Stéphane A. Dudoignon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190655914
- eISBN:
- 9780190872632
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190655914.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military ...
More
Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military responses, has been the quality of Khomeini and Khamenei’s relationship with a network of South-Asia-educated Sunni ulama (mawlawis) originating from the Sarbaz oasis area, in the south of Baluchistan. Educated in the religiously reformist, socially conservative South Asian Deoband School, which puts the madrasa at the centre of social life, the Sarbazi ulama had taken advantage, in Iranian territory, of the eclipse of Baluch tribal might under the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79). They emerged then as a bulwark against Soviet influence and progressive ideologies, before rallying to Khomeini in 1979. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, they have been playing the role of a rampart against Salafi propaganda and Saudi intrigues. The book shows that, through their alliance with an Iranian Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother movement and through the promotion of a distinct ‘Sunni vote’, they have since the early 2000s contributed towards – and benefitted from – the defence by the Reformist presidents Khatami (1997-2005) and Ruhani (since 2013) of local democracy and of the minorities’ rights. They endeavoured to help, at the same time, preventing the propagation of jihadism and Sunni radicalisation to Iran – at least until the ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks of June 2017, in Tehran, shed light on the limits of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of reliance on Deobandi ulama and Muslim-Brother preachers in the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries.Less
Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military responses, has been the quality of Khomeini and Khamenei’s relationship with a network of South-Asia-educated Sunni ulama (mawlawis) originating from the Sarbaz oasis area, in the south of Baluchistan. Educated in the religiously reformist, socially conservative South Asian Deoband School, which puts the madrasa at the centre of social life, the Sarbazi ulama had taken advantage, in Iranian territory, of the eclipse of Baluch tribal might under the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79). They emerged then as a bulwark against Soviet influence and progressive ideologies, before rallying to Khomeini in 1979. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, they have been playing the role of a rampart against Salafi propaganda and Saudi intrigues. The book shows that, through their alliance with an Iranian Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother movement and through the promotion of a distinct ‘Sunni vote’, they have since the early 2000s contributed towards – and benefitted from – the defence by the Reformist presidents Khatami (1997-2005) and Ruhani (since 2013) of local democracy and of the minorities’ rights. They endeavoured to help, at the same time, preventing the propagation of jihadism and Sunni radicalisation to Iran – at least until the ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks of June 2017, in Tehran, shed light on the limits of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of reliance on Deobandi ulama and Muslim-Brother preachers in the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries.
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190655914
- eISBN:
- 9780190872632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190655914.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
A geographical survey of Iranian Baluchistan highlights the modern transformation of the desert/oasis dichotomy, and the socioeconomic impact of this evolution upon political and religious authority ...
More
A geographical survey of Iranian Baluchistan highlights the modern transformation of the desert/oasis dichotomy, and the socioeconomic impact of this evolution upon political and religious authority within the Baluch world. Examining the discourses of different categories of primary sources on the Baluch, the chapter highlights the changing perception by diverse observers of Baluch religiosity and religious identity since the early twentieth century. It also shows, notably, how Iranian anticolonial discourse in the 1960s-70s exposed the impact of Shia migration to the country’s Sunni-peopled periphery upon the consolidation of an ethno-social Sunni minority identity. Dealing with Baluch historiography, the chapter discusses how Baluch chroniclers have promoted, since the 1960s, a typology of heroes and values in which the ulama and Islamic discourse tend to replace tribal leaders and pastoral ethics of previous centuries. The chapter underlines the role played in this discursive change and the contest of the tribal chieftains’ power, by representatives of the oases world and of minor tribal groups of landowning status.Less
A geographical survey of Iranian Baluchistan highlights the modern transformation of the desert/oasis dichotomy, and the socioeconomic impact of this evolution upon political and religious authority within the Baluch world. Examining the discourses of different categories of primary sources on the Baluch, the chapter highlights the changing perception by diverse observers of Baluch religiosity and religious identity since the early twentieth century. It also shows, notably, how Iranian anticolonial discourse in the 1960s-70s exposed the impact of Shia migration to the country’s Sunni-peopled periphery upon the consolidation of an ethno-social Sunni minority identity. Dealing with Baluch historiography, the chapter discusses how Baluch chroniclers have promoted, since the 1960s, a typology of heroes and values in which the ulama and Islamic discourse tend to replace tribal leaders and pastoral ethics of previous centuries. The chapter underlines the role played in this discursive change and the contest of the tribal chieftains’ power, by representatives of the oases world and of minor tribal groups of landowning status.
Khushwant Singh
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195673081
- eISBN:
- 9780199080601
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195673081.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Sikhism
This chapter studies the consolidation of the Punjab, starting with the capture of Kangra and the removal of the Gurkhas. It is followed by an account of how the Punjab was unified, including the ...
More
This chapter studies the consolidation of the Punjab, starting with the capture of Kangra and the removal of the Gurkhas. It is followed by an account of how the Punjab was unified, including the reduction of the Baluch tribes. It also mentions that Maharajah Ranjit Singh's generals busied themselves with bringing the scattered territories under the authority and protection of the Dunbar. One section looks at the arrival of Shah Shuja, and provides some information on the politics of Afghanistan. The chapter includes discussions on the Koh-i-noor episode, which involved the maharajah demanding the Koh-i-noor diamond from the Afghans, and the battle of Attock. This battle is significant, since it marks the first victory of the Punjabi over the Afghans.Less
This chapter studies the consolidation of the Punjab, starting with the capture of Kangra and the removal of the Gurkhas. It is followed by an account of how the Punjab was unified, including the reduction of the Baluch tribes. It also mentions that Maharajah Ranjit Singh's generals busied themselves with bringing the scattered territories under the authority and protection of the Dunbar. One section looks at the arrival of Shah Shuja, and provides some information on the politics of Afghanistan. The chapter includes discussions on the Koh-i-noor episode, which involved the maharajah demanding the Koh-i-noor diamond from the Afghans, and the battle of Attock. This battle is significant, since it marks the first victory of the Punjabi over the Afghans.
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190655914
- eISBN:
- 9780190872632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190655914.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Touching on the guerrilla activity of the 2000s and early 2010s on Iran’s eastern (Baluch) and western (Kurdish) borderlands, the introduction discusses early-twenty-first-century Western, ...
More
Touching on the guerrilla activity of the 2000s and early 2010s on Iran’s eastern (Baluch) and western (Kurdish) borderlands, the introduction discusses early-twenty-first-century Western, (particularly U.S.) geopolitical views of the Sunni minority issue in the country, and of its possible political and military instrumentation against the Islamic Republic. The author skims through the gradual rediscoveries, by domestic and international research, of the transformation of tribes and tribal might as a political factor in Middle Eastern societies, and of the emergence and progressive politicisation of Sunni identity within a Shia-majority Islamic Republic. The author especially sheds light on the particular political pragmatism that was developed by Tehran and the Sarbazi ulama, since 1979, in their mutual relations.Less
Touching on the guerrilla activity of the 2000s and early 2010s on Iran’s eastern (Baluch) and western (Kurdish) borderlands, the introduction discusses early-twenty-first-century Western, (particularly U.S.) geopolitical views of the Sunni minority issue in the country, and of its possible political and military instrumentation against the Islamic Republic. The author skims through the gradual rediscoveries, by domestic and international research, of the transformation of tribes and tribal might as a political factor in Middle Eastern societies, and of the emergence and progressive politicisation of Sunni identity within a Shia-majority Islamic Republic. The author especially sheds light on the particular political pragmatism that was developed by Tehran and the Sarbazi ulama, since 1979, in their mutual relations.
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190655914
- eISBN:
- 9780190872632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190655914.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The chapter analyses the chrestomathies (tadhkiras) of Persian-language Sunni religious poets have published in Iranian Baluchistan since the late 1990s. It demonstrates how the ulama of the Sarbaz ...
More
The chapter analyses the chrestomathies (tadhkiras) of Persian-language Sunni religious poets have published in Iranian Baluchistan since the late 1990s. It demonstrates how the ulama of the Sarbaz nexus, and their centralised transregional madrasa network, have managed to impose their discursive hegemony in Easternmost Iran, with the assistance of local Shia-background institutions and NGOs patronized by Guide Ali Khamenei. This triumph of the Islamic discourse of the Deoband School in Iranian territory, and the eclipse of tribal authority from Baluch memory, are explained here as effects of the anti-tribal modernisation policy implemented by the Pahlavi monarchy and its encouragement of Shia migration to the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries – which had been exposed, already, by Iranian anticolonial discourse of the 1960s-70s.Less
The chapter analyses the chrestomathies (tadhkiras) of Persian-language Sunni religious poets have published in Iranian Baluchistan since the late 1990s. It demonstrates how the ulama of the Sarbaz nexus, and their centralised transregional madrasa network, have managed to impose their discursive hegemony in Easternmost Iran, with the assistance of local Shia-background institutions and NGOs patronized by Guide Ali Khamenei. This triumph of the Islamic discourse of the Deoband School in Iranian territory, and the eclipse of tribal authority from Baluch memory, are explained here as effects of the anti-tribal modernisation policy implemented by the Pahlavi monarchy and its encouragement of Shia migration to the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries – which had been exposed, already, by Iranian anticolonial discourse of the 1960s-70s.
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190655914
- eISBN:
- 9780190872632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190655914.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter deals with the history of the emergence, development, triumph and present-day challenges of Deobandi madrasa teaching and of the politicisation of Sunni identity in Iran’s Baluch ...
More
This chapter deals with the history of the emergence, development, triumph and present-day challenges of Deobandi madrasa teaching and of the politicisation of Sunni identity in Iran’s Baluch society, against the socioeconomic backgrounds reconstructed in the volume’s previous sections. It relates, notably, the origins of the Sarbaz nexus. It explores the centrality of the Sarbaz oasis in early modern Iranian Baluchistan; its connexions with the Baluch transnational labour emigration; British and Iranian support to Deobandi teaching during the Interwar period, as a bulwark against Soviet influence and communist ideology; the decisive role played after WWII by intermediary agents in Karachi and Pakistani Baluchistan for the propagation of Deobandi teaching in Iranian territory; and the special connexion of the Sarbazi nexus of ulama with the Isma‘ilzayi tribe and its allies in Baluch society.Less
This chapter deals with the history of the emergence, development, triumph and present-day challenges of Deobandi madrasa teaching and of the politicisation of Sunni identity in Iran’s Baluch society, against the socioeconomic backgrounds reconstructed in the volume’s previous sections. It relates, notably, the origins of the Sarbaz nexus. It explores the centrality of the Sarbaz oasis in early modern Iranian Baluchistan; its connexions with the Baluch transnational labour emigration; British and Iranian support to Deobandi teaching during the Interwar period, as a bulwark against Soviet influence and communist ideology; the decisive role played after WWII by intermediary agents in Karachi and Pakistani Baluchistan for the propagation of Deobandi teaching in Iranian territory; and the special connexion of the Sarbazi nexus of ulama with the Isma‘ilzayi tribe and its allies in Baluch society.
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190655914
- eISBN:
- 9780190872632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190655914.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The purpose of this chapter is to show how the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79) has reacted to the creation of the Islamic University of Medina, in 1961, by allowing in Easternmost Iran the development of ...
More
The purpose of this chapter is to show how the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79) has reacted to the creation of the Islamic University of Medina, in 1961, by allowing in Easternmost Iran the development of Deobandi madrasa teaching and reformed Sufism. It suggests that since then, the Hanafi School of Islamic law and jurisprudence has begun to re-emerge during those years as a specifically Persian if not Iranian, tradition that contested Shia hegemony within Iran while opposing cross-border Wahhabi influence. Reconstructing the demographic change and interethnic cum inter-confessional violence that preceded and went with the revolution of 1979 in Iranian Baluchistan, the author shows how, thanks to the region’s Deobandi Sunni religious establishment’s ultimate acceptance of Khomeini’s rule, the new regime paved the way for the Sarbaz nexus to assess their position as guarantors of social peace and intermediaries between the state and a new-brand ‘Sunni community of Iran’.Less
The purpose of this chapter is to show how the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79) has reacted to the creation of the Islamic University of Medina, in 1961, by allowing in Easternmost Iran the development of Deobandi madrasa teaching and reformed Sufism. It suggests that since then, the Hanafi School of Islamic law and jurisprudence has begun to re-emerge during those years as a specifically Persian if not Iranian, tradition that contested Shia hegemony within Iran while opposing cross-border Wahhabi influence. Reconstructing the demographic change and interethnic cum inter-confessional violence that preceded and went with the revolution of 1979 in Iranian Baluchistan, the author shows how, thanks to the region’s Deobandi Sunni religious establishment’s ultimate acceptance of Khomeini’s rule, the new regime paved the way for the Sarbaz nexus to assess their position as guarantors of social peace and intermediaries between the state and a new-brand ‘Sunni community of Iran’.
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190655914
- eISBN:
- 9780190872632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190655914.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
In the decades after Khomeini’s death, the oases world’s middlemen class of Iran’s Baluch society has produced political figures able to wield nationwide influence. While maintaining pressure on ...
More
In the decades after Khomeini’s death, the oases world’s middlemen class of Iran’s Baluch society has produced political figures able to wield nationwide influence. While maintaining pressure on Tehran from within, the Iranisation of Deobandi religious schools (and of the Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother militant networks) helped reinforce Iran’s national cohesion despite periods of sharp tension. This permitted Deobandi leaders and their Muslim-Brother allies to obtain, under Reformist presidents Muhammad Khatami (1997-2005) and Hasan Ruhani (since 2013), concessions in terms of local government and representation of the minorities. At the same time, the underdevelopment of Iran’s Sunni-peopled marches, the continuous degradation of their ecological situation, the confiscation of the revenues of cross-border smuggling by the Islamic Republic’s paramilitary bodies, the limited reforms implemented since 2013 by the Ruhani administration, the June 2017 ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks in Tehran and the anti-Sunni repression that followed have fuelled new waves of ‘tribal feud’. This growing violence highlights the contrast between the ability shown by the Sarbaz nexus of Deobandi Sunni ulama to develop nationwide influence, on the first hand, and, on the other hand, the limits of these middlemen’s leadership on Baluch society.Less
In the decades after Khomeini’s death, the oases world’s middlemen class of Iran’s Baluch society has produced political figures able to wield nationwide influence. While maintaining pressure on Tehran from within, the Iranisation of Deobandi religious schools (and of the Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother militant networks) helped reinforce Iran’s national cohesion despite periods of sharp tension. This permitted Deobandi leaders and their Muslim-Brother allies to obtain, under Reformist presidents Muhammad Khatami (1997-2005) and Hasan Ruhani (since 2013), concessions in terms of local government and representation of the minorities. At the same time, the underdevelopment of Iran’s Sunni-peopled marches, the continuous degradation of their ecological situation, the confiscation of the revenues of cross-border smuggling by the Islamic Republic’s paramilitary bodies, the limited reforms implemented since 2013 by the Ruhani administration, the June 2017 ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks in Tehran and the anti-Sunni repression that followed have fuelled new waves of ‘tribal feud’. This growing violence highlights the contrast between the ability shown by the Sarbaz nexus of Deobandi Sunni ulama to develop nationwide influence, on the first hand, and, on the other hand, the limits of these middlemen’s leadership on Baluch society.
