Guide to Specialists

Babak Rahimi
Senior Fellow, Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program
June 2006 – August 2006

ARCHIVED SPECIALIST PROFILE

Project Focus
The Sistani Factor: The Relevance of Ayatollah Sistani to the Democratization of Post-Saddam Iraq

Languages: Persian

Babak Rahimi recently received tenure as a professor of Islamic studies at the University of California, San Diego. His main focus is the study of state and society throughout Islamic history, in particular the formation of Islamic public spheres. Rahimi has written many journal articles and conference papers concerning Iran and Islamic history.

Among his numerous awards and grants are a visiting fellowship in the Department of Anthropology from the London School of Economics, 2000–01; American Political Science Association and American Sociological Association travel grants in 2003 and 2004; and a fellowship in the European-American Young Scholar’s Summer Institute on “Secularization and Religion” at the University of Erfurt and National Humanities Center.

Rahimi holds a Ph.D. from the European University Institute, a master’s from the University of Nottingham, and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.

Available on usip.org:

• Ayatollah Sistani and the Democratization of Post-Baathist Iraq
  Senior Fellow Project Report, September 14, 2006

Publications:

• Ayatollah Sistani and the Democratization of Post-Ba'athist Iraq
  Special Report (June 2007)
• The Ghostly Remains of Al-Zarqawi
  Unpublished Op-Ed (July 2006)
• "Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani and the Democratization of Post-Saddam Iraq," MERIA (Vol. 8, No. 4, 2004).
• "A Comparative Study of the Ottoman and Safavid Origins," Thesis Elevin (Vol. 76, No. 1, 2004).
• "Cyberdissent: The Interest in Revolutionary Iran," MERIA (Vol. 7, No. 3, 2003).