EVENT DETAILS

Mateo Farzaneh: Shi'ite clerics and political modernization in Iran

Join us for a talk and book signing with Mateo M. Farzaneh, assistant professor of history of the Islamic world and modern Middle East, Northeastern Illinois University - Chicago. 

In this book presentation, Prof. Farzaneh will discuss the role of Islamic jurisprudence in political reform in Iran.  Throughout the 1800s, Iran was challenged to politically modernize to undue the failed policies of its corrupt absolutist monarchical system.  Introduction of Western-style constitutionalism by secular Iranians brought about the establishment of the Islamic world's first parliament in Iran in 1906. However, that was the beginning of a long battle between the proponents and the opponents of rule of law as a new political reality. Mulla Muhammad Kazim Khurasani led a group of high ranking Iranian Shiite clerics living in Iraq and began a transnational clerical movement in support of constitutionalism with the objective to sever the political influence of Muslim clerics and leaving "modern" politics to the secular parliamentarians. This talk is based on Farzaneh's new book, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the Clerical Leadership of Khurasani (Syracuse University Press, 2015).

**Book sales are cash only - $40**
**Limited availability**

*Event is free and open to the public* 
Reception to follow.