Politics and Truth, an Agonistic Reading: Readout of Imam Ali’s (A.S) Political Action from Othman Murder to Jamal War

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Tehran University

Abstract

What was the logic of political action of Imam Ali (A.S)? What conceptual frame would correctly assess the political action of Imam Ali as a political actor? It seems that we should cross from immanent religious reading to the historical-political reading on Imam Ali's methods of life. The importance of this transition and its results would be doubled under the political discourse of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, where we clearly see trying to achieve the model of politics in compliance with the logic of political action of Imam Ali (A.S). This transition can also be considered as a new aperture to link Islamic revolution studies and Shiism history studies.
In this research, we try taking advantage of an "agonistic pattern" - as a pattern that without ignoring fundamental conflicts in the political field, is going to design a system for achievement of political cohesion among conflicting forces that has been provided in "Ernesto Laclau" and "Chantal Mouffe" opinions. At first, we try to get out some principles for "political moderation" and then, match those principles with the political method of Imam Ali (A.S) - especially in events from the assassination of Othman to Jamal war. At the end, we try to present a model of political action of Imam Ali (A.S) that respond to the needs and matters of our days in politics.

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