Tārīkh-i madhāhib-i Shīʿa

This is a Persian translation of Farhad Daftary, A History of Shiʿi Islam.

Description from A History of Shiʿi Islam

Shiʿi Muslims have played a crucial role, proportionally greater than their relative size, in furthering the civilizational achievements of Islam. Indeed, the Shiʿi scholars and literati of various branches and regions, including scientists, philosophers, theologians, jurists and poets, have made seminal contributions to Islamic thought and culture. There have also been numerous Shiʿi dynasties, families or individual rulers who patronized scholars, poets and artists as well as various institutions of learning in Islam. In spite of its significance, however, Shiʿi Islam has received little scholarly attention in the West, and when it has been discussed, whether in general or in terms of some of its subdivisions, it has normally been treated marginally as a ‘sect’ or a ‘heterodoxy’. The present book draws on the scattered findings of modern scholarship in the field, attempting to explain the formative era of Shiʿi Islam, when a multitude of Muslim groups and schools of thought were elaborating their doctrinal positions. Subsequent chapters are devoted to the history of the Ithnaʿasharis, or TwelversSee Ithna’asharis., the IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 765), as his successor., the Zaydis and the Nusayris (now more commonly known in Syria as the Alawis), the four communities that account for almost the entirety of the Shiʿi Muslim population of the world. The result is a comprehensive survey of Shiʿi Islam that will serve as an accessible work of reference for academics in both Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, as well as the broader field of the History of Religions, and also more general, non-specialist readers.

Contents from A History of Shiʿi Islam

Genealogical Tables and Lists
Preface
Note on Transliteration and Dates
Abbreviations

1. Introduction: Progress in the Study of Shiʿi Islam
   Diversity in Early Islam
   Medieval Sunni Perceptions
   Medieval European Perceptions
   Orientalist Perspectives
   Modern Scholarship on Shiʿi Islam

2. The Origins and Early History of Shiʿi Islam
   Origins of Shiʿism
   The Early Shiʿa
   The Kaysaniyya
   The ghulat
   The Early Imamiyya
   The Imami Shiʿi Doctrine of the Imamate

3. The Ithnaʿasharis or Twelvers
   The Later Twelver Imams and the Hidden Mahdi
   From the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam to the Mongol Invasions
   From Nasir al-Din al-Tusi to the Advent of the Safawids
   From the Safawids to Early Modern Times
   From Around 1215/1800 to the Present

4. The Ismailis
   The Early Ismailis
   The Fatimid Phase in Ismaili History
   The Tayyibi Ismailis: The Yamani and Indian Phases
   The Nizari Ismailis: The AlamutFortress of the Nizari Ismailis in northern Iran, which fell to the Mongols in 654 AH/1256 CE. Phase
   Later developments in Nizari Ismaili History

5. The Zaydis
   The Early Zaydis
   The Zaydis of the Caspian Region in Persia
   The Zaydis of Yaman

6. The Nusayris or ʿAlawis
   Nusayri Studies
   History of the Nusayris
   The Nusayri-ʿAlawi Doctrines

Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index