Isma‘ili Continuity and Social Change: Chronotopes and Practicing Taqiyya within the Sulaymani Community of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This paper examines discourses around the religious and social practice of taqiyya among members of the Sulaymani Isma‘ili community in Saudi Arabia. Isma‘ilism, in the context of 1200 years of anti-Shi‘a discrimination, cultivated the practice known as taqiyya (Arabic, ‘circumscription’) as a tool for self-preservation, which was then further rationalized and reinforced by the sect’s esoteric theology. Taqiyya consists of concealing religious identity, public avoidance of certain rituals, and, in some instances, claiming to be a member of the unmarked Sunni majority. Sweeping changes in Saudi society in the last several years have meant a growing ambivalence about taqiyya and its continued utility. This is significant since taqiyya for many of our interlocutors in this study is not merely a survival tactic. Instead, it is better understood as an embodied disposition cultivated against the backdrop of household privacy. This disposition intimately links everyday comportment to the esoteric cosmology of Isma‘ilism, which is the distinctive and iconic feature of the faith. Our interlocutors’ narratives demonstrated how the invocation of different spatial and temporal frameworks provides a basic heuristic by which to interpret these individuals’ accounts of taqiyya. For some of these individuals, taqiyya is an essential and timeless practice, while for others, the meaning has been reshaped by the recent socio-political reforms.