A HISTORY OF SHI’I ISLAM

Numerous studies have been published in the West on Shi[i Islam that tackled various aspects of this school of thought using diverse techniques and methods. Works focusing on individual Shi[i Imams, scholars, doctrines and also history started to appear since the 1980s. This present work however fills a real gap in that it is the most comprehensive so far. The author, a highly respected scholar of Shi[i Islam weaves a cogent narrative on the development and rise of the various Shi[i sects and how they came to be dominant in their present locale of existence. His book The Ismai’lis was majestic enough, but the author has made here an even better effort including all the Shi[i sects with their doctrines clearly elaborated in one single volume. It is even more impressive that the learned author has dealt with even the formation of doctrinal texts (read Hadith) with the formation of these various Shi[i sects. The volume begins with an overview of the field of Shi[i studies in western academia as well as an overview of medieval Sunni perceptions of sects, such as the views of Ibn Khaldun and al-Ghazali. The second chapter starts with the origins of early Shi[i Islam which tackles the first origins of the sect and ending with the role of Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja[far al-Sadiq in providing Shi[ism with the concept of Imam and the controversial notion of taqiyyah or dissimulation. Here the author does not depart far from the consensus on the role of al-Baqir and al-Sadiq already given by Jafri in his Origins of Shiite Islam (1977).