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December 21, 2006
Perso-English Blog-Tag
I had noticed this Blog-Tagging game that is going on in the English blogosphere for a while, but since my English weblog is not very popular and I seldom read English blogs myself, I never thought of picking it up.
However, these days a Persian version of it is going on in the Persian blogsphere and as such, I thought I start one myself. It is a simple game: I will tell you five things about myself that you might not have known, and then I nominate five people to do the same. Let's see how it goes:
1- I love reading gossip magazines like People and Entertainment Weekly
2- I fell in love with my fifth grade teacher pretty seriously!
3- When I was in middle school, I told everyone that one day I will become the Shah of Iran (that did not sit well with the assistant principal!)
4- I have an accute case of acrophobia
5- I slept with my best friend's sister
Now, I nominate Parastoo, Sanam, David, Hamid Reza, and Hossein.
Posted by Khodadad at 10:42 PM | Comments (5)
December 16, 2006
Shi'a and Sunni
Jon Stewart had a piece the other night that used cuts of various people responsible for US Iraq policy being asked about the difference between the "Shi'a" and the "Sunni" branches of Islam, all of them admiting that their idea of the issue is rather sketchy. Although it was sad, it was also not entirely their fault. I have often seen Muslims themselves not being able to clearly define the issue, stumbling through a series of confusing succession issues as the "difference" between the two, in the process confusing themselves and their audience and everyone in between.
So, as a public service, I thought I might be able to explain the issue, at least from a historical point of view. Although the issue is one of succession, it is not all about a bunch of people running around fighting about who should become the next big shot. It is mostly about how people saw the then young Islamic polity and the issue of running its affairs.
Within the context of Islam, Muhammad was unique for having two sides to his leadership. As a prophet, he was the spiritual leader of the Muslims, while as the leader of Medina and the head of the Islamic Polity, he was the political ruler of Arabia at the time of his death.
Now, after his death, the Muslim society was devided between two religio-political ideas. One held that Muhammad cannot be succeeded in his capacity as a spiritual leader, and his successors should only be political leaders of the Islamic state. On the other hand, a minority reasoned that Muhammad, after 23 years of working on creating a society based on a belief, would not just die leaving its fate to the uncertain future. This latter group argued that the Islamic society needs a spiritual leader, as well as political one, and it will be better to keep both roles within the same person, and as such, one supposedly sanctioned as a spiritual authority by Muhammad himself. This latter group became the Shi'a, while the former (with some compromise, the more "secular" group, or those promoting a seperation of "church" and state) became the Sunnis.
Of course, eventually theological issues arose throughout the last 1400 years, setting up proper divisions between the two. One eventually was the role of a person within the private and public spheres of the society, and at points, even well-known concepts of Greek philosophy (Plato's idea of "Philosopher-King") was applied to Shi'a reasoning, while Sunnis devised great schools of law, defining the public role of Islamic laws and defining its spiritual sides within the private life of a person.
It of course gets complicated, but the simple answer to the question of "what is the difference between the Shi'a and the Sunni", is "the Shi'a believe that a society needs both a spiritual and political leader, while Sunnis consider the leader of the Islamic society is only a political leader".
This would also help with this whole idea of "the Caliphate" heard lately too often from various politicians who are equating it with a Taliban style theocracy. In fact, the "classical" Caliphs (Harun ul Rashid, One Thousand and One Nights) were decidedly not the spiritual leaders of their lands and were often harshly criticised by the religious establishment.
Posted by Khodadad at 11:12 PM | Comments (3)
December 13, 2006
I did it...
Done, gone, passed, past tense, dead, expired, an ex-parrot (eh...exam).
I wrote my PhD exam today. Three hours and it was gone. Seems so little and unimportant now that it's passed... It was a busy day, as in addition to this, I also had to take my final exam in Greek (and I was a bit more worried about that), but that has also passed, and I think I will manage to get an alright grade in it. We shall see...
In any case, I feel very free and happy and care-free right now. I look forward to a few days of relaxation and reading my favourite P. G. Wodehouse stories and things of the sort. Hmmm...
Posted by Khodadad at 05:42 PM | Comments (2)
December 09, 2006
Royal Education
Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi, the second son of the former king of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah, has a PhD in Iranian Philology from Harvard. I was reading somewhere that Prince William of Great Britian has earned a masters degree from St. Andrews University, making him the most educated British royal ever. Now, that is a one-uppance our Prince has to theirs!
It made me think though. I know that the current heir to the Romanian throne has a degree in architecture from Spain. Hakon of Norway was at the LSE the same time as I and was working on a Masters degree of some sort, and I know that Gustaf VI of Sweden had some sort of degree in archaeology. However, none of them seem to have earned a PhD. If that is true, Prince Ali Reza might be the most educated royal ever! How cool is that?!
Posted by Khodadad at 03:18 PM | Comments (360)