Description
Book SynopsisAs many as 40 different Shi`i groups existed in the 9th and 10th centuries yet only 3 forms have survived. Why is Twelver Shi`ism 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.
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part One: Shiism in the Classical Period; 1. The Shi'i Problematic; 2. Bereft of a Leader: The Early Traditionists; 3. The Legacy of the Buyid Period; Part Two: Twelver Shi'ism in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods; 4. Betwixt and Between: the Twelvers and the Turks; 5. Shiism, Mongols, Ilkhanids, Timurids and Sufi Orders; 6. A Home at Last: The Establishment of the Faith in Safavid Iran (1501-1722); Part Three: Twelver Shi'ism in the Modern Period; 7. The 'Crises' of the 18th Century; 8. A Home Again, At Last: Re-Establishment in Qajar Iran; 9. Twentieth Century Shi'ism to 1978; 10. The Islamic Revolution and After; 11. Summary and Conclusion; Index.
