Western Studies of Shi‘i Islam

Abstract

This paper will examine the historical study of Shi‘ism in the western academy and argue that until the last two decades, western scholarship looked at it primarily through a Sunni lens. This changed during the 1980s due to various socio-political factors, among them Iran’s Islamic revolution, Hizbollah’s emergence in Lebanon, and the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, forced western scholars to look at it in different light. Consequently, they began to examine different facets of this branch of Islam, ranging from its concept of centralized authority during the Twelfth Imam’s Greater Occultation to liturgies, rituals, and political theory.