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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
A prayer meeting at the University of Theran
Courtesy United Nations (John Isaac)
Historically, the single most important religious institution
in Iran has been the mosque. In towns, congregational prayers, as
well as prayers and rites associated with religious observances and
important phases in the lives of Muslims, took place in mosques.
Iranian Shias before the Revolution did not generally attach great
significance to institutionalization, however, and there was little
emphasis on mosque attendance, even for the Friday congregational
prayers. Mosques were primarily an urban phenomenon, and in most of
the thousands of small villages there were no mosques. Mosques in
the larger cities began to assume more important social roles
during the 1970s; during the Revolution they played a prominent
role in organizing people for the large demonstrations that took
place in 1978 and 1979. Since that time their role has continued to
expand, so that in 1987 mosques played important political and
social roles as well as religious ones.
Another religious institution of major significance was a
special building known as a hoseiniyeh. Hoseiniyehs existed
in urban areas and traditionally served as sites for recitals
commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn, especially during the month
of Moharram. In the 1970s, some hoseiniyehs, such as the
Hoseiniyeh Irshad in Tehran, became politicized as prominent
clerical and lay preachers used the symbol of the deaths as martyrs
of Husayn and the other Imams as thinly veiled criticism of
Mohammad Reza Shah's regime, thus helping to lay the groundwork for
the Revolution in 1979.
Institutions providing religious education include
madrasehs and maktabs. Madrasehs, or seminaries,
historically have been important for advanced training in Shia
theology and jurisprudence. Madrasehs are generally
associated with noted Shia scholars who have attained the rank of
ayatollah. There are also some older madrasehs, established
initially through endowments, at which several scholars may teach.
Students, known as talabehs, live on the grounds of the
madrasehs and are provided stipends for the duration of
their studies, usually a minimum of seven years, during which they
prepare for the examinations that qualify a seminary student to be
a low-level preacher, or mullah. At the time of the Revolution,
there were slightly more than 11,000 talabehs in Iran;
approximately 60 percent of these were studying at the
madrasehs in the city of Qom, another 25 percent were
enrolled in the important madrasehs of Mashhad and Esfahan,
and the rest were at madrasehs in Tabriz, Yazd, Shiraz,
Tehran, Zanjan, and other cities.
Maktabs, primary schools run by the clergy, were the
only educational institutions prior to the end of the nineteenth
century when the first secular schools were established.
Maktabs declined in numbers and importance as the government
developed a national public school system beginning in the 1930s.
Nevertheless, maktabs continued to exist as private
religious schools right up to the Revolution. Since 1979 the public
education system has been desecularized and the maktabs and
their essentially religious curricula merged with government
schools
(see Education
, this ch.).
Another major religious institution in Iran is the shrine.
There are more than 1,100 shrines that vary from crumbling sites
associated with local saints to the imposing shrines of Imam Reza
and his sister Fatima in Mashhad and Qom, respectively. These more
famous shrines are huge complexes that include the mausoleums of
the venerated Eighth Imam and his sister, tombs of former shahs,
mosques, madrasehs, and libraries. Imam Reza's shrine is the
largest and is considered to be the holiest. In addition to the
usual shrine accoutrements, Imam Reza's shrine contains hospitals,
dispensaries, a museum, and several mosques located in a series of
courtyards surrounding his tomb. Most of the present shrine dates
from the early fourteenth century, except for the dome, which was
rebuilt after being damaged in an earthquake in 1673. The shrine's
endowments and gifts are the largest of all religious institutions
in the country. Traditionally, free meals for as many as 1,000
people per day are provided at the shrine. Although there are no
special times for visiting this or other shrines, it is customary
for pilgrimage traffic to be heaviest during Shia holy periods. It
has been estimated that more than 3 million pilgrims visit the
shrine annually.
Visitors to Imam Reza's shrine represent all socioeconomic
levels. Whereas piety is a motivation for many, others come to seek
the spiritual grace or general good fortune that a visit to the
shrine is believed to ensure. Commonly a pilgrimage is undertaken
to petition Imam Reza to act as an intermediary between the pilgrim
and God. Since the nineteenth century, it has been customary among
the bazaar class and members of the lower classes to recognize
those who have made a pilgrimage to Mashhad by prefixing their
names with the title mashti.
The next most important shrine is that of Imam Reza's sister,
Fatima, known as Hazarat-e Masumeh (the Pure Saint). The present
shrine dates from the early sixteenth century, although some later
additions, including the gilded tiles, were affixed in the early
nineteenth century. Other important shrines are those of Shah Abdol
Azim, a relative of Imam Reza, who is entombed at Rey, near Tehran,
and Shah Cheragh, a brother of Imam Reza, who is buried in Shiraz.
A leading shrine honoring a person not belonging to the family of
Imams is that of the Sufi master Sayyid Nimatollah Vali near
Kerman. Shias make pilgrimages to these shrines and the hundreds of
local imamzadehs to petition the saints to grant them
special favors or to help them through a period of troubles.
Because Shias believe that the holy Imams can intercede for the
dead as well as for the living, cemeteries traditionally have been
located adjacent to the most important shrines in both Iran and
Iraq. Corpses were transported overland for burial in Karbala in
southern Iraq until the practice was prohibited in the 1930s.
Corpses are still shipped to Mashhad and Qom for burial in the
shrine cemeteries of these cities.
The constant movement of pilgrims from all over Iran to Mashhad
and Qom has helped bind together a linguistically heterogeneous
population. Pilgrims serve as major sources of information about
conditions in different parts of the country and thus help to
mitigate the parochialism of the regions.
A traditional source of financial support for all religious
institutions has been the vaqf, a religious endowment by
which land and other income-producing property is given in
perpetuity for the maintenance of a shrine, mosque,
madraseh, or charitable institution such as a hospital,
library, or orphanage. A mutavalli administers a vaqf
in accordance with the stipulations in the donor's bequest. In many
vaqfs the position of mutavalli is hereditary. Under
the Pahlavis, the government attempted to exercise control over the
administration of vaqfs, especially those of the larger
shrines. This was a source of conflict with the clergy, who
perceived the government's efforts as lessening their influence and
authority in traditional religious matters.
The government's interference with the administration of
vaqfs led to a sharp decline in the number of vaqf
bequests. Instead, wealthy and pious Shias chose to give financial
contributions directly to the leading ayatollahs in the form of
zakat, or obligatory alms. The clergy in turn used the funds
to administer their madrasehs and to institute various
educational and charitable programs, which indirectly provided them
with more influence in society. The access of the clergy to a
steady and independent source of funding was an important factor in
their ability to resist state controls and ultimately helped them
direct the opposition to the shah.
Data as of December 1987
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