Shi'i Reformation in Iran

Ali Rahnema teaches Economics and Middle East and Islamic Studies and is Director of the Master of Arts program in Middle East and Islamic Studies at the American University of Paris. His many publications include: Behind the 1953 Coup in Iran: Thugs, Turncoats, Soldiers, and Spooks (2015); Superstition as Ideology in Iranian Politics, From Majlesi to Ahmadinejad (2011); An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Shari’ati (1998, 2000, 2013); Pioneers of Islamic Revival (1994, 2006); and Islamic Economic Systems (with Farhad Nomani, 1994).

• Preface; Introduction; Genealogy, environment, convictions, friends and foes; Sangelaji’s interlocutors; Reforming actually practised Islam; The primacy of the Qur'an; Challenging reports; Reason and Islam; Popular Shi‘ism; Was Sangelaji a Wahhabi?; Sangelaji’s legacy; Bibliography; Index.

’...an important and well-researched study about one of the eminent Shi’i reformers in twentieth-century Iran. It appears at the right time when the monolithic appearing leadership of 12er Emami Shi’ism in Iran has come under increasing pressure to defend their dogmatic and intellectual position in their teaching against the different challenges in a modern, more globalised world. The book deals extensively with issues of dogma and methodology in Shi’ism which Shari’at Sangelaji, himself a jurist, tried to reform and steer towards monotheistic rationalism, cleared from much of the ballast collected on its long journey through history. This study will undoubtedly encourage and contribute to the debate about the ways and methods how the Shi’i community should be guided in future.’ Paul Luft, Durham University, UK