Shi'ite Lebanon

Transnational Religion and the Making of National Identities

Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr

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English

Columbia University Press
08 November 2011

History; Islam; Politics & government

Series: History and Society of the Modern Middle East

By recasting the relationship between religion and nationalism in the Middle East, Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr proposes a new framework for understanding Shi'ite politics in Lebanon. Her study draws on a variety of untapped sources, reconsidering not only the politics of the established leadership of Shi'ites but also institutional and popular activities of identity production. Shaery-Eisenlohr traces current Shi'ite politics of piety and authenticity to the coexistence formula in Lebanon and argues that engaging in the discourses of piety and coexistence is a precondition to cultural citizenship in Lebanon. As she demonstrates, debates over the nature of Christianity and Islam and Christian-Muslim dialogue are in fact intertwined with power struggles at the state level.

Since the 1970s, debates in the transnational Shi'ite world have gradually linked Shi'ite piety with the support of the Palestinian cause. Iran's religious elite has backed this piety project in multiple ways, but in doing so it has assisted in the creation of a variety of Lebanese Shi'ite nationalisms with competing claims to religious and national authenticity. Shaery-Eisenlohr argues that these ties to Iran have in fact strengthened the position of Lebanese Shi'ites by providing, as is recognized, economic, military, and ideological support for Hizbullah, as well as by compelling Lebanese Shi'ites to foreground the Lebanese components of their identity more forcefully than ever before.

Shaery-Eisenlohr challenges the belief that Shi'ite identity politics only serve to undermine the Lebanese national project. She also makes clear that the expression of Lebanese Shi'ite identity is a nationalist expression and an unintended result of Iranian efforts to influence the politics of Lebanon.

By: Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 425g
ISBN: 9780231144278
ISBN 10: 023114427X
Series: History and Society of the Modern Middle East
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 08 November 2011
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration Introduction: Claiming Cultural Citizenship in Lebanon from Margin to Center Part 1 The Nation in the Making 1. Two Nations and One State: Shi'ite and Maronite Lebanon 2. Schooling and the Creation of Lebanese Shi'ite Public Identities Part 2 Transnational Debates and Local Struggles 3. Shi'ite Piety and the Palestinian Cause: The History of a Discourse 4. The Politics of Shi'ite Authenticity Since 1982 5. Iranian Cultural Politics in Lebanon Epilogue Notes References Index

Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr is a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany.

Reviews for Shi'ite Lebanon: Transnational Religion and the Making of National Identities

Shaery-Eisenlohr's various arguments are not simply nuances of existing theses, but rather fairly significant reformulations of our understanding of the rise of Shi'ite politics in Lebanon and beyond. -- Akram Khater, author of Inventing Home: Emigration, Gender, and the Making of a Lebanese Middle Class, 1861-1921