The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism

by Toby Matthiesen

The authoritative account of the sectarian division that for centuries has shaped events in the Middle East and the Islamic world.

In 632, soon after the prophet Muhammad died, a struggle broke out among his followers as to who would succeed him. The majority argued that the new leader of Islam should be elected by the community's elite. Others believed only members of Muhammad's family could lead. This dispute over who should guide Muslims, the appointed Caliph or the bloodline Imam, marks the origin of the Sunni-Shii split in Islam.

Toby Matthiesen explores this hugely significant division from its origins to the present day. Moving chronologically, his book sheds light on the many ways that it has shaped the Islamic world, outlining how over the centuries Sunnism and Shiism became Islams two main branches, particularly after the Muslim Empires embraced sectarian identity. It reveals how colonial rule institutionalised divisions between Sunnism and Shiism both on the Indian subcontinent and in the greater Middle East,
giving rise to pan-Islamic resistance and Sunni and Shii revivalism. It then focuses on the fall-out from the 1979 revolution in Iran and the US-led military intervention in Iraq. As Matthiesen shows, however, though Sunnism and Shiism have had a long and antagonistic history, most Muslims have led
lives characterised by confessional ambiguity and peaceful co-existence. Tensions arise when sectarian identity becomes linked to politics.

Based on a synthesis of decades of scholarship in numerous languages, The Caliph and the Imam will become the standard text for readers looking for a deeper understanding of contemporary sectarian conflict and its historical roots.

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

941 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 7, 2023

About the author

Toby Matthiesen is a Research Fellow in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. His first book “Sectarian Gulf: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Spring That Wasn’t” was published by Stanford University Press in 2013. The book examines the root causes of sectarianism and examines how the Gulf states responded to protests at home and in the wider Arab world. From 2007 to 2011 he wrote his doctorate on the politicisation of Saudi Arabia’s Shia community at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. His second book, "The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism", which is based on his PhD, is published by Cambridge University Press in 2015.

Reviews

[Asif]

This is excellent book. If you want to study history of two main sects of Islam i.e. Sunnism and Shiism, and how they developed from early stage to the current situation and how they evolved and crystalized their concepts and which reigns and emperors supported them and who were the main theologian and clerics of every era and what they wrote and what was their influence?, all is packaged in a single book. So far I have learnt a lot from the book and one thing which I have particularly liked about the book is its Longue durée approach to historical study, it simply means that the author not merely describe the events as historical but also analyze their socio-cultural environment and their implication in that society and associated ones. The author avoid to pass sweeping statements and the ones which show definitive narration but each and every step is analyzed with pragmatic mind and is shown that whether a particular event was of historical importance in long term or just a momentarily happened event.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a marvelous piece of scholarship, I am sure read by everyone with an abiding interest in Islam, its history, and the more recent global conflicts in which it has found itself. I feel strongly that the West, most importantly, the US, has marked Islam as a major antagonist of the allegedly Christian US hegemony along side “the Asian hordes.”

Nonetheless, Matthiesen’s work, 400+ pages of text supported by 300,pages of endnotes and a bibliography of 270 pages plus an index, gives an intimate, insider’s view of the internal and external struggles and successes of a religion sometimes as deeply divided as contemporary Christianity and as much a victim of political manipulation.

This was not an easy read for me, partially due to the unfamiliarity of the territory for a US-born, Roman-Catholic-raised observer of international politics. Names, places, sects explode like popcorn in every direction , and the reader’s patience is a necessity. I do recommend an attempt to grapple with this material because, I think, it is on the verge of becoming a factor as important as China in the future of world politics and culture, not reserved to the immense territory and vast populace already within its fold.

And, reading the final sections, one can see the shallowness and lack of understanding that the Western press has brought to and taken from the recent history of conflict in the Middle East.

[Andrea]

DNF

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't really read, only skimmed because i am on to other things. 400 + pages of narrative, 500+ pages of footnotes. Remarkable for a popular history. Seems ok, but skips very lightly over beginning of shia/sunni split- maybe assuming that story has been told too often- to focus on the next 500 years. Revealing, at pains to point it is all more subtle than you'd think. Fine. Got it. Good. Great footnotes, though one wonders about the ratio and the choice of what's in "the book" vs. the apparatus.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not really qualified to judge this book other than its merits as something to read. It gives a long history of the roots of the conflict of Sunni and Shia. Turns out, it probably did not need to be this way.

There is some history given on how this split became more and more pronounced and how it defines the conflict today. I have read a few books on this but this has been the most complete and well reasoned. It also seems to play fair.

If you are interested in the conflict in that part of the world, this definitely is a primer on a huge part that.

[Mohammad Rameez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book to understand the current mess in middle east

[Melissa Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very well researched and covers a lot of history. Definitely not a book you can read in one setting.

[Jaylani Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on the history of Islam, with the relationship between Sunnis and Shi'as. I wish there was a book similar to this in terms of Christianity, Judaism and others.