The Spirituality of Shi'i Islam: Beliefs and Practices (review)

The present work collects fourteen studies in English translation first published over 1992-2005 (three studies appeared previously in English translation), widening and deepening his presentation of esoteric and initiatic dimensions of Shi'i Islam. All ten articles in his major series 'Aspects of Twelver Imamology' are found here. Amir-Moezzi's body of work forms an important contribution to scholarly appreciation of the esoteric dimensions of Imami Shi'i experience, through the prism of an 'imamological' reading of Shi'i traditions privileging inner spiritual significance.

The author displays mastery of Western Islamic studies, and demonstrates deep intimacy with Imami texts from the earliest period down to contemporary Shaykhi masters, while his lengthy notes provide abundant references to both literatures. The book is divided into four parts, along with a generous bibliography and detailed index. The range of topics is too copious, nuanced, and detailed to provide more than a cursory summary here.

Part I ('Early Emergence and Ancient Convergence') includes two historical studies. Chapter 1 covers the implications of the archaic phrase din 'Ali for the origins of Shi'i belief – understood as 'Ali's claim to religio-political legitimacy as sole legatee to the Prophet Muhammad. Here the Qur'anic teaching on prophetic 'family' is outlined and interesting details on old Arab ideas concerning semen, saliva, and blood are given. Both of these factors contributed to glorification of 'Ali 'into a semi-legendary figure of heroic and even sacred dimensions', says Amir-Moezzi (42). In Chapter 2 the legend of the Sassanian princess Shahrbanu as reputed mother of the fourth imam Zayn al-'Abidin is treated and the historical nexus of Iranian beliefs with Shi'ism are delved into. Insights into the literary evolution of Shi'ism and popular ritual expressions are given, and Amir-Moezzi suggests this legend could have arisen in 'the pro-Iranian Shu'ubi entourage of the Nushajani family at al-Ma'mun's court in Khurasan' (81). He also reviews scholarship linking Shahrbanu's later popular image in Iran to Anahid, the goddess of water and fertility. These two solid studies combine historical and literary developments.

In Part II ('On the Nature of the Imam: Initiation and Dualism'), which includes chapters 3-8, the heart of the book is contained, embracing 'the ontological and anthropological duality' of the imam's divine and human components flowing out of walayah, and the Imam's 'cosmogonic and cosmological significance in the economy of the sacred' (xv-xvi). The underlying thrust of Part II is the Imam's human-divine anthroposophy involving individual and communal initiatory functions. Amir-Moezzi emphasizes the divinity of the 'metaphysical Imam' [uppercase 'I'] as a primordial cosmic entity functioning to mediate divine knowledge through the historical imams. Among the major themes examined in this part are the imam's ascension; his status as a miracle-working 'thaumaturgic sage', and his esoteric function as initiator central to walayah.

A primary principle binding these six chapters together is Amir-Moezzi's distinction between the 'theophanic' cosmic entity of the 'Imam-God' and the concrete historical personality of the 'Alid imams – an 'ontological duality' hiding the key to their 'secret' – and exploring various experiential modes this distinction facilitates for shaping the spiritual appropriation of initiatory knowledge by their elect disciples. In the course of unfolding this central distinction, he discusses the controversial issue of 'divinisation' in Chapter 7:

The imam reveals God, he provides access to what may be known of Him, the Deus Revelatus, the zahir of God. The batin of God, His Face, the unknowable and hidden dimension, is the level of the Essence (al-dhat), the Deus absconditus. One can never emphasize enough this fundamental conception of walaya in Shi'i esotericism. Whether, as I believe, it...