Ali Shariati

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Dr. Ali Shariati

Dr Ali Shariati (Persian: علی شريعتی‎دکتر ) (November 23, 1933 – 1977) was an Iranian sociologist and revolutionary, well known and respected for his work in the field of sociology of religion. He is known as one of the most original and influential Iranian social thinkers of the 20th century, as he was the ideologue of the Iranian Revolution.

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[edit] Biography

Ali Shariati was born in 1933 in Kahak (a village in Mazinan), a suburb of Sabzevar, north-east of Iran. His father, Mohammad-Taghi, was an Islamic scholar, founder of the Center for Propagation of Islamic Truths in the province of Khorasan in a time when Marxism was on rise in Iran. He would later be criticized by his son for his beliefs.

In his years at the Teacher's Training College, Shariati came into contact with young people who were from the less privileged economic classes of the society, and for the first time saw the poverty and hardship that existed in Iran during that period. At the same time he was exposed to many aspects of Western philosophical and political thought. He attempted to explain and provide solutions for the problems faced by Muslim societies through traditional Islamic principles interwoven with and understood from the point of view of modern sociology and philosophy. Shariati was also deeply influenced by Moulana Rumi and Muhammad Iqbal.

In 1952 he became a high-school teacher and founded the Islamic Students' Association, which led to his arrest after a demonstration. In 1953, the year of Mossadeq's overthrow by the CIA and allied Iranians, he became a member of the National Resistance Movement. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Mashhad in 1955. In 1957 he was arrested again by the Shah's police, along with 16 others members of the National Resistance Movement.

Ali Shariati then managed to obtain a scholarship for France, where he continued his graduate studies at the University of Paris. There he was considered a brilliant student and elected best students in letters in 1958. He worked towards earning his doctorate in sociology, leaving Paris before he was able to complete his studies in 1964. During this period in Paris, Shariati started collaborating with the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in 1959. The next year, he began to read Frantz Fanon and translated an anthology of his work in Persian.[1]. Shariati would introduce Fanon's thought in Iranian revolutionary emigrees circles. He was arrested in Paris during a demonstration in honour of Patrice Lumumba, on January 17, 1961.

The same year he joined Ebrahim Yazdi, Mostafa Chamran and Sadegh Qotbzadeh in founding the Freedom Movement of Iran abroad.

In 1962 he continued studying sociology and history of religions, and followed the courses of Islamic scholar Louis Massignon, Jacques Berque and the sociologist Georges Gurvitch. He also came to know the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre that same year, and published in Iran Jalal Al-e Ahmad's book Gharbzadegi (or Occidentosis) .

He then returned to Iran in 1964 where he was arrested and imprisoned by the Imperial Iranian authorities for engaging in subversive political activities while in France. He was released after few weeks, at which point he began teaching at the University of Mashhad.

Shariati then went to Tehran where he began lecturing at the Hosseiniye Ershad Institute. These lectures proved to be hugely popular among his students and were spread by word of mouth throughout all economic sectors of the society, including the middle and upper classes where interest in Shariati's teachings began to grow immensely.

Shariati's continued success again aroused the interest of the Imperial authorities and arrested him, as well as many of his students. Widespread pressure from the populace and international outcry eventually led to his release after eighteen month in solitary confinement, and he was released on March 20, 1975.

Shariati was allowed to leave the country for England. Three weeks later he died in Southampton of a heart attack[2] (according to certain sources, this was an assassination[3] by the Savak).

[edit] Views

Shariati's works were highly influenced by the Marxism and Third Worldism that he encountered as a student in Paris - ideas that class war and revolution would bring about a just and classless society - from one side, and the Islamic Puritanism (or the Islamic Reformation) movements of his time from the other side. He is said to have adopted the idea of Gharbzadegi from Jalal Al-e Ahmad and given it "its most vibrant and influential second life." [4]

He sought to translate these ideas into cultural symbols of Shiism that Iranians could relate to. He believed Shia should not merely await the return of the 12th Imam but should actively work to hasten his return by fighting for social justice, "even to the point of embracing martyrdom", saying "everyday is Ashoura, every place is Karbala." [5]

Shariati referred to his brand of Shiism as "red Shiism" which he contrasted with "black Shiism" or Safavid Shiism. His ideas have been compared to the Catholic Liberation Theology movement founded in South America by Peruvian Gustavo Gutierrez and Brazilian Leonardo Boff.[6] (see Red Shi'ism vs. Black Shi'ism)

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Shariati's most important books and speeches

  1. Hajj (The Pilgrimage)
  2. Marxism and Other Western Fallacies : An Islamic Critique
  3. Where Shall We Begin?[1]
  4. Mission of a Free Thinker[2]
  5. The Free Man and Freedom of the Man[3]
  6. Extraction and Refinement of Cultural Resources[4]
  7. Martyrdom (book)[5]
  8. Ali
  9. An approach to Understanding Islam PART1-[6]PART2-[7]
  10. A Visage of Prophet Muhammad[8]
  11. A Glance of Tomorrow's History[9]
  12. Reflections of Humanity
  13. A Manifestation of Self-Reconstruction and Reformation
  14. Selection and/or Election
  15. Norouz, Declaration of Iranian's Livelihood, Eternity
  16. Expectations from the Muslim Woman
  17. Horr (Battle of Karbala)
  18. Abu-Dahr
  19. Islamology
  20. Red Shi'ism vs. Black Shi'ism
  21. Jihad and Shahadat
  22. Reflections of a Concerned Muslim on the Plight of Oppressed People
  23. A Message to the Enlightened Thinkers
  24. Art Awaiting the Saviour
  25. Fatemeh is Fatemeh
  26. The Philosophy of Supplication
  27. Religion versus Religion
  28. Man and Islam - see chapter "Modern Man and His Prisons"

[edit] References

  1. ^ «La jeune génération est un enjeu», interview with Gilles Kepel in L'Express, 26 January 2006 (French)
  2. ^ An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Shariati par Ali Rahnemaré
  3. ^ Saints et héros du moyen-orient contemporain: actes du colloque des 11 et 12 décembre 2000, à l'Institut universitaire de France par Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen
  4. ^ Mottahedeh, Roy, The Mantle of the Prophet : Religion and Politics in Iran, p.330
  5. ^ Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival, Norton, (2006), p.128-9
  6. ^ Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival, Norton, (2006), p.129

[edit] Further reading

  • Ali Rahnemā, An Islamic utopian : A political biography of Ali Shariati, I.B.Tauris, Londres, 1998.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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