Customer Reviews

Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'Ite Islam: Abu Ja'Far Ibn Qiba Al-Razi and His Contribution to Imamite Shi'Ite Thought

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In this day of intense interest in the Shi'Ite communities of Iraq and Iran Professor Modarressi's tome is a lucid and helpful explaination of the foundations for the belief in the hidden Imam. As a student of Professor Modarressi, he is Professor of Near Eastern studies here at Princeton, I can say that the engaging style and incredible knowledge he demonstrates in the classroom come through in this book. For the novice his style is easy to follow and for the professional his notes are a a "mine" of tremendous value. It is worth the price for the essay on the period of the Minor Occultation alone.

This book examines many areas that are not written much about. It addresses portions of several issues such as: Early Moderate Shia vs. Extremist Shia, Evolution of Shia Doctrine, How the Imams were thought of by early Shia (as perfect pious scholars) as vs. the more mystical interpretation of later Shia, the influence of the extremists (Mufawwida, etc) in the formative period, and the contribution of Ibn Qiba to the defense of Moderate Shia doctrine.

Although the top theologian in Shia circles of his time, and held in high esteem for decades or even centuries later, Ibn Qiba is none-the-less a lost name today. Most likely because he eschewed the moderate (at that time majority) view of Shia'ism and expounded on it, whereas today the view is skewed towards the other direction. The average Shia has no idea neither of the moderate views of theologians of early Shia history, nor of the moderate doctrine so well guarded and supported by them. The influence of the Safavids, Sufis, Mufawwida and Ismailiyya (among others) altered the later doctrine to the level that the average Shia who reads Prof. Modarressi's book will be flabbergasted and find it difficult to digest how different the early Moderate Shia were from later-day or current-day majority Shia. However, Modarressi barely delves on this issue. But his book, as a descriptive of early Shia views, helps make the contrast for anyone interested in early-day vs. later-day comparisons.