The rise of the "raushanfekr" in the Constitutional period | The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University

Date: Thursday, November 9, 2006

Time: 07:00 PM - 08:30 PM

Iranian Studies Group (ISG) lecture series presents:

The rise of the "raushanfekr" in the Constitutional period.

by Dr. Mangol Bayat

Location:
MIT Room 56-114
http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=56&Buildings=go

Refreshment will be served

The origins of the modern intellectual in Iran can be traced back to the
Constitutional Revolution and its legislative reforms aiming at secularizing
social institutions that wer! e until then under the olama's jurisdiction. The
dismissal of theological restraints and taboos which the jurists had for
centuries imposed upon Iranian thought broke down the fences that
artificially contained together different groups of intellectuals and
professionals within the loosely defined class of the "turbaned" educated
elite. The modern intelligentsia came into being with separate interests and
group allegiances, while the olama emerged as one distinct class of
religious leaders, specialists in Islamic jurisprudence, loosing drastic
ground as the former group assumed social and political leadership in
national affairs. Nevertheless, doctrinal conflicts with aspects of
modernity and the new socio-political systems that were adopted in the
post-revolution period were left unresolved. Similarly, clause two of the
1906-1907 constitution paradoxically granted the ayatollahs potential
political power mainstream Twelver Shia Islam had persi! stently frowned upon.

Selected books by Dr. Mangol Bayat:
Iran's First Revolution: Shi'ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909
Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran

Iranian studies group at MIT : http://isg-mit.org/