This is the story of the life of Nizam al-Mulk Abu al-Hasan b. 'Ali b. Ishaq al-Tusi (1018-92), vizier of two Saljuq Sultans, Alp Arslan (r. 1063-72), and Malikshah (r. 1072-85), as it was recorded by a selection of Muslim historians of the medieval period. More than a simple bi…
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Shīʿī aḥādīth, particularly on women, are an immensely understudied area. Studies on Shīʿī aḥādīth on women usually centre on Fāṭimah al-Zahrāʾ, and little research explores pre-Islamic sacred female figures in Shīʿī aḥādīth. At the same time, there an urgent interest in Shīʿism…
The concept of autonomy underlies many other issues in moral and political philosophy. This dissertation states that contemporary debates within Shi'i thought view autonomy as individualistic, and that this individualism brings it into conflict with tradition. It then argues tha…
This thesis addresses the relationship between sectarianism and state-making and nation-building in Iraq. It argues that sectarianism has been an enduring feature of the state-making trajectory in Iraq due to the failure of the modern nation-state to resolve inherent tensions be…
This Master’s thesis explores the major Sufi and Shia scholars’ views of Iblīs – one of the two Qur’anic names for the Devil – views rooted in the traditional and orthodox Islamic understandings of the fall of Iblīs and the Ḥallājian-Sufi tradition built around the defense of Ib…
This study explores symbols of a religious ritual called Ashura in Twelver Shi’ite Islam. It provides a look into these symbol’s unconscious power at work in the suffering of the participants. The ritual’s ceremonial rites are compared with the three stages of alchemy: the nigre…
This dissertation considers the concept of walāyah, commonly translated as guardianship, within Islam in terms of theology, hermeneutics, religious law, and praxis. These applications are analyzed for the ways in which they lend themselves to an authoritative application of walā…
This dissertation reevaluates early Shi'ite nationalism in Pahlavi Iran (1925–79). It asks why it is that the Shi'ite ulama were among the Shah's most loyal supporters during the 1953 coup that restored him to power, yet a decade later clerical activists had largely abandoned ro…
Muslim immigrants’ adaptation to Western values has been a concern by different US governments. Their religious culture and the relationship of their country of origin with the United States have racialized them as a flux of un-assimilating underclass who are resistant to the We…
After his death in 1977, many scholars have portrayed Ali Shari`ati as an exceptional Iranian intellectual. He was well aware of the tumultuous twentieth century history of Iran and was determined to bring changes to the socio-political outlook of the country. Several factors, i…
The purpose of this thesis is to explain how and why many modern Twelver Shi'a, Sunni, and Western scholars have structured political and religious conflict during the formative era of Islam (610-945 C.E.) around a partisan Sunni-Shi'a divide that did not truly exist, at least a…
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 earli…
One of the most prominent Imami scholars of the Buyid age is al-Sharif al-Murtad[dotbelow]a 'Ali b. H[dotbelow]usayn al-Musawi (d. 436/1044), the theologian, jurist, littérateur, politician and head of the Imami Shri. community. This dissertation proposes to identify, analyze an…
It has traditionally been taught that Iran, a Sunni state was converted to Twelver Shi'ism almost overnight when the armies backing the Safavid house conquered the country in 1501. In recent years, however, scholars have begun to question how, and how rapidly, the process of con…
This dissertation analyzes the link between transnationalism, nationalism, and religion against the background of intensifying Shi'ite ties between Lebanon and Iran since the 1960s. Focusing on activities of Lebanese Shi'ite religious leaders and Shi'ite political parties and th…
This thesis seeks to explore and survey the different understandings of Fatima bt. Muhammad "al-Zahra'" in different Shi'i social, religious, and political contexts. This investigation situates Fatima within a larger Islamic conceptualization of the saint or holy figure. Her lim…
This dissertation analyzes the Sara'ir al-nut[dotbelow]aqa' (The Secrets of the Speaker-Prophets), a work ascribed to Ja'far b. Mans[dotbelow]ur al-Yaman (d. ca. 960), one of the earliest Isma'ili-Fat[dotbelow]imid missionaries whose work is extant. Ja'far chose unusual objects …
The dissertation offers a cross-cultural comparison of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in early Medieval Christianity and Fatima, Muhammad's daughter, in Shi'ite Islam. It focuses on theological treatises, hagiography, and material culture. The dissertation demonstrates that Medieval…
The Persian Revolution of 1979 is often identified with its charismatic Leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini. The ideological basis of this Revolution and a number of other significant factors which brought this Revolution to maturity are the subject of this thesis. In particular, the…