Islam Without Allah?: The Rise of Religious Externalism in Safavid Iran


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This ground-breaking and controversial work locates the antecedents of today's Islamic 'fundamentalism' in 16th and 17th century Iran and the forced conversion of the Sunnite population of Iran to the largely alien doctrines of Twelver Shi'ism; the concomitant extirpation of Sufism and philosophy; and the gradual rise of the 'faqih' or jurist.Islam Without Allah?: The Rise of Religious Externalism in Safavid Iran Review
Perhaps for the first time, Dr. Colin Turner has shed light on the entire range of developments which led to the emergence of Shi'ite Iran, Khomeini, and the so-called "Islamic revolution." He not only clarifies the religious circumstances leading up to the present day, but enables us to understand why Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safavid dynasty, imported the dry, exoteric/externalist Shi'ite legal structure, even though he himself came to power on the basis of his esotericism/internalism.Turner begins by drawing some theoretical distinctions between faith (iman), submission to God (islam), and submission to God's commands ("Islam"). He shows how the last can quite easily turn into rote repetition, obscuring the first two. He then turns to historical developments, the rise of the Safavids, and the gradual setting in of externalist Twelver Shi'ite law. A key distinction he draws is between the theocentrism of Islam versus the "imamocentrism" of 12er Shiism. The Imam is seen in Shiism as a kind of superman, embodying political authority, religious (legalistic) authority and mystical (spiritual) authority, all rolled into one. No matter how exalted, this over-emphasis on a figure other than God eclipses God Himself, thus leading to an unwitting idolatry. In the same way, focusing only on the external trappings of God's commands causes a similar eclipse.
I cannot do justice to the contents in so short a space. The book is densely but authoritatively argued. It seems Dr. Turner's dissertation was on the same subject, so he speaks from deep knowledge. One quibble: it is unfortunate that such a good book is so prohibitively priced, leaving it out of reach for all but a very few. If you can, in any way at all, read it!
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