Shi'i Law and Leadership

ISBN-13: 9783838347974 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 92 str.

Zackery M Heern

Opis

Shii Law and Leadership analyzes the influence of the nineteenth century scholar and head of the international Shii community, Mortaza Ansari. Although ethnically Persian, Ansari lived most of his life in the Shii center of learning in Najaf, Iraq. Ansaris major contribution to Shii jurisprudence was his redefinition of essential legal terms. Additionally, he advanced a theory that made emulation of a living cleric a religious duty for all lay Shiis. Ansari became the first sole supreme exemplar (marja at-taqlid) for the international Shii community. He spent his tenure as the head of the community training students, writing, extending his network of scholars, and collecting and distributing charitable donations. Ansaris successors used the power of a more unified Shii community largely for political activism, which was a departure from the practices of Ansari himself. Ansaris immediate successor successfully challenged the Qajar Persian government in the Tobacco Revolt in 1890, which emboldened future clerics to take on the powers of the state in the 1905 Constitutional Revolution and the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.

O autorze

Zackery M. Heern is a historian and specialist on the Middle East and Islam. He holds academic degrees from UCLA and the University of Utah.