Encyclopedia of Islam

Shariati, Ali

  

621  J

---

activities in France. After his release, he began 

teaching at the University of Mashhad. His lectures 

there quickly became popular, attracting listeners 

from outside the university. The government, seeing 

his popularity as a threat, engineered his dismissal 

from the university. In 1967 Shariati joined other 

religious reformers in Tehran at the Husayniya-yi 

Irshad, which offered lectures, discussions, semi-

nars, and publications on religious subjects—the 

name commemorates the martyrdom of the Proph-

et’s grandson Husayn ibn Ali, the third 

imam

 of 

t

Welve

-i

mam

 s

hiism

, at k

arbala

 in 680 

c

.

e

.

Shariati’s lectures, in which he tried to explain 

the problems of Muslim societies in the light of 

Islamic principles, soon made him the most popu-

lar instructor at the Husayniya-yi Irshad. Young 

people were drawn to his new interpretation of 

Islam and its role in society. By 1973 the govern-

ment began to view his classes as a threat. Shariati 

was again arrested and jailed. He was released from 

jail in March 1975, but his freedom was restricted. 

He was prohibited from teaching or publishing, 

and he was required to stay in his home town of 

Mazinan. After two years of virtual house arrest, 

Shariati was given permission to travel to Europe. 

In June 1977 he went to England. On June 19 he 

was found dead in his brother’s house in South-

ampton, England. The official cause of death was 

given as a heart attack. However, many of Sharia-

ti’s supporters suspect involvement by the Iranian 

secret police in his death. Shariati was buried in 

d

amascUs

, Syria, near the tomb of z

aynab

 

bint

 a

li

,

the sister of the third imam, Husayn.

In his lectures and writing, Shariati opposed 

following tradition simply because it was tra-

dition, and he held that 

ijtihad

 (independent 

thought) was not just for the experts but for every 

individual. In the revolution that toppled the 

shah’s regime in 1979, portraits of Shariati were 

carried by demonstrators along with portraits of 

Ayatollah  r

Uhollah

  k

homeini

 (d. 1989). In the 

aftermath of the revolution, the moderate, inclu-

sive teachings of Shariati were drowned out by the 

fundamentalist teachings of Khomeini and other 

clerics. However, he is still viewed as an important 

contributor to the Islamic revolution in Iran.

See also  e

Urope

; 

husayniyya

;  i

ranian

  r

evolU

-

tion

 

oF

 1978–1979; m

UJahidin

-

i

  k

halq

; 

politics

and

 i

slam

.

Kate O’Halloran