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The Imam, the Divine Guide, is the central point around which the Shi'ite religion turns. The power of Shi'ism comes from the actions of the Imam. This title is reserved exclusively for the sucessors of the prophets in their mission. The author shows that from the beginning of Shi'ite Islam until the tenth century, the Imam was primarily a master of knowledge with supernatural powers, not a jurist theologian. The Imam is the threshold through which God and the creatures communicate. He is thus a cosmic necessity, the key and the center of the universal economy of the sacred. The author presents Shi'ism as a religion founded on double dimensions where the role of the leader remains constantly...
For the public at large Shi’ism often implies a host of confused representations, suggesting more often than not obscurantism, intolerance, political violence and other ignominies running hot or cold in response to world events. In fact for many people, Shi’ism stands for "radical Islam", or – worse – "Islamic terrorism". In some respects, nothing is more familiar than Shi’ism, and yet nothing is more misunderstood. For some twenty years the media have increased their coverage of the phenomenon. Never, or only rarely, do they formulate the question we ask here: what is Shi’ism? What is this belief that inspires millions of people dispersed throughout the world? This book provides...
This book is an English translation of the award-winning book by Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi on the Book of the Proof (Kitab al-Hujja) part of the Sufficient Book (Kitab al-Kafi), authored by one of the most celebrated religious authorities and a foundational figure of Shi'i Islam, Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni (d. ca. 940 CE). The significance of this source for the formation and development of Shi'i beliefs and doctrines cannot be overestimated. Whilst the field of Shi'i studies is still dominated by works focused on legal, political, or theological aspects of Sh'i Islam, Amir-Moezzi's approach to the study of the early Shi'i traditions in this work is characterised by a keen interest in its...
For all Muslims the QurE3/4an is the word of God. In the first centuries of Islam, however, many individuals and groups, and some ShiEis, believed that the generally accepted text of the QurE3/4an is corrupt. The ShiEis asserted that redactors had altered or deleted among other things all passages that supported the rights of EAli and his successors or that condemned his enemies. One of the fullest lists of these alleged changes and of other variant readings is to be found in the work of al-SayyArA (3rd/9th century), which is indeed among the earliest ShiEi books to have survived. In many cases the alternative readings that al-SayyArA presents substantially contribute to our understanding of early ShiEi doctrine and of the early and numerous debates about the QurE3/4an in general.
Within the field of Islamic Studies, scientific research of Muslim theology is a comparatively young discipline. Much progress has been achieved over the past decades with respect both to discoveries of new materials and to scholarly approaches to the field. The Oxford Handbook of IslamicTheology provides a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the current state of the field. It provides a variegated picture of the state of the art and at the same time suggests new directions for future research.Part One covers the various strands of Islamic theology during the formative and early middle periods, rational as well as scripturalist. To demonstrate the continuous interaction among the vario...
This volume advances the critical study of exegetical, doctrinal, and political authority in Shiʿi Islam. It presents new frameworks for interpreting the diverse modes of rationality and esotericism in Shiʿism and the socio-epistemic values they represent within Muslim discourse.
In celebration of the many contributions of Claude Gilliot to Islamic studies, an international group of twenty-one friends and colleagues join together to explore books and written culture in the Muslim world. Divided into three sections – authors, genres and traditions – the essays explore themes that have been of central interest and concern to Gilliot himself including the Qurʾān, tafsīr, ḥadīth, poetry, and mysticism. Gilliot’s detailed and extensive work on many authors and texts, literary genres, and specific case-studies on many Muslim traditions renders this volume an apt tribute to him as well as offering Islamic studies’ scholars valuable research insights on these s...
Shi'i Islam, with its rich and extensive history, has played a crucial role in the evolution of Islam as both a major world religion and civilization. The prolific achievements of Shi?i theologians, philosophers and others are testament to the spiritual and intellectual wealth of this community. Yet Shi?i studies has unjustly remained a long-neglected field, despite the important contribution that Shi'ism has made to Islamic traditions. Only in recent decades, partially spurred by global interest in political events of the Middle East, have scholars made some significant contributions in this area. The Study of Shi'i Islam presents papers originally delivered at the first international collo...
This book examines the development of Shi'i Islam through the lenses of belief, narrative, and memory.
Ibn t w s (d. 664/1266) was a famous Sh scholar and bibliophile. This book portrays his intellectual world and working methods, and reconstructs, as far as possible, his extensive library, which included many works now lost. Kohlberg's monograph is an important contribution to Sh studies and to the history of Arabic literature.