Islamic Utopia in pre‐revolutionary Iran: Navvab Safavi and the Fada'ian‐e Eslam
1997; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00263209708701141
ISSN1743-7881
Autores Tópico(s)Religion and Society Interactions
ResumoThe historical-Islamic background of the 1979 revolution in Iran and the populist character of the Islamic Republic have received careful scrutiny in the literature.' However, the impact of Navvab Safavi and the Fada'ian-e Eslam on shaping a distinctly populist-utopian dimension in the Islamic revivalist movement in the revolution has received little attention.2 Mojtaba Navvab Safavi (1924-55) was the founder of Fada'ian-e Eslam, a militant, fundamentalist Islamic organization in Iran. This organization was active from the early 1 940s to the mid- I 950s, when Iran enjoyed a brief period of democratic freedom. In December 1955 Navvab Safavi and the other leaders of the Fada'ian-e Eslam were executed. Fada'ian-e Islam's principal objective was to establish an Islamic social order. Navvab Safavi, in his Barnameh-ye Enqelabi-ye Fada'ian-Eslam (1950) and in a series of articles in his weekly newspaper, Manshor-e Baradari, outlined an ideal Islamic social system. The historical significance of Navvab Safavi's thought is in the impact that he and his organization had on the development of the Islamic character of the Iranian revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini himself had a close affinity with Navvab Safavi, whose political career began with the assassination of Ahmad Kasravi in the spring of 1945 in response to Khomeini's condemnation of his call for an Islamic reformation. A number of influential personalities in the Islamic Republic and some important Islamic political organizations (Hey'at-ha-ye Mo'talefeh Eslami) had some background in the Fada'ian-e Eslam. But more important, Navvab Safavi and his organization, by formulating the detailed plan of an Islamic utopia, established the vision, discourse and the cultural tone for a popular social movement that led to the Islamization of the Iranian revolution. This article studies Navvab Safavi and Fada'ian-e Eslam's utopia. Seyyed Mojtaba Navvab Safavi was born in Tehran in 1924, about the same time that Reza Khan was establishing the reign of the Pahlavi monarchy. Navvab Safavi's father, Seyyed Javad Mir-Lohi, was a cleric who, according to Navvab Safavi's biographer, put the clerical robe aside under Reza Shah's anti-clerical campaign and practised law, 'defending the
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