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THE
RELIGIOUS STRATUM
Firstly, I will discuss concisely the development of the stratum before the rise of the Safavids, and then I am going to deal with the development of the stratum during the Safavids.
1.
The Religious Stratum up to the Safavid period
The
process of the formation of a religious stratum in Iran already began during the
Achaemanid period. However, it was during the Sasanids that a religious stratum
was definitely established and a religious hierarchy took form. According to
Christensen (1944:98) the Iranian Sasanid society was divided into four
different castes: (1) the âsravân or
the ecclesiastic (religious) caste, (2) the artêshtârân
or the worriers (warlord) caste (3) the dibhērân
or the bureaucrat caste, and (4) vâstryôshân
or the peasant caste and hutukhshân
or the artisan or the bourgeois caste. Then
Christensen (ibid:99) continues:
Chacun
de ces états est partagé en plusieurs classes, le clergé en juges (dādhvar),
prêtres (la classe la plus basse et la plus nombreuse est celle des mages, mōgh, puis vienntent les mōbadhs,
les hērbadhs, et divers prêtes
qui ont des fonctions spéciales), surveillant (dastvar)
et précepteurs (mōghān
andarzbadh). [1]
The
head of the ecclesiastic class (or rather caste) was môbadân
môbad.
After
the invasion of Iran by the Arab-Muslims the high layers of the Zoroastrian
religious stratum disappeared. But, the low layers of the stratum, i.e. môbads,
hêrbads, could survive in some regions, e.g. Kirmân,
Tabaristân, Gîlân, Fârs. It should be mentioned that the Muslim conquerors tolerated, to some
extent, the Zoroastrian faith and regarded it as dîn
(religion) and the Zoroastrians as ahl-i kîtâb
(the people of the book).
During
the khulafâ ur-râshidûn there were
not any differences between politics and religion, and a theocratic state with
“amîr ul-muminîn” at the head of
it ruled the Islamic society.
By
the rise of the Umayyds, under whom the separation between politics and religion
took place, the development of the Islamic religious stratum accelerated.
Furthermore, the Muslim community was divided into Shi‘a and Sunni.
Pertrushevskii (1983:259) pointed out that “Tashayyu‘,
as a religious movement, developed between the time of the tragic death of
Huseyn ibn ‘Alî, the third Shi‘i imam, and the establishment of the Abbasid
dynasty (756).” The religious stratum, first of all the Sunni Muslim religious
stratum, did not definitely take form until 8th century, when a
religious hierarchy was gradually established. It is unclear to what extent the
Zoroastrian and Christian religious strata affected the structure of the Islamic
one. Broadly speaking, the early religious stratum dominated totally by the
Arabs. The Sunni religious stratum consisted of imâmân, fuqahâ, who
could express their opinion of ûsûl
ul-fiqh (fundamental of Islamic jurisprudence) and subsidiary religious laws
and rituals, quzzât (judge applying sharî‘i
law), khutabâ’, and muftîs
among others. The high layer of the stratum, i.e. ‘ulamâ, through administration of enormous endowments
(vaqf) became economically one of the most powerful social layers of the
Islamic society. The political influence of the stratum, especially ‘ulamâ,
was also enormously during this time.
During
the Abbasids the influence of the Iranian people, who generally speaking
supported the Abbasids and took part in the revolt against the Arab Umayyds,
enhanced. The Sunni doctrine, sharî‘a,
fiqh, as well as the Sunni religious
stratum took definitely form during this period. Concerning Shi‘ism, the
Shi‘i community established themselves in different cities of Iran, like Qum,
Ray, and Tûs during this period. Nevertheless, the Shi‘ites were a minority
in the Iranian society, and most of their organizations were underground.
Furthermore, the Shi‘i community was divided into different branches, i.e.
kîsânîya, zaydîya, ismâ‘îlîya, qarmatîya, ghulât, imamîya, during the period.
Some of these Shi‘i branches were, in the highest degree, religio-militant
organizations (for example ismâ‘îlîya,
and qarmatîya).
By
the rise of the ismâ‘îlî Fatimids
in Egypt, the Hamdanids in Syria, and the Buyids, which were possibly Shi‘i zaydîya,
in the eastern Islamic empire, the
formation and the development of the Shi‘i religious stratum and the Shi‘i
doctrine accelerated. The Shi‘i propagandists were active among the low layers
of city-dwellers, but it was among peasants and the population out side of
cities and in villages that Shi‘ites established most of their communities,
while they were still a minority in cities with the exception of Kufa and Ray.
The
fall of the Buyids put an end to a Shi‘i era, during which the Shi‘ites had
the political power more than a century (ca. 945-1055). During this Shi‘i
period, the mu‘tazilî kalâm or
speculative theology became the basis of Shi‘i theology. This adoption
occurred under the influence of ‘Alam ul-Hudâ, Ash-Shaykh ul-Mufîd, and
Shaykh ut-Tâ’ifa.
By
the rise of the Sunni orthodox Seljuqs, who, according to Lambton (1988:310),
used religion for their political purposes, the division between the Sunni and
Shi‘i branches became sharper, and a century of relatively peaceful
co-existence between these two branches of Islam came to an end. The suppression
of the Shi‘ites, particularly Shi‘i ismâ‘îlîya,
was a part of the religio-political policy of the Seljuqs. Consequently, the
development of the Shi‘i religious stratum faced serious difficulties and
impediments. The most significant Shi‘i movement during this period was
Hasan-i Sabbah’s, which resulted in foundation of a religious Shi‘i local
state with Alamût, a fort near Qazvîn, as its center. This ismâî‘lî
community had a religio-military structure, and the pîr-i
kûhistân (Sabbâh) was the highest religious, political, and military
authority in the community. The important Shi‘i cities of the period were Qum,
Kâshân, Qazvîn, Hilla, Nadjaf, Djabal ‘Âmil.
The
capture of Baghdad and the seizure of power by the Mongols created a relaxation
on the religious atmosphere. During, at least, the early period of the Mongols
the rulers no longer needed a religious legitimacy to rule the country, which
had been the case during earlier periods. After the Iranization of the Mongols
and their conversion to Sunni Islam the Sunni religious stratum, to some extent,
became involved in the affairs of state. Concerning Shi‘ism, it was a period
of growing without oppression, which had existed during almost all the earlier
periods with the exception of "the Shi‘i century" (see above). Under
Hulâkû-Khân the Shi‘i ismâ‘îlî
and their communities were eliminated in Iran (ca.1256), which gave the rival
Shi‘i branches, i.e. Shi‘i imâmîya
or Shi‘i isna‘asharîya (Twelver)
and Shi‘i ghulât an excellent
opportunity to establish themselves as the only two Shi‘i branches in Iran. It
must be noted that the other Shi‘i branches, i.e. zaydîya,
kîsânîya, qarmatîya, either had almost entirely disappeared from Iran or
had shrunk to very small, uninfluential and insignificant groups in different
part of the country. During the Ilkhanids some Shi‘i scholars were appointed
to important official positions in the state. One of the excellent examples of
such scholars was Nasîr ud-Dîn Tûsî, who became the chief adviser of Hulâkû
Khân. Tûsî (1994:305) divides the Iranian society into four asnâf
(sing. sinf) or classes. These asnâf
were, in their turn, also divided into different social layers. According to
this division the religious stratum (ahl-i
dîn) constituted a layer of the ahl-i
qalam or the men of the pen.
The
period between the 14th and 15th centuries was, broadly
speaking, a period of creative co-existence between various branches of Islam,
i.e. Sunna, Shi‘a and Sufism, and all these branches borrowed some ideas and
methods from each other, and they affected to a large extent each other,
especially Sufism and Shi‘ism. Besides, Shi‘ism began more and more to be
used for political purposes, and some important Sufi-Shi‘i movements succeeded
in the foundation of local dynasties, e.g. the Sarbadarids, Musha‘sha‘ids,
in different part of Iran. The most significant Shi‘i ‘ulamâ during the period from the Ilkhanids to the rise of the
Safavids were: Dj‘far ibn Hasan renowned as Muhaqqiq al-Hillî (d.1277),
author of the Sharâ‘î ul-Islam,
which is one of the important works in Shi‘i fiqh;
Hasan ibn Yûsûf, renowned as ‘Allâma ul-Hillî (d.1325); Haydar ibn ‘Alî
Âmulî, renowned as Shaykh Bahâ’î from Jabal ‘Âmil, Lebanon.
It
was under these circumstances that the Safavid Sunni Sufi order had grown and
transformed into a Shi‘i ghulât
movement during the 15th century. This period was a period of the
dominance of Shi‘i ghulât with
certain tendencies to Sufism, and Shi‘i imâmîya
could establish their dominance later during the Safavid era (see below).
It
should be mentioned that the high layers of the Shi‘i imâmîya
religious stratum were dominated by Arab ‘ulamâ,
who, generally speaking, had no political or economical power.
2.
The Religious Stratum during the Safavids
By
the seizure of power by the Safavids a period of religious tolerance came to an
end. The Safavids introduced a new doctrine concerning the relation between
politics and religion, which had its bases in a pre-Islamic concept of the shah
and a Shi‘i concept of authority.
The Safavid period was not a homogeneous period. In this part of the
essay I am going to discuss the development of the Shi‘i religious stratum in
four phases separately. I am also going to discuss briefly the situation of the
Sunni religious stratum, which generally speaking had dominated the whole period
from the emergence of Islam in Iran to the rise of the Safavids.
2.1
The First Phase (1502-1588)
The rise of the Safavids had two significant effects on the religious
stratum in Iran: (1) the Sunni religious stratum lost its dominance in the
Iranian society and a Shi‘i religious stratum began rapidly to take form and
was to replace the Sunni one; (2) the theocratic early Safavid state engaged the
religious leaders in the affairs of the state to such extent that we can only
meet such involvement during the early period of the Islamic empire. The
involvement of the Shi‘i leaders in politics affected the development of the
stratum, and it was to take a form of a socio-religio-political group with a
complicated hierocracy. Furthermore, some religio-political positions were
created or rather were borrowed from the old-established Sunni religio-political
institutions. Among these official positions were sadr
and qâzî-i ‘askar. With other
words, the early Shi‘i religious stratum, which then mainly consisted of only
Shi‘i ‘ulamâ, had neither
political experience of involving in the affairs of the state nor established
religio-political institutions to participate in the ruling of a country, and
they were obliged to borrow many ideas and methods from the much more
experienced and long-established Sunni religious stratum and institutions.
With
the proclamation of Shi‘a as the religion of the state all mosques and courts,
and by them, the juridical system and the educational system came under the
control of the Shi‘i religious leaders.
In
order to strengthen and reinforce the Shi‘ism Shah Ismâ‘îl I began to
import Shi‘i ‘ulamâ from Arab
countries, especially from Lebanon and Syria, and many religious students were
also sent to these countries to study Shi‘ism. This policy was one of the most
important religious policies of the early Safavid state.
Under
Tahmâsb the import of the Shi‘i ‘ulamâ
was intensified. In accordance with this policy, Tahmâsb encouraged ‘Abdul-‘Alî
ul-‘Âmilî, known as shaykh ‘Alî ul-Karakî, one of the most significant
Shi‘i ‘ulamâ during the period,
to settle in Iran and, according to Arjomand (1988:81), the shah tried to
establish him as the supreme religious authority in the Shi‘i state. Tahmâsb
also granted him extensive power over the sadr
(the highest religio-political position in the Safavid state) and assigned him
many benefices (suyûrghâlât). “He
[Karakî] traveled about the country propagating orthodox Shi‘ism, appointing
prayer leaders in each town and village” (Momen,1985:110). Nevertheless, Tahmâsb’s
attempt to subordinate all religious functionaries to Karakî’s authority
faced intense opposition among the Iranian bureaucrats. With the death of Tahmâsb
this policy failed, and the power of religious authority was still divided
between two “poles”, i.e. the mujtahid
or mujtahid ul-zamân and the sadr.
During the period the suppression of Shi‘i ghulât
was began. In addition, the suppression of Sufi orders was intensified.
According
to Arjomand (1984:13), the rise of the Safavids deepened the gap between
ordinary Shi‘i believers and sâdât
(sing. sayyid), who claimed to be
descendants of the Prophet and Imams, and their social, political, and
economical influences and power extensively increased in the Iranian society.
The author of TAA writes: “[Shah Tahmâsp] showed great respect and reverence
for seyyeds because of their descent
from the immaculate Imams.” (Transl. Savory, 1987:229)
And the shah granted them many benefices (suyûrghâlât) (for more information see TAA, pp. 228-251). This
group of the Sh‘i community constituted a layer of ashâb-i suyûrghâlât or the possessor of benefices. On the whole,
the development and formation of the high layer of the stratum was stimulated
during the reign of Tahmâsb. In addition, through assignment of suyûrghâlât
and tuyûlât the stratum economically became enormously
influential and strong. Meanwhile the increase of the
influence of arbâb-i ‘amâ‘im
began gradually threatening the shah’s authority. The author of TAA points out
the shah’s concern about the increase of the influence of the sâdât,‘ulamâ and mujtahidîn
and writes: “Gradually their contradictory desires began to annoy the
Shah. For example, they wanted to make changes of the highest importance in
matters of state, such as the appointment of the vakīl,
viziers, sadrs, and the like.” (Trans. Savory, 1978:230)
With
the ascension of Ismâ‘îl II, who according to author of TAA had a tendency
towards Sunnism, to the throne the influence of the Shi‘i religious leaders
was temporarily confined. The author of TAA
relates:
Relations
between the Shah [Ismâ‘î Mîrzâ] and the ‘olamâ
in general deteriorated, and the Shah looked with particular disfavor on Mīr
Seyyed Hoseyn the mojtahed, Mīr Seyyed ‘Alī the katīb,
and the Astarābādī faction, which consisted of especially
militant Shi‘ites who were extra-zealous in the practice of ritual cursing.
Some of this faction were expelled from court, and the Shah ordered all Mīr
Seyyed Hoseyn’s books to be impounded and sealed.
[Transl.
Savory, 1987:320]
However,
the short region of Ismâ‘îl II did not cause great problems for the
development of the Shi‘i stratum in Iran, and with the assassination of the
shah, which was a conspiracy of the qizilbâsh,
a part of the members of the harem, and the high layer of the Shi‘i stratum (‘ulamâ),
and the accession of Sultan Muhammad Shah to the throne, the development and the
process of formation of the Shi‘i stratum continued.
Towards
the end of the first phase the ethnic composition of the high layer of the
stratum began to change, and gradually the Iranian ethnic group began to occupy
the important religio-political positions in the Safavid state. The low layer of
the stratum maintained its ethnical composition, which mostly consisted of
Iranians. In some provinces like Âzarbâyjân and
Khuzistân the ethnic Turkic,
Arab constituted part of this layer of the stratum. Nevertheless, it must be
pointed out that the definite formation of the low layer of the stratum took
place much later than the high one and, the formation of this layer was actually
first completed towards the end of the Safavid era.
During
this period a Shi‘i hierarchy consisting of mujtahid
ul-zamân, sadr (pl. sudûr), qâzî
(pl. quzzât), shaykh ul-islâm (pl.
shuyûkh ul-islâm), mutavallî (pl. mutavallîyân)
was formed. The most important incomes of the high layer of the stratum came
from suyurghâlât and vaqf
land.
2.2
The Second Phase (1588-1629)
Already
during the first phase a division between akhbârî
and ûsûlî schools of Shi‘i imâmîya
began to take place. The gap between these two schools deepened during the
second phase. Meanwhile, the influence of two ûsûlî
scholars, namely Shaykh Bahâ‘î and Mîr Dâmâd, on the shah
strengthened the position of ûsûlîyân
in Iran.
The
role and influence of the office of shaykh
ul-islâm enhanced at the expense of the office of sadr, and “the shaykh ul-islâm
of Isfahân emerged as the primus inter
pares of the Shi‘ite dignitaries and thus tended to be regarded as the
foremost religious authority of the realm.” (Arjomand,1988:84). This change
indicates one of the features of the second phase, i.e. the separation between
politics and religion. With other words, a process of secularization of the
state began, and the office of sadr,
which was a religio-poltical appointment, lost its importance, while the role
and influence of the office of shaykh
ul-islâm, which was a religious appointment and was hold by recognized
members of the Shi‘i ‘ulamâ,
increased.2
The process of secularization of the state contributed to acceleration of the
development of the Shi‘i religious stratum as a social group.
It
should be pointed out that ‘Abbâs I’s period was the period of the rise of
absolutism, and during his reign no religio-political offices were able to
maintain their influences and the role they had had during the previous phase.
As a part of the religious policy of the Safavids, during the first phase and
particularly under Tahmâsb, many Iranian religious students were sent to
Lebanon and Bahrain to study Shi‘ism. But the religious policy of ‘Abbâs
was that he focused his effort on encouraging ‘ulamâ
from Lebanon and Bahrain to come to Iran and settle there in order to
establish the country as the most important center of Shi‘i imâmîya. Furthermore, the shah built a number madrasas (theological colleges) in Isfahân. The town grew rapidly
and with its some 50 madrasas became
the most prominent Shi‘i metropolis in Iran. Momen (1985:111) writes that when
‘Abdullâh Shûshtarî, one of the most influential mujtahids of the period, came to Isfahân, there were only 50 tullâb
(sing. talaba) or religious students, in the town, fourteen years later, by
the time of his death, there were over 1000.
The
policy of suppression of Sunnis, Sufi religious sects and dissidents was
continued. For example, according to Falsafi (see Arjomand, 1984.121), the
leader of the Sunni community in Hamadân was charged with ill-treating the
Shi‘ites of the town and was executed in 1608. The Nuqtavi
community was massacred in Kashân in 1593, and many Nuqtavi leaders were executed or forced to immigrate to India. For
instance, the author of TAA writes:
Another important member of the Noqtavī sect was Mīr Seyyed Ahmad Kāšī, who led many ignorant people astray. He was executed by the [fullblooded Safavid] shah with his own hands in the Nasrābād district of Kashan, where he was cut in two by the Shah’s sword.
[Transl.
Savory, 1987:649f]
He continues:
Darvīš
Kamāl Eqlīdī and Darvīš Beryānī, who were both
leaders of a branch of this sect, together with several of their disciples, were
put to death as they traveled to Khorasan... Šarīf Āmolī, who
was one of the leading intellectuals of the Noqtavī
sect, fled to Indian to escape retribution at the hands of the judges. As a
result of this purge, all the followers of this sect in Iran either left the
country or concealed themselves in some remote corner.
[Transl.
Savory, 1987:650]
Even
Shi‘i Sufi sects like the ni‘matullâhî
Sufi order were forced to withdraw to India. The policy of religious
suppression contributed to the establishment of total dominance of the Shi‘i imâmiya in the country.
In order to spread Shi‘ism and describe religious duties and rituals,
e.g. vuzû, namâz, rûza, hajj, and
Shi‘i fiqh the shah ordered to
shaykh Bahâ‘ ud-Dîn ‘Âmulî, the shaykh ul-islâm of Isfahân,
to write a book about these daily rituals and the Shi‘i fiqh.
This book (Jâmi‘-i ‘Abbâsî) was the first comprehensive work about the
Shi‘i figh in Persian. Shaykh Bahâ‘ ud-Dîn describes in the preface to
the Jâmi‘-i ‘Abbâsî (n.d. 2f) the purpose of this work in the following
way:
Because
the attention of the heavenward-gazing, the most noble and holy, the dog at the
threshold of Imam ‘Ali, Shāh ‘Abbās al-Hosayni al-Musavi al-Safavi
Bahādor Khan (whose noble name, may God perpetuate it, is manifest and
obvious), is inclined to the dissemination of religious information and the
promotion of spiritual knowledge, and the will of his holy Excellency is that
all people and Shiites and servants of ‘Ali, the Prince of the Faithful, be
knowledgeable concerning the issues of the true religion and apprised of the
rules and commands of the Holy Imams, God’s prayers upon all of them;
therefore, the blessed command has been issued that your servant, the suppliant
Bahā ’oddin Mohammad ‘Āmeli, prepare a book which would contain
such necessary matters of religion as ablutions before prayer, ceremonial
washing, ablution with sand or dust, ritual prayer, [fasting], almsgiving, hijj,
jihād, pilgrimages to the tombs of the Prophet, ‘Ali and the other
Imams, their birthdays and anniversaries of death, and other matters with
respect to which needs routinely arise, for example, endowments, almsgiving,
financial transactions, marriage, divorce, oaths, breaking oaths and vows,
freeing slaves, determining blood money for the murder of a person, determining
blood money for the loss of a limb and wounds which one person inflicts upon
another, and the rules and ways reported of the Holy Imams with respect to
eating food, drinking liquids, wearing clothes, hunting, and the like. In
conformance with the most noble and lofty command, this book was written and its
contents presented in idioms clear and near to the understanding so that
everyone from upper to lower classes might find and derive benefit from reading
it.
[Transl.
Hillmann, 1992:133f]
Miskûb emphasizes the importance of the book and this event and writes:
Prior
to it, treatises had been composed in Persian on various theological subjects,
but not a book which presented all jurisprudential issues. This activity
commences from an age when it is an extremely important event in terms of
culture (in the broad sense of the word). It is a turning point.
[Transl.
Hillmann, 1992:134]
Writing in Persian contributed to: (1) the spread of Shi‘a among Iranians; (2) the formation of the concept of marja‘-i taqlîd; (3) the Iranization of Shi‘i imâmîya.
As
I have pointed out, the Iranization of Shi‘a was one of the most significant
feature of the Safavid era, and this process began when Shi‘a was proclaim as
the religion of the state. But it was during the second phase that the process
accelerated and gave concrete results. It must also be emphasized that the
process was not separated from the Iranization of the Safavid state itself. With
the Iranization of Shi‘a the number of Iranian ‘ulamâ
increased. A comparison between the number of the prominent Iranian Shi‘i ‘ulamâ
and Arab ‘ulamâ reveals these ethnic changes in the high layer of the
stratum (see table 1, p. 57).
Economically,
the stratum became stronger through suyûrghâlât
and particularly incomes from vaqf land
and religious taxes (khums), and
Shi‘i ‘ulamâ established
themselves as large landowners during this phase. The beginning of the policy of
confiscation of land by the shah (see 1.3) forced the landowners to convert
their land to vaqf land. Consequently,
the role and influence of mutavallîyân
(sing. mutavallî), who were
administrators of auqâf, enhanced.
Besides, pishnamâzân (sing. pishnamâz) (prayer-leaders), mudarrisân
(sing. mudarris) (teachers at
religious schools or collages) also gained from the created circumstances.
Concerning Shi‘i philosophy, maktab-i
Isfahân (the school of Isfahân), was founded by Muhammad Bâqir Astarâbâdî,
known as Mîr Dâmâd. This school of Islamic philosophy was to flourish fully
during the third phase.
2.3
The Third Phase (1629-1666)
Through the increasing influence of the usûlî school of Shi‘ism the akhbârî school gradually withdraw to the provincial and smaller centers in the country. However, the usûlîyân‘s victory over the akhbârîyân was to take place definitely much later in the 19th century. This split partly weakened the Shi‘i religious stratum.
The philosophic school of Isfahân with its great figures, like Mîr Findiriskî (d.1640) and Mullâ Sadrâ (d.1640), flourished fully during this phase. This school is also called the Ishrâqî School of Islamic philosophy.
The Iranization of Shi‘a continued under the rule of shah Safî I, but due to the shah‘s lack of interest in and concern about the spread of Shi‘ism the tempo of the process was reduced.
The policy of conversion of milkî and dîvânî land to khâss land (see chapter 2) was accelerated and many landowners were forced to convert their land to vaqf land, which was under the administration of sudûr and mutavallîyân.
‘Abbâs II ascended to the throne when he was only eight years of age. This situation gave an outstanding opportunity to the harem, the qizilbâsh, as well as the Shi‘i religious leaders to engage in the affairs of the state. Nevertheless, ‘Abbas II eventually managed to assert his authority and took over the affairs of the state, and actually his reign was the zenith of absolutism in Iran. In order to confine the involvement of the religious leaders in the affairs of the state, and in order to limit both economical and political influence of that stratum and establish his own political absolute power, the shah reduced the importance of the office of sadr and ultimately turned the office over to sadr-i ‘azam or chief minister, which was solely a political appointment. He reduced the incomes of sudûr, particularly their incomes from auqâf, and of other religious leaders. Chardin (1735:402f) mentions the decrease of the incomes of the religious stratum and writes:
Abbas
ii. réforma entre autres abus touchant les biens d’Egliſe, celui d’en
donner en ſi grand equantité à un ſeul homme. Il prit un état de
tous les Bénéfices du Royaume, & trouvant qu’il y avoit des gens qui en
avoient pour vingt-cinq à trente-mille livres de rente, il en fit une nouvelle
diſtribution. Il convoque les Sedres,
les Magiſtrats, les plus renommés Eccléſiaſtiques, & leur
dit qu’il trouvoit étrange que la Loi de Dieu portant de ſi grandes malédictions
contre ceux qui vivent ſplendidement avec du bien d’Egliſe, il y eût
tant de gens néanmoins qui en avoient pour cinq ou ſix-cens Tomans.
Depuis cette réforme, on n’en a donné gueres plus de la moitié à une
ſeule perſonne. 3
‘Abbas II continued the policy of secularization of the state and politically confined the involvment of the ‘ulamâ in the political affairs of the state.
The spread of Shi‘a in the country contributed to the development of popular religion, and rauzat ush-shuhadâ-khân, later zikr- or rauza-khân, who recited/sang the work of Kamâl ud-Dîn Husayn, known as Wâ‘iz Kâshifî, rauzat ush-shuhadâ (the garden of martyrs) or maqtal-nâmas, became a profession among the low layer of the stratum. Calmard (Melville, 1996:155) states: “An early mention of rauza-kwan [sic!] appears in an inscription written towards the end of ‘Abbas I’s region on the Dar al-Huffaz at Ardabil.” But it was, in my judgement, towards the end of ‘Abbas II’s reign this religious performance was established. Besides, it seems that ta‘zîya went through the last stage of its development during this phase (for more information see Massudieh, 1988:10).
By the establishment of Shi‘a the low layer of the stratum could much better earn their living. This layer of the stratum consisted of mu‘azzinîn (sing. mu‘azzin), qârîyân (sing. qârî), hâfizân (sing. hâfiz), rauza-khânân (rauza-khân).
|
|
Place of birth
|
total |
||
|
------------------------ |
------------------------ |
------------------------- |
||
| Iran | Arab lands | |||
| 1501-1572 | 5 | 8 | 13 | |
| 1573-1640 | 16 | 13 | 29 | |
| 1641-1689 | 18 | 10 | 28 | |
| 1689-1738 | 15 | 12 | 27 |
Table
14
origins
of prominent Shi‘i ‘ulamâ of the Safavid period
2.4
The Fourth Phase (1666-1737)
Nevertheless, Sulaymân was partly able to confine the influence of the
stratum in the affairs of the state. For example, Chardin, who was in Iran
during Sulaymân’s reign, writes (1788:400f):
ſi la Puiſſance Souveraine ne tenoit la bride… à ces fougueux Eccléſiaſtiques, ils ne voudroient ſouffrir d’autre Religion que la leur, & un Etranger ne pourroit vivre un ſeul jour avec eux: en un mot ils voudroient donner la Loi à tout le monde. 5
The
duties of the office of the sadr were
divided between the sadr-i khâssa,
whose responsibility was to administrate the shah’s property and his mauqûfât,
and the sadr-i ‘âmma, whose responsibility was to administrate the common
peoples’ mauqûfât.
The influence and the role of qâzî
was greatly limited and actually the office of shaykh
ul-islâm took over the office of qâzî.
Chardin (ibid:339) points out this decline of the importance of the office of qâzî
and writes:
Ce
Magiſtrat, nommé cheic-el-iſlam,
eſt Juge de toutes les Cauſes
Civiles, & de toutes les autres qui ont quleque connexion avec le Civil. Sa
Charge fut créée autrefois pour être ſubordonnée à celle de Cazy,
qui eſt le premier Juge Cilvil dans tous les Païs où la Religion
Mahometane domine, & qui a tant de pouvoir & d’autorité en Turquie;
mais par le crédit que les cheic-el-iſlam
avoient à la Cour, ils ont attiré tant de ſortes d’affaires à leur
Tribunal, qu’il eſt aujourd’hui fort élevé au deſſus de
l’autre, & qu’on le conſidere comme le premier & le plus
juridique Tribunal. 6
By
the enhancement of the influence of the religious stratum the ‘ulamâ began to question the shah’s right to rule the Islamic
Shi‘i state, which according to their concept should have ruled by mujtahids
and other religious leaders and not by a non-religious leader (i.e. shah).
Chardin (ibid.397f) describes this new concept of the ruling the country among
the religious stratum in the following way:
Les
gens d’Egliſe, & tous les Dévots de la Perſe, tiennent que la
domination des Laïques eſt un éstabliſſement violent & uſurpé,
& que le Gouvernement Civil appartient de droit au Sedre,
& à l’Egliſe. La principale raiſon dont ils appuyent cette créance,
eſt que Mahomed étoit Prophete
& Roi tout enſemble, & que Dieu l’avoit conſtitué ſur
le Spirituel & ſur le Temporel. 7
During
this phase, particularly Under Sultân Husayn, “the mujtahids fully reasserted their independence of the shah, and
reclaimed their prerogative to be the representatives of the Twelfth Imâm and
thus the only legitimate source of authority in a Shī‘ī state” (Savory,
1980:238).
Sultân
Husayn at his ascension in 1694 appointed Muhammad Bâqir Majlisî, who was the
most influential and powerful mujtahid
of the era and who had had the office of shaykh
ul-islâm of Isfahân under Sulaymân, to the new-established office of mullâ-bâshî,
Head Mullâ. With the appointment of Majlisî as mullâ-bâshî
this office became the supreme religious authority in Iran, and the office of sadr
and shaykh ul-islâm lost their importance.
The
deterioration of the economical situation due to mismanagement and corruption,
and the intensification of the suppression of the Sunnis, Christians, Jews and
other religious groups, which was a consequence of the increase of the influence
of the Shi‘i religious stratum on the Safavid state and the shah, resulted in
social unrest, particularly in the Sunni and Christian population, who lived in
the boundary regions of the country. The author of Rustam ut-tavârîkh
(1348/1969:121) relates the first stage of Sunni Afghan uprising, which was to
result to fall of the Safavid state, in the following way:
At
last the respected Sunni men, nobles, great men, and aristocrats on ‘ulamâ’s and learned men’s approbation united and concluded a
treaty, and they said: “It is necessary for us to rise up against those in
power.
[My
translation]
Towards
the end of the Safavid era the hierarchy of the Shi‘i stratum consisted, from
the top to the bottom, of mullâ bâshî,
sadr (sudûr), shaykh ul-islâm (shuyûkh
ul-islâm), qâzî (quzzât),
mudarris (mudarrisân), mutavallî
(mutavalliyân), pîsh-namâz
(pîsh-namâzân), mu‘azzin (mu‘ázzinân),
hâfiz (hâfizân), qârî (qâriyân),
rauza-khân (rauza-khânân).
During this phase Muhammad Bâqir Majlisî with his more than 60 works in
Persian8
played a significant role in the development of Shi‘i fiqh and doctrines and the spread of Shi‘ism in the Country.
The fall of the Safavids profoundly affected the development of Shi‘i
stratum. Nevertheless, due to its becoming the religion of the majority, Shi‘a
and the Shi‘i religious stratum was to continue its development after the
Sunni intermezzo, which began with the capture of Isfahân by Mahmûd and
continued by Nâdir Afshâr.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
_______ 1984. The
Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam, London.
Chardin,
Jean, 1735, Voyages en Perse, et autres
lieux de l’Oritent. Amesterdam
Christensen,
Arthur, 1944. L’Iran sous les Sassanides.
Deuxième èdition, Copenhague.
Lambton,
Ann K.S. 1953, Landlord and Peasent in
Persia, London.
_______
1988. Medieval Persia, London.
Majlisî, Muhammad B. 1347/1968.
Haq ul-yaqîn, Tehran.
_______ 1333/1954, ‘Ayn
ul-hayât, Tehran.
_______ n.d. Hilyat
ul-muttaqîn, Tehran.
_______ 13374 Q/ 1955.
Hayât ul-qulûb, Tehran.
_______ n.d. Tuhfât
uz-zâ’ir,
Meskoob,
Shahrokh, 1992, Iranian Nationality and
the Persian Language. Translation by
Hillman,
Micheal, Washington.
Momen,
Moojan, 1985, An Introduction to Shi’i
Islam. New York.
Muhammad
Hâshim, 1348/1969. Rustam ut-Tavârîkh,
Tehran.
Pertushivskii, Ivan, P.
1354/1983, Islam in Iran, (Петрушевский,
Иван,
П.
Ислм в Ирани),
Persian
translation by Karim Kishavarz, Tehran.
Savory,
Roger, 1980, Iran under the Safavids,
Cambridge.
_______
1978, The History of Shah Abbas. (Translation
of Munshî’s book), Colorado.
Târîkh-i
Îrân, 1975/1354 (История
Ирана с
Древнейших
Времен до
Конца xviii в. Л.)
Н.В.
Пигулевская,
А. Ю.
Якубовский, И.
П
Петрушевский,
Л. В. Стоева, А. В.
Беленицкий,
Translation to Persian by Karim Keshavarz (Târîkh-i
Îrân), Translation by
Karîm
Kishâvarz, 1975, Tehran.
The
Cambridge History of Iran , 1986, vol.
6. Cambridge
Tihrânî,
Mullâ abu-Bakr, u.d. Tarîkh-i Jahân-ârâ’. Manuscript.
‘Âmulî,
Shaykh Bahâ‘ud Dîn, n.d. Jâmi‘-i
‘Abbâsî, Tehran.
Encyclopaedia
Большая
Советская
ЭнцИкледия, том 10,
третье
издание, 1972,
Москва (The Great soviet
Encyclopaedia,
vol. 10, Third edition. 1972)
The
Encyclopaedia of Islam. vol. viii, 1995, Leinden.
[1] Each of these social groups [castes] is divided into several classes [strata]: priest judges (dādhvar) [later qâzî], priests (the lowest and the most numerous of this class are mōghs, then mōbadhs, hērbadhs, and various priests who have special duties), supervisors (dastvar), and tutors or teachers (mōghān andarzbadh). [My translation]
2 The office of sadr lost all its religious connotations later and was to be called sadr-i a‘zam or Prime Minster.
3
‘Abbas II among other
things reformed the misuse concerning the wealth of church [incomes of mouqûfât2]
of which a very great amount was given to only a person. He had perused a
register of all benefices of the domain and found that there were people who
had 25 000-30 000 Livres private income. He carried out a new distribution (assignment).
He convened the sudûr [sing. sadr], the magistrates [quzzât,
sing. qâzî], the most renowned
ecclesiastics [‘ulamâ], and
said that he found it strange that although the God‘s law [sharî‘a] cursed so strongly of them who were living splendidly on
the wealth of church [mouqûfât],
there were many people who had 500-600 tûmân
in incomes. Since the reform, nobody has longer received more than half
of these incomes. [My translation]
4
The table is a summering of data from Arjomand’s table (Arjomand,
1984:128).
5 If the powerful monarch does not put a bridle on these enthusiastic ecclesiastics… they do not stand other religions than theirs, and no foreigner could live with them one single day. In short, they want to impose their law [religion] on everybody. [My translation]
6 This magistrate, called shaykh ul-islam, is judge for all civil cases and all other matters which have to do with the civil life. In the past shaykh ul-islâm’s responsibility was created to be subordinated to that of the qâzî, who is the first civil judge in the whole Persia, where the Muhammadan religion is dominating, and who retains the same influence and authority in Turkey. However, the good opinion (esteem) that the shaykh ul-islâms have at the court have made that they are drawing much of all kinds affairs [civil cases] to their tribunals, which it is now high over the others, and which is regarded as the first and the highest civil-legal court. [My translation]
7 The people of church [the religious stratum] and the all devout Persians insist that the rule (dominance) of seculars is an establishment of violent and usurpation, and that the civil (secular) government belong to the right of the sadr and church. The main reason that they back up this credence is that Muhammad was both prophet and king at the same time, and that God has given him the right to oversee over the spiritual and the temporal matters. [My translation]
8 Among Majlisi’s major works are, Bihâr ul-anvâr, which is in Arabic; Haqq ul-yaqîn, on the principal of Shi‘ism, in Persian; Hilyat ul-muttaqîn, on the Shi‘i tradition, rules, and customs, in Persian; Hayât ul-qulûb, on the history of the Prophet and Imams and king, in Persian; and Tuhfat uz-zâ’ir, on the pilgrimage to holy cites and rituals concerning made the pilgrimage, in Persian.
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