The Conceptualization of Guardianship in Iranian Intellectual History (18001989)

This book is a study of the concept of wilya and its developments among Sh scholars from the eighteenth to twentieth century. Leila Chamankhah addresses a number of issues by delving into the conceptualizations of wilya through the examination and interpretation of key texts. She focuses on the influence of ibn Arabs mysticism, with regard to the conception of wilya, on his Sha successors and expositors in later centuries. She also discusses the development and transformation of the conception of wilya over two hundred years, from the esoteric school of Shaykhsm to the politicization of wilya in the theory of wilyat al-faqh.