Controversies in Formative Shiʿi Islam

Research into the formative period of Shiʿi Islam has come a long way in the last couple of decades. This welcome development has been inspired, in particular, by the work of Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, whose main insight has been to posit that “ancient” Shiʿism is marked precisely by those doctrines...

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Autor principal: Sajjad Rizvi
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Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2017
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/c4eeb9701b0a4e7f908629ee4d7a0cc8
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:c4eeb9701b0a4e7f908629ee4d7a0cc82021-12-02T19:22:54ZControversies in Formative Shiʿi Islam10.35632/ajis.v34i4.8032690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/c4eeb9701b0a4e7f908629ee4d7a0cc82017-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/803https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 Research into the formative period of Shiʿi Islam has come a long way in the last couple of decades. This welcome development has been inspired, in particular, by the work of Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, whose main insight has been to posit that “ancient” Shiʿism is marked precisely by those doctrines and positions that the later rationalizing tradition rejected as “extreme” (ghulūw). This particular form of heretication and othering made sense once the communities had been established; were seeking official recognition by the Abbasid and other royal courts; and developed the institutions of learning, as well as structures and hierarchies, visible in other Muslim confessions. Nevertheless, there remained the questions of what made Shiʿi Islam distinct, how one could differentiate among those tendencies that defined themselves as Shiʿi, and what sort of construction was “extremism” (I recognize that this is a highly inadequate rendition of ghulūw). Amir-Moezzi’s contribution is further complicated by Hossein Modarressi’s groundbreaking study of the formative period during the early 1990s, in which he posited that ghulūw was exterior to the circle of the Imams and perceived as a constant contrast and threat to the moderation of the scholarly community that remains to this day ... Sajjad RizviInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 34, Iss 4 (2017)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Sajjad Rizvi
Controversies in Formative Shiʿi Islam
description Research into the formative period of Shiʿi Islam has come a long way in the last couple of decades. This welcome development has been inspired, in particular, by the work of Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, whose main insight has been to posit that “ancient” Shiʿism is marked precisely by those doctrines and positions that the later rationalizing tradition rejected as “extreme” (ghulūw). This particular form of heretication and othering made sense once the communities had been established; were seeking official recognition by the Abbasid and other royal courts; and developed the institutions of learning, as well as structures and hierarchies, visible in other Muslim confessions. Nevertheless, there remained the questions of what made Shiʿi Islam distinct, how one could differentiate among those tendencies that defined themselves as Shiʿi, and what sort of construction was “extremism” (I recognize that this is a highly inadequate rendition of ghulūw). Amir-Moezzi’s contribution is further complicated by Hossein Modarressi’s groundbreaking study of the formative period during the early 1990s, in which he posited that ghulūw was exterior to the circle of the Imams and perceived as a constant contrast and threat to the moderation of the scholarly community that remains to this day ...
format article
author Sajjad Rizvi
author_facet Sajjad Rizvi
author_sort Sajjad Rizvi
title Controversies in Formative Shiʿi Islam
title_short Controversies in Formative Shiʿi Islam
title_full Controversies in Formative Shiʿi Islam
title_fullStr Controversies in Formative Shiʿi Islam
title_full_unstemmed Controversies in Formative Shiʿi Islam
title_sort controversies in formative shiʿi islam
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2017
url https://doaj.org/article/c4eeb9701b0a4e7f908629ee4d7a0cc8
work_keys_str_mv AT sajjadrizvi controversiesinformativeshiʿiislam
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