The Study of Shi’i Islam

Abstract

Shi’i Islam is a broad subject encompassing history, theology, ritual, culture, and other topics. Several current monographs provide an overview of one or more of these subject areas. Two examples that come to mind are Pedram Khosronejad’s edited volumes on Shi’i pilgrimage, ritual, and material culture, The Art and Material Culture of Iranian Shi’ism: Iconography and Religious Devotion in Shi’i Islam (2011) and Saints and Pilgrims in Iran and Neighboring Countries (2012). While these volumes help us understand the pilgrimage practices, art, and other cultural expressions of Shi’ism, they are not focused on the fundamentals, such as the movement’s history, various theological schools, legal traditions, and textual sources. The Study of Shi’i Islam: History, Theology, and Law helps to fill this void with its large and serious collection of essays on Imami, Ismaili, and Zaydi Shi’ism. The volume is organized into eight sections: “History and Historiography,” “The Qur’an and Its Shi’i Interpretations,” “Shi’i Hadith,” “Shi’i Law,” “Authority,” “Theology,” “Rites and Rituals,” and “Philosophy and Intellectual Traditions.” Contributions include essays by some of the greatest contemporary scholars working in Shi’ism, including Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Etan Kohlberg, Sajjad Rizvi, Maria Massi Dakake, and Wilferd Madelung. The Study of Shi’i Islam opens with a preface that includes a succinct and important discussion about the marginalization of Shi’ism in the academy. The reasons for the lack of attention, which has been somewhat remedied in recent years, include a worldview that used Western Christianity to create categories of Islam and the popularity of scientific Orientalism. As the ...