Methodological Note on the Intellectual Landscape in the Contemporary Twelver Shīʻa

Abstract

Since the beginnings of Shīʻa Islam, followers have spread throughout the Islamic Empire. In the twentieth century they spread wider, venturing nearly all over the world, through migration, business activities, studying abroad and so on. With this expansion of followers, some actors have played roles which have formulated and reformulated the essence of Shīʻa Islam. One group in this category is undoubtedly the religious scholars who learn Islamic studies. Ayatollah Khomeini and the religious scholars who supported him have had an especially great impact on not only Shīʻite Muslims but also Westerner including scholars. However, although such an impact certainly warrants researchers’ interest in them, research on this group has not been deepened sufficiently, excluding that on political matters. Under such conditions, this paper aims to describe the landscape of the Shīʻite religious scholars in contemporary Iran. In particular, it attempts to explain their conditions in Iranian society and their conditions in the inner religious circle by focusing on their terms of address and technical terms.