Table Of Content’
What is Shi i Islam?
For the public at large Shi’ism often implies a host of confused representations,
suggesting more often than not obscurantism, intolerance, political violence
and other ignominies running hot or cold in response to world events. In fact
for many people, Shi’ism stands for “radical Islam”, or – worse – “Islamic
terrorism”. In some respects, nothing is more familiar than Shi’ism, and yet
nothing is more misunderstood. For some twenty years the media have
increased their coverage of the phenomenon. Never, or only rarely, do they
formulate the question we ask here: what is Shi’ism? What is this belief that
inspires millions of people dispersed throughout the world?
This book provides a broad-based introduction to Shi’i Islam. It examines
what the Shi’i believe, how they see themselves and how they view the world.
It includes a thorough examination of doctrine, philosophy, the Shi’i approach
to the Qur’an and the historical evolution of Shi’ism as a branch of Islam. Too
often, and too quickly, the conclusion is drawn that Shi’ism is a marginal
heretical sect, fundamentally alien to the deeper truth of the great religion of
Islam, thrust by historical accident onto the political stage. Shi’ism either speaks
the truth of Islam, meaning that it is a truth of terror, or it is entirely foreign to
Islam and, therefore, merits outright rejection, as Islamic fundamentalists and
some individuals repeatedly claim. This book intends to explain why such
common misunderstandings of Shi’ism have taken root.
Written in an accessible format and providing a thorough overview of
Shi’ism, this book will be an essential text for students and scholars of Islamic
Studies or Iranian Studies.
Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi is Professor at the École Pratique des Hautes
Études, Sorbonne, France.
ChristianJambetisProfessorattheÉcolePratiquedesHautesÉtudes,Sorbonne,
France.
Routledge Persian and Shi’i Studies
Series editor: Andrew Newman, University of Edinburgh
Editorial Board: Dr Robert Gleave, Department of Religious Studies,
University of Bristol; Dr Marco Salati, Faculty of Oriental Studies,
University of Venice, Italy; Dr Kazuo Morimoto, Institute of Oriental
Culture, University of Tokyo, Japan; Dr Maria Szuppe, CNRS, Paris,
France; Mr Rasul Ja’fariyan, Library of Iranian and Islamic History,
Qum, Iran; Dr Mansur Sefatgul, Department of History, University of
Tehran, Iran.
1. The Twelver Shi’a as a Muslim Minoirty in India
Pulpit of Tears
Toby M. Howarth
2. Female Personalities in the Qur’an and Sunna
Examining the Major Sources of Imami Shi’i Islam
Rawand Osman
3. What is Shi’i Islam?
An Introduction
Mohammad-Ali Amir-Moezzi and Christian Jambet
’
What is Shi i Islam?
An Introduction
Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi and
Christian Jambet
Translated by Kenneth Casler and Eric Ormsby
FirstpublishedinEnglish2018
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Qu’est-cequeleshi’isme?ByMohammadAliAmir-Moezziand
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TranslatedbyKennethCaslerandEricOrmsby
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AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:Amir-Moezzi,MohammadAli,author.|Jambet,Christian,author.|
Casler,Kenneth,translator.|Ormsby,Eric,translator.
Title:WhatisShi’iIslam?:anintroduction/Mohammad-AliAmir-Moezzi
andChristianJambet;translatedbyKennethCaslerandEricOrmsby.
Othertitles:Qu’est-cequeleshi’isme?English
Description:NewYork,NY:Routledge,2018.|Series:RoutledgePersian
andShi’istudiesseries;v.3|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2017052878|ISBN9781138093706(hbk)|
ISBN9781138093737(pbk)|ISBN9781315106441(ebk)
Subjects:LCSH:Shi’ah.|Shi’ites.|Shi’ah--Doctrine.
Classification:LCCBP193.5.A45132018|DDC297.8/2--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2017052878
ISBN:978-1-138-09370-6(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-138-09373-7(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-10644-1(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of illustrations viii
Note ix
Preface x
Introduction 1
PART I
Doctrinal foundations: The early beginnings of Shi’ism
(MAAM) 9
1 Origins and conceptions of the world 11
A dual vision 13
A dualistic vision 15
2 The early beginnings of Shi’ism 19
The saints and the main branches 19
The lineage of the imams 20
PART II
The sources and contents of the sacred teachings 43
3 The foundational sources (MAAM) 45
The Qur’an and the hadith 45
Shi’i hadith 46
The Qur’an according to Shi’ism 48
4 Shi’i teachings and their levels (MAAM) 54
Canon law 54
Cosmogony and anthropogony 56
vi Contents
Eschatology 59
The collective dimension 60
The personal dimension 62
Theology and imamology 65
5 Walaya: The nucleus of faith (MAAM) 72
6 Symbolic interpretation (ta’wil) (CJ) 77
Esotericism in general 77
Ta’wil and messianic hope 79
Allegory or symbolism? 81
The Book and its interpretations 83
Exegesis starts from the Imam and comes back to him 87
The exegesis of correspondences 91
PART III
The historical evolution of Shi’ism 103
7 The roots of political Shi’ism (MAAM) 105
The Buyid dynasty and the Baghdad school 105
The school of Hilla 112
From the Safavid dynasty until the present day 114
8 Aspects of the jurist-theologian’s power (MAAM) 120
9 The followers of the original tradition (MAAM) 128
10 The politics of the philosophers (CJ) 139
The question of authority 139
Philosophy in confrontation with insurrection 143
The need for a master of truth 148
The ideal of politics and ideal politics 153
Collective religion, inner religion 156
PART IV
Shi’ism, wisdom and philosophy (CJ) 167
11 Moral perfection and contemplation 169
12 Philosophy and syncretism 178
13 Some historical signposts 180
Contents vii
14 From the question of being to the nature of God 187
15 The destination of man 193
16 From the visible to the invisible 198
Conclusion 207
Index 216
Illustrations
Figure
2.1 A genealogy of the imams and the main divisions of Shi’ism 37
Map
Map Main Shi’i regions today 210
Note
WehavechosennottotransliterateArabicorPersiantermsusingtheconventional
diacritical systems but, rather, to adopt a simplified transliteration in order to
simplifymattersfornon-specialistreaderswithout,however,impedingrecognition
ofwordsandnamesbythespecialist.
For the non-specialist, here are a few simple pronunciation guidelines. Kh
resembles the Spanish jota or the German ch. S is always hard; gh is pronounced
like a guttural r, and r like a rolled r. Q is pronounced gutturally.
Dates are ordinarily provided in both the Hijra and Gregorian calendars,
respectively. If the word “Shi’ism” is not qualified, it refers to Twelver or
Imami Shi’ism. With regard to proper names, sometimes we use the Arabic
article al, sometimes not. Thus the reader will encounter both al-Husayn and
Husayn. So too with b. or ibn: both mean “son of” as in ‘Ali b. Abi Talib =
‘Ali, son of Abi Talib.
In the bibliography at the end of each part, we only list publications in
European languages. Readers of Arabic or other languages of Islam will find
useful bibliographies in these languages in the works listed. Our bibliographies
are meant to complement the footnotes in chapters and have been kept to a
minimum. With a few exceptions, we make scant use of articles from specialist
reference works; for more details concerning the main figures, historical events,
technical topics, geographical places, titles of publications and so on, we
recommend the entries in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Encyclopaedia Iranica, The
CambridgeHistoryofArabicLiterature,TheCambridgeHistoryofIran,TheEncyclopaedia
of Religion, etc. As a rule, we do not provide bibliographical references to
articles from such publications or from generally accessible reference works.
