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Vol. V, No. 2 (Jul.-Dec., 2016) Empire, Shi‘ism and Iranism: Iran After the Sanctions
Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2015
Deadline for articles: 15 March 2016
GEOPOLITICA. Rivista dell’Istituto in Alti Studi di Geopolitica e Scienze Ausiliarie is accepting
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TEMATICHE
The volume’s subject matter is: Empire, Shi‘ism and Iranism: Iran After the Sanctions (editors: Prof.
Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti and Prof. Ra!aele Mauriello).
Iran is usually described as the cradle of the most visible heresy of the Islamic world, Shi‘ism. This is
incorrect. Shi‘ism, the branch of Islam represented by the veneration for the descendants of ‘Ali ibn
Abi Talib, the fourth Caliph, is in both political/dynastic and religious terms mainly an Arab
phenomenon. The most important centers of Shi‘i religious geography are Najaf and Karbala, in
Iraq; these are the places where, in the early centuries of Islam, the "ght against the incumbent
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Page 1 of 5
Vol. V, No. 2 (Jul.-Dec., 2016) – Empire, Shi‘ism and Iranism: Iran After the Sanctions | Geopolitica
Sunni power took place. In Iran we "nd a Shi‘i presence that goes back to the early conquest of the
Iranian plateau; this is the case of Qom. However, Shi‘ism in Iran was to become dominant only late
in Islamic history and for political reasons. The process began in the XVI century, which was at the
beginning of what we can call “modernity” both in the western and eastern world. The de"ning
event is the advent to power of a dynasty that had its roots in a Su" confraternity, the Safawiyya.
The new regime adopted Shi‘ism as its creed and began a process of conversion that in the
following centuries was to reach almost the entire population of the country. Safavid Shi‘ism
embraced the devotion to the lineage of ‘Ali, the cousin of the prophet Muhammad and husband of
his daughter Fatima, which had already made inroads in Iran in the previous century. This was a
period dominated by the "gure of Tamerlane, who is considered to be spiritually and ideologically
part of the ‘Alid Family. Here it is important to notice that the Safavid dynasty presented itself as
being reformist and posited the devotion to the Family of the Prophet, an element at the basis of
Shi‘ism, as one of its essential characteristics. That is to say that the well-known dispute over the
succession to the Prophet, that was to cause the division of the Muslim community into Sunnis and
Shi‘as, initially occurred in an Arabian environment. Iran on the other hand had a Sunni majority up
until the XVI century and followed the dynamics of the power in charge in Baghdad where the
Sunni caliphate dominated. Later Iran became the object of conquest by Turkic dynasties from
central Asia, who were also Sunni. Therefore what it is important to underline here is the cultural-
10/12/15 17:29
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political element: Iran has always been a land of conquest, but the "nal result has paradoxically
been that the country has always absorbed “the other,” at least in cultural terms.
It is worth pointing out that in Wahhabism, the form of Islam that established itself in the Arabian
ALTRE LINGUE
Peninsula with the Saudi dynasty – the archenemy of Iran –, the use of the word Shi‘a is very
uncommon. However when it is used, it is generally another way of saying Iran, employing a
terminology that emphasizes the negativity of the phenomenon, of its being outside of Islam. This
shows the ambiguity in the de"nition of Shi‘ism by its alter ego, Wahhabism, a word that is itself
equivalent to the Saudi dynasty. It is not by chance that if we go through a Wahhabi bibliography on
the issue debated here the adjective “Imami” is also taboo, given the fact that “Imam” is a word that
cannot be branded as ‘linguistic innovation,’ whatever the meaning one wants to assign to it.
Iran has, in principle, a speci"c identity of its own, regardless of the religious element. The country
has an imperial history that does not originate with Islam. It is characterized by the inclination to
assimilate di!erent experiences, “Iranizing” them and making them, in one way or another, part of its
DNA. In so doing Iran interprets history, its own history, as following a coherent path. This path has
been conceived di!erently at di!erent times, but the element that is never disputed is precisely the
aspiration of the country to represent itself as an empire, as demonstrated by its entire history, even
the most recent. This is perfectly logical, and it is on these bases that the speci"c declinations of
the meanings of empire should be located. Iran was among the "rst lands to be conquered by the
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Arabs during the "rst wars of conquest undertaken by the early Muslims. It became the cultural
protagonist of the newborn Islamic civilization and of the lands that entered the Islamic orbit during
the early Islamic expansion. The conversions allowed the formation of an entity that was primarily
INIZIATIVE
cultural and political, the economic aspect being secondary. An example of this is the Abbasid
Empire which would not have existed without the Iranic contribution. In this case the religious
discourse became an instrument, or better an essential component of the imperial identity and
integrity of the country, which was substantially Sunni. At that time a minority of the population in
DICEMBRE
Nessun Evento
e!ect practiced Shi‘ism. As touched on earlier, we need to wait until the XVI century and the advent
of the Safavid dynasty, whose founder, Isma‘il, imposed Shi‘ism as the state religion.
In Shi‘ism a particular role is given to the ‘ulama’ (interpreters of Islam), which to a certain extent
resembles that of a “clergy,” and which does not have an equivalent in Sunnism: this is a powerful
identity component which is proto-national in the modern sense of the word. In Iran, in the
dominant ideological thought, Shi‘ism, even today, represents the Islamic transcription of “Iranicity”
as the fundamental factor in the process that harmoniously welcomes revolutionary theories. This is
demonstrated by the events of the last decades. They are of speci"c interest for us here and are
highlighted because, although they seem to follow the same revolutionary path that caused the
demise of the Pahlavi dynasty, they have in fact had important antecedents. One need only think
that Iran witnessed a constitutionalist revolution at the very beginning of the XX century, with a time
gap that appears to be short when compared with similar events relating to the rise of nationalism
that occurred in Europe and America. Shi‘ism in Iran is an identity component that evolves in
accordance with the speci"c historical context. This process is facilitated by the role of the ‘ulama’:
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Vol. V, No. 2 (Jul.-Dec., 2016) – Empire, Shi‘ism and Iranism: Iran After the Sanctions | Geopolitica
10/12/15 17:29
a body clearly exempli"ed in recent times by Ayatollah Khomeini. On the basis of its expertise in
religious knowledge, this category arrogates to itself the prerogative of representing continuity in
the administration of the community. However, the ideological, political and religious scene is in
fact very varied. A typical example of this is o!ered, albeit in di!erent ways depending on the
changing political context, by the fact that Zoroastrianism continues to be recognized today, at
least by the upper class, as the expression of an undisputable “Iranicity” and as a general identity
reference. This phenomenon takes place within the framework of Shi‘i religiosity and thus there is
no necessity to justify in detail the process by which, for example, in the popular mind a female preIslamic divinity such us Anahita, the goddess of water, tallies with the "gure of Fatima. She is a
vehicle for the passage of the prophetic light, which she passes on from her father to the sons that
succeed her husband. Over time Shi‘ism, born from the defeat of the aspirations to power of the
descendants of ‘Ali, organized itself in Iran as an identity component of the country backed by the
benevolence of the court. It rests on a consolidated cultural heritage which we can see as the basis
of the revolutionary events that have punctuated Iran’s history in the last decades: a history that
con"gures itself at the same time as a Risorgimento of ancient traditions and a reassessment of the
meaning of the word tradition as a container of speci"c paths of modernization; the latter is
understood as a continuation of a centuries-old history and, at the same time, as a test of a reading
of modernity as a recovery of an essential identity which Shi‘ism itself represents as the cultural
container of the tradition. That is to say that the di!erent ideas of “laicity” currently put forward by
Iranians can be interpreted not as a rejection of Islam, in its Shi‘i manifestation, but rather as a new
revolutionary reading of the very idea of religion. It is seen as an instrument of progress and the
basis of an identity that goes beyond the concept of simple opposition to the regime when it
proves itself inadequate or is hostile to the idea of an umpteenth reinterpretation of what religion
may mean: the high road to revolutionizing existing conditions.
Political uncertainty, which is clearly not peculiar only to Iran, makes predictions di#cult to
formulate. However, it also obliges scholars to privilege political-cultural aspects in their work when
analyzing and trying to "nd solutions to the present conditions. It leads to their taking di!erent
approaches in detecting a path that debunks preposterous myths that speciously in$uence
Western public opinion. The contributors to this issue of Geopolitica should keep this in mind when
submitting their proposals.
Contributions regarding the following topics will be evaluated:
ideological and political developments after the end of the sanctions;
the in!uence of anti-Shi‘a Wahhabi policies;
Qom center of periphery?;
women as avant-garde: media, sport, arts, culture, and politics;
the role of arts: cinema, theater, photography, and literature;
Iran of the provinces;
the Iranian projection: politics, religion, culture, and geography;
Iran’s economic geography and international exchanges.
Authors are invited to send the abstracts of their articles – in Italian or English – without exceeding
400 words, and a brief (one paragraph at the most) biographical note by 31 December 2015. Mail
must be sent electronically, through the use of the following contact form [click]
(http://www.geopolitica-rivista.org/la-rivista/proporre-articoli).
Within 10 days from dispatch, the authors of approved abstracts will receive a request to send their
complete articles for peer review. A maximum length for articles is not foreseen, however, it is
strongly recommended that they not exceed 35.000 characters. Articles are accepted in Italian,
French, English and Spanish. All submitted articles must be unpublished and cannot be
simultaneously o!ered to third parties. By submitting the article, the author states his ownership on
its publishing rights for Italy and its exclusive assignment to GEOPOLITICA. Articles accepted in a
language di!erent than Italian could be published in translation, at discretion of the editorial sta!.
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and with three key words, also in English. Articles should stricly follow the journal guidelines [click]
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they will be published in a subsequent issue.
The publication of number 2 of the "fth volume of GEOPOLITICA is expected in December 2016 /
January 2017.
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