Customer Reviews

The Charismatic Community: Shi'ite Identity in Early Islam (Suny Series in Islam)

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I was rather intrigued by this book intially , great concept about which there is not much out there in english.Author spends a great deal on time defining words like wilayah and its implications on early shiite thought.
Totally agree with her perception that early shias did not have such a big problem with the first 2 caliphs and their condemnation was a much later development.And that early sunnis scholars were generally sympathetic to the cause of Ali and his shias.
Wish she had written more about the events of the first civil war in this book.

I personally have had the pleasure of having Dr. Dakake be my main advisor for my graduate studies and work on my dissertation. She is by far one of the best professors I have ever had. She is an amazing source of inspiration and knowledge. Her work on the early Shi'i community is vast and highly informative. She focused on the original Shi'a within the Sahaba rather then the Islamic civil war for a specific reason. By reading the book, one sees that the beliefs of Shi'i Islam are not based on political rivalries through the battle of Camel or the massacre at Karbala but were inherent beliefs within a select group of Sahaba, whom Prophet Muhammad himself, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, coined the Shi'a and the Shi'at Ali.
This book is a defense of the spiritual implications and origins of the Shi'i and proving the Shi'i were found at the very beginnings of Islam, long before the Islamic civil war and the massacre at Karbala.