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SHIʿITE DOCTRINE ii. Hierarchy in the Imamiyya The distinction between believers and ulema (ʿolemāʾ “religious scholars”) is known to both Sunnites and Shiʿites, and forms the starting point for internal ranking systems among their ulema. Therefore, the widespread opinion according to which Islam is a religion without priesthood and the…

SHIʿITE DOCTRINE iii. Imamite-Sunnite Relations since the Late 19th Century Since the 20th century, sectarian relations have reflected a growing number of attempts to reach, at least to some degree, an understanding and a rapprochement of each other’s views (taqrib, rarely taqārob), although Sunnites and Shiʿites have confronted each other…

SHIʿITES IN ARABIA: the Arabian Peninsula including the Persian Gulf Regions. The Ḥejāz. The Shiʿite presence in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to the early history of Islam. In fact the northwestern region of Arabia, the Ḥejāz, is the cradle of Shiʿism. Its emergence is related to developments in Medina…

SHIʿITES IN LEBANON. Shiʿites, that is, Muslims adhering to the Twelver(eṯnāʿašari) or Imamite persuasion of Shiʿism, form the single largest denominational community of Lebanon. Their number is estimated at 1.5 million, with 800,000 living in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, while the rest are mainly distributed in southern…

SHOGHI EFFENDI (Šawqi Rabbāni; b. ʿAkkā, 1 March 1897; d. London, 4 November 1957), eldest grandson and successor of ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ as leader of the Bahai Faith (1921-57). Iranian Bahais usually refer to him as Ḥażrat-e Waliy-e Amrallāh, the title given to him by ʿAbd-al-Bahāʾ, usually translated as “the Guardian of the…

SIAH-QALAM (siāh-qalam, lit. ‘black pen’), a term referring to both the genre of paintings or drawings done in pen and ink (also known as qalam-siāhi; Swietochowski), and to the painter or, more likely, painters (more commonly known as Siāh-qalam) of a particular collection of such pen and ink drawings, preserved…

SIĀHKAL, small town and sub-provincial district (šahrestān) in the southeastern part of Gilān province. The town is located at lat 37°09′ N, long 49°52′ E. Siāhkal was a subdistrict (dehestān) and then a district (baḵš) within the sub-province (šahrestān) of Lāhijān until 1998, when it became a sub-province. It had an…

SIAR AL-MOLUK (The ways of kings), also known as Siāsat-nāma (The book of statecraft) and in some references as Panjāh faṣl (Fifty chapters), a manual on statecraft written for the Saljuq sultan Malekšāh (d. 1092) by his vizier Neẓām-al-Molk (1018-92). Contents and contextualization. In 1086, according to Siar al-moluk, Malekšāh…

SĪH-RŌZAG, a text of the Xorda Avesta comprising invocations to Zoroastrian divinities. The title consists of a Middle Persian adjectival form that may be translated as “relating to the thirty days” (referring to the use of the text in rituals performed on behalf of a deceased person’s soul thirty days…

SILVER Silver (sim, noqra) in Iran was principally found during medieval times in the northeastern areas of greater Iran.  Maria Deknowna identified four principle areas of importance: Panjhir (Ar. Banjhir; in present-day Afghanistan); the area of Ilāk (Ar. Ilāq), in the valley of the River Angren and the Karamazar Mountains…

SIMJURIDS, a family of Turkish mamluks who over four generations, from the late 9th century to the Qarakhanid conquest (389/999), played a leading role in the Samanid state. The source of their power lay in their early acquisition of a permanent appanage (eqṭāʿ) in Quhestān, as well as their powerful…