The Supreme Jurisprudent and the meaning of power in Iran
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66362/iji.v1i2.7Abstract
The article charters the trajectory of power in Iran, from Ayatollah Khomeini to the current “Supreme Leader” in Iran, Ali Khamenei. It pays particular attention to the way power, legitimacy and sovereignty have been codified and enforced since the revolution of 1979 with reference to invented Islamised norms, imagery, institutions and symbols.
References
Ali Rahnema, ‘Ayatollah Khomeini’s Rule of the Guardian Jurist: From Theory to Practice’, in Arshin Adib- Moghaddam (ed.), A Critical Introduction to Khomeini (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Asghar Shirazi, The Constitution of Iran: Politics and the State in the Islamic Republic, trans. John O’ Keane (London: I.B. Tauris, 1997), p. 304.
Baqer Moin, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah (London: I.B. Tauris, 1999), pp. 40 ff.
‘Biography’. Available at <http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=bio> [accessed 21 March 2013], emphasis added. In order to explain this particular issue further the following section is added:
For a detailed account of the linkage between Ibn Arabi and Khomeini, see Latife Reda Ali, Khomeini’s Discourse of Resistance: The discourse of power of the Islamic revolution (PhD thesis, London: School of Oriental and African Studies 2012).
For a full history of the idea of marjaiyat, see Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina, The Just Ruler in Shi’ite Islam: The Comprehensive Authority of the Jurist in Imamite Jurisprudence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); and Linda Walbridge, The Most Learned of the Shi’a: The Institution of the Marja’ Taqlid (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), in particular pp. 1-12.
‘Hundreds of Ulama, Scholars, Clergymen, and Theology Students of Yazd Province Call on the Leader’, 2 January 2008. Available at <http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=bayanat&id=3659> [accessed 8 April 2013].
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 300
Ibid., pp. 274-276.
‘Khamenei challenged by Senior Cleric’, Asia Times Online, 2 November 2010. Available at <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LK02Ak02.html> [accessed 11 November 2012].
Khomeini, Islam and Revolution I, p. 169.
Khomeini, Sahifeh Nour, vol. x, p. 308
Khomeini, Sahifeh Nour, vol. xi, p. 403.
Khomeini, Al Makaseb al Muharrama, vol. ii, p. 160.
‘Leader’s Address to Army Cadets at Imam Ali Military Academy’, 21 December 2005. Available at <http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=bayanat&id=3488> [accessed 12 April 2013].
‘Leader’s Statement at the Tehran Friday Prayers’, 19 August 2005. Available at
<http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=bayanat&id=3476> [accessed 19 March 2013].
‘Leader’s Speech to the Residents of the Eastern Azarbaijan Province’, 17 February 2007. Available at
<http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=bayanat&id=3595> [accessed 12 April 2013]
Olivier Roy, The Failure of Political Islam, trans. Carole Volk (Cambridge , MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 180.
On Farabi’s political thought see Muhsin S. Mahdi, AlFarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010).
Quoted in Shirazi, The Constitution of Iran, p. 230.
Ruhollah Khomeini, Shou'n va Ekhtiyarate Valiye Faqih (Tehran: Vezarat-e Ershade Islami, 1986), pp. 29-30.
Ruhollah Khomeini, Al Makaseb al Muharrama, vol. ii, (Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Work, 1995), p.160.
See among others Said Amir Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).
See further Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, What is Iran? Domestic politics and international relations in five musical pieces (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).
See further Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, The International Politics of the Persian Gulf: A cultural genealogy (London: Routledge, 2006).
See Alexander Knysh, “Irfan Revisited: Khomeini and the legacy of Islamic mystical philosophy”, The Middle East Journal, Vol. 64, No. 4 (1992), p. 652 (footnote 81).
See further Rula Jurdi Abisaab, Converting Persia: Religion and Power in the Safavid Empire (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004), p. 24. For Karaki’s writings see Muhaqiq al-Karaki, Jameal maqasid vol.2 (Qum: Ahlol Bayt Publication, 1365 [1986]).
See further Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, The Divine Guide in Early Shi’ism: The sources of esotericism in Islam (trans. David Streight), (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), pp. 138-139.
See further William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knoweldge: Ibn Al-Arabi’s metaphysics of imagination (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989).
See further Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, On the Arab Revolts and the Iranian Revolution: Power and resistance today (London: Bloomsbury, 2013, forthcoming).
Some sections of the article have been adopted from Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (ed.), A Critical Introduction to Khomeini (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), introduction.
Speech given on Iran’s national television, 6 June 1989.
‘Supreme Leader’s Address to Academics’, 24 September 2008. Available at
<http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=bayanat&id=4058> [accessed 11 April 2013].
The Expediency Council entrenched the maslahat principle even further. It is mandated to arbitrate disputes between the elected parliament and the Guardian Council in favour of the interest (and stability) of the system. These institutional changes demonstrate the importance of regime survival in the doctrines of the Islamic Republic. This is, of course, exactly in tune with the interest of any other state.
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