We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2024
In this chapter I shall analyse four panegyrics (qasides) Ayatollah Khomeini composed in the early 1920s while still a religious student. After a general outline on the genre of qaside, I shall demonstrate how Ayatollah Khomeini rejected monarchy and Westernisation from a young age, seeing a pivotal role for the clergy in politics. His panegyrics are permeated with socio-political topics and at the same time contain numerous mystical motifs such as spiritual perfection and sainthood. Attributing the Light of Mohammad to saints other than the 14 immaculate Shiite persons reveals Ayatollah Khomeini's transgressive mystical aspirations: in one of his panegyrics he depicts his teacher Hâ’eri as a perfect man. While this view of his teacher shows Ayatollah Khomeini's mystical tendencies, it also demonstrates his early thoughts on the doctrine of velayat-e faqih (“governance of the jurist”), which implies that an Islamic jurist can rule. Ayatollah Khomeini used the doctrine to appoint himself as the political and religious leader of the Islamic community, legitimising the new theocratic system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Keywords: panegyric, spiritual perfection, Mohammadan Light, governance of the jurist
Ayatollah Khomeini wrote four panegyric poems (qasides), each with a specific religious subject, in the early 1920s when he was a student in the city of Qom. The first qaside from 1922 is a 44-couplet poem called “Praise on the Two Bright Lights, Fâteme Zahrâ and Fâteme Maʿsume, May God Bless Them”. It is dedicated to Fâteme Maʿsume (d. 816/817), patron of the city of Qom, whose shrine in the city is a major centre of pilgrimage.1 The qaside is full of theological and mystical themes and motifs referring to gnostic knowledge, mystical perfection, the ‘Mohammadan light’ and other themes central to Islamic mysticism, such as prophethood and sainthood. Qaside II also dates from 1922 and is called “The Expected Spring.” It consists of 46 couplets and describes the celebrations surrounding the birthday of the twelfth Shiite Imam, Mohammad Mahdi. Qaside III “On the Praise of the Guardian of the Age (Vali-ye ‘Asr),” dates from 1923 and is also dedicated to the Mahdi. It consists of 44 couplets. Qaside IV, composed in 1924, is called ‘Imam Zamân’ (Imam of the Age) and, like the previous two, celebrates the birthday of the twelfth Shiite Imam. This panegyric is actually a mosammat (‘stanzaic poem’), which is a variation on the ‘traditional’ qaside, being structured in groups of five hemistichs that rhyme.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
