Twelver Shiism

Andrew Newman is Professor of Islamic Studies and Persian at the University of Edinburgh. He is author of Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire (2006) and The Formative Period of Shi'i Law: Hadith as Discourse Between Qum and Baghdad (2000) and editor of Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East, Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period (2003).

• Introduction; 1. Shiism fragmented: the faith and the faithful from the 7th to the 9th century; 2. Bereft of a leader: the early traditionists and the beginnings of doctrine and practice; 3. The challenge of ‘the uncertainty’; 4. Majority and minority: rationalism on the defensive in the later Buyid period; 5. Betwixt and between: the Twelvers and the Turks; 6. The Mongol and Ilkhanid periods: the rise and limits of the al-Hilla school of al-Hilla; 7. The severest of challenges; 8. Shiism in the 16th century: the limits of power (and influence); 9. The past rediscovered and the future assured: Shiism in the 17th century; Epilogue; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.

‘Newman has rendered a vital contribution to the blossoming study of Twelver Shi’ism by delivering a survey of the key intellectual turning points supported by exhaustive references to many primary works.’