Islamic Creeds

The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys

by William Montgomery Watt

There are no official creeds in Islam, but there is broad agreement in mainstream Sunnite Islam about the chief doctrines. Over the centuries these have been expressed in creeds and have been widely recognised and used for instruction. In this book Professor Watt introduces the history of the creeds and takes the student through a selection of the main ones in translation. Explanatory notes and a single Shi’ite creed are also given in this useful and informative survey.

Genres: Islam, Religion

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

William Montgomery Watt was a Scottish historian, an Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Watt was one of the foremost non-Muslim interpreters of Islam in the West, was an enormously influential scholar in the field of Islamic studies and a much-revered name for many Muslims all over the world." Watt's comprehensive biography of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, Muhammad at Mecca (1953) and Muhammad at Medina (1956), are considered to be classics in the field .

Watt held visiting professorships at the University of Toronto, the Collège de France, and Georgetown University, and received the American Giorgio Levi Della Vida Medal and won, as its first recipient, the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies award for outstanding scholarship.