The Thread of Mu͑awiya: The Making of a Marja͑ Taqlid by Linda S. Walbridge (review)

The appearance of a reference to Mu͑awiyah (d. 680), instrumental in establishing the Umayyad dynasty and its second caliph (not to mention his battle with ͑Ali at Siffin in 657), in the title of a work referring to the very Twelver Shi͑i office of marja͑ al-taqlid can only be more than a bit jarring.

In his foreword, John Walbridge, husband of Linda who herself died in late December 2002 of cancer and who is to be greatly thanked for bringing this volume to fruition, explains the reference. In the mid-1990s, Linda was travelling to various Shi͑i communities in the US and the UK. Discussing with them how they worked both with each other and with the clerical institutions at home, especially in Iraq, she heard a saying ascribed to Mu͑awiyah:

I have a thread connecting me to every man. When he loosens it, I tighten it, and when he tightens it, I loosen it.

The point, John explains, ‘was that even ulama who bitterly opposed each other still kept connections with their rivals’ (x).

John further explains that, in 1995, Linda wrote an article that was based on this book. In the article she argued that ‘the center of gravity of world Shi͑ism had shifted from Iran to Iraq’ owing to the involvement of the Shi͑i establishment in politics – which ‘discredited itself’ thereby – and that the Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq was now ‘the key figure’ in Shi͑ism, and the recognised successor to the Ayatollah al-Khu͗i, the previous marja͑, who died in 1992. That article was eventually published in a volume edited by Linda, The Most Learned of the Shi͑a: The Institution of the Marja͑ Taqlid (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) which includes an article by the present writer.

Linda wrote The Thread in 1996. A variety of reasons detailed by John in the foreword, including both the discovery of her cancer and academic events and projects, forced her to put the project down. In 2002, the year of her death, she was ready to resume it and had been awarded a grant to do so. The present volume is, John notes, ‘not what Linda wished to have published and should therefore be used with some reserve’ (xii). John has not attempted to update it beyond where it was left. Thus, the present text predates the fall of Saddam in Iraq and the subsequent rise to prominence of Shi͑ism, and the Shi͑i involvement in politics, in Iraq. It contains no material from her post-1996 research. She did not leave any notes, nor had she started the bibliography. What there is John has supplied from Linda’s article in the 2001 volume cited above. Other materials he cites can, he notes, be accessed from her materials as deposited at the University of Notre Dame Archives. He has made an effort to supply footnote references where he could, but he does indicate where he was not successful. He has edited and, in the process, standardised spelling in the text. He also has minimised the use of diacritics throughout. The volume also contains a moving eulogy by John to Linda.

Does this volume, incomplete as it is and now nearly twenty years old, stand the test of time?

Absolutely!

A short first chapter commences with reference to the life and marja͑iyyah of the Ayatollah al-Khu͗i and sets the stage for the book. Al-Khu͗i, she argues, was ‘for the majority of Shi͑a in the world […] the perfect model of the marja͑ taqlid’ (5). His life was based around teaching, lecturing, discussion of religious issues with other scholars, and leading prayers and public majlises. His work and research, she says, was devoid of anything ‘cutting edge’ and, especially, references to ‘modern social movements’ and politics. The latter was in spite of the...