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Zusatztext Aun Hasan Ali offers a long-overdue, in-depth and interdisciplinary examination of the careers and contributions of the Imami Shi'i scholars of this pivotal period in the history of the faith. The School of Hillah constitutes a masterful contribution to the field of Shi'i studies. Informationen zum Autor Aun Hasan Ali is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from McGill University. His research revolves around Shi'i intellectual history, especially law and legal theory. Klappentext Against the background of long-standing narratives in which Twelver Shi'ism is viewed as fundamentally authoritarian, The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi'i Islamic Tradition builds upon recent scholarship in the fields of Religious Studies, Anthropology, and History to argue that Twelver Shi'ism is better understood as a discursive tradition. At a conceptual level, this solves the basic problem of how to integrate the extraordinary diversity of Twelver Shi'ism across time and space into a single historical category without engaging in a normative assessment of its underlying essence. Furthermore, in light of this conception of tradition, the School of Hillah stands out as a seminal period in the archive of Twelver Shi'ism, though it has seldom been recognized as such in European-language scholarship. Insofar as it gave birth to a conversation that would prove capable of encompassing the dynamism of Twelver Shi'ism, the School of Hillah should be considered the formative period of Twelver Shi'i tradition. Moreover, when the tradition is conceptualized in this manner, it is a bulwark against the very authoritarianism by which Twelver Shi'ism has been characterized for so long. Vorwort The first study in a European language to examine the School of Hillah and its role in the formation of Imami Shi‘i tradition Zusammenfassung Against the background of long-standing narratives in which Twelver Shi‘ism is viewed as fundamentally authoritarian, The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi‘i Islamic Tradition builds upon recent scholarship in the fields of Religious Studies, Anthropology, and History to argue that Twelver Shi‘ism is better understood as a discursive tradition. At a conceptual level, this solves the basic problem of how to integrate the extraordinary diversity of Twelver Shi‘ism across time and space into a single historical category without engaging in a normative assessment of its underlying essence. Furthermore, in light of this conception of tradition, the School of Hillah stands out as a seminal period in the archive of Twelver Shi‘ism, though it has seldom been recognized as such in European-language scholarship. Insofar as it gave birth to a conversation that would prove capable of encompassing the dynamism of Twelver Shi‘ism, the School of Hillah should be considered the formative period of Twelver Shi‘i tradition. Moreover, when the tradition is conceptualized in this manner, it is a bulwark against the very authoritarianism by which Twelver Shi‘ism has been characterized for so long. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgements A Note on Conventions Chapter 1: Introduction Early scholarship on Imami law The development of Imami legal studies Recent scholarship on Imami law General observations about the field The Islamic tradition The Imami madhhab Conclusion Chapter 2: The School of Hillah in Islamic History The Seljuks and the late Abbasids The Ilkhanids The Jalayirids and the Qara-Qoyunlu The Mazyadids and Hillah Conclusion Chapter 3: The Learned Families of Hillah The family of Nama The family of Said al-Hudhali The family of Tawus The family of Fikhar The family of Mutahhar The ...
