Loyalty, love and faith: Defining the boundaries of the early Shi`ite community
Author: Dakake-Maria-Massi Date: 2000 Institution: Princeton-University (0181) Subject:Religion Language: English
Abstract: The Shi`ite point of view is unique among all other Islamic schools in having formed the basis of a self-conscious religious community existing within the larger Islamic ummah >. Given that the foundation of the Shi`ite perspective is the early dispute over the leadership of the Islamic community, most Shi`ite studies have tended to focus on the authority issue and the development of the Shi`ite doctrine of the imamate. This study attempts to explore the other side of early Shi`ite development by focusing on the early evolution of the Shi`ite community itself, rather than its leadership. Specifically, it attempts an intellectual history of the emergence of a distinctly Shi`ite communal identity and the development of the Shi`ite conception of the nature and limits of their own religious community during the first two centuries of Islam. This study draws largely on works of canonical and non-canonical Shi`ite hadith, including a number of compilations purpor! !