Studying Shi’a Islam in Academia - SPACE Conference (November, 11th, 2023) (Orientation Video 1/4)

Islam and the Emergence of Shi’a Islam (Orientation Video 2/4)

(click on a reading to access it) High Priority Readings

• Mohammad Sagha, “Al-Ghadir: The Fountainhead of Shi’ism,” Visions Blog: Harvard WCFIA Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs, 20 August 2019.
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Heart of Islam (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2004), 1-46; 55-76.
• Wilferd Madelung, “The Obligations of Kinship and the families of the Prophet in the Qur’an,” The Succession to Muhammad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 8-18.

Recommended Readings

• Moojan Momen, “Shiʿi Doctrines and Practice” in An Introduction to Shiʿi Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shiʿism, 173-188.
• Heinz Halm, Shi’a Islam: From Religion to Revolution (Princeton: Marcus Wiener Publishers, 2007), 28-37.
• For further treatment on the succession dispute following the passing of the Prophet Muhammad, see the entire work by Wilferd Madelung, The Succession to Muhammad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), and in particular the chapter “Abū Bakr: the Successor of the Messenger of God and the caliphate of Quraysh,” 28-56. PDF Available.

For resources on Twelver Shi’a doctrine and beliefs, see:

• Ayatollah Ja’far Sobhani, Doctrines of Shi’i Islam: A Compendium of Imami Beliefs and Practices translated and edited by Reza Shah Kazemi (London: IB Tauris, 2001).
• A Shi’ite Encyclopedia (n.p.: Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library, n.d.).

Cyclical Time and Karbala (Orientation Video 3/4)

(click on a reading to access it) High Priority Readings

• Amitai Abouzaglo, “The Exoteric Imamate as the Omnipresent Esoteric in Shi’a Hiero-History,” Visions Blog: Harvard WCFIA Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs, 4 Sept. 2019.
• Mahmoud Ayoub, Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of Twelver Shi’ism (Mouton: The Hague, 1978). Read: “Ch. 2: The Proofs of God,” 53-68; “At the Pool of al-Kawthar,” 197-229; “Appendix: The Master of the Youths of Paradise,” 241-245.

Recommended Readings

• Touraj Daryaee and Soodabeh Malekzadeh, “The Performance of Pain and Remembrance in Late Ancient Iran,” The Silk Road, Vol. 12 (2014), 57-65.
• Najam Haider, Shīʿī Islam: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), “Imāmate: (Legitimate Leadership),” 31-49.
• Najam Haider, “al- Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib,” Encylopedia of Islam III.
• Mahmoud Ayoub, Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of Twelver Shi’ism (Mouton: The Hague, 1978), “The Sigh of the Sorrowful,” 141-196.

Mahdism and Diversity within Shi’a Islam (Orientation Video 4/4)

(click on a reading to access it) High Priority Readings

• Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, The Spirituality of Shi’i Islam (IB Tauris: London, 2011), “The End of Time and Return to the Origin,” 403-430.
• Moojan Momen, “Ch. 8: Alternative Shiʿi Communities” in An Introduction to Shiʿi Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shiʿism, 194-215.

Recommended Readings

• Henri Corbin, Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 3-103.