The Origins of the Shi'a: Identity, Ritual, and Sacred Space in Eighth-Century K?fa

Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization

by Najam Haider

The Sunnī-Shi'a schism is often framed as a dispute over the identity of the successor to Muhammad. In reality, however, this fracture only materialized a century later in the important southern Iraqi city of Kūfa (present-day Najaf). This book explores the birth and development of Shī'i identity. Through a critical analysis of legal texts, whose provenance has only recently been confirmed, the study shows how the early Shi'a carved out independent religious and social identities through specific ritual practices and within separate sacred spaces. In this way, the book addresses two seminal controversies in the study of early Islam, namely the dating of Kufan Shi'i identity, and the means by which the Shi'a differentiated themselves from mainstream Kufan society. This is an important, original, and path-breaking book that marks a significant development in the study of early Islamic society.

Genres: Islam, Religion, History, Middle East, Nonfiction

298 pages, Hardcover

First published August 18, 2011

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed Haider's introduction to Shi'ia Islam so much, I decided to pick this one up even though it was clearly intended for people who know more than me. Haider has a strictly logical way of organising his work that makes information-dense arguments easy to follow, and while some bits were skim read (the first parts of the case studies), I was fascinated both the picture of early communities defined by ritual, and by the systematic techniques used to extrapolate the origins - which seemed to be very specific to Islam itself, innovatively utilising the structure of law and hadith, and methods of measuring transmission. Having said that, to be truly entralled by this I suspect you would need to be in the field.

[Rasma Haidri]

Good work, Najam.