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ISLAM IN IRAN vi. THE CONCEPT OF MAHDI IN SUNNI ISLAM The Savior is a descendant of the Prophet whose expected return to rule the world will restore justice, peace, and true religion. The Twelver Shiʿites believe him to be the Twelfth Imam who is in occultation (see ḠAYBA) until…

ISLAM IN IRAN vii. THE CONCEPT OF MAHDI IN TWELVER SHIʿISM Mahdism in Twelver Shiʿism inherited many of its elements from previous religious trends. Without necessarily going back to Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Judaism, and Christianity, to which generally eschatology, messianism, and the apocalyptic in Islam owe many of their doctrines and…

ISLAM IN IRAN ix. THE DEPUTIES OF MAHDI According to Twelver Shiʿite tradition, the deputies of Mahdi (Ar. al-nowwāb al-arbaʿa) consist of the four intermediaries between the Hidden Imam and the faithful during his “Minor Occultation” (al-Ḡaybat al-ṣoḡrā), 874-941 (see ḠAYBA). In Imami sources, the nowwāb (lit. deputies, sing. nāʾeb)…

ISLAM IN IRAN 3. Islamic Political Movements A series of articles on Political Islam in Iran can be viewed in two categories: One, consisting of “Roots of Political Shiʿism,” “Jihad in Islam,” and “Martyrdom in Islam,” examine the historical and theological antecedents of modern Islamic political ideas. The above entries…

ISLAM IN IRAN xi. JIHAD IN ISLAM The term jihad (Ar. jehād “struggle, striving”) occurs (either in its root or derivatives) about forty times in the Qurʾān with the secondary, but dominant, meaning of “regulated warfare with divine sanction.” Doctrine concerning jihad in the Qurʾān does not use this word…

ISLAM IN IRAN xiii. ISLAMIC POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN 20TH CENTURY IRAN New Islamic political movements first emerged in the Near East, the Indian Subcontinent, and Indonesia in the middle of the 19th century in response to European imperial expansion and encounter with European intellectual currents, social values, political thought, and…

ISLAM IN IRAN xiv. ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY. Forthcoming online. xv. ISLAM AND SOCIALISM. Forthcoming online. xvi. ISLAM AND FUNDAMENTALISM. Forthcoming online. xvii. ISLAMIC REVOLUTION OF 1977–79. Forthcoming online xviii. ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN. Forthcoming online.

ISMAʿILISM, a major Shiʿite Muslim community. The Ismaʿilis have had a long and eventful history dating back to the middle of the 2nd/8th century when the Emāmi Shiʿis split into several groups on the death of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq. The earliest Ismaʿilis from amongst the Emāmi Shiʿis traced the imamate…

ISMAʿILISM i. ISMAʿILI STUDIES In its modern and scientific form, dating to the 1930s, Ismaʿili studies represents one of the newest fields of Islamic studies. Before this time, the Ismaʿilis were almost exclusively studied and evaluated on the basis of evidence collected, or often fabricated, by their enemies. As a…

ISMAʿILISM ii. ISMAʿILI HISTORIOGRAPHY Ismaʿili historiography has been closely related to the very nature of the Ismaʿili mission, or daʿwa, and the changing fortunes of the Ismaʿilis during the various phases of their history. The Ismaʿilis were usually persecuted by their numerous enemies, necessitating the observance of taqiya by them….

ISMAʿILISM iii. ISMAʿILI HISTORY ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY On the death of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq in 148/765 his followers from among the Imami Shiʿites split into six groups of which two may be identified as proto-Ismaʿilis or earliest Ismaʿilis. Imam al-Ṣādeq had originally designated his second son Esmāʿil (the eponym…

ISMAʿILISM iv. QARĀMEṬA. See CARMATIANS. v. ISMAʿILI DAʿWA AND THE FATIMID DYNASTY. See FATIMIDS. vi. ISMAʿILI IDEAS OF TIME. See DAWR (2). vii. ISMAʿILI IDEAS OF COSMOGONY AND COSMOLOGY. See COSMOGONY AND COSMOLOGY vi. viii. FREE WILL IN ISMAʿILISM. See FREE WILL ii. ix. ISMAʿILI MISSIONARIES. See DĀʿI. x. ISMAʿILI…

ISMAʿILISM xi. ISMAʿILI JURISPRUDENCE A distinct Ismaʿili system of jurisprudence was founded after the establishment of the Fatimid dynasty in North Africa. The pre-Fatimid Ismaʿilis, as a secret revolutionary organization, were preoccupied in various parts of the ʿAbbasid empire with missionary activities, promising the advent of the expected messianic figure…