Although Akhund Khorasani was one of the traditional lecturers – one of the most prominent figures of traditional thought – in Shiite world, he succeeded to turn the traditional knowledge taught in...
Read More »Walayah as a Response to the Self-Other Dichotomy in European Philosophy
This text introduces the movement to examine cultures from perspectives that challenge the predominant European discourse, which, since the colonial era, has seen ‘the Self’ (or ‘we’) as Europeans, and ‘the Other’ as people from cultures that are not European, criticize it and...
Read More »From Attachment to a Sacred Figure to Loyalty to a Sacred Route: The Walking Pilgrimage of Arbaeen
The present article aims to discover the different social and psychological reasons for pilgrims’ feelings of attachment to Imam Hussein and to the...
Read More »PHD Thesis: The Memory of Ali b. Abi Talib in Early Sunni Thought
ro-‘Alid sentiment (al-mayl ilā ‘Alī, tashayyu‘) is a prevalent, trans-sectarian tendency (i.e. among Sunnīs and Shī‘īs) to venerate ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661) and his...
Read More »Article: Ahkam Concerning the Ahl al-Bayt
In this article Nebil Hussain examines more than a dozen laws that classical Sunni and Twelver Shi‘i jurists characterized as specific to the Prophet’s progeny and...
Read More »History of the Shi‘a in the Time of Imam Sajjad (a)
Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn accomplished his role as a guide and benefactor by teaching Islamic principles, emphasizing the concept of Imamate, resisting moral corruption, looking after the needy, and..
Read More »For Sale to the Highest Bidder: A Precious Shiʿi Manuscript from the Early Eleventh Century
The prominent Twelver Shiʿi scholar and poet, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn “al-Sharīf al-Raḍī” (d. 406 /1015), author of a monumental, partly preserved Qurʾān commentary in ten volumes, Ḥaqāʾiq al-taʾwīl fī mutashābih al-tanzīl, and compiler of...
Read More »Article: From Partial to Complete: Juristic Authority in Twelver Shi‘ism
This article will examine the foundations and evolution of this genre of authority and will argue that there was much disputation among the Shi‘i scholars as to the nature and...
Read More »Article: The Image of Hussain Ibn Ali in Maqatil Literature
This research examines motifs such as the dream, the prophets, devils and angels, Jews and Christians, the weeping of nature over the death of Husayn, Husayn's thirst, his decapitated head, and the...
Read More »Dating Versions of the Karbala Story +PDF
In this paper the writer will discuss the relative date of two important versions of the Karbala story related by Ṭabarī: one, relatively short and lacking in detail, is ascribed to Imam al-Bāqir (d. 114/732); the other, much longer and...
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