The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi i Islamic - Traditio

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.>

Product details

• Authors: Aun Hasan Ali
• Assisted by: Roy Mottahedeh (Editor)
• Publisher: Tauris, I.B.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 23.01.2025
• EAN: 9780755639120
• ISBN: 978-0-7556-3912-0
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 154 mm x 232 mm x 18 mm
• Series: Early and Medieval Islamic World
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Other religions; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Islamic Studies, HISTORY / Middle East / Iraq, Islamic Studies, Medieval History, Middle Eastern history, Iraq, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, Islamic Life & Practice, Relating to Islamic / Muslim people and groups, Social groups: religious groups and communities