In 1978-79, in the course of a massive urban revolution with several million participants, the Iranian people toppled the government of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1941-79), who had pursued an...
Read More »Book Review: Encounters with the Hidden Imam in Early and Pre-Modern Twelver Shīʿī Islam
Encounters with the Hidden Imam in Early and Pre-Modern Twelver Shīʿī Islam is a published PhD by Omid Ghaemmaghami, obtained at the University of Toronto in 2020. As stated in the title, it specifically addresses the issue of how texts from the Twelver Shi’i tradition tackle the subject of whether …
Read More »The Mourning of History and the History of Mourning: The Evolution of Ritual Commemoration of the Battle of Karbala
Shi‘i commemorations exemplify a peculiar phenomenon among world religions: in Shi‘i Islam, one of the most important annual religious holidays is not a joyful celebration but a...
Read More »Life of the Prophet Muhammad before Starting the Mission
This paper, was writen by S. Ahmad Rahnamaei, is an attempt to study some aspects of the Prophet Muhammad's life before his mission started....
Read More »Dissertation: Pious Critique: Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī and the 11th Century Practice of Juristic Disputation (Munāẓara)
This dissertation examines the practice of legal disputations (munāẓara, pl. munāẓarāt, sometimes referred to as jadal or mujādala) among Muslim jurists of the 5th/11th century in Iraq and Persia. It does so by focusing on...
Read More »Protecting the Citadel of Islam in the Modern Era: A Case of Shiʿi Mujtahids and the Najaf Seminary in Early Twentieth-Century Iraq
The concept of protecting the Citadel of Islam (Hifẓ Bayzat al-Islam), is common in the lexicon of Shiʿi political jurisprudence. It refers to those Islamic principles and foundations without which the...
Read More »Book Review by Ali Quli Qara’i: An Introduction to Shia Islam
The book, was written by Moojan Momen, is an attempt to present a general outline of the doctrines, practices and history of the Imami Shias, or, according to the title, of...
Read More »Appendix al-Sayyid ʿAlī al-Ḥusaynī al-Sīstānī on Uṣūl al-Fiqh in Twelver Shīʿī Thought: Its Importance and Historical Phases
What follows is a translation of the first, and part of the second, introductory discussions in the transcribed notes of al-Sayyid ʿAlī al-Ḥusaynī al-Sīstānī’s (b. 1930) advanced lectures on...
Read More »Did the Prophet Testify to His Own Prophethood and to the Mastership of Imam ʿAlī within the Adhān?
How did Prophet Muḥammad (P.B.U.H) himself enunciate the adhān? Did he testify to his own Prophethood and to the mastership (wilāyah) of Imam ʿAlī (P.B.U.H) within the...
Read More »The Function and Challenges of Sharia Court in Applications of Islamic Law in Ethiopia
The discourse on sharia courts, fraught as it is with a plethora of complexities is one of the most challenging, yet compelling domain of disquisition and articulation within contemporary socio legal debate and...
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