After the demise of the Prophet (S) in the year 11/632, the need for ijtihad was felt acutely by the Sunnis, for they thought that the continuity of Divine guidance in the form of authoritative texts (nass) had ceased with his (S) demise and the only means of determining the Divine laws that remained was to search for them in the Book of God and the statements and acts of the...
Read More »Al-Ijmā‘ or Scholarly Consensus: An Accepted Method for Controlling Heresy?
Orientalists who follow the Christianizing interpretation of Islāmic thought have attempted to present the doctrine of ijmā' as an accepted means of controlling “heresy” in Islām. According to Gibb, the doctrine of ijmā' can be viewed from the perspective of Christian orthodoxy and can be likened to the case of the council....
Read More »Workshop: What is an Imam?
‘What is an Imam?’ is a workshop organised by the ERC Horizon STG Project ‘Embodied Imamate: Mapping the Development of the Early Shiʿi Community 700-900 CE’...
Read More »Webinar: What is Shīʻīism? Factionalism and Universalism in Islamic Studies
Existence of divisions, or “sects” in Islam is supported by Islamic doxographical literature and summarised in well-known hadith according to which Muslims will be divided into 73 sects, only one of which will attain salvation. To some extent, this “sectarian” approach is reflected in modern scholarship, where “Shi’i Studies”, “Sufi Studies”, etc. are sometimes defined as...
Read More »Imāmī Thought in Iran During the Ilkhanid Period: The Ḥimṣī Rāzī Family
The present study, focusing on the Ḥimṣī Rāzī family, which flourished in Iran during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, showcases what can be achieved by gathering and piecing together relevant paratextual material that is preserved in manuscripts, providing insights into the scholarly profiles of its members....
Read More »Shia Muslims: Our Identity, Our Vision, and the Way Forward
In a time of exceptional complexities, where the risk of being subjected to misinformation in the global media is prevalent, it is important to find trustworthy resources to attain true understanding. This booklet was written to clarify misinformation about the principles and goals of Twelver Shia Muslims....
Read More »Call for Papers: Global Shi’ism: Migrations, Diasporas and the Islamic Revival in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
This workshop explores Shi’ism and Muslim confessionalisation from a global historical perspective, with a special focus on migrations and connections across borders and continents. Its main objective is to flip the central dichotomy at the heart of work on global trends in Islam to.....
Read More »The Structure of the Doctrine of Imamate in Shiite Thought: A Developmental Approach
In this article, the writer provides an overview of the idea of Imamate in Shiite thought and its development through Kalami (theological) debates and literary works....
Read More »Ph.D. Dissertation: The Envoys of the Hidden Imam+PDF
This Ph.D. Dissertation by Edmund Hayes seeks to answer why the doctrine of the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam was successful, among all the possible solutions to the crisis in the Imamate that were proposed in the first few years after the martyrdom of the...
Read More »Article: Imāmī Theological Thought in the Early Seventh/Thirteenth Century
The present study discusses the scarce available data about Sālim b. Maḥfūẓ and the reception of his K. al-Minhāj, and it includes an editio princeps of the portion of the work that is preserved in MS Malik 1650....
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