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  • Shi'i Spirituality:A Response to Amir-Moezzi
  • Karim Douglas Crow
Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi . The Spirituality of Shi'i Islam: Beliefs and Practices, 2011. London & New York: I. B. Tauris Publishers, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, xxii + 585 pp. ISBN: 978-1-84511-738-2 (hbk).
[English translation (by Hafiz Karmali, also David Streight, David Bachrach & Amy Jacobs) of La religion discrète: Croyances et pratiques spirituelles dans L'islam shi'ite, 2006. Paris: J. Vrin, 416pp.]

...li-man tadabbara ba'da al-tatabbu'

Introduction

Professor M. A. Amir-Moezzi is recognized as among the half-dozen premier European authorities on the Imami (Twelver) Shi'i faith, ever since his first major work Le Guide divin dans le shi'isme originel marked an apotheosis in contemporary Western appreciation of early Shi'ism as a profoundly esoteric and initiatic movement within Islam.1 He is Director of Studies at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne) where he occupies the Chair of 'Exegesis and Theology' specializing in Shi'i Exegesis, and also serves as joint Director of the Centre d'Etude des Religions du Livre / Laboratoire d'Etudes sur les Monotheismes (CNRS-EPHE). This collection of fourteen studies, first published during 1992-2005, is most welcome in translation and sure to buttress his impact in the Anglo-American world (three essays had already appeared in English). The inclusion of all ten of his series 'Aspects de l-imamologie duodécimain' is especially felicitous. Specialists working on Shi'ism [End Page 295] may already have made acquaintance with them over the fourteen years of their initial publication as journal articles or chapters in edited volumes now difficult of access. He offers an avowedly thorough-going 'imamological' reading of Shi'i tradition, therby forming a significant addition to the learned study of the inner dimensions of Imami Shi'i experience.

Combined with his contributions to Encyclopaedia Iranica2 rendered into English, as well as two recent books on early Shi'i hermeneutics of the Qur'an (see below, note 7), Amir-Moezzi has produced a coherent and intricately nuanced monument to esoteric Shi'ism from within. His work is no laboured scholastic appraisal with an overly cautious 'objectivity' inflicting reductionist violence to the spirit and imagination of this venerable faith. Rather, his oeuvre erects a shrine to his passionately engaged scrutiny of texts, ideas and over-arching contexts inundating the reader and drowning us within the enraptured embrace of his penetrating vision. He demonstrates control of historical-critical methodology, and never fails to display his command of both literatures (witness his extensive notes, often giving mini-bibliographies for a specific topic): the full range of scholarly apparatus of Western Islamic studies, as well as the wealth of Shi'i texts from the 2nd / 8th century through to Mulla Sadra and down to contemporary Shayki masters (see ch. 14 'Shaykhiyya Hermeneutics of the Occultation'). The centrality of a creatively imagined and intimately inhabited spiritual realm for the unfolding of Imami Shi'ism is reiterated and probed by scrutinizing interconnected themes collectively forming an interlaced arabesque of individually distinct patterns conjoined into one harmonious design. We first provide a brief description of the main features of this book, followed by several reflections on the thrust of his work as a whole.

Description

The richness, detail and wide-ranging scope of these fourteen pieces, capped by a generous bibliography and useful index, precludes a close chapter by chapter review. The articles are arranged into four parts.

I. Early Emergence and Ancient Convergence.

Chapter 1 and 2 form the two historical studies (3-100) of part 1. [End Page 296] Chapter 1 focusses on the implications for the origins of Shi'i faith of the rare archaic phrase din 'Ali (first pointed to by Professor Wilferd Madelung), interpreted as the claim for exclusive religio-political legitimacy as sole wasi or legatee to the Prophet. In its final erudite section (15-39) he attempts to outline the Qur'anic and old Arab familial, as well as psycho-somatic roots (semen, saliva, and blood), which contributed to 'the process of 'Ali's glorification, transforming his historical character into a semi-legendary figure of heroic...

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