The Market for Ayatollahs: Competition, Collusion, and Religious Authority in Shiʿi Islam (CURA Colloquium)

Abstract: Najaf in Iraq and Qom in Iran – the two preeminent centers of Twelver Shi‘ite legal education and learning in the world – are typically described as being in competition with one another for ideological influence and to host the most widely followed ayatollahs. This talk offers a different interpretation of Shi‘ite religious authority. The relationship between Najaf and Qom is analyzed as a duopoly, a market structure in which two interdependent firms dominate. These seminaries compete to prevent either from monopolizing Shi‘ite religious authority. But they also collude to 1) protect their market share by preventing the emergence of rival centers, and 2) preserve Shi‘ite clerics’ exclusive authority to extract religious rents from believers by suppressing doctrinal and popular movements that might challenge the Usuli school that dominates Twelver Shi‘ism today. This collusive behavior in the religious marketplace stifles innovation and explains why no Shi‘ite version of salafism has developed.

Reading the paper in advance is required for attendance. Email cura@bu.edu for your copy.

Co-sponsored by the School of Theology

When 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm on Friday, January 19, 2024
Building Pardee School of Global Studies, 154 Bay State Road
Room Eilts Room - 2nd floor
Contact Name Jennifer Hunter
Phone 617-353-5241
Contact Email cura@bu.edu
Contact Organization Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs
Fees Free
Speakers David Siddhartha Patel, Research Fellow, Middle East Initiative, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School