the Islamic conquest of Iran except short duration after Mongol raid and establishment of Ilkhanate and Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979 after Islamic Republic of Iran on the basis of its constitution.
Islam is the religion of 98% of Iranians of which approximately 89% are Shi'a and 9% are Sunni, mostly Turkomen, a minority of Arabs (mainly in Hormozgan Province), Baluchs, and Kurds living in the southwest, southeast, northeast and northwest.[1] Almost all of Iranian Shi'as are Twelvers.
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[edit] History
[edit] Islamic conquest of Iran
The Islamic conquest of Persia (637-651) led to the end of the Sassanid Empire and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. However, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost, but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic polity. Unlike the majority of the Islamic world the proportion of Shi'ah Muslims in Iran is higher than the proportion of Sunni Muslims.
[edit] Islamicization in Iran
Before the conquest, the Persians had been mainly Zoroastrian, however, there were also large and thriving Christian and Jewish communities. However, there was a slow but steady movement of the population toward Islam. The nobility and city-dwellers were the first to convert, most likely to preserve the economic and social status and advantages; Islam spread more slowly among the peasantry and the dihqans, or landed gentry. By the late 10th century, the majority of Persians had become Muslim, at least nominally. Most Persian Muslims were Sunni Muslims. Though Iran is known today as a stronghold of the Shi'a Muslim faith, it did not become so until much later around the 15th century. The Iranian Muslims projected many of their own Persian moral and ethical values that predates Islam into the religion, while recognizing Islam as their religion and the prophet's son in law, Ali as an enduring symbol of justice.
According to Bernard Lewis:
"Iran was indeed Islamized, but it was not Arabized. Persians remained Persians. And after an interval of silence, Iran reemerged as a separate, different and distinctive element within Islam, eventually adding a new element even to Islam itself. Culturally, politically, and most remarkable of all even religiously, the Iranian contribution to this new Islamic civilization is of immense importance. The work of Iranians can be seen in every field of cultural endeavor, including Arabic poetry, to which poets of Iranian origin composing their poems in Arabic made a very significant contribution. In a sense, Iranian Islam is a second advent of Islam itself, a new Islam sometimes referred to as Islam-i Ajam. It was this Persian Islam, rather than the original Arab Islam, that was brought to new areas and new peoples: to the Turks, first in Central Asia and then in the Middle East in the country which came to be called Turkey, and of course to India. The Ottoman Turks brought a form of Iranian civilization to the walls of Vienna...[1]"
[edit] Shi'a Islam in Iran
[edit] Shiaism in Iran before Safavids
Although Shi'as have lived in Iran since the earliest days of Islam, and there was one Shi'a dynasty in part of Iran during the tenth and eleventh centuries, but according to Mortaza Motahhari the majority of Iranian scholars and masses remained Sunni till the time of the Safavids.[2]
However it doesn't mean Shia was rootless in Iran. The writers of The Four Books of Shia were Iranian as well as many other great Shia scholars.
َAllameh Hilli mentions the names of the great Islamic jurists which most of them were Iranian.[3]:
In view of the fact that we have a great number of Fuqaha(Islamic jurists) who have copiously written on the subject, it is not possible for me to quote all of them. I have selected from those who were best known for their research and scholarship, quoting their Ijtihad, and the opinions they adopted for action. From amongst the earlier ones, I have selected Hasan ibn Mahboob, Ahmed ibn Abi Nasr Bezanti, Husain ibn Saeed Ahvazi, Fadhl ibn Shadhan Nisaburi, Yunus ibn Abd alRahman. They lived during the presence of our Imams. From the later group, I quote Muhammad ibn Babawayh Qummi and Muhammad ibn Yaqoob Kulaini. As for the people of Fatwa, I consider the verdicts of Askafi, Ibn Abi Aqeel, Shaykh Mufid, Seyyid Murtadha Alamul Huda and Shaykh Tusi.
The domination of the Sunni creed during the first nine Islamic centuries characterizes the religious history of Iran during this period. There were however some exceptions to this general domination which emerged in the form of the Zaydīs of Tabaristan, the Buwayhid, the rule of Sultan Muhammad Khudabandah (r. Shawwal 703-Shawwal 716/1304-1316) and the Sarbedaran. Nevertheless, apart from this domination there existed, firstly, throughout these nine centuries, Shia inclinations among many Sunnis of this land and, secondly, original Imami Shiism as well as Zaydī Shiism had prevalence in some parts of Iran. During this period, Shia in Iran were nourished from Kufah, Baghdad and later from Najaf and Hillah. [4]
However, during the first nine centuries there are four high points in the history of this linkage:
- First, the migration of a number of persons belonging to the tribe of the Afshar from Iraq to the city of Qum towards the end of the first/seventh century, which is the period of establishment of Imamī Shī‘ism in Iran.
- Second, the influence of the Shī‘ī tradition of Baghdad and Najaf on Iran during the fifth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries.
- Third, the influence of the school of Hillah on Iran during the eighth/fourteenth century.
- Fourth, the influence of the Shī‘ism of Jabal Amel and Bahrain on Iran during the period of establishment of the Safavid rule.[4]
[edit] Shiaism and the Safavids
The Safavid dynasty made Shi'a Islam the official state religion in the sixteenth century and aggressively proselytized on its behalf. It is also believed that by the mid-seventeenth century most people in Iran had become Shi'as, an affiliation that has continued.
Mortaza Motahhari has quoted[2]:
The majority of Iranians turned to Shi'ism from the Safawid period onwards. Of course, it cannot be denied that Iran's environment was more favourable to the flourishing of the Shi'ism as compared to all other parts of the Muslim world. Shi'ism did not penetrate any land to the extent that it gradually could in Iran. With the passage of time, Iranians' readiness to practise Shi'ism grew day by day. Had Shi`ism not been deeply rooted in the Iranian spirit, the Safawids (907-1145/ 1501-1732) would not have succeeded in converting Iranians to the Shi'i creed and making them follow the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt sheerly by capturing political power.
However, after Safavid ruler Ismail I captured Tabriz in 1501, "a search of all Islamic libraries unearthed only one book on Shi'ism." Ismail brought Arab Shia clerics from Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon in order to preach the Shi'a faith.[5] Succeeding Safavid rulers promoted Shi'ism among the elites, and it was only under Mullah Allamah al-Majlis - court cleric from 1680 until 1698 - that Shi'ism truly took hold among the masses.[6]
[edit] Islam and the twentieth century
During the 20th century Iran underwent significant changes such as the 1906 Constitutional Revolution and the secularism of the Pahlavi dynasty.
According to scholar Roy Mottahedeh, one significant change to Islam in Iran during the first half of the 20th century was that the class of ulema lost its informality that allowed it to include everyone from the highly trained jurist to the "shopkeeper who spent one afternoon a week memorizing and transmitting a few traditions." Laws by Reza Shah that requiring military service and dress in European-style clothes for Iranians, gave talebeh and mullahs exemptions, but only if they passed specific examinations proving their learnedness, thus excluding less educated clerics.
In addition Islamic Madrasah schools became more like `professional` schools, leaving broader education to secular government schools and sticking to Islamic learning. "Ptolemaic astronomy, Aveicennian medicines, and the algebra of Omar Kahayyam" was dispensed with.[7]
[edit] Muslims distribution in Iran
Sunni Muslims constitute approximately 9% of the Iranian population. A majority of Kurds, virtually all Baluchis and Turkomans, and a minority of Arabs are Sunnis, as are small communities of Persians in southern Iran and Khorasan. Shia clergy tend to view missionary work among Sunnis to convert them to Shi'ism as a worthwhile religious endeavor.[8]. Since the Sunnis generally live in the border regions of the country, there has been no occasion for Shia-Sunni conflict in most of Iran. In those towns with mixed populations in West Azarbaijan, the Persian Gulf region, and Sistan and Baluchistan, tensions between Shi'as and Sunnis existed both before and after the Revolution. Religious tensions have been highest during major Shi'a observances, especially Moharram.[9]
[edit] Islamic revolution in Iran
The Iranian Revolution (also known as the Islamic Revolution,[10][11][12][13][14][15] Persian: انقلاب اسلامی, Enghelābe Eslāmi) was the revolution that transformed Iran from a monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic.[16] It has been called "the third great revolution in history," following the French and Bolshevik revolutions,[17] and an event that "made Islamic fundamentalism a political force ... from Morocco to Malaysia."[18]
[edit] Current situation of Islam
Statistics of religious buildings according to آمارنامه اماکن مذهبی which has been gathered in 2003.
| Building | Number | Building | Number | Building | Number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mosque | 48983[19] | Jame | 7877[20] | Hussainia | 13446[21] |
| Imamzadeh | 6461[22] | Dargah | 1320 [23] | Hawza |
[edit] Notes
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook - Iran
- ^ a b Islam and Iran: A Historical Study of Mutual Services
- ^ THE FUQAHA
- ^ a b Four Centuries of Influence of Iraqi Shiism on Pre-Safavid Iran
- ^ Molavi, Afshin, The Soul of Iran, Norton, 2005, p.168
- ^ Molavi, Afshin, The Soul of Iran, Norton, 2005, p.170
- ^ Mottahedeh, Roy, The Mantle of the Prophet : Religion and Politics in Iran, One World, Oxford, 1985, 2000, p.232-4, 7
- ^ country study:Iran,Sunni Muslims
- ^ country study:Iran,Sunni Muslims
- ^ Islamica Revolution, Iran Chamber.
- ^ Islamic Revolution of Iran, MS Encarta.
- ^ The Islamic Revolution, Internews.
- ^ Iranian Revolution.
- ^ Iran Profile, PDF.
- ^ The Shah and the Ayatollah: Iranian Mythology and Islamic Revolution (Hardcover), ISBN 0-275-97858-3, by Fereydoun Hoveyda, brother of Amir Abbas Hoveyda.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ Marvin Zonis quoted in Wright, Sacred Rage 1996, p.61
- ^ Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival, Norton, (2006), p.121
- ^ یافته های طرح آمارگیری جامع فرهنگی کشور، فضاهای فرهنگی ایران، آمارنامه اماکن مذهبی، 2003، وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامی، ص 39
- ^ یافته های طرح آمارگیری جامع فرهنگی کشور، فضاهای فرهنگی ایران، آمارنامه اماکن مذهبی، 2003، وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامی، ص 39
- ^ یافته های طرح آمارگیری جامع فرهنگی کشور، فضاهای فرهنگی ایران، آمارنامه اماکن مذهبی، 2003، وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامی، ص 154
- ^ یافته های طرح آمارگیری جامع فرهنگی کشور، فضاهای فرهنگی ایران، آمارنامه اماکن مذهبی، 2003، وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامی، ص 263
- ^ یافته های طرح آمارگیری جامع فرهنگی کشور، فضاهای فرهنگی ایران، آمارنامه اماکن مذهبی، 2003، وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامی، ص 263
See also
- Islam by country
- History of Iran
- Islamicization in post-conquest Iran
- History of political Islam in Iran
- Religious minorities in Iran
- Christians in Iran
- Judaism in Iran
- Institute for Interreligious Dialogue
- Status of religious freedom in Iran
[edit] External links
- Islam in Iran
- Iran in History by Bernard Lewis
- Islam and Iran: A Historical Study of Mutual Services
- Four Centuries of Influence of Iraqi Shiism on Pre-Safavid Iran
[edit] References
- A Country Study: Iran:This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
- Petrushevsky, I. P.,(1985) Islam in Iran , State University of New York Press , ISBN-13: 978-0887060700
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