Jewish Identities in Iran: Resistance and Conversion to Islam and the Baha'i Faith Contributor(s): Amanat, Mehrdad (Author) |
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ISBN: 1780767773 ISBN-13: 9781780767772 Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company OUR PRICE: $36.58 Product Type: Paperback Published: October 2013 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Middle East - Israel & Palestine - Religion | Judaism - General |
Dewey: 953 |
Series: Library of Modern Religion |
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (0.92 lbs) 296 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Middle East - Religious Orientation - Jewish |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The nineteenth century was a time of significant global socioeconomic change, and Persian Jews, like other Iranians, were deeply affected by its challenges. For minority faith groups living in nineteenth-century Iran, religious conversion to Islam - both voluntary and involuntary - was the primary means of social integration and assimilation. However, why was it that some Persian Jews, who had for centuries resisted the relative security of Islam, instead embraced the Baha'i Faith - which was subject to harsher persecution that Judaism? Baha'ism emerged from the messianic Babi movement in the mid-nineteenth century and attracted large numbers of mostly Muslim converts, and its ecumenical message appealed to many Iranian Jews. Many converts adopted fluid, multiple religious identities, revealing an alternative to the widely accepted notion of religious experience as an oppressive, rigidly dogmatic and consistently divisive social force. Mehrdad Amanat explores the conversion experiences of Jewish families during this time. Many converted sporadically to Islam, although not always voluntarily. |