Bazaar-mosque alliance: The social basis of revolts and revolutions

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to place the recent Islamic revolution in Iran within that country's modern political and social history. Analyses of protest movements in contemporary Iran have emphasized the central role played either by the ulama or by the so-called "petits bourgeois" bazaaris. In works that underscore the role of the ulama and Shi'i ideas and rituals, the instrumental role of the bazaar in the protest movements is taken for granted, though it has remained largely unexplored. On the other hand, in those works that emphasize the role of the "petits bourgeois" bazaaris in the protest movements the role of the ulama is largely neglected. It had often been stated, for example that, the bazaaris revolted against the Pahlavi state because the Shah's regime favored the rising "dependent grande bourgeoisie" at the expense of the declining "petits bourgeois" bazaari shopkeepers and master artisans. An examination of the historical roots of the bazaar mosque alliance will help us overcome the shortcomings of such skewed interpretations of protest movements and achieve a better understanding of the social bases of religiously inspired revolutions. The bazaar and the mosque, as inseparable twins, have served, for many centuries, as the primary arena of public life in urban Iran. In pre-modern Iran, they were the two principal arenas of sociability outside of kinship relations. In combination, they formed the context in which city dwellers organized their communal life and, often as a direct consequence, their political alliances. In the Islamic city the bazaar has long been: 1) a central marketplace and production center for handicrafts, located in old quarters of the town; 2) the primary arena (together with the mosque)