With over 220 million individuals spread across the Middle East, Central and South Asia, Africa, and the West, the study of Shi’ism is of growing importance in world affairs.
The Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs at Harvard Divinity School undertakes advanced research on the multifaceted and diverse manifestations of Shi’ism in the contemporary world and encompasses an interdisciplinary approach with a focus on the history, sociology, theology, culture and politics of the diverse Shi’a Muslim communities and nations across the globe.
In July 2022, the project joined the HDS community. Below, Payam Mohseni, the director of the project, Ali Asani, faculty chair of the project and Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC), and Mohammad Sagha, Lecturer in the Modern Middle East in NELC, offer insights into the study of Shi’ism and the aim of the project.
HDS: What is the significance of Shi’ism today in the world and why is it important to study?
Payam Mohseni: One of the major stories of the modern Muslim world, especially in the Middle East and global diaspora communities, is the rise of the social, religious, and political salience of Shi’a Islam. Shi’a Muslims believe in the spiritual and political succession of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet, as the legitimate heir to the Prophet Muhammad and in the primacy of the Family of the Prophet Muhammad, the Ahl al-Bayt, as the ideal guides and representations of embodied lived Islam. Shi’a Muslims believe that the prophetic model is still alive today through the line of imams and their representatives who continued the mission of the Prophet Muhammad of interpreting the faith and guiding the community of believers according to changing circumstances of time. More than simply representing a position regarding a succession dispute, Shi’a Islam is an all-inclusive religious, political, and cultural tradition that has produced unique thought, institutions, and literature for over a millennium of history–and is an extraordinarily rich global lived tradition today.
While throughout much of recent history the Shia have been marginalized as a minority community within the Islamic tradition, in the modern period Shi’ism has been undergoing a substantive global revival given the major socio-political developments in the Middle East and South Asia and the flourishing of Shi’a diaspora communities across the world, especially in the West. Moreover, while the Shi’a make up an estimated 15 percent (or more) of the contemporary global Muslim population, they constitute up to 40 percent of the population of the Middle East. This is crucial given the interlinked institutional nature of Shi’a political and social networks that span well beyond modern boundaries of the Middle East state system and the Islamic world.
Yet scholarly research on these topics face several significant challenges, such as (a) the historical marginalization of the study of Shi’ism that has been problematically treated in academia as “nontraditional” Islam in favor of views of certain forms of Sunni Islam as “normative orthodox” Islam, (b) the tendency for existing studies of Shi’ism to focus on the Middle East, which is of course an paramount area but as a result of which the coverage of Shi’ism outside of the Middle East, in regions such as South and Central Asia remains understudied, (c) the need for a greater study of the diversity within Shi’ism, and (d) the theoretical underdevelopment of the intersection of religion and politics within Islam, including on the issue of what has been termed as “sectarianism.”
From the establishment of a modern Shi’a theocracy in Iran following the 1979 revolution and the historic political empowerment of Arab Shi’a Islamists in Iraq after the 2003 war to the current war in Yemen and democratic uprisings in Bahrain, Shi’ism has been gaining larger prominence on the world stage. Moreover, the urbanization of Shi’a societies, the modernization of the centuries-old transnational Twelver Shi’a seminary system, the establishment of an extensive modern educational, social and economic development network by the Aga Khan, the spread of mainstream Shi'a mystical and philosophical thought, and unprecedented mass pilgrimage practices including the Karbala pilgrimage to Imam Hussein’s shrine in Iraq—as the world’s largest annual human gathering—all demonstrate these profound socio-cultural developments in the Islamic world.
HDS: There are between 220 million and 250 million Shi’a across the globe. Can you speak a bit about the internal diversity of Shi’ism and how the project approaches that?
Ali Asani: The Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs conducts a rich, content-based study of Shi’a thought and identity across transnational contexts. It seeks to be inclusive of a diversity of denominational (Twelver, Ismaili, Zaydi, Alawi, Alevi, and beyond) as well as diverse ethnic groups across the Middle East, South and Central Asia, Africa, and Shi’a diaspora communities across the globe. The internal diversity within Shi’ism is quite rich and significant. While the majority of the Shi’a Muslim population (some 80-85 percent) are Twelver, there are dynamic and important confessions of Shi’ism including Ismaili, Zaydi, Alawi, Alevi, among other denominations. All of these communities have internal histories stretching over centuries and ultimately connect themselves to the origins of Islam and successors to the message of the Prophet Muhammad and the Ahl al-Bayt (the Holy Family of the Prophet), whom all Shi’as take as their guides and leaders. Shi’ism, moreover, is not bound by nationality or race: there is a rich ethnic composition of Shi’a Muslims hailing from Iranian, South Asian, Central Asian, Arab, African, African-American, and other ethnic backgrounds.
Our project aims at highlighting Shi’a traditions in the context of the rich diversity and pluralism within Islam, a goal which Harvard Divinity School, as a leading institution on the study of world religions, is uniquely positioned to support. In this regard, the Project and its related teaching and research curriculum highlights the rich contributions of Shi’ism across the centuries. While some discourses situate Shi’ism as a “heterodox” Islamic offshoot, it existed in some form, albeit nascent, from the very early period of Islamic history, playing an outsized role in the shaping of intellectual debates, cultural expressions, and overall development of Islamic civilizations in various parts of the world. Despite the multifaceted contributions of Shi’a Muslims to Islamic history and thought, Western scholarship on Islam is disproportionately skewed toward Sunni Islam–which is of course highly important in its own right but this focus has historically marginalized and “otherized” Shi’ism. Most studies on Islam in the Western academy, influenced by Orientalist perspectives, have treated the Shi’a as a marginal group and presented particular Sunni narratives and perspectives as normative. This treatment, which is in part the consequence of imposing Christian notions of orthodoxy and sectarianism upon the Islamic tradition, results in majoritarian Sunni views being branded as the “orthodox” or “mainstream” interpretation of Islam. Consequently, the Shi’a are relegated to the position of the “heterodox,” the “heretic,” the “Other.” The fact that many scholarly narratives about Islam are constructed using a subset of predominantly Sunni sources—that are not even representative of diversity within Sunni Islam—with little utilization of Shi’a sources themselves further perpetuates a polemical portrayal of Shi’a Muslims.
HDS: What are the project’s goals for the next five years? What are some of the questions you seek to answer and challenges you try to address?
AA: The Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs at HDS focuses on the larger transformative and strategic changes happening across the Shi’a worlds on both a socio-political level as well as on cultural and religious values and ideology that drive these larger phenomena. Accordingly, the Project on Shi'ism and Global Affairs pursues advanced research on four interdisciplinary categories: (a) Shi’a History, Religious Practice and Identity; (b) Shi’ism and Geopolitics; (c) Sectarianism and Sectarian De-Escalation; and (d) The Global Shi’a Diaspora. These areas capture a significant cross-section of the most pressing issues facing Shi’ism on a global scale that integrates political, theological, and pluralistic strands of research together.
One of our current projects is undertaking research on the life and legacy of Imam Hussain, the third Imam of Shi’a Islam who was martyred and massacred alongside his family and supporters. Each year, millions Shi’a Muslims as well as believers from other faith traditions around the world commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussain on Ashura. Forty days later, anywhere between approximately 20-30 million pilgrims converge on Imam Hussain’s shrine in Karbala, Iraq, making it the largest annual gathering in the world. From India to Nigeria to Lebanon to the United States, the phenomenon and tradition of commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussain has been historically vast, cross-confessional, and rapidly growing.
Despite the pressing significance of the tragedy of Karbala on both historical and contemporary dynamics, the event’s far-reaching impact upon the world, including its various historical and political legacies, have been vastly understudied. To address this critical gap, with the generous support of the Jaffer Family Foundation of New York, the Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs at Harvard Divinity School is actively researching the culturally diverse manifestations of veneration of Imam Hussain and its effect on the civic involvement of Shi’i communities, including among the Shi’a diaspora in the West as well as in traditionally underappreciated areas of the Muslim world. Just this past summer, we hosted an online workshop on the academic study of Ashura, which attracted over 700 participants.
Additionally, we plan to encourage more scholarship in the study of the history and current state of the field of Shi’i studies in academia. In collaboration with the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, we plan on creating a program entitled Shiʿi Studies in Focus, to take stock of developments in the field of Shi’a studies internationally. By bringing together leading experts and authorities in the field who have played key roles in the development of Shiʿi studies into an independent field within the wider Islamic and religious studies, this program endeavors to share their experience with students, scholars, academic institutions, and organizations looking to play a role in the development of the field of Shi’a studies in the future.
Finally, the study of Shi’ism, religious mobilization, and the challenges of sectarian conflict are more pressing now than ever in modern history. The questions that face the Shi’a world are highly relevant in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world, including the intersection of regional order with Shi’a political expression in the Middle East. From the war in Yemen, the civil strife in Syria, emergence of ethno-national tensions in South Asia, and the devastation in Iraq and beyond, a diverse array of ethnic and confessional Shi’a movements have emerged as a significant dynamic particularly in the Middle Eastern political landscape. In this context, Iran’s foreign policy in the region and its network of allies is a significant topic of study given its outsized role and influence in regional affairs and the ongoing evolution of international religious identities. This is all the more salient given the ongoing nuclear standoff between Iran (as the world’s largest Shi’a Muslim country) and the United States and the Iran-Saudi cold war. Beyond concrete regional effects, these emerging developments impact global politics—including international security, foreign policy concerns, and global energy markets. It also fosters broader theoretical debates on modernization, religion, and politics. These areas are all pressing and complicated fields that require devoted expertise, research, and interdisciplinary collaboration, and the Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs at Harvard Divinity School is ideally situated to help undertake this endeavor.
HDS: What is some of the key research that has come out of the project? How have those findings informed the trajectory of the project?
Mohammed Sagha: While individual works by scholars have focused on distinct Shi’a groups in specific countries or world regions, less attention has been paid to addressing diversity within Shi’a Islam from a comparative perspective or thinking about how to approach the subject of intra-Shi’a dialogue rather than interfaith dialogue more broadly. This is all the more important as the historical and contemporary legacy of Shi’a Islam is extraordinarily rich and truly global in reach. It includes impressive philosophical and theological contributions to Islamic thought and world culture.
Over the past years, for example, we have hosted two international symposia—when we were based at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs—entitled “Diversity and Unity in Transnational Shi’a Islam: Intra-Shi'a Dialogue & Confessional Diversity within Shi'ism” that included panels with leading scholars in the field who study the diversity of Shi’a thought and communities across denominational lines including Zaydi, Ismaili, Alevi, Alawite, Bektashi, and Twelver Ja’fari Islam, and more. This past year alone, we had over 1,200 individuals register for the second annual symposium, which we were proud to partner with the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), a leading academic center in the study of Shi’a Islam based in London, along with other institutions within and beyond Harvard, including Harvard Divinity School, Harvard’s Committee of the Study of Religion, Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), the South Asia Institute at Harvard, the Harvard Asia Center, the Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program at Harvard, and the Henry Luce Foundation. These academic venues are intentionally designed to highlight diverse manifestations of Islam and to have experts, students, as well as community members of diverse Shi’a denominations learn more about one another. We are excited to continue these unique collaborations at HDS in the coming years which can help in framing these discussions within the context of religious studies.
Through our events, outreach, and publications we have striven to address these challenges and hosted unique space for dialogue within Islam and Shi’ism that were unprecedented to our knowledge on a global scale. Having experts on Alevi, Zaydi, Isma’ili, Bektashi, Twelver, and other denominations of Shi’ism in one space and forging a mutually shared dialogue was novel, and we have published the proceedings as an important next step in an ongoing process of research, discovery, and dialogue of inclusion and understanding. We also have a podcast series, World of Faith, where we hold discussions on religion in global affairs with leading scholars and leaders across the world, including Mary McAleese, the former president of Ireland, Mark Strange, a leading British Anglican bishop, and David Rosen, the former Chief Rabbi of Ireland.
HDS: What are some of the benefits and opportunities for the program now that it is part of the Harvard Divinity School community?
PM: While there is a robust general focus on Islamic studies at Harvard, there is a dearth of courses and research on Shi’ism, notwithstanding its historical and contemporary significance. As such, this Project hopes to contribute to developing a more inclusive curriculum at HDS in Islamic and religious studies. It intends to address the lacuna in Shi’i studies by providing avenues for students and researchers to engage in the study of Shi’a Islam through courses, events, workshops, symposia, and more. Harvard Divinity School is the ideal place to organize these efforts as a significant step in the right direction for longer-term study and appreciation for diversity within Shi’a Islam and the depth of its contribution to Islamic civilizations across time and geographic regions. We are very excited to be here as Harvard Divinity School has a rich community that fosters a highly collaborative and open space for scholars and students of religion to engage in mutual dialogue and comparative religious learning that is quite unique in the world.
While looking at these diverse manifestations of Shi’a Islam across different geographies, time periods, and confessions, it is important to note that the comparative study of Shi’a denominations and their rich histories is still in many ways a nascent enterprise. As has been pointed out above, much work needs to be done especially with regards to pluralism within Islam and especially in the realm of intrafaith dialogue and understanding. Our new home at Harvard Divinity School will provide a dynamic space for these exciting developments to flourish.
—by Michael Naughton