Origins and Early Development in Shi'a Islam (Arab Background Series) [Hardcover]

S. Husain M. Jafri (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Longman Group United Kingdom (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0582780802
• ISBN-13: 978-0582780804
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,659,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, readable, accurate, and scholarly, December 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Origins and Early Development in Shi'a Islam (Arab Background Series) (Hardcover)

This is a well documented book on the early years of Islam and development of the Shia Islam (Ja'fari School), one of the major schools of thought and jurisprudence in Islam.

It describes in detail the last years of Prophet Muhammad's life and the events that followed in the 50+ years after his death.

The descriptions of the events that led to sucessions of the Khalifs after Prophet's death, and the insurgencies challenging Imam 'Ali's leadership are well written and fill a void in scholarly books on these events.

Finally, this book provides one of very few worthwhile writeups in the Western literature on (the why's and how's) of Imam Hussayn's (Prophet's grandson and designate) martyrdom and on his successful drive to cleans the first Islamic nation of its corruption.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent material on early development of islam, January 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Origins and Early Development in Shi'a Islam (Arab Background Series) (Hardcover)

The book is well written and provides a balanced view of isalm from a scholar who is very open minded and does not follow the usual mullah style religion practices or thoughts

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Factual, Well Referenced, and Filling Voids - And in Print!, August 7, 2000

By 

Nadir Abbas (Islamabad, Pakistan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Origins and Early Development in Shi'a Islam (Arab Background Series) (Hardcover)

I am just finishing reading the book published recently by Oxford University Press (Pakistan). The book is highly readable. Written in a very dispassionate tone, the book covers the events mainly from the death of the Prophet of Islam to about the time of birth of five major schools of Islamic jurisprudence. For every key event, incident, interpretation, the author takes care of presenting the major viewpoints quoting the earliest and most well known sources and then giving reasons for his own conclusions. Finally, it fills an important void about the period of the Caliphate of Imam Hasan which most historians have tended to gloss over. The book is very important in understanding and explaining the current Islamic thoughts.