A History of the Shiʻa People by Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi

The current trend in the academic world is to work on regional history rather than a global history. But when one sits down to look at the history of a faith-based community spanning across centuries with a variety of ethno-cultural boundaries , religiously connected to and mutually influencing one another, the need for a wider angle that binds the communities in their common struggles and triumphs is undeniable. That is the purpose of this book.

This book deals with the history of the Shi‘a Ithna-‘Ashari Muslim community from the early days of Islam up to present day. Starting with a brief note on the origin of the Shia faith, the book describes the early days of its followers’ history from the 7^th-11^th century. From there, it focuses on regions; beginning with the history of the Shi‘as of Iran, Iraq & Afghanistan, reviewed together due to the multiple layers of mutual influences among them on socio-religious and political levels. Then it moves on to the Arab Middle-East & Turkey; followed by the east, to the Indian Sub-Continent; and then to Sub-Saharan Africa; followed by a review of Shi‘a communities in South-East Asia, Australia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States of the former USSR. The book ends with a brief look at the emerging Shia communities in Europe and the Western Hemisphere.

It is worth mentioning that the section on Shī‘a communities in Africa, particularly East Africa, is a seminal work in which the author was not only a spectator observing the events and reporting them; rather he played a pivotal role in furthering the cause of the Shī‘ī faith in that region, especially among the indigenous African people.

The current trend in the academic world is to work on regional history rather than a global history. But when one sits down to look at the history of a faith-based community spanning across centuries with a variety of ethno – cultural boundaries , religiously connected to and mutually influencing one another, the need for a wider angle that binds the communities in their common struggles and triumphs is undeniable. That is the purpose of this book.

Hence the first part of this work looks at the beginning of the Sh ī‘a Ithnã – ‘Ashari community during the era of the Imams of Ahlul Bayt and the period thereafter till the collapse of the ‘Abbasid caliphate as a single unit. Then it goes into regions: Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan is reviewed together because of multi layers of mutual influence s among the m on socio – religious and political levels. Then it moves on to the Arab Middle-East and Turkey; then it turns towards the east to the Indian subcontinent and then to the south to the African continent. Far – East and the West are relatively new areas of growth in Shī‘ī world, and the author has used his personal contacts and his travels to the West to briefly describe the settlements of Shī‘a communities in their adopted homelands

About the Author

Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi (1927-2002) was born and raised in India where he completed his Islamic studies at the Jawadia Arabic College, a prominent Shi‘a seminary of that era. He then migrated in 1959 to East Africa where he was instrumental in planning and establishing Bilal Muslim Mission, the first organization in Africa to promote the Shi‘a faith among the indigenous people. He was a prolific writer who had written and translated many books and articles on Shi‘a Islam in English, Urdu and Arabic. His publications were distributed worldwide since the 70’s, and translated into 22 languages including Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Hindi, Farsi, Italian, French and Hollandaise.

He has been recognized for his lifelong work on Shi‘a faith by seminaries in India, Qum and Najaf. Jami‘at al-Mustafa al-‘Alamiyya (Al-Mustafa International University), Qum, had organized a seminar in 2011 to honour his life and achievements, in which a national postage stamp, a documentary, and a book containing his biography, various articles, listings and reviews of his written works, were all unveiled.

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Bibliographic Information

Title: The History of the Shi’a People

Author: Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi

Editor: Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi

Publisher: Al-Ma’arif Publications, Toronto, Canada

 Language: English

Length: 1041

ISBN: 9780920675199

Pub. Date: 2017

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