Product Description: The Sunnī-Shi'a schism is often framed as a dispute over the identity of the successor to Muhammad. In reality, however, this fracture only materialized a century later in the important southern Iraqi city of Kūfa (present-day Najaf)...read more

Product Description: The reputation of Shi'ism in the Islamic world, as elsewhere, has undergone many vicissitudes, but it is now higher than ever. In this new study, The author moves us toward an understanding of the social, intellectual, and theological crises that Prophet Muhammed and his cousin, Ali, together with some of the impoverished early Muslims (the precursors of Shi'ism) were struggling to solve...read more

Product Description: This volume complements the selections of Wilferd Madelung's articles previously published by Variorum (Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval Islam, and Religious and Ethnic Movements in Medieval Islam). The first articles here examine legal and political aspects of early Shi`ism...read more

Product Description: This book is an examination of the traditions and legends concerning early Islam s first and most infamous heretic, the Yemenite Jew known as Abd All h ibn Saba . Tracing the evolution and transformation of the many stories and narratives about Ibn Saba as adapted by Sunn and Sh scholars alike, this work attempts for the first time to give a comprehensive account of the formation of the image of Ibn Saba as the quintessential heretic of Islam s early years...read more

One day in history changed the course of the Islamic nation for all time to come. It deepened the differences between Islam's both main branches, the Sunni and the Shi'ite. It created states and undermined others. It had an impact which not many people in any place or time can truly fathom. That date is: October 14, 680 A.D. when the younger grandson of the Prophet of Islam, namely Hussain son of Ali ibn Abu Talib, was martyred together with all males of his family, with the exception of his ailing son Ali, and of his few supporters who stood with him to the end. This date is referred to as Ashura, the tenth of Muharram, which has been commemorated since that year and will continue to be commemorated till the end of time. This book details the events, social and political, that led to the martyrdom of Hussain son of Ali and its aftermath as well as the biographies of nine descendants of Hussain who are referred to by Shi'ite Muslims as the Infallible Imams. This book is full of history and, for the sympathetic reader, it is full of admonishment. It is a tale of heroism unmatched in the entire history of mankind.

Shows how the frictions and disparities between the different pockets of believers scattered throughout the Eastern Islamic world in the late ninth and tenth centuries, the relations between each of these and the Abbasid political institution favoured the narration of different bodies of the Imams' traditions

Product Description: The Middle East has become a flash point for extremism and intrareligious violence, as well as a cultural debacle of women's rights. From the current derelict state of women's rights in the Arab world to the current sectarian divide in Iraq and the ongoing hatred between Shia and Sunni Muslims, this book demonstrates the genesis of the collapse of the original Islam of Mohammad and the core of the split of these two sects of Islam while also looking deep within one of the most powerful struggles for women's rights-the struggle led by Fatima, the daughter of Mohammad, that took place in the early days of the religion Shattered explores what took place during and after these events...read more

The Charismatic Community examines the rise and development of Shiite religious identity in early Islamic history, analyzing the complex historical and intellectual processes that shaped the sense of individual and communal religious vocation. The book reveals the profound and continually evolving connection between the spiritual ideals of the Shiite movement and the practical processes of community formation. Author Maria Massi Dakake traces the Quranic origins and early religious connotations of the concept of walayah and the role it played in shaping the sense of communal solidarity among followers of the first Shiite Imam, Ali b. Abi Talib. Dakake argues that walayah pertains not only to the charisma of the Shiite leadership and devotion to them, but also to solidarity and loyalty among the members of the community itself. She also looks at the ways in which doctrinal developments reflected and served the practical needs of the Shiite community, the establishment of identifiable boundaries and minimum requirements of communal membership, the meaning of women s affiliation and identification with the Shiite movement, and Shiite efforts to engender a more normative and less confrontational attitude toward the non-Shiite Muslim community."

Reflects the interdisciplinary nature of Shi'ite studies. This title covers the birth of Shi'ism and traces its development. It consists of articles which explore the theologies and philosophical ideals of Shi'ism. It is devoted to Shi'ite law, with special reference to the evolution of 'independent reasoning'.

This book reconstructs the development of an Islamic ideal in the form of Shi'ism It traces the Shi'a response to this ideal, from its origins among a group of the Prophet's Companions until the Imamate of Ja'far as-Sadiq, by which time all the fundamental elements of Shi'ism had appeared.

Product Description: Explores Western and Muslim scholarship on multiple aspects of the Twelver Shi’ite tradition.Shi’ite Heritage brings together Western and Muslim scholarship on multiple aspects of the Twelver Shi’ite tradition, including history, authority, jurisprudence, ritual, and interactions with the Sunnite majority...read more

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Describes the origins, beliefs, and practices of Muslims. (view table of contents)

Provides an account of the origins and development of Islam, discussing the differences between the various sects and examining Islam in its social and historical context

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