Opposing a binary perspective that consolidates ethnicity, religion, and nationalism into separate spheres, this book demonstrates that neither nationalism nor religion can be studied in isolation in the Middle East. Religious interpretation, like other systems of meaning-production, is affected by its historical and political contexts, and the processes of interpretation and religious translation bleed into the institutional discourses and processes of nation-building. This book calls into question the foundational epistemologies of the nation-state by centering on the pivotal and intimate role Islam played in the emergence of the nation-state, showing the entanglements and reciprocities of nationalism and religious thought as they played out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Middle East.

Opposing a binary perspective that consolidates ethnicity, religion, and nationalism into separate spheres, this book demonstrates that neither nationalism nor religion can be studied in isolation in the Middle East. Religious interpretation, like other systems of meaning-production, is affected by its historical and political contexts, and the processes of interpretation and religious translation bleed into the institutional discourses and processes of nation-building. This book calls into question the foundational epistemologies of the nation-state by centering on the pivotal and intimate role Islam played in the emergence of the nation-state, showing the entanglements and reciprocities of nationalism and religious thought as they played out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Middle East.

The 1979 Iranian Revolution and the subsequent formation of the new state brought both Ayatollah Khomeini and the concept of Velayat-e Faqih (the authority of the jurist) to a worldwide audience. However, the concept itself has a relatively long history in Shi'i juridical endeavors. From its inception, the Twelver Shi'i religion justified its opposition to the dominant Sunni majority and tied its raison d'etre to the claim of having access to 'infallible guidance and leadership. This exclusive spiritual and political leadership became available to Shi'ism through its belief in the divine leadership of twelve religious figures who were all descendents of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. This theo-political approach to the issue of political authority renders the concept of Velayat-e Faqih (authority of the jurist), as advocated later by the likes of Khomeini, both paradoxical and possible."