Twelver Shiism: Unity and Diversity in the Life of Islam, 632 to 1722

by Andrew J. Newman

Overview

As many as 40 different Shìi groups existed in the 9th and 10th centuries yet only 3 forms have survived. Why is Twelver Shìism one of them
As the established faith in modern Iran, the majority faith in Iraq and areas in the Gulf and with its adherents forming sizeable minorities elsewhere in the region, Twelver Shi'ism is arguably the most successful branch of Shi'ism. Andrew J. Newman chronicles the progression of Twelver Shiism, exploring the numerous external challenges and internal disagreements that marked the lives of believers in pockets across the Middle East to the early 18th century. During this time, from the 13th to the 15th century especially, with scholarly activity and the availability of earlier key texts of the faith limited, the region's many millenarian doctrines and movements threatened its demise. Only by the late 17th century was Twelver Shiism's survival assured, both in Iran and elsewhere in the region.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748678334
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Andrew J. Newman is Reader in Islamic Studies and Persian at the University of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction
Twelver Shii Studies to 1979
Years of expansion: Shii Studies in the aftermath of 1979
More recent trends
A different agenda
The sources

1. Shiism fragmented: the faith and the faithful from the seventh to the ninth century
From the death of the Prophet to the fall of the Umayyads
Internal divisions
The Shia and the Umayyads
Shii risings in the later eighth century
The Husaynid Imams in the later Umayyad period
The Husaynid Imams over the later Abbasid period
Summary and conclusion

2. Bereft of a leader: the early traditionists and the beginnings of doctrine and practice
Pockets of believers: the traditionists of Qum
The earliest compilations of the Imams' traditions: the Qummi responses of al-Barqi and al-Saffar 38
Pockets of believers: ... and Baghdad
The Qummi response to Baghdadi discourse: al-Kulayni's al-Kafi
Summary and conclusion

3. The challenge of 'the Uncertainty'
The reality of al-Hayra: 'the Imamate and the Enlightenment'
Al-Numani's Kitab al-Ghayba
The coming of the Buyids
Beyond al-Hayra: al-Ziyarat in theory and practice
Ibn Babawayh and the Imams' traditions
Confronting the confusion: Kamal al-Din
'Speaking truth to power': Uyun Akhbar al-Rida
Al-Itiqadat: a challenging pr cis
Al-Faqih: Ibn Babawayh and the Ahkam
Alternative approaches
Summary and conclusion

4. Majority and minority: rationalism on the defensive in the later Buyid period
The Shia in Baghdad: a beleaguered community
Al-Shaykh al-Mufid
Al-Sharif al-Murtada
Al-Shaykh al-Tusi: blending revelation and reason
The rationalists and the rijal
Al-Tusi and the ahkam/furu
Al-Tusi and the occultation
Alternative visions: disagreements among the faithful
Summary and conclusion

5. Betwixt and between: the Twelvers and the Turks
The initial legacy
The arrival of the Saljuqs
Scattered pockets and lost resources
The community in the west: Syria
Resurgent traditionism in Baghdad
The community in al-Hilla: the critique of al-Tusi
Populism on the Iranian plateau
The plateau's elites
Summary and conclusion

6. The Mongol and Ilkhanid periods: the rise and limits of the school of al-Hilla
The fall of Baghdad and the rise of al-Hilla
The state of the community
The jurisprudence of al-Hilla: cautious advances I
The Hillis and the Ahkam: cautious advances II
Al-Hilla, the traditions and the rijal
Alternative discourses
Summary and conclusion

7. The severest of challenges
The state of the faith in the fourteenth century
From west to east: the Shia in greater Syria/Lebanon
Ibn Makki's writings
The Shia of the Hijaz
Millenarianism on the plateau
Dissent in Ibn Makki's time
The age of the Timurids
The fifteenth-century community
The Shia of the Gulf
The renewal of the millenarian challenge
Summary and conclusion

8. Shiism in the sixteenth century: the limits of power (and influence)
The scattered pockets
The written legacy
Iran in the first Safawid century: a failure to take hold
The Lebanon
Arab Iraq: still viable after all these years
The Shia in the Hijaz and the Gulf
The Deccan 'states': more Shiism from above
Summary and conclusion

9. The past rediscovered and the future assured: Shiism in the seventeenth century
The scattered pockets
The written legacy
The dynamics of Shiism in seventeenth-century Iran
Iran: the external and internal challenges
Pre-Safawid sources, Persian and the anti-Sufi polemic
Pre-Safawid sources, Persian and Friday prayer
Rising above the polemics: Baqir al-Majlisi and the traditions
The latter days of the Safawids
The other centres: Iraq and the shrine cities
The Lebanon
Eastern Arabia and the Hijaz
The Indian subcontinent: winding up the Deccan
And further east
Summary and conclusion

Epilogue
A history of uncertainty, an uncertain history
Four themes

Appendix I
Scholars by region: fifth-twelfth Islamic centuries/eleventh-eighteenth centuries AD

Appendix II
Manuscript copies of key Twelver Shii written works, sixth-thirteenth Islamic centuries/twelfth-nineteenth centuries AD

Appendix III
Selected Safawid period rijal works

Appendix IV
Shuruh/Hawashi of key Twelver works, sixth-twelfth Islamic centuries/twelfth-eighteenth centuries AD

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Newman’s analysis provides a valuable perspective and numerous insights into the long intellectual developments which it covers. Moreover, showing as it does what can be achieved through diligent application of the biographical and bibliographical sources, the work has much to offer as a model for further studies.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society - George Warner. SOAS

‘Newman has rendered a vital contribution to the blossoming study of Twelver Shi’ism by delivering a survey of the key intellectual turning points supported by exhaustive references to many primary works.’

Journal of Shi‘a Islamic Studies - John Cappucci

‘Twelver Shiism provides a historical account of the development of this sect, from the conflicts over the successors of the Prophet Muhammad following his death in 632 to the fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1722. Newman appeals to a Western, nonspecialist audience that will leave the reader with an understanding of the progression of Twelver Shi‘ism as its followers learned to cope with the political and religious landscape that it encountered. The book pays special attention to the internal and external pressures that Twelvers faced, the diversity of the faith throughout its first millennium of existence, the development of the divide between religious scholars and lay believers, and the wide geographic distribution of pockets of Twelvers from Asia through the Middle East.’- The Middle East Journal

The Middle East Journal

"Newman's analysis provides a valuable perspective and numerous insights into the long intellectual developments which it covers. Moreover, showing as it does what can be achieved through diligent application of the biographical and bibliographical sources, the work has much to offer as a model for further studies." — George Warner, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

"Twelver Shiism provides a historical account of the development of this sect, from the conflicts over the successors of the Prophet Muhammad following his death in 632 to the fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1722. Newman appeals to a Western, nonspecialist audience that will leave the reader with an understanding of the progression of Twelver Shi'ism as its followers learned to cope with the political and religious landscape that it encountered. The book pays special attention to the internal and external pressures that Twelvers faced, the diversity of the faith throughout its first millennium of existence, the development of the divide between religious scholars and lay believers, and the wide geographic distribution of pockets of Twelvers from Asia through the Middle East."— The Middle East Journal

"Newman has rendered a vital contribution to the blossoming study of Twelver Shi'ism by delivering a survey of the key intellectual turning points supported by exhaustive references to many primary works." — John Cappucci, Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies

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