Review of In a Pure Muslim Land: Shiʿism between Pakistan and the Middle East by Simon Wolfgang Fuchs

Abstract

By some estimates, the Shiʿis of Pakistan, roughly around 25 million people, represent, after that of Iran, the second-largest community of Shiʿis all around the world. Simon Fuchs’s book is among the few scholarly works which have tried to shed light on this relatively under-studied community. His study of Pakistani Shiʿis goes beyond their internal social and bureaucratic relations within the state, and concentrates more on the religious transnational trends which they have forged, especially after the 1979 Revolution in Iran. He argues how the Islamic Revolution in Iran, a watershed moment for Shiʿi transnationalism, was factored in by some Shiʿi scholars in Pakistan to consolidate their base throughout the community. Describing the evolution of these transnational ties, and its multi-layer interaction with the clerical authority and sectarian polemics in Pakistan, is the theme running through all chapters of the book.