Department of History University of Michigan

History 397 Fall, 2001

SYLLABUS

Course Title: Religion and Revolution in Iran Office Hours: T. 12-1; Th. 2-2:30

Instructor: Juan Cole Telephone: 763-1599;

e-mail: jrcole@umich.edu

This course treats the interplay of religion and collective action in modern Iran, considering the role of Shi`ism in the establishment of the Safavid state, violent millenarian movements such as the Babis, and the activism of intellectuals and clerics in anti-imperial struggles such as the late nineteenth century Tobacco Revolt. The course treats both of Iran’s major twentieth century revolutions, the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911, and the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79, as well as the social discontents, intellectual currents and religious passions that underlay and informed them. The class is a colloquium, and will involve weekly discussions in a seminar format. Students will write a three-page précis weekly of the book assigned, due the day of the discussion; will take turns presenting the main theses of the book in class; will write a 7-page term paper on a subject of their choosing; and will spend one hour a week working on the class Web Page project (the latter is counted as class time, is obligatory, and will be scheduled and participation graded). Attendance at the weekly class discussion is obligatory if one is to remain in the class and all students must come to class having read the assigned texts, and ready to discuss them.

Required texts: (Available at Shaman Drum, 313 S. State St., tel. 662-7407,

and at Reserve Reading Room, 3rd Floor, Shapiro Undergraduate Library):

Mangol Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1982, 1999)

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Iranian Intellectuals and the West (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996).

Daniel Brumberg, Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran (U of Chicago Press, 2001).

Juan Cole, Modernity and the Millennium (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).

Nikki Keddie, Religion and Rebellion in Iran (London: Frank Cass, 1966). (on reserve).

David Morgan, Medieval Persia (London: Longman, 1988).

Janet Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906-1911 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).

Roy Mottahedeh, The Mantle of the Prophet (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985).

Class Sessions

Sept. 6 Orientation

Sept. 13 Shi`ite Islam and the Safavid “Revolution”

Morgan, Medieval Persia, pp. 112-161

Sept. 20 From Esoteric Shaykhism to the Babi Revolts

Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent, pp. 1-131

Sept. 27 Millenarianism and Revolutionary Thought

Cole, Modernity and the Millennium

Oct. 4 Film: Isfahan of Shah Abbas and Pursuit of Power

Oct. 11 The Tobacco Revolt

Keddie, The Tobacco Revolt

Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent, pp. 133-175

Oct. 18 The Constitutional Revolution 1

Afary, Iranian Constitutional Revolution, pp. 1-176

Oct. 25 The Constitutional Revolution 2

Afary, Iranian Constitutional Revolution, pp. 176-342

Nov. 1 Nativism, Secularism and Shi`ism in the Pahlavi Period

Boroujerdi, Iranian Intellectuals, chapters 1-4

Nov. 8 Religion and the Oil Nationalization Crisis of 1953

Mottahedeh, Mantle of the Prophet, pp. 1-238.

Nov. 15 The New Shi`ite Thinkers of the 60’s and 70’s

Boroujerdi, Iranian Intellectuals, chapters 5-end.

Nov. 29 Clerical Education and Islamic Radicalism

Mottahedeh, The Mantle of the Prophet, pp. 238-390

Dec. 6 The Islamic Republic

Brumberg, Reinventing Khomeini

Dec. 13 Term Paper Due

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WebMaster: Juan R.I. Cole

jrcole@umich.edu