CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Leila Shavandi |
|---|---|
| Title | Shi'itization of Piety, Farcization of Shi'ism and Regulation of the Body in Early Modern Safavid Iran |
| Summary | The Safavid household came to power in the context of the early modern millenarian movements as a Sufi order, but moved toward fashioning itself as a Shi’a empire and homogenizing the religious landscape of its territory by “Shi 019;itization.& #x201d; Although the Safavid religious structure and power dynamics have always been an important topic in Iranian studies, little attention has been paid to locating the Safavids in the context of the early modern empires. In this thesis, drawing on Sanjay Subrahmanyam’s concept of “connected histories,” Tijana Krstic’s concept of “normative centering,” and Derin Terzioğlu’s reformulation of “Sunnitization,” I study the “Shi 019;itization&# x201d; of the Iranian society as a part of the early modern religious dynamics. The Safavid Shi’itization included a range of strategies from the prosecution of non-Muslims to modification of the Muslim subjects’ behaviors with the percepts of the Shi’a Islam as it was being defined at the time. I focus on the facilitated circulation of knowledge in the context of the growing centralization and growing urbanity in seventeenth-century Iran to explore the participation or intervention of the centralizing power in the transmission of knowledge. Given that the new growing literate urban class related to Persianate traditions, Shi’itization had to be Farsicized to reach a broader audience. Therefore, the 17th century experienced an unprecedented attempt at the translation and composition of religious texts in Persian language. At the same time, akhbārism (traditionism) gained growing popularity in Iran. I explore the thematic focus of these Farsi religious texts, which emphasized the tradition of the Prophet and his Household. I argue that the growing popularity of akhbārism and the growing centrality of akhbār was partially a logical consequence of the Safavid politics of piety in the frame of imperial rivalry. The other reason behind the growing popularity of traditionism was its ability to utilize popular forms of piety like sainthood. Furthermore, I argue that the growing attention to the works on proper conduct under the titles of a’māl (deeds), ādāb (etiquette) and akhlāq (ethics) in the 17th century signals a homogenizing focus on the practice of faith. To discuss the utilization of sainthood and the focus of Shi’itization on the practice of faith, I study the biography and oeuvre of Muhammad Bāqir al-Majlisī (1627-1699), I especially focus on Hilyat alMuttaqīn (The Adornment of the Pious), Majlisī’s composition on ethics and etiquette, as an attempt at social disciplining and community-building. I discuss Mjlisī’s utilization of the Perso-Islamic concept of adab in writing fourteen chapters on the proper ways of clothing, eating, make-up, sleeping, marriage, etc. The Adornment especially focuses on the re-establishment of social and sexual order by making recommendations that can distinguish a Shi’a Muslim from the “Other,” and reinforce thegender binary and gender hierarchy. Given that these social disciplining attempts strongly and directly targeted the regulation of the body, I end this thesis by suggesting an early modern frame for a better understanding of historical evolution and formation of Perso-Islamic bodies/selves/genders and sexualities. |
| Supervisor | Tijana Krstic |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/shavandi_leila.pdf |
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