Twelve Infallible Men : The Imams and the Making of Shi'ism, Hardcover by Pie...
$ 36.45
Description
Twelve Infallible Men : The Imams and the Making of Shi'ism, Hardcover by Pie.... "The rift between Sunni and Sh°ah Muslims is one of the most salient divisions in the history of Islam. This analysis of Sh°ah narratives provides insight into the social and religious significance of stories of the imams, helping explain what made them worth preserving. Twelve Infallible Men : The Imams and the Making of Shi'ism, Hardcover by Pierce, Matthew, ISBN 0674737075, ISBN-13 9780674737075, Like New Used, Free shipping in the US "The rift between Sunni and Sh°ah Muslims is one of the most salient divisions in the history of Islam. Twelve Infallible Men explores the role of stories in the development of a distinctly Sh°ah identity, demonstrating how accounts of saintly figures were popularized to meet the needs of a religious community. This analysis of Sh°ah narratives provides insight into the social and religious significance of stories of the imams, helping explain what made them worth preserving. This book examines a form ofbiography that emerged around the beginning of the tenth century CE, when Sh°ah scholars began compiling accounts of individual imams into works spanning the lives of all twelve holy figures. These collective biographies canonized particular versions of the lives and deaths of the imams, in the process constructing a sacred history. The themes and motifs found in these biographies reveal the concerns of Sh°ah Muslim communities in the medieval period. Sh°ah accounts of the imams' lives often differed significantly from those of their adversaries, reflecting an emotionally-charged conflict about issues of religious authority and legitimacy. The collective biographies imbued select memories of the imams' lives with religious significance, thereby demarcating communal boundaries in enduring ways. The stories inspired and entertained, but more importantly they offered consolation to a community searching for meaning at a new stage of history. They became the focal point of communal memory, inspiring Sh°ah religious imagination for centuries to come."--Provided by publisher.
