Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One: The Modern State, Secularization and Religious Authority in Iraq

The Construction of the Marji?yya

Moder State formation and Shi?i Clerical Authorities

Marj?iyya under the authoritarian state

Chapter Two: State Atrophy, Islamization, and the Dynamics of the Religious Field

Shi?i Clerics and the Response to Secularization

The Decline of the Modernizing State

The Shi?i Uprising, Khoui’s Death and the Emergence of Sistani

The Rise of Sadr II and the Division in the religious Field

Chapter Three: Marji?yya and the Recreation of Sociopolitical Order after 2003

The Occupation and Disintegration of State Authority

Marji?yya and State-Rebuilding

Between Legal Tradition and New Realities

Marji?yya as an Extra-Constitutional Body

Chapter Four: Marji?yya and the Shi?i Political Power: National and Transnational Dimensions

The Marji?yya and Shi?i Islamism: From Opposition to domination

Historical Background

Marji?yya and the Shi?i-led State

Moral Authority or Political Guarantor

Marji?yya, Wilayat Al-Faqih and Transnational Relations

The Controversy on Wilayat al-Faqih

The Neo-Traditional Marji?yya vs. Wilayat al-Faqih

Chapter Five: The Neo-Traditional Marji?yya: Religious Authority and the New Articulations

Restructuring the Religious Field: Awqaf, Atabat and Marji?yya’s New roles

The hybrid administration of Shrines

Shrine Administrations and their Socioeconomic Activities

The loose institutionalization

The Neo-Traditional Marj’iyya and the Questions of Legitimacy, Legality and Public Morality

The Question of Legitimacy: The Marji?yya as a Parallel Authority

The Marji?yya, Public Morality and Social Governance

Between Religious Jurisprudence and Formal Law

Conclusions

Bibliography

Index