Shi'ism and politics in Iran: The role of Ulama and Shi'i political ideology in contemporary Iran, with a particular reference to the 1979-Islamic Revolution

The 1979-Islamic Revolution of Iran and its aftermath, which generated shocking waves particularly throughout the the Western world, have undoubtedly resuscitated a deep interest in studying the traditional linkages between religion and politics among Western political scientists. Although the relationship between Islam and politics in general has been the main subject of this renewed interest, the linkage between the Shi'ite Islam and Iran in particular has not received, in my opinion, a sufficient treatment by the scholars of religion and politics in the West. In fact, a thorough analysis of this 'linkage' will contribute not only to our deeper understanding of the current socio-political changes in Iran, but also to our broader comprehension of the political implications which these changes could have in the other Islamic nations such as the neighbouring states.;Moreover, a study of the linkage between religion and politics in general, though may strike our imagination as somewhat out of place in the late twentieth century, it does indeed continue to be of utmost importance in the specific case of present-day Iran. Hence, as it becomes evident from this study, while under the Pahlavis, for example, a hasty secularization was enforced in many dimensions of life, in the current Iran the ongoing religio-political reactions to those 'secular' policies indicate the abiding power of popular faith in the Shi'ite Islam and its inspirational ideas and movements in the Shi'ite history of that nation. Thus, it is against this background that this dissertation undertakes a thorough study of religion and politics in contemporary Iran, of course, with a particular emphasis on the role of Shi'ism and the Shi'ite ulama, both in theory and practice, in leading the Islamic Revolutionary movements of 1978-1979 in that country.