This fascinating study explores the emergence of a significant Sunni community on the margins of Shia Iran and delineates a 'Sunni arc' stretching from Central Asia southwards through the Iranian provinces of Khorasan and Baluchistan.

This fascinating study explores the emergence of a significant Sunni community on the margins of Shia Iran and delineates a 'Sunni arc' stretching from Central Asia southwards through the Iranian provinces of Khorasan and Baluchistan.

Sunni-Shia relations in Iran offer an analytical guide for the interpretation of inequality, securitization, and immigration. This book reorients our understanding of contemporary Iran by answering still unacknowledged questions: how is the relationship, the interaction and socio-political behaviour between the Islamic Republic and its Sunni minorities? Using unexamined sources and fieldwork, Hessam Habibi Doroh shows a clear insight into the life of Iranian Sunnis, their contention and cooperation with the state during Hasan Rouhani ́s presidency. Comparison with the wider region complements this nuanced portrayal of impacts of privatization, secularization, and securitization on the sectarian relations between the state and its minorities.

Religion, Politics and Ethnicity in Iran: Investigating the Case of the Sunni Deobandis focuses on the Deobandis, the dominant faction of Sunnis in Baluchistan, who, following the Iranian Revolution of 1979, have responded not only as an ethnic group but also a religious community to define their position amidst changing conditions and a complex range of conflicts and rivalries brought about by a new era under the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the gap between religion and state no longer exists and power has shifted to religious authorities. The author explores the issues of social and political change in Iran since the revolution, the Deobandis' interaction with Shia-dominant government institutions and authorities, as well as their ethnic connection and interaction with other Sunnis in the area. We see how the Sunni Deobandis have built their religious clans as a manifestation of power and prestige and enhanced institutions, such as mosques, madares and educational boards to successfully establish their popularity and become a dominant force in Baluchistan. Hoshang Noraiee is a London-based author and editor, consultant and independent researcher. Having studied for an MA in Political Economy at Middlesex University he then went on to complete a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Warwick. He has lectured in Sociology, International Political Economy and Globalisation at the University of Westminster and the London Metropolitan. He has published several articles and books in both English and Farsi and is also fluent in Baluchi, with a working knowledge of Urdu. His current research interests include ethnicity, nationalism, globalisation and political Islam.

South Asia is today the region inhabited by the largest number of Muslims---roughly 500 million. In the course of the Islamisation process, which begaun in the eighth century, it developed a distinct Indo-Islamic civilisation that culminated in the Mughal Empire. While paying lip service to the power centres of Islam in the Gulf, including Mecca and Medina, this civilisation has cultivated its own variety of Islam, based on Sufism. Over the last fifty years, pan-Islamic ties have intensified between these two regions. Gathering together some of the best specialists on the subject, this volume explores these ideological, educational and spiritual networks, which have gained momentum due to political strategies, migration flows and increased communications. At stake are both the resilience of the civilisation that imbued South Asia with a specific identity, and the relations between Sunnis and Shias in a region where Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a cultural proxy war, as evident in the foreign ramifications of sectarianism in Pakistan. Pan-Islamic Connections investigates the nature and implications of the cultural, spiritual and socio-economic rapprochement between these two Islams.

Explores the emergence, florescence, decay, and rejuvenation of the Sunni saint cult and shrine-complex of Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad-i Jam over nine-hundred years.