 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2009) |
The House of the Mosque (Dutch : Het huis van de moskee) is a Dutch-language novel by Iranian writer Kader Abdolah, published in 2005. The English language translation of The House of the Mosque was published in January 2010. [1]
The book follows the life of an Iranian family from 1969 on through the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the installment of the Khomeini government, and ends after Khomeini's death. The story is a "semi-mythical narrative ... bearing a 'flying carpet' element of fantasy" that is countered by the horrifying events that the protagonists face as the revolution progresses. [2]
Most of the plot takes place in a large (36-room) house attached to the Friday mosque in Senejan, three hours by train from Qom, a fictionalized version of Senjan, now a district of Arak, Iran. Kader Abdolah was born and grew up in a similar house in that city. [3] [4] In the presentation of real historical events, many names and locations are altered, so that the novel does not pretend to be an accurate description of the historical situation. [1] The main character is Aqa Jaan ("Dear Master", a title often given to the male head of a household in Iran). [4] Shahbal, the son of his blind cousin who is the muezzin of the mosque, personifies the author (Shahbal is called the "narrator" of the story in the cast of characters). Like Shahbal, Kader Abdolah was active in leftist underground political movements in the time of the Shah and of Khomeini, and fled Iran in 1985 to settle in the Netherlands. Unlike Shahbal, the author did not kill anyone, but instead avenged the murders of his brother and sister with his pen. [3] For example, before fleeing Iran, Shahbal killed Khalkhal, a fictionalized version of Khomeini's "hanging judge" Sadeq Khalkhali, but the real Khakhali died of old age in 2003.
The House of the Mosque primarily explores the lifestyle of a traditional, extended Iranian family and how they coped with the changes brought by the Westernization of Iran until 1979, the revolution and the subsequent radicalization. Additionally, the book portrays struggles between the leaders of the bazaar and the religious rule of the imams—and between family members who are traditionalists and those who are caught up in revolutionary ideas and do not follow the old rules of the house.
Ruhollah Khomeini, also known as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the end of the Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's first supreme leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. Most of his period in power was taken up by the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Musawi al-Khoei was an Iranian-Iraqi Shia marja'. Al-Khoei is considered one of the most influential twelver scholars.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Hossein Ali Tababataei Borujerdi was a leading Iranian Shia Marja' in Iran from approximately 1947 to his death in 1961.
Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani (Persian: حسین سجادی قائممقامی فراهانی, better known by his pen name Kader Abdolah, is an Iranian-Dutch writer, poet and columnist. His books, written in Dutch, often contain Persian literary themes. He regularly appears on Dutch TV as well.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi, commonly known as Imam Shirazi, was an Iranian-Iraqi Shia marja' and political activist.
Islamic Government, also known as The Jurist's Guardianship: Islamic Government, (Persian: حکومت اسلامی ولایت فقیه, Velayat-e faqih: Hokumat-i Eslami ) is a book by the Iranian Shi'i Muslim cleric/jurist, and revolutionary, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. First published in 1970, it is perhaps the most influential document written in modern times in support of theocratic rule.
The Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist is a concept in Twelver Shia Islamic law which holds that until the reappearance of the "infallible Imam", at least some of the "religious and social affairs" of the Muslim world should be administered by righteous Shi'i jurists. Shia disagree over whose "religious and social affairs" are to be administered and what those affairs are.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Sadiq Husayni Rohani was an Iranian Shia marja'.
Khomeinism refers to the religious and political ideas of the leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeinism also refers to the ruling clerical class of Iran after 1979. It can also be used to refer to the radicalization of segments of Shia populations of Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, and the recruitment by the Iranian government of Shia minorities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Africa. The word Khomeinist and Khomeinists, derived from Khomeinism, are also used to describe members of Iran's clerical rulers and differentiate them from regular Shia Muslim clerics.
The mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini houses the tombs of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, his wife Khadijeh Saqafi, and his second son Ahmad Khomeini; and some political figures, such as former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former Vice President Hassan Habibi, Lieutenant General Ali Sayad Shirazi, Iranian Revolution figure Sadeq Tabatabaei, and MP Marzieh Hadidchi. The mausoleum is located to the south of Tehran in the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery. Construction commenced in 1989 following Khomeini's death on June 3 of that year. It is still under construction, but when completed will be the centerpiece in a complex spread over 20 square kilometres, housing a cultural and tourist center, a university for Islamic studies, a seminary, a shopping mall, and a 20,000-car parking lot. The Iranian government has reportedly devoted 2 billion US dollars to this development.
Al-Musawi is a surname that indicates a person comes from a prestigious and highly respected Arabian family descending from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through al-Imam Musa al-Kadhim ibn Jafar as-Sadiq. Family members from this dynasty are amongst the most respected and well-known Arabs.
Both Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims agree on the three holiest sites in Islam being, respectively, the Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca; the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, in Medina; and the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, in Jerusalem.
NRC's Best Dutch novels is a list of the most popular Dutch-language novels as of 2007.
Zīnah al-Sādāt Humāyūnī, also Alavīyah Humāyūnī, Zinatossadat Alevi Homayooni or Homayuni, was a female religious scholar from Isfahan, Iran, who is the most prominent student of Iran's leading mujtaheda of the 20th century, Banu Amin.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammad Hadi Milani was an Iraqi-Iranian marja'.
Tafsir Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq refers to a collection of hadiths reportedly narrated by Ja'far al-Sadiq that comment on the verses of the Qur'an. The approach of these narratives is generally mystical. Initially, they were recited at Sufi circles in Kufa and Baghdad. The first person to have reported this collection is one of Sufi scholars Abu Abd al-Rahman Sulami as part of his Haqaiq al-Tafsir. While Sulami provides parts of the hadiths, Sufi scholar Khargushi provides some other in his Arais al-Bayan fi Haqaiq al-Quran Ruzbihan Baqli.
The Khomeini family, also transliterated as Khomeyni, is an Iranian religious Shia family that migrated from Nishapur, to Awadh in the 18th-century, and then finally settling in Khomeyn in the early 19th-century. They claim descent from the seventh Shiite Imam, Musa al-Kadhim, and hence are a Musawi family.
Seyyed Mohammad Ali Keshavarz Sadr was a lawyer, judge, author and leading figure in the National Front of Iran. A close friend and associate of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, often acting as his official deputy, he nationalised the Iranian fishing industry and played a major role in the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry. He served as governor of Isfahan, Gilan and Tehran. He entered parliament as representative of Khorramabad. After resisting the 1953 Iranian coup d'état which toppled the democratically elected government of Mossadegh, Keshavarz Sadr was imprisoned and tortured. After his release he became spokesperson of the Second National Front and authored a range of books.
Ruhollah Khomeini's life in exile was the period that Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini spent from 1964 to 1979 in Turkey, Iraq and France, after Mohamed Reza Shah Pahlavi had arrested him twice for dissent from his “White Revolution” announced in 1963. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, and returned to Tehran from exile on 1979.