Religious Diversity in the Middle East
Carl ErnstCarolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations
UNC at Chapel Hill
What is diversity?
Ethnicity
Language
National origin
Religious identity
Gender
Economic class
Urban-ruralOmar ibn Sayyid (1772-1864), enslaved
Muslim scholar in NC
Sura 110 in his hand
What do we mean by Islam?
Religious meaning: submission to God
(Muslim: one who submits to God)
Social meaning: one who conforms to religious practices (prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, alms, statement of faith)
Political meaning: group religious identity with no reference to belief or religious practice
Ideological meaning: anti-colonial identity formulated against “the West”
ما االسالم؟
Islam, history, and culture
Islamic: relating to Islamic religious texts, Islamic law, worship, religious practices
Islamicate: non-religious cultural and social traditions associated with Muslims but which also include non-Muslim participation
Multiple pre-Islamic traditions and cultures (Egypt, Iran, India, etc.)
Who defines Islam? Nation-states
Tax-free status (IRS), visas (INS), prisons, military
Constitutions and legal codes, most of European colonial origin
State-approved academies (madrasas) like al-Azhar in Cairo, or new Uzbekistan college
Other agentsShi`i jurists like Iraqi leader Sistani
Sunni academies: Deoband in India
European and American scholars
al-Azhar
Islamic religious pluralism
Perhaps 15% are Shi`is (esp. Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, also South Asia)Including Twelvers, Isma`ilis, Bohras
Offshoots: Druze, Alawis, Baha’is
Perhaps 85% Sunni4 classical legal schools
New reformist movements (Wahhabi, Salafi; “fundamentalism”)
Sufi spiritualityLocal saints, Sufi orders (both Shi`i and Sunni)
Music, poetry, dance traditions
Secularism
`Ali and Shi`ism
• first four Caliphs (successors to Muhammad)
– Abu Bakr, 632-634
– `Umar, 634-644
– `Uthman, 644-656
– `Ali, 656-661
• Rise of the party or faction (shi`a) of `Ali; his partisans called Shi`is
10
The declaration of Ghadir Khumm
• Muhammad: “him for whom I am the master, so this Ali is his master”
• Was `Ali named as Muhammad’s successor?
11
Ali’s death, Karbala, and martyrdom
• Mu`awiya, member of the old Meccan family opposing Muhammad, establishes Umayyad dynasty, which is criticized for immorality
• `Ali’s son Husayn raises revolt, massacred in Karbala (680) by army of Yazid (son of Mu`awiya)
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Varieties of Shi`ism
• Twelvers recognize 12 Imams succeeding Muhammad; dominant in Iraq, Iran
• Ismai`ilis broke away after 6th Imam:– Nizaris (15 million) led by Agha Khan, regarded as
49th Imam
– Bohras (1 million, India) led by Syedna, counted as 53rd absolute representative of Fatimid caliphs
• Zaydis, open to competitive selection of Imams, 35% of population in Yemen (Houthis)
Offshoots of Shi`i Islam• Alawites (a.k.a. Nusayris), Syria (4 million)
– Affiliated with Twelver Shi`ism; revere `Ali, Muhammad, and Salman the Persian
• Alevis, Turkey (ca. 7 to 11 million)– Linked with Bektashi dervishes (Ottoman empire) and
Qizilbash tribes (involved in post-1500 Safavidrevolution in Persia)
• Druze, Lebanon-Syria-Palestine (1 million)– Breakaway followers of deified Fatimid Caliph al-
Hakim (11th cent.); esoteric philosophy
• Baha’is, Iran-Israel-US-etc. (7 million)– Outgrowth of 19th-cent. Persian Shi`ism, transformed
into universalist movement; persecuted in Iran
Pre-Islamic religious groups
• Zoroastrians: followers of Persian prophet Zoroaster (ca. 1200 BCE; 30,000 in Iran; 100,000 in India, called Parsis)
• Mandeans, Iraq-Iran (ca. 75,000); ancient dualistic Gnostic teachings
• Yezidis, worshipers of Peacock Angel, 1M
• Ahl-e Haqq (People of Truth): Kurdish esoteric group with Sufi and Bektashi elements; 2M?
Middle Eastern Christians
• Copts, Egypt, 10-15 million
• Armenians, 8 million
• Syria, 2M (“Assyrians”, Syriac-Aramaic speakers)
• Lebanon, 1.5M (Melkite, Catholic)
• Iraq, 400,000
• Iran, 350,000 (Armenian, Georgian)
• Turkey, 300,000
• Palestine, 50,000
Mizrahi (Arab/Oriental) Jews
• Israel: 3M
• Iran: 8,700
• Communities in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azarbaijan, Georgia (8000 to 15,000 each)
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