Contents -- 1 CULTURE, HISTORY, AND POLITICS -- Culture, Common Sense, and Symbolic Structures -- History, Politics, and the Sociology of Iranian Islam -- 2 RISE AND DECLINE OF THE MADRASA -- Shi'ite Islam -- The Karbala Paradigm and the Family of the Prophet -- Paradigm, Passion, and Drama -- The Establishment of Shi'ism as a State Religion -- Formation and Defense of the Canon -- The Scriptural School Form -- The Islamic Madrasa -- The Jewish Yeshiva -- The Christian Studium -- Decline of the Scriptural School Form -- 3 MADRASA: STYLE AND SUBSTANCE -- The Madrasa as a Free University -- The Institution: Students, Innovations, Problems -- The Ruling Elite and the Role of the Marja'-i Taqlid -- The Vocal Elite and the Role of Wa'iz -- 4 QUM: ARENA OF CONFLICT -- Evolution of the Shrine Town: Shi'ite and Royal -- The Religious Establishment and the Expanding Bureaucratic State -- The Demonstrations of 15 Khordad 1975 -- Technocratic versus Religious Style -- 5 DISCOURSE AND MIMESIS: SHI'ISM IN EVERYDAY LIFE -- Sufism, Self-Development, and the Upper-Class Idiom -- Social Utopia and the Religion of the Ulama -- Political Theory: 'Ali and Husayn -- Islamic Economics -- Personal Morality -- Reforming Utopia? -- Ritual Drama and Popular Shi'ism -- 6 THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT OF 1977-1979 -- The Social Drama: Political Liberation -- Prologue -- The Breach: Muharram 1977 -- Ramadan and Black Friday, 1978 -- Military Rule and Muharram, 1978 -- Victory 1979 and Its Problems -- Ideological Revolution -- Karbala in the Active Mood -- Governing in the Mold of 'Ali and Muhammad -- A New Era -- EPILOGUE: MUHARRAM 1400/1979 -- The Muharram Drama -- Revolutionary Processes and Youth -- Continuing Conversations -- APPENDIXES -- 1 Courses of Study -- 2 Maraji'-i Taqlid since the Twelfth Imam -- 3 Qum Statistical Profile.

4 Chronology of Religious and State Administrations -- 5 Budget of the Shrine of Fatima, Hadrat-i Ma'suma, in Qum -- 6 Karbala -- NOTES -- GLOSSARY -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX.