Understanding Shiite Leadership

The Art of the Middle Ground in Iran and Lebanon

Shaul Mishal author Ori Goldberg author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:5th Mar '15

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This paperback is available in another edition too:

Understanding Shiite Leadership cover

This book presents Shiite leaderships as pragmatic entities with the potential to form fruitful relationships with the non-Shiite world.

Shaul Mishal and Ori Goldberg explore the ways in which Shiite leaderships in Iran and Lebanon approach themselves and their world. Utilizing approaches from social theory, history, theology, and literary criticism, the book presents these leaderships as pragmatic, interpretative entities with the potential to form fruitful relationships between Shiite leadership and the non-Shiite world.In this book, Shaul Mishal and Ori Goldberg explore the ways in which Shiite leaderships in Iran and Lebanon approach themselves and their world. Contrary to the violent and radical image of religious leaderships in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lebanese Hizballah, the political vision and practice of these leaderships view the world as a middle ground, shying away from absolutist and extremist tendencies. The political leadership assumed by Shiite religious scholars in Iran and Lebanon has transformed Shiite Islam from a marginalized minority to a highly politicized avant garde of Muslim presence, revitalized the practice and causes of political Islam in its struggle for legitimacy and authority, and reshaped the politics of the Middle East and the globe in its image. Utilizing approaches from social theory, history, theology, and literary criticism, the book presents these leaderships as pragmatic, interpretative entities with the potential to form fruitful relationships between Shiite leadership and the non-Shiite world.

'This study is bound to give rise to the usual academic hullabaloo in light of its attempt to constructively assess what is at stake in our understanding of political radicalism and religious fundamentalism, the two easy labels of dismissing serious appreciation of the political consciousness at work in Iranian and other Shiite communities of the Middle East.' Abdulaziz Sachedina, IIIT Chair in Islamic Studies, George Mason University, Virginia
'Mishal and Goldberg (2014) directly address questions of interest to students of international relations … Understanding Shiite Leadership is an effort to unpack the world of the Shiite leadership in the Middle East.' Vikas Kumar, Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs

ISBN: 9781107632677

Dimensions: 229mm x 151mm x 9mm

Weight: 260g

162 pages