20 SOCIAL SCIENTIST open to discussion. The recent "Islamic revival'5 needs not only to be explained in terms of socio-political context in which Islam may be called upon as a political ideology, but we should also try to explain the persistence of the vitality of Islam as a religious conviction. It is thft vitality that makes possible the use (for better or for worse) of Islam as a political ideology in contexts where the other present-day world religions arc being replaced by secular ideologies. There may be other explanations for this phenomenon. Hower it is hoped that this will start a discussion on a point that has been much neglected in Orientalist studies. 1 See A S Bujra, The Politics of Stratification: A Study of Political Change in South Arabian Town, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1970. 2 I have denned "fundamentalism" as the tendency to take literally the text of the holy scriptures on which a religion is based. The opposite is "religious liberalism'* in which these texts are taken as historical examples of more abstract ethical principles, and not to be applied indiscriminately in different historical context. 3 SeeJ A Bill, The Politics of Iran: Groups, Classes and Modernization, Columbus, Merill, 1972; and M Zonis, The Political Elite of Iran, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1971. 4 About 1970, the People's Republic of China had some popularity with leftist opposition groups, but since 1971 China had developed quite friendly relations with the Shah's regime. At the moment no organized political group in Iran claims adherence to the Chinese line. 8 About labour unions and labour conflicts in the Shah's Iran see °Iran: Trade Unions, Agriculture and Nutrition", MERIP Reports, no 71, 1978. 6 See H Algar, "The Oppositional Role of the Ulama in Twentieth Century Iran" in N R Keddie (ed), Scholars, Saints and Sufis, Muslim Religious Institutions since 1500, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1972; and N R Keddie, "The Roots of the Ulama's Power in Modern Iran", Studio. Islamica, no 29, 1969, pp 31-53. 7 About the political opinions amongst Shi'a leaders since the beginning of the century, see A H Hairi, Shi'ism and Constitutionalism in Iran, Leiden, Brill, 1977. 8 The Iranian constitution of 1906, which was formally maintained till the recent revolution, provided for a committee of religious leaders to check legislation in contradiction with Islamic law, but this provision was never applied. 9 For a detailed analysis of economic development, see F Halliday, Iran: Dictatorship and Development, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1979. 10 At the moment of writing, when elections had not yet been completed in some rebelling minority areas, the party of the Islamic Republic remained just under the absolute majority, but it was clear that no stable government could be constituted without its support. 11 About Bani Sadr's economic ideas, see his recent book, A H Bani Sadr, Qjielle revolution pour Is Iran? Paris, Fayollc, 1980. 12 The following argument has been developed in more detail in a separate article, N 0 Kielstra, "Law and Reality in Modern Islam", paper presented at the Conference on Religion and Religious Movements in the Mediterranean Area, Amsterdam, 18-20 December 1979. 13 See M Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, London, Routledgc and Kegan Paul, 1966; and Natural Symbols, London, Barrie and Rockliff, 1970. u Ibid.