The Study of Shiʿi Islam History, Theology and Law
I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
Shiʿi Islam, with its rich and extensive history, has played a crucial role in the evolution of Islam as both a major world religion and civilisation. The prolific achievements of Shiʿi theologians, philosophers and others are testament to the spiritual and intellectual wealth of this community. Yet Shiʿi studies has unjustly remained a long-neglected field, despite the important contribution that Shiʿism 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 Shiʿi Islam presents papers originally delivered at the first international colloquium dedicated exclusively to Shiʿi studies, held in 2010 at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. Within the book are eight sections, namely, history, the Qurʾan and its Shiʿi interpretations, ḥadīth, law, authority, theology, rites and rituals, and intellectual traditions and philosophy. Each section begins with an introduction contextualising the aspects of studying Shiʿi Islam particular to its theme, before going on to address topics such as the state of the field, methodology and tools, and the primary issues with which contemporary scholars of Shiʿi studies are dealing. The scope and depth here covered makes this book of especial interest to researchers and students alike within the field of Islamic studies.
The volume benefits from the diverse expertise of nearly 30 eminent scholars, including Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Meir M. Bar-Asher, Farhad Daftary, Daniel De Smet, Gerald R. Hawting, Nader El-Bizri, Etan Kohlberg, Wilferd Madelung, Andrew Newman, Ismail K. Poonawala, Sabine Schmidtke and Paul E. Walker.
Watch an interview with Gurdofarid Miskinzoda about The Study of Shi‘i Islam.
Foreword, by Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
Preface
Contributors
Note on Transliteration and Dates
Abbreviations
Part I: History and Historiography
Introduction
Wilferd Madelung
1. Reflections on the Expression dīn ʿAlī: The Origins of the Shiʿi Faith
Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
2. The Study of the Ismailis: Phases and Issues
Farhad Daftary
3. Al-Maqrīzī’s Connection to the Fatimids
Nasser Rabbat
Part II: The Qurʾan and its Shiʿi Interpretations
Introduction
Meir M. Bar-Asher
4. What Defines a (Pre-modern) Shiʿi Tafsīr? Notes towards the History of the Genre of Tafsīr in Islam, in the Light of the Study of the Shiʿi Contribution
Andrew Rippin
5. The Tafsīr of al-Ḥibarī (d. 286/899): Qurʾanic Exegesis and Early Shiʿi Esotericism
Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
6. The Empire Writes Back: Fatimid Ismaili Taʾwīl (Allegoresis) and the Mysteries of the Ancient Greeks
David Hollenberg
7. The Authority to Interpret the Qurʾan
Meir M. Bar-Asher
Part III: Shiʿi Ḥadīth
Introduction
Etan Kohlberg
8. Writing and Resistance: The Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Early Shiʿism
Maria Massi Dakake
9. Pre-Būyid Ḥadīth Literature: The Case of al-Barqī from Qumm (d. 274/888 or 280/894) in Twelve Sections
Roy Vilozny
10. The Story of ‘Pen and Paper’ and its Interpretation in Muslim Literary and Historical Tradition
Gurdofarid Miskinzoda
Part IV: Shiʿi Law
Introduction
Mohyddin Yahia
11. Renunciation (Zuhd) in the Early Shiʿi Tradition
Christopher Melchert
12. The Evolution of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Theory of Ismaili Jurisprudence as Reflected in the Chronology of his Works on Jurisprudence
Ismail K. Poonawala
13. The Theory of Māl among the Zaydīs
Sayyid Zayd al-Wazir
Part V: Authority
Introduction
Andrew J. Newman
14. ‘Seeking the Face of God’: The Safawid Ḥikmat Tradition’s Conceptualisation of Walāya Takwīniyya
Sajjad Rizvi
15. The Role of the Imam-caliph as Depicted in Official Treatises and Documents Issued by the Fatimids
Paul E. Walker
16. ‘Minority Reports’: Twelver Shiʿi Disputations and Authority in the Būyid Period
Andrew J. Newman
Part VI: Theology
Introduction
Wilferd Madelung
17. Early Imāmī Theology as Reflected in the Kitāb al-kāfī of al-Kulaynī
Wilferd Madelung
18. Al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī: His Writings on Theology and their Reception
Hassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke
Part VII: Rites and Rituals
Introduction
Gerald R. Hawting
19. ʿĀshūrāʾ Rituals, Identity and Politics: A Comparative Approach (Lebanon and India)
Sabrina Mervin
20. The Luminous Lamp: The Practice of Chirāgh-i rawshan among the Ismailis of Central Asia
Hakim Elnazarov
Part VIII: Philosophy and Intellectual Traditions
Introduction
Daniel De Smet
21. Shahrastānī’s Ḥanīf Revelation: A Shiʿi Philosophico-Hermeneutical System
Toby Mayer
22. Philosophising at the Margins of ‘Shiʿi Studies’: Reflections on Ibn Sīnā’s Ontology
Nader El-Bizri
Epilogue, by Azim Nanji
Index
Farhad Daftary is the Co-Director of The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, and Head of the Institute's Department of Academic Research and Publications. Since the mid-1960s, when he was completing his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, he has cultivated his interest in Shiʿi studies, with special reference to its Ismaili tradition, on which he is an authority. As well as serving on various editorial boards, Dr Daftary is a consulting editor of Encyclopaedia Iranica, co-editor (with W. Madelung) of Encyclopaedia Islamica, and the general editor of the ‘Ismaili Heritage Series’ and the ‘Ismaili Texts and Translations Series’. He is the author and editor of numerous publications, including The Ismāʿīlīs (1990; 2nd ed., 2007), The Assassin Legends (1994), A Short History of the Ismāʿīlīs (1998), Intellectual Traditions in Islam (2000), Ismaili Literature (2004), A Modern History of the Ismailis (2011), as well as many articles and encyclopaedia entries. Dr Daftary's books have been translated into Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Gujarati and various European languages.
Gurdofarid Miskinzoda is the Managing Editor of the 'Shiʿi Heritage Series'. Since receiving her PhD in the study of History of the Near and Middle East and Islam from SOAS, University of London, she has worked as Research Associate and Coordinator of Shiʿi Studies in the Department of Academic Research and Publication of the Institute of Ismaili Studies. Dr Miskinzoda is the author of Narratives of the Life of Muḥammad: Redefining Sīra Literature (forthcoming) as well as various articles.