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Shi'ite Reformism Versus Shi'ite University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Sociology ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 9-15-2014 SHI'ITE REFORMISM VERSUS SHI'ITE FUNDAMENTALISM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SHI'ITE DISCURSIVE PRACTICES IN 20TH CENTURY IRAN: THE CASES OF KHOMEINI AND HAKAMIZADEH Mozafar Banihashemi Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/soc_etds Recommended Citation Banihashemi, Mozafar. "SHI'ITE REFORMISM VERSUS SHI'ITE FUNDAMENTALISM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SHI'ITE DISCURSIVE PRACTICES IN 20TH CENTURY IRAN: THE CASES OF KHOMEINI AND HAKAMIZADEH." (2014). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/soc_etds/2 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mozafar Banihashemi Candidate Sociology Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Richard L. Wood, Chairperson Patricia Risso Andrew Schrank Abbas Milani SHI'ITE REFORMISM VERSUS SHI'ITE FUNDAMENTALISM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SHI'ITE DISCURSIVE PRACTICES IN 20TH CENTURY IRAN: THE CASES OF KHOMEINI AND HAKAMIZADEH By Mozafar Banihashemi B.A., Political Science, National University of IRAN, 1971 M.A., Counseling, The University of New Mexico, 1992 M.A., Sociology, The University of New Mexico, 2004 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sociology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December 2012 iii ©2012, Mozafar Banihashemi iv Dedication In memory of my father and my brother. This dissertation is dedicated to my family. v Acknowledgements Thank you Richard Wood, Patricia Risso, Andrew Schrank, and Abbas Milani! Richard, this dissertation would not have been possible without your skillful guidance and engagement in reviewing my work. I am grateful and indebted to you for being an unceasing source of motivation and support. Pat, thank you for bringing your perspective to my dissertation. Your knowledgeable suggestions improved the historical content of this work. Andrew, I have benefited from your sociological insights and constant encouragement. I truly appreciate it. Abbas, thank you for your immense interest in the subject of this work, which was the fruit of a discussion with you. I extend my sense of gratitude to you for your intellectually rich advice and unfailing friendship. vi SHI'ITE REFORMISM VERSUS SHI'ITE FUNDAMENTALISM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SHI'ITE DISCURSIVE PRACTICES IN 20TH CENTURY IRAN: THE CASES OF KHOMEINI AND HAKAMIZADEH By MOZAFAR BANIHASHEMI B.A., Political Science, National University of IRAN, 1971 M.A., Counseling, The University of New Mexico, 1992 M.A., Sociology, The University of New Mexico, 2004 Ph.D., Sociology, The University of New Mexico, 2012 ABSTRACT The patterns of socio/political transformation that Iran went through in the 20th century generated episodes of great ideological divergence within Iran’s shi’ite establishment. The current study seeks to shed light on an instance of textual exchange that took place in the earlier part of the century – in 1943 – but became the bedrock for subsequent discursive conflicts within shi’ism notably during and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Adopting the format of a dialogue and operating within the milieu of a shi’ite outlook, the authors of this exchange, Hakamizadeh and Khomeini, touched upon several social and political topics such as the God/human relation, the notion of Imamate, the institution of the clergy, the state, and the law. In this doctrinal dialogue, one writer, the ex- cleric Hakamizadeh, set out to depict shi’ism as simply a persuasive system to deter the individual from harmful deeds. His critic, the cleric Khomeini, represents shi’ism as a divine regulatory system to codify the standard of not only ethics and manners but also the political vii management of society. Three decades later, Khomeini found himself intimately engaged in the construction of such an Islamic regulatory system, namely the Islamic Republic of Iran. This study explains how Khomeini’s construction of this system after 1979 was inspired by his analytical conception of an ultimate order that he communicated in the above discursive exchanges more than three decades earlier. viii Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Modernity and Iran ....................................................................................................... 4 Historical Background and Dynamics .......................................................................... 7 Rise of the Usuli Tradition ............................................................................................ 8 Rise of the Babi Movement ........................................................................................ 10 Social Reform and Fragmented Shi’ism ..................................................................... 13 Rationale and Purpose................................................................................................. 15 Chapter 2 Review of Literature .......................................................................................... 17 Discourse, Text, and Social Change ........................................................................... 18 Chapter 3 Research Question ............................................................................................. 35 Chapter 4 Research Design ................................................................................................. 38 The Interpretive Turn and Historical Shi’ism ............................................................. 39 Cultural Analysis ........................................................................................................ 40 Signifying Practice, Representation, and Discourse ................................................... 41 Discursive Practice and Social Action ........................................................................ 44 Social Change and the Use of Text ............................................................................. 45 New Historicism and the Study of Culture ................................................................. 47 Textual Approach to Culture ...................................................................................... 49 Study of Text and Implications for This Study ........................................................... 50 Chapter 5 Research Method ............................................................................................... 56 Methodological Strategy of Textuality and Social Change ........................................ 56 Text and cultural interpretation. ...................................................................... 57 ix Interpretive history and contrast-oriented themes. .......................................... 61 Power/Knowledge. .............................................................................. 63 Truth/Ideology. ................................................................................... 63 Individual/Subject. .............................................................................. 64 Self/Other (identity/difference). .......................................................... 65 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 66 Chapter 6 Main Analysis ..................................................................................................... 68 Prologue ...................................................................................................................... 68 Chapter 7 First Discourse: The God-Human Relation .................................................... 77 The Providential Idea and God’s Authority ................................................................ 78 Providentialism and Social Order ............................................................................... 80 Providentialism and the Individual ............................................................................. 85 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 89 Chapter 7 Second Discourse: Imamate .............................................................................. 90 Imamate and Otherworldly Salvation ......................................................................... 91 Universal Imam Versus Historicist Imam................................................................... 93 Transhistorical Versus Discursive Knowledge ........................................................... 95 Prudential Dissimulation Versus Tactical Dissimulation (Taqiyya) .......................... 99 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 106 Chapter 9 Third Discourse: The Clergy .......................................................................... 109 The Concept of Occultation ...................................................................................... 111 Ulama and Social Division of Labor ........................................................................ 115 The Ulama’s Autonomy
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