Principlist groups
110-543: Mullah ( / ˈ m ʌ l ə , ˈ m ʊ l ə , ˈ m uː l ə / ; Persian : ملا , romanized : mullā, mollā ) is an honorific title for Muslim clergy and mosque leaders . The term is widely used in Iran and Afghanistan and is also used for a person who has higher education in Islamic theology and sharia law . The title has also been used in some Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish communities in reference to
220-479: A madrasah . Three kinds of knowledge are applied most frequently in interpreting Islamic texts (i.e. the Quran, hadiths, etc.) for matters of Sharia , i.e., Islamic law. Mullahs have frequently been involved in politics, but only recently have they served in positions of power, since Shia Islamists seized power in Iran in 1979. The dress of a Mullah usually consists of a turban ( Persian : عمامه ammāme ),
330-655: A Dari dialect. In the 19th century, under the Qajar dynasty , the dialect that is spoken in Tehran rose to prominence. There was still substantial Arabic vocabulary, but many of these words have been integrated into Persian phonology and grammar. In addition, under the Qajar rule, numerous Russian , French , and English terms entered the Persian language, especially vocabulary related to technology. The first official attentions to
440-446: A branch of "that universal law which governs the entire universe ... as accurate and true as any of the laws known as the `laws of nature`", physics, biology, etc. Better than that, applying Sharia law would bring "harmony between human life and the universe", with results approaching those otherwise "postponed for the next life", i.e. heaven. Khomeini doesn't compare Sharia to heaven but does say "God, Exalted and Almighty, by means of
550-546: A conservative quietist faith" into "a militant political ideology that challenged both the imperial powers and the country's upper class". Khomeini himself followed traditional Shi'i Islamic attitudes in his writings during the 1940, 50s and 60s, only changing during the late 1960s. Some major tenants of Twelver Shīʿa Muslim belief are Traditionally, the term Shahid in Shi'ism referred to "the famous Shi'i saints who in obeying God's will, had gone to their deaths", such as
660-493: A constitution and parliament. Prior to 1970 Khomeini "emphasized that no cleric had ever claimed the right to rule; that many, including Majlisi , had supported their rulers, participated in government, and encouraged the faithful to pay taxes and cooperate with state authorities. If on rare occasions they had criticized their rulers, it was because they opposed specific monarchs, not the 'whole foundation of monarchy.' He also reminded his readers that Imam Ali had accepted 'even
770-418: A dictionary called Words of Scientific Association ( لغت انجمن علمی ), which was completed in the future and renamed Katouzian Dictionary ( فرهنگ کاتوزیان ). The first academy for the Persian language was founded on 20 May 1935, under the name Academy of Iran . It was established by the initiative of Reza Shah Pahlavi , and mainly by Hekmat e Shirazi and Mohammad Ali Foroughi , all prominent names in
880-505: A language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Farsi , which is the Persian word for the Persian language, has also been used widely in English in recent decades, more often to refer to Iran's standard Persian. However, the name Persian is still more widely used. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has maintained that the endonym Farsi is to be avoided in foreign languages, and that Persian
990-417: A literary language considerably different from the spoken Persian of the time. This became the basis of what is now known as "Contemporary Standard Persian". There are three standard varieties of modern Persian: All these three varieties are based on the classic Persian literature and its literary tradition. There are also several local dialects from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan which slightly differ from
1100-715: A long coat with sleeves and buttons, similar to a cassock ( قبا qabā ), and a long gown or cloak, open at the front ( عبا abā ). The aba is usually made either of brown wool or of black muslin. It is sleeveless but has holes through which the arms may be inserted. In Shiism, the turban is usually white, but those who claim descent from Muhammad traditionally wear a black turban. Sunni Mullahs generally wear neutral colored turbans, with some sufis choosing green as preferred color. Persian language Russia Persian ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən , - ʃ ən / PUR -zhən, -shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , Fārsī [fɒːɾˈsiː] ),
1210-460: A madrasa and yet to graduate is a talib . The Afghan Taliban was formed in 1994 by men who had graduated from, or at least attended, madrasas. They called themselves taliban , the plural of talib , or "students". Many of the leaders of the Taliban were titled Mullah , although not all had completed their madrasa education. Someone who goes on to complete postgraduate religious education receives
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#17327727426051320-647: A minority of the world Muslim community, Twelver Shias form the majority of the population in the countries of Iran , Iraq , Bahrain , Azerbaijan , half the Muslims in Lebanon , and substantial minorities in Afghanistan , India , Kuwait , Pakistan , Qatar , Syria , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates . Islamism in general has been defined as a religious revivalist movement for
1430-536: A period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Persianised itself) had developed toward a fully accepted language of literature, and which was even able to lexically satisfy the demands of a scientific presentation. However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%. In the Ottoman Empire, Persian was used at the royal court, for diplomacy, poetry, historiographical works, literary works, and
1540-567: A product of the belief of Khomeini and his followers that Islam was first and foremost about Islamic law , and that the revolution itself was of "equal significance" to Battle of Karbala where the Imam Husayn was martyred. (For example, in May 2005, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's stated that "the Iranian revolution was of the same `essence` as Imam Husayn's movement.") Khomeini's evolution
1650-474: A return to the original texts and the inspiration of the original believers of Islam, but one which requires Islam to be a "political system". Some definitions, descriptions of Islamism include: Ideologies dubbed Islamist may advocate a " revolutionary " strategy of Islamizing society through exercise of state power, or alternately a " reformist " strategy to re-Islamizing society through grassroots social and political activism . Islamists may emphasize
1760-599: A speaker of Persian. Persian is a member of the Western Iranian group of the Iranian languages , which make up a branch of the Indo-European languages in their Indo-Iranian subdivision . The Western Iranian languages themselves are divided into two subgroups: Southwestern Iranian languages, of which Persian is the most widely spoken, and Northwestern Iranian languages, of which Kurdish and Balochi are
1870-406: A trained mullah will have studied the traditional Islamic sciences not limited to: Some mullahs will specialise in certain fields after completing the above foundational studies. Common specialties are: Such figures often have memorized the Quran and historically would memorise all the books they studied. However in the modern era they instead memorise the founding books of each field (sometimes in
1980-615: Is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages . Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran , Afghanistan , and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties , respectively Iranian Persian (officially known as Persian ), Dari Persian (officially known as Dari since 1964), and Tajiki Persian (officially known as Tajik since 1999). It
2090-664: Is a continuation of Middle Persian , an official language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used in the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE). It originated in the region of Fars ( Persia ) in southwestern Iran. Its grammar is similar to that of many European languages. Throughout history, Persian was considered prestigious by various empires centered in West Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia . Old Persian
2200-628: Is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian. Gernot Windfuhr considers new Persian as an evolution of the Old Persian language and the Middle Persian language but also states that none of the known Middle Persian dialects is the direct predecessor of Modern Persian. Ludwig Paul states: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian." The known history of
2310-799: Is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan , as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran . It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet , a derivative of the Arabic script , and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet , a derivative of the Cyrillic script . Modern Persian
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#17327727426052420-675: Is attested in Old Persian cuneiform on inscriptions from between the 6th and 4th century BC. Middle Persian is attested in Aramaic -derived scripts ( Pahlavi and Manichaean ) on inscriptions and in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the third to the tenth centuries (see Middle Persian literature ). New Persian literature was first recorded in the ninth century, after the Muslim conquest of Persia , since then adopting
2530-425: Is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian remains largely intelligible to speakers of Contemporary Persian, as the morphology and, to a lesser extent, the lexicon of the language have remained relatively stable. New Persian texts written in the Arabic script first appear in the 9th-century. The language is a direct descendant of Middle Persian, the official, religious, and literary language of
2640-460: Is not actually attested until 600 years later when it appears in the Sassanid era (224–651 AD) inscriptions, so any form of the language before this date cannot be described with any degree of certainty. Moreover, as a literary language, Middle Persian is not attested until much later, in the 6th or 7th century. From the 8th century onward, Middle Persian gradually began yielding to New Persian, with
2750-475: Is one of Afghanistan's two official languages, together with Pashto . The term Dari , meaning "of the court", originally referred to the variety of Persian used in the court of the Sasanian Empire in capital Ctesiphon , which was spread to the northeast of the empire and gradually replaced the former Iranian dialects of Parthia ( Parthian ). Tajik Persian ( форси́и тоҷикӣ́ , forsi-i tojikī ),
2860-585: Is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages. According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in Southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called Parsuwash , who arrived in the Iranian Plateau early in the 1st millennium BCE and finally migrated down into the area of present-day Fārs province. Their language, Old Persian, became
2970-495: Is the appropriate designation of the language in English, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity. Iranian historian and linguist Ehsan Yarshater , founder of the Encyclopædia Iranica and Columbia University 's Center for Iranian Studies, mentions the same concern in an academic journal on Iranology , rejecting
3080-465: Is unclear as he did not footnote his work or admit to drawing ideas from others, or for that matter even admit he had changed his views. In his 1970 lectures, Khomeini claimed Muslims "have the sacred duty to oppose all monarchies. ... that monarchy was a 'pagan' institution that the 'despotic' Umayyads had adopted from the Roman and Sassanid empires ". Khomeini saw Islam as a political system that until
3190-436: The Encyclopædia Iranica notes that the Iranian, Afghan, and Tajiki varieties comprise distinct branches of the Persian language, and within each branch a wide variety of local dialects exist. The following are some languages closely related to Persian, or in some cases are considered dialects: More distantly related branches of the Iranian language family include Kurdish and Balochi . The Glottolog database proposes
3300-506: The Kalila wa Dimna . The language spread geographically from the 11th century on and was the medium through which, among others, Central Asian Turks became familiar with Islam and urban culture. New Persian was widely used as a trans-regional lingua franca , a task aided due to its relatively simple morphology, and this situation persisted until at least the 19th century. In the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on
3410-598: The khoms contributions to worthy widows, orphans, seminary students, and indigent male descendants of the Prophet." Even the revivalist Shi'i cleric Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri —celebrated in the Islamic Republic for defending Islam and sharia against democracy, and martyred by "agents" of foreign powers because of it—argued against democracy not because it was clerics that Iranians should obey, but because they should obey their monarch and not limit his power with
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3520-559: The Balkans and the Horn of Africa . In other regions, a different term may be used, such as imam in the Maghreb . In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the title is given to graduates of a madrasa or Islamic school, who are then able to become a mosque leader, a teacher at a religious school, a local judge in a village or town, or to perform religious rituals. A person who is still a student at
3630-668: The British colonization , Persian was widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent . It took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts on the subcontinent and became the sole "official language" under the Mughal emperors . The Bengal Sultanate witnessed an influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers, and clerics. Thousands of Persian books and manuscripts were published in Bengal. The period of
3740-540: The Iran-Iraq War . Hezbollah's "martyrdom operations" killed approximately 600 Israeli soldiers in Southern Lebanon between 1982 and 1984, a relatively large number for Israel, a small country, and which "did much to help force Israel out" of Lebanon. This "rare victory" over Israel "lionized" the group among Arabs in the region and added to "the aura of Shia power still glimmering amid the afterglow of
3850-674: The Sultanate of Rum , Turkmen beyliks of Anatolia , Delhi Sultanate , the Shirvanshahs , Safavids , Afsharids , Zands , Qajars , Khanate of Bukhara , Khanate of Kokand , Emirate of Bukhara , Khanate of Khiva , Ottomans , and also many Mughal successors such as the Nizam of Hyderabad . Persian was the only non-European language known and used by Marco Polo at the Court of Kublai Khan and in his journeys through China. A branch of
3960-713: The Turkic , Armenian , Georgian , & Indo-Aryan languages . It also exerted some influence on Arabic, while borrowing a lot of vocabulary from it in the Middle Ages. Some of the world's most famous pieces of literature from the Middle Ages, such as the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , The Divān of Hafez , The Conference of
4070-491: The ezāfe construction, expressed through ī (modern e/ye ), to indicate some of the relations between words that have been lost with the simplification of the earlier grammatical system. Although the "middle period" of the Iranian languages formally begins with the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the transition from Old to Middle Persian had probably already begun before the 4th century BC. However, Middle Persian
4180-630: The " Five Martyrs ". Prior to the 1970s, this was also the way Khomeini used the term—and not rank and file fighters who "had died for the cause". Rituals such as the Day of Ashura , lamentation of the death of Hussein, visiting shrines like the Imam Reza shrine in Mashad , were important part of popular Shia piety. Iranian shahs and the Awadh's nawabs often presided over any Ashura observances. Prior to
4290-597: The " Persianized " Turko-Mongol dynasties during the 12th to 15th centuries, and under restored Persian rule during the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian during this time served as lingua franca of Greater Persia and of much of the Indian subcontinent . It was also the official and cultural language of many Islamic dynasties, including the Samanids, Buyids , Tahirids , Ziyarids , the Mughal Empire , Timurids , Ghaznavids , Karakhanids , Seljuqs , Khwarazmians ,
4400-521: The " War on Islam "). Qutb preached that the West has a centuries-long "enmity toward Islam" and a "well-thought-out scheme ... to demolish the structure of Muslim society", but at the same time knows its "civilization is unable to present any healthy values for the guidance of mankind"; Khomeini preached that Western unbelievers want "to keep us backward, to keep us in our present miserable state so they can exploit our riches ..." Qutb considered Sharia
4510-497: The "Golden Age" of Muhammad and Imam Ali 's rule. Khomeini showed little interest in the rituals of Shia Islam such as the Day of Ashura , never presided over any Ashura observances, nor visited the enormously popular Imam Reza shrine . Foreign Shia hosts in Pakistan and elsewhere were often surprised by the disdain shown for Shia shrines by officials visiting from the Islamic Republic. At least one observer has explained it as
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4620-681: The Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi , are written in Persian. Some of the prominent modern Persian poets were Nima Yooshij , Ahmad Shamlou , Simin Behbahani , Sohrab Sepehri , Rahi Mo'ayyeri , Mehdi Akhavan-Sales , and Forugh Farrokhzad . There are approximately 130 million Persian speakers worldwide, including Persians , Lurs , Tajiks , Hazaras , Iranian Azeris , Iranian Kurds , Balochs , Tats , Afghan Pashtuns , and Aimaqs . The term Persophone might also be used to refer to
4730-688: The Brotherhood were Sunni and the Syrian rulers a (not-very-close) relative of Twelver Shi'i ( Alawites ), and Iran's ally against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. This was seen as a test where Khomeini had chosen "a nominal Shia ally" in the form of such as Bashar al-Assad , over the Islamist Brotherhood. With the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988), Sunni–Shia strife saw a major upturn, particularly in Iraq and Pakistan, leading to thousands of deaths. Among
4840-729: The Iranian revolution." Hezbollah suicide attacks also drove Western peacekeepers out of Lebanon, killing 243 U.S. Marines and 58 French troops; blew up the American embassy in 1983, killing the Middle East experts in the CIA, and then several months later blew up the annex the survivors of the US embassy had retreated to. Hamas used suicide attacks as a model for in its fight in the Palestinian Territories. Not as successful
4950-565: The Middle Ages, and is because of the lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The standard Persian of Iran has been called, apart from Persian and Farsi , by names such as Iranian Persian and Western Persian , exclusively. Officially, the official language of Iran is designated simply as Persian ( فارسی , fārsi ). The standard Persian of Afghanistan has been officially named Dari ( دری , dari ) since 1958. Also referred to as Afghan Persian in English, it
5060-486: The Most Noble Messenger (peace and blessing be upon him), sent laws that astound us with their magnitude. He instituted laws and practices for all human affairs ... There is not a single topic in human life for which Islam has not provided instruction and established a norm." The explanation for why these laws have not been in effect in recent Muslim history is that "in order to make the Muslims, especially
5170-633: The Muslim world were unaware of. Describing the Islamic system of Khomeini, the Islamic Revolution or the Islamic Republic and how it differed from traditional non-Islamist Shi'ism, is complicated by the fact that it evolved through several stages, especially before and after taking power. Historian Ervand Abrahamian argues that Khomeini and his Islamist movement not only created a new form of Shiism, but converted traditional Shi'ism "from
5280-543: The Ottoman Empire all spoke Persian, such as Sultan Selim I , despite being Safavid Iran's archrival and a staunch opposer of Shia Islam . It was a major literary language in the empire. Some of the noted earlier Persian works during the Ottoman rule are Idris Bidlisi 's Hasht Bihisht , which began in 1502 and covered the reign of the first eight Ottoman rulers, and the Salim-Namah , a glorification of Selim I. After
5390-530: The Persian language can be divided into the following three distinct periods: As a written language , Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions. The oldest known text written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscription , dating to the time of King Darius I (reigned 522–486 BC). Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now Iran , Romania ( Gherla ), Armenia , Bahrain , Iraq , Turkey, and Egypt . Old Persian
5500-425: The Persian language, a language historically called Dari, emerged in present-day Afghanistan. The first significant Persian poet was Rudaki . He flourished in the 10th century, when the Samanids were at the height of their power. His reputation as a court poet and as an accomplished musician and singer has survived, although little of his poetry has been preserved. Among his lost works are versified fables collected in
5610-401: The Persian model: Ottoman Turkish , Chagatai Turkic , Dobhashi Bengali , and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter languages" of Persian. "Classical Persian" loosely refers to the standardized language of medieval Persia used in literature and poetry . This is the language of the 10th to 12th centuries, which continued to be used as literary language and lingua franca under
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#17327727426055720-886: The Perso-Arabic script. Persian was the first language to break through the monopoly of Arabic on writing in the Muslim world , with Persian poetry becoming a tradition in many eastern courts. It was used officially as a language of bureaucracy even by non-native speakers, such as the Ottomans in Anatolia , the Mughals in South Asia, and the Pashtuns in Afghanistan. It influenced languages spoken in neighboring regions and beyond, including other Iranian languages,
5830-428: The Sasanian Empire (224–651). However, it is not descended from the literary form of Middle Persian (known as pārsīk , commonly called Pahlavi), which was spoken by the people of Fars and used in Zoroastrian religious writings. Instead, it is descended from the dialect spoken by the court of the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon and the northeastern Iranian region of Khorasan , known as Dari. The region, which comprised
5940-427: The Sassanids (who were Persians, i.e. from the southwest) from the preceding Arsacids (who were Parthians, i.e. from the northeast). While Ibn al-Muqaffa' (eighth century) still distinguished between Pahlavi (i.e. Parthian) and Persian (in Arabic text: al-Farisiyah) (i.e. Middle Persian), this distinction is not evident in Arab commentaries written after that date. "New Persian" (also referred to as Modern Persian)
6050-407: The Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum , took Persian language, art, and letters to Anatolia. They adopted the Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans , who can roughly be seen as their eventual successors, inherited this tradition. Persian was the official court language of the empire, and for some time, the official language of the empire. The educated and noble class of
6160-480: The Sunni and Shi'i schools. Where Iranians saw their revolution as righting of injustice, Sunnis saw mostly "Shia mischief" and a challenge to Sunni political and cultural dominance. There was a coup attempt in Bahrain in 1981, terrorist plots in Kuwait in 1983 and 1984. "What followed was a Sunni-versus-Shia contest for dominance, and it grew intense." In part this was an issue of Sunni revivalism/fundamentalism being "rooted in conservative religious impulses and
6270-441: The area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III . The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain, but from a linguistic viewpoint the word matches Old Persian pārsa itself coming directly from the older word * pārćwa . Also, as Old Persian contains many words from another extinct Iranian language, Median , according to P. O. Skjærvø it is probable that Old Persian had already been spoken before
6380-471: The bazaars, mixing mercantile interests with religious values", while Shia—"the longtime outsiders"—were "more drawn to radical dreaming and scheming", such as revolution. Saudi Arabia served as a leader of Sunni fundamentalism, but Khomeini saw monarchy as unislamic and the House of Saud as "unpopular and corrupt"—dependent on American protection, and ripe for overthrow, just as the shah had been. Saudi's took this threat seriously because its oil fields lay in
6490-457: The code fas for the dialects spoken across Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari ( prs ) and Iranian Persian ( pes ). It uses tgk for Tajik, separately. In general, the Iranian languages are known from three periods: namely Old, Middle, and New (Modern). These correspond to three historical eras of Iranian history ; Old era being sometime around the Achaemenid Empire (i.e., 400–300 BC), Middle era being
6600-512: The collapse of the Sassanid state, Parsik came to be applied exclusively to (either Middle or New) Persian that was written in the Arabic script . From about the 9th century onward, as Middle Persian was on the threshold of becoming New Persian, the older form of the language came to be erroneously called Pahlavi , which was actually but one of the writing systems used to render both Middle Persian as well as various other Middle Iranian languages. That writing system had previously been adopted by
6710-421: The community's leadership, especially its religious leadership. The word mullah is derived from the Persian word mullā ( Persian : ملا ), itself being borrowed from Arabic word mawlā ( Arabic : مَوْلَى ), meaning "master" and "guardian", with mutation of the initial short vowels. The term has also been used among Persian Jews , Bukharan Jews , Afghan Jews, and other Central Asian Jews to refer to
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#17327727426056820-420: The community's religious and/or secular leadership. In Kaifeng , China, the historic Chinese Jews who managed the synagogue were called "mullahs". It is the term commonly used for village or neighborhood mosque leaders, who may not have high levels of religious education, in large parts of the Muslim world , particularly Iran , Turkey , Caucasus , Central Asia , West Asia , South Asia , Eastern Arabia ,
6930-456: The community." Khomeini's form of Islamism was unique in the world for not only for being a powerful political movement, not only for having come to power, but for having completely swept away the old regime, created a new one with a new constitution, new institutions and a new concept of governance (the velayat-e-faqih ). An historical event, it changed militant Islam from a topic of limited impact and interest, to one that few inside or outside
7040-405: The door on any alliance between Khomeini's Islamic Republic and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood was Khomeini's refusal to support the Brotherhood when it rose up against the Baathist Arab Nationalist regime in Hama, Syria a few years after the revolution. As secular and nationalists, the Baathists were in theory ideological enemies, while the Muslim Brotherhood were putatively comrade Islamists, but
7150-478: The eastern part of its large land mass, where the Shia lived and who traditionally made up the workforce there. Iran was close by, across the Persian Gulf. In 1979–80 the area was the scene of "riots and disturbances". But conservative Sunni fundamentalists were not only closer to the Sunni Saudis theologically, they were very often beneficiaries of Saudi funding of "petro-Islam", and didn't hesitate to take Saudis side against Khomeini. An incident that closed
7260-528: The explanations for the increase are conspiracies by outside forces to divide Muslims, the recent Islamic revival and increased religious purity and consequent takfir , upheaval, destruction and loss of power of Sunni caused by the US invasion of Iraq, and sectarianism generated by Arab regimes defending themselves against the mass uprisings of the Arab Spring (2010–2012). Olivier Roy notes that unlike Sunni Islam, where clergy were largely if not entirely opponents of Islamism, in Shi'ism, clergy were often
7370-430: The extent of its influence on certain languages of the Indian subcontinent. Words borrowed from Persian are still quite commonly used in certain Indo-Aryan languages, especially Hindi - Urdu (also historically known as Hindustani ), Punjabi , Kashmiri , and Sindhi . There is also a small population of Zoroastrian Iranis in India, who migrated in the 19th century to escape religious execution in Qajar Iran and speak
7480-458: The first prominent Islamist, Rashid Rida , published a series of articles in Al-Manar titled " The Caliphate or the Supreme Imamate " during 1922–1923. In this highly influential treatise, Rida advocated for the restoration of the Caliphate ruled by Muslim jurists and proposed Islamic Salafiyya movement revival measures across the globe to reform education and purify Islam. Ayatullah Khomeini's manifesto Islamic Government , Guardianship of
7590-454: The following phylogenetic classification: Shia Islamism Monarchist groups Monarchists Defunct Shia Islamism is the usage of Shia Islam in politics. Most study and reporting on Islamism has been focused on Sunni Islamist movements. Shia Islamism, a previously very small ideology, was boosted after the Iranian Revolution led by Ruhollah Khomeini , whose Shia Islamist policies became known as Khomeinism . Though
7700-413: The form of poetry to aid memorisation). Uneducated villagers may frequently classify a literate Muslim with a less than complete Islamic training as their "mullah" or religious cleric. Mullahs with varying levels of training lead prayers in mosques, deliver religious sermons, and perform religious ceremonies such as birth rites and funeral services. They also often teach in a type of Islamic school known as
7810-444: The formation of many modern languages in West Asia, Europe, Central Asia , and South Asia . Following the Turko-Persian Ghaznavid conquest of South Asia , Persian was firstly introduced in the region by Turkic Central Asians. The basis in general for the introduction of Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. For five centuries prior to
7920-476: The formation of the Achaemenid Empire and was spoken during most of the first half of the first millennium BCE. Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BCE, which is when Old Persian was still spoken and extensively used. He relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like
8030-399: The government, which is part of the absolute deputyship of the Prophet, is one of the primary injunctions of Islam and has priority over all other secondary injunctions, even prayers, fasting and hajj." Vali Nasr notes the success of Hezbollah suicide attacks as part of the "cult of martyrdom" that had started with suicidal human wave attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Iraq in
8140-429: The higher title of Mawlawi . In Iran , until the early 20th century, the term mullah was used in Iranian seminaries to refer to low-level clergy who specialized in telling stories of Ashura , rather than teaching or issuing fatwas . However, in recent years, among Shia clerics, the term ruhani (spiritual) has been promoted as an alternative to mullah and akhoond , free of pejorative connotations. Ideally,
8250-499: The implementation of sharia , pan-Islamic political unity, the creation of Islamic states , and/or the outright removal of non-Muslim influences—particularly of Western or universal economic, military, political, social, or cultural nature—in the Muslim world . In the 21st century, some analysts such as Graham E. Fuller describe it as a form of identity politics , involving "support for (Muslim) identity, authenticity, broader regionalism , revivalism, (and) revitalization of
8360-521: The intellectuals and the younger generation, deviate from the path of Islam, foreign agents have constantly insinuated that Islam has nothing to offer, that Islam consists of a few ordinances concerning menstruation and parturition ..." Observers (such as Morten Valbjørn) have noted the similarities between Sunni and Shia Islamist movements, such as the Sunni Hamas and Shia Hezbollah "Islamist national resistance" groups, and how Ruhollah Khomeini
8470-578: The jurist , was greatly influenced by Rida's book ( Persian : اسلام ناب ) and by his analysis of the post-colonial Muslim world. Before the Islamic Revolution, Ali Khamenei , the man who is today's Supreme Leader of Iran , was an early champion and translator of the works of the Brotherhood jihadist theorist, Sayyid Qutb . Other Sunni Islamists/revivalists who were translated into Persian include Sayyid's brother, Muhammad Qutb , and South Asian Islamic revivalist writer Abul A'la Maududi along with other Pakistani and Indian Islamists. "These books became
8580-466: The language of the Persians. Related to Old Persian, but from a different branch of the Iranian language family, was Avestan , the language of the Zoroastrian liturgical texts. The complex grammatical conjugation and declension of Old Persian yielded to the structure of Middle Persian in which the dual number disappeared, leaving only singular and plural, as did gender. Middle Persian developed
8690-469: The leaders—not only Ruhollah Khomeini, but Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and Mahmoud Taleghani . Roy also posits several features of Shi'i Islam that made it amendable to Khomeini's theory of Islamist theocracy , specifically his theory of a ruling Islamic jurist being necessary for the preservation of Islam, a theory embraced only by Shia Islamists (followers of Khomeini), not by any Sunni. Financial and geographic independence ( Najaf and Karbala were outside
8800-413: The main source of nourishment for Iranian militant clerics’ sermons and writings during the pre-revolution era." Some ideas shared by both Qutb in his manifesto ( Milestones ) and Khomeini in his ( Islamic Government ), are an extremely high regard for the powers of Sharia law, and a belief that Non-Muslims are involved in an aggressive, unprovoked undermining of Islam and Muslims (sometimes called
8910-432: The middle-period form only continuing in the texts of Zoroastrianism . Middle Persian is considered to be a later form of the same dialect as Old Persian. The native name of Middle Persian was Parsig or Parsik , after the name of the ethnic group of the southwest, that is, "of Pars ", Old Persian Parsa , New Persian Fars . This is the origin of the name Farsi as it is today used to signify New Persian. Following
9020-536: The most widely spoken. The term Persian is an English derivation of Latin Persiānus , the adjectival form of Persia , itself deriving from Greek Persís ( Περσίς ), a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa ( 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 ), which means " Persia " (a region in southwestern Iran, corresponding to modern-day Fars ). According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term Persian as
9130-466: The nationalist movement of the time. The academy was a key institution in the struggle to re-build Iran as a nation-state after the collapse of the Qajar dynasty. During the 1930s and 1940s, the academy led massive campaigns to replace the many Arabic , Russian , French , and Greek loanwords whose widespread use in Persian during the centuries preceding the foundation of the Pahlavi dynasty had created
9240-499: The necessity of protecting the Persian language against foreign words, and to the standardization of Persian orthography , were under the reign of Naser ed Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty in 1871. After Naser ed Din Shah, Mozaffar ed Din Shah ordered the establishment of the first Persian association in 1903. This association officially declared that it used Persian and Arabic as acceptable sources for coining words. The ultimate goal
9350-414: The next period most officially around the Sasanian Empire , and New era being the period afterward down to present day. According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language" for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian
9460-732: The northern part of Greece). Vardar Yenicesi differed from other localities in the Balkans insofar as that it was a town where Persian was also widely spoken. However, the Persian of Vardar Yenicesi and throughout the rest of the Ottoman-held Balkans was different from formal Persian both in accent and vocabulary. The difference was apparent to such a degree that the Ottomans referred to it as "Rumelian Persian" ( Rumili Farsisi ). As learned people such as students, scholars and literati often frequented Vardar Yenicesi, it soon became
9570-542: The official language of the Achaemenid kings. Assyrian records, which in fact appear to provide the earliest evidence for ancient Iranian (Persian and Median) presence on the Iranian Plateau, give a good chronology but only an approximate geographical indication of what seem to be ancient Persians. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash (along with Matai , presumably Medians) are first mentioned in
9680-511: The overthrow of the shah even after he was deported from Iran by him. Khomeini also accepted the traditional Shi'i view of society described in Imam Ali 's Nahj al-Balagha . Hierarchy in society was natural, "the poor should accept their lot and not envy the rich; and the rich should thank God, avoid conspicuous consumption, and give generously to the poor." The "Golden Age of Islam" to be looked back on "longingly" according to tradition,
9790-491: The playing of ' sensuous music ', forcing men to wear Western style hats, establishing coeducational schools , and banning women's chador hijab , "thereby 'forcing women to naked into the streets'"; but "explicitly disavowed" advocating the overthrow of the shah and "repeatedly reaffirmed his allegiance to monarchies in general and to 'good monarchs' in particular, for 'bad order was better than no order at all.'" As "the most vocal antiregime cleric", Khomeini did not call for
9900-694: The present territories of northwestern Afghanistan as well as parts of Central Asia, played a leading role in the rise of New Persian. Khorasan, which was the homeland of the Parthians, was Persianized under the Sasanians. Dari Persian thus supplanted Parthian language , which by the end of the Sasanian era had fallen out of use. New Persian has incorporated many foreign words, including from eastern northern and northern Iranian languages such as Sogdian and especially Parthian. The transition to New Persian
10010-588: The region during the following centuries. Persian continued to act as a courtly language for various empires in Punjab through the early 19th century serving finally as the official state language of the Sikh Empire , preceding British conquest and the decline of Persian in South Asia. Beginning in 1843, though, English and Hindustani gradually replaced Persian in importance on the subcontinent. Evidence of Persian's historical influence there can be seen in
10120-602: The reign of Sultan Ghiyathuddin Azam Shah is described as the "golden age of Persian literature in Bengal". Its stature was illustrated by the Sultan's own correspondence and collaboration with the Persian poet Hafez ; a poem which can be found in the Divan of Hafez today. A Bengali dialect emerged among the common Bengali Muslim folk, based on a Persian model and known as Dobhashi ; meaning mixed language . Dobhashi Bengali
10230-611: The return of the Twelfth Imam , presides over an Islamist state or works for its creation. Following "in the footsteps" of Ali Shariati , the Tudeh Party , Mojahedin , Hojjat al-Islam Nimatollah Salahi-Najafabadi , by the 1970s Khomeini began to embrace the idea that martyrdom was "not a saintly act, but a revolutionary sacrifice to overthrow a despotic political order". Some other differences between traditional Shi'i doctrine and that of Ruhollah Khomeini and his followers
10340-613: The site of a flourishing Persianate linguistic and literary culture. The 16th-century Ottoman Aşık Çelebi (died 1572), who hailed from Prizren in modern-day Kosovo , was galvanized by the abundant Persian-speaking and Persian-writing communities of Vardar Yenicesi, and he referred to the city as a "hotbed of Persian". Many Ottoman Persianists who established a career in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) pursued early Persian training in Saraybosna, amongst them Ahmed Sudi . The Persian language influenced
10450-607: The spread of Khomeini's book Islamic Government after 1970, it was agreed that only the rule of an Imam, i.e. the Twelfth Imam for the contemporary world), was legitimate or "fully legitimate". While waiting for his return and rule, Shia jurists have tended to stick to one of three approaches to the state, according to at least two historians ( Moojan Momen , Ervand Abrahamian ): cooperated with it, trying to influence policies by becoming active in politics, or most commonly, remaining aloof from it. For many centuries prior to
10560-492: The spread of Khomeini's book, "no Shii writer ever explicitly contended that monarchies per se were illegitimate or that the senior clergy had the authority to control the state." Clergy were to study the law based on the Quran, the Prophet's traditions, and the teachings of the Twelve Imams. They were also to use reason to update these laws; issue pronouncements on new problems; adjudicate in legal disputes; and distribute
10670-573: The standard Persian of Tajikistan, has been officially designated as Tajik ( тоҷикӣ , tojikī ) since the time of the Soviet Union . It is the name given to the varieties of Persian spoken in Central Asia in general. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa for the Persian language, as its coding system is mostly based on the native-language designations. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses
10780-717: The standard Persian. The Hazaragi dialect (in Central Afghanistan and Pakistan), Herati (in Western Afghanistan), Darwazi (in Afghanistan and Tajikistan), Basseri (in Southern Iran), and the Tehrani accent (in Iran, the basis of standard Iranian Persian) are examples of these dialects. Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan can understand one another with a relatively high degree of mutual intelligibility . Nevertheless,
10890-485: The use of Farsi in foreign languages. Etymologically, the Persian term Farsi derives from its earlier form Pārsi ( Pārsik in Middle Persian ), which in turn comes from the same root as the English term Persian . In the same process, the Middle Persian toponym Pārs ("Persia") evolved into the modern name Fars. The phonemic shift from /p/ to /f/ is due to the influence of Arabic in
11000-485: The worst of the early caliphs'". In his first political tract, Kashf al-Asrar (1943), written before his embrace of political Islam, Khomeini denounced the first Pahlavi shah , Reza Shah (the father of the shah he overthrew), for many offenses against traditional Islam—"closing down seminaries, expropriating religious endowments ( Waqf ), propagating anticlerical sentiments, replacing religious courts with state ones", permitting consumption of alcoholic beverages and
11110-587: Was "a voice of Pan-Islamism rather than of a distinct kind of Shia-Islamism" during his time in power. Vali Nasr argues that as the Muslim world decolonialised, Arab nationalism waned and Islam underwent a religious revival. As religion became important, so did differences in Islamic doctrine, not least between Sunnism and Shi'ism. Conflicts between the two movements, spelled out in the teachings of scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah , intensified. Whatever early cooperation there had been between Sunni and Shi'i Islamism ended, as did an era of tolerance in general between
11220-444: Was Tehran's post-revolutionary "money and organizational help" in other countries, first to create Shia militias and revolutionary groups to spread Islamic revolution, and following that to encourage "armed conflicts, street protests and rebellion, and acts of terrorism" against secular and pro-American regimes such as Egypt and Pakistan. Prior to the 1979 Islamist Revolution in Iran , "the general consensus" among religious historians
11330-597: Was already complete by the era of the three princely dynasties of Iranian origin, the Tahirid dynasty (820–872), Saffarid dynasty (860–903), and Samanid Empire (874–999). Abbas of Merv is mentioned as being the earliest minstrel to chant verse in the New Persian tongue and after him the poems of Hanzala Badghisi were among the most famous between the Persian-speakers of the time. The first poems of
11440-478: Was not just from traditionalist to revolutionary. There were several stages. accused him of widening the gap between rich and poor; favoring cronies, relatives ... wasting oil resources on the ever expanding army and bureaucracy ... condemning the working class to a life of poverty, misery, and drudgery ... neglecting low-income housing", dependency on the west, supporting the US and Israel, undermining Islam and Iran with "cultural imperialism", "I should state that
11550-483: Was on how to wait for the return the reemergence of the hidden Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi . Traditionally the approach was to wait patiently, as he would not return until "the world was overflowing with injustice and tyranny". Turning this belief inside out, Khomeini preached that it would not be injustice and suffering that would hasten his return, but the just rule of the Islamic State, this justice "surpassing"
11660-597: Was patronised and given official status under the Sultans of Bengal , and was a popular literary form used by Bengalis during the pre-colonial period, irrespective of their religion. Following the defeat of the Hindu Shahi dynasty, classical Persian was established as a courtly language in the region during the late 10th century under Ghaznavid rule over the northwestern frontier of the subcontinent . Employed by Punjabis in literature, Persian achieved prominence in
11770-613: Was taught in state schools, and was also offered as an elective course or recommended for study in some madrasas . Persian learning was also widespread in the Ottoman-held Balkans ( Rumelia ), with a range of cities being famed for their long-standing traditions in the study of Persian and its classics, amongst them Saraybosna (modern Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mostar (also in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Vardar Yenicesi (or Yenice-i Vardar, now Giannitsa , in
11880-500: Was that "Sunni Islam(ism) was more activist, political, and revolutionary than the allegedly quietist and apolitical Shia Islam", who shunned politics while waiting for the 12th Imam to reappear . After the Iranian revolution there was a reversal, and with a new consensus that Shia Islam was a "religion of protest", looking to the Battle of Karbala as an example of "standing up against injustice even if it required martyrdom". Arguably
11990-601: Was the Mecca of Muhammad (a prophet) and the caliphate of Imam Ali (an Imam). Disorder in society (such as overthrowing monarchs) was wrong because (as Khomeini put it) "bad order was better than no order at all". The term mostazafin (oppressed), was used in the "Quranic sense" of "'humble' and passive 'meek' believers, especially orphans, widows, and the mentally impaired." Khomeini rarely spoke of them in his pre-1970 writings. In late 1969, Khomeini's view of society and politics changed dramatically. What prompted this change
12100-492: Was to prevent books from being printed with wrong use of words. According to the executive guarantee of this association, the government was responsible for wrongfully printed books. Words coined by this association, such as rāh-āhan ( راهآهن ) for "railway", were printed in Soltani Newspaper ; but the association was eventually closed due to inattention. A scientific association was founded in 1911, resulting in
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