European Shi'ism : peripheral engagement and religious retention / Matthijs van den Bos

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bos, Matthijs van den, author.

Series:

Global Middle East (Cambridge, England) ; 42.

The global Middle East ; 42

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Islam and state--Europe--History.

Islam and state.

Shiites--Europe--History.

Shiites.

Europe.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026

Summary:

"The presence of Shiʿite communities in Western Europe dates to the late nineteenth century, with Britain as the primary destination for immigration, as well as notable communities developing in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Exploring selected encounters of Twelver Shiʿite Muslims with the European West, this study examines local and transnational religious organization to assess socio-political integration. Its central thesis defines European Shiʿism through peripheral engagement and religious retention. Building on a range of language sources, interviews with Shiʿite spokesmen and fieldwork in Iran, Britain, the Netherlands, and Germany, Matthijs van den Bos identifies European Shiʿism with a religious mode of engagement involving hierarchization of collective self and other identities. Shiʿite parties with greater distance to high politico-religious authorities abroad are seen more likely to engage in cultural exchange with their European milieu. On one side stand ethnically varied Shiʿite organizations with limited engagement of others in Europe. The other shows civic outreach, ritual transformation, and integrationist theology"-- Cambridge Core

Contents:

Introduction : encounters of Shiʿism and Europe

Contrapuntal organizations

European Islam in the Iranian Union

Occidental selves and others

Outposts of the seminary system

Shiʿite-European encompassment

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core, viewed May 14, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Bos, Matthijs van den European Shi'ism

ISBN:

9781009731133

1009731130

OCLC:

1579848846

Publisher Number:

CIPO000352927

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license