The Renaissance of Shi'i Islam

The renaissance of Shi’i Islam began in the 15th century when the Ismailis experienced the Anjudan revival and Twelver Shi’i traditions were renewed. This renaissance gained further strength when the Safavids succeeded in establishing a state in the early decades of the 16th century, making Ithna’ashari Shi’i Islam their official religion. This open access book represents the most recent scholarship on the intellectual and spiritual life of the age. Although the political and artistic developments of the Safavid era of the 16th–18th centuries have been extensively studied, the complexities of the different groups, movements and strands of thought in the renaissance of Shi’i Islam still remain largely unexplored. The chapters in this book reveal what prepared the ground for its appearance as well as its achievements.

The major themes that characterised the Shi’i renaissance are explored, including: popular reactions to messianic movements; the development of legal theories and concepts; the investigation of theological and philosophical problems, above all by the ‘School of Isfahan’; Shi’i-Sufi interactions and intra-Shi'i relations; the collection of Shi’i hadith and its application in Shi’i exegesis; and the interplay between political considerations and religious beliefs.

The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Institute of Ismaili Studies.