Shi'ism Books

Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq

Patrick Cockburn

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scribner Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $5.64

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Time magazine listed him as one of its "100 People Who Shape Our World." Newsweek featured him on its cover under the headline "How Al-Sadr May Control U.S. Fate in Iraq." Paul Bremer denounced him as a "Bolshevik Islamist" and ordered that he be captured "dead or alive." Who is Muqtada al-Sadr, and why is he so vital to the future of Iraq and, arguably, the entire Middle East?

In this compellingly readable account, prize-winning journalist Patrick Cockburn tells the story of Muqtada's rise to become the leader of Iraq's poor Shi'ites and the resistance to the occupation. Cockburn looks at the killings by Saddam's executioners and hit men of the young cleric's father, two brothers, and father-in-law; his leadership of the seventy-thousand-strong Mehdi Army; the fierce rivalries between him and other Shia religious leaders; his complex relationship with the Iraqi government; and his frequent confrontations with the American military, including battles that took place in Najaf in 2004. The portrait that emerges is of a complex man and a sophisticated politician, who engages with religious and nationalist aspirations in a manner unlike any other Iraqi leader.

Cockburn, who was among the very few Western journalists to remain in Baghdad during the Gulf War and has been an intrepid reporter of Iraq ever since, draws on his extensive firsthand experience in the country to produce a book that is richly interwoven with the voices of Iraqis themselves. His personal encounters with the Mehdi Army include a tense occasion when he was nearly killed at a roadblock outside the city of Kufa.

Though it often reads like an adventure story, Muqtada is also a work of painstaking research and measured analysis that leads to a deeper understanding both of one of the most critical conflicts in the world today and of the man who may well be a decisive voice in determining the future of Iraq when the Americans eventually leave.

The Assassins

Bernard Lewis

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Basic Books Amazon Marketplace: 58 new & used starting at $2.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Interesting overview of a misunderstood sect of Islam 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

The Assassins are part of the legend of the Crusades. The legend of their intoxicants, and the pleasures that initiates were allowed to sample before being sent on missions, are almost part of our historical lore, and of course the sect has lent its name to a word in the English language. This scholarly account by historian Bernard Lewis is detailed, and relentless at least in terms of sentimentality, brushing away legends and folklore and sticking to what's known of this splinter group of Islam and their culture, activities, motives, and fate.

It turns out that, as far as anyone knows, the Assassins are merely a splinter of the group called Ismailis (which still exists in Muslim countries, as a partially suppressed heresy). They existed for about three centuries, between the mid 11th century and the late 14th, in what is now northern Iran, and southern Syria. They never controlled a major city, and as a political entity, they appear to have survived largely through personal intimidation. While they were only so-so when it came to defeating armies, they were very effective at eliminating their leadership. In that era in which personal leadership, through monarchs and their surrogates, was the order of business for most governments in the area, this was particularly effective.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. If I do have a complaint, it's that the sum of knowledge about the Assassins, at least when Lewis wrote this, was rather thin, and so of course you don't get that much on them. The book itself runs to just about 150 pages in length, with an appendix which is another 50 pages tacked onto the end. The paucity of information isn't Lewis's fault, though, it's due to the secretiveness of the sect itself. Aside from that, the book is very well-done, interesting, and informative.

Editorial Review:

The Assassins is a comprehensive, readable, and authoritative account of history's first terrorists. An offshoot of the Ismaili Shi'ite sect of Islam, the Assassins were the first group to make systematic use of murder as a political weapon. Established in Iran and Syria in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, they aimed to overthrow the existing Sunni order in Islam and replace it with their own. They terrorized their foes with a series of dramatic murders of Islamic leaders, as well as of some of the Crusaders, who brought their name and fame back to Europe.Professor Lewis traces the history of this radical group, studying its teachings and its influence on Muslim thought. Particularly insightful in light of the rise of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. and in Israel, this account of the Assassins--whose name is now synonymous with politically motivated murderers--places recent events in historical perspective and sheds new light on the fanatic mind.

An Introduction to Shi`i Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shi`ism

Moojan Momen

Amazon Price: $21.60 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Yale University Press Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $11.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> Shi'ism
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> General AAS
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of the best books I've ever read on Shia Islam 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to Shia parents wishing to explain Shia Islam to their children. The book is easy enough for a high-schooler and up to read. As someone who grew up in a relatively small Shia community in the United States, this book was especially helpful in educating me over the years. Recently, many of my friends (who are of the college and professional school age) and who have not necessarily grown up in a household that stresses Shia Islam but who want to learn more about the area, have also turned to this book for understanding.

Excellent work from an historical perspective 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Dr. Momen wrote an excellent illustrated book. Even the printing layout is very good with a rather large typeface readable even by oldies.

Dr. Momen gave due attention to details like exact transliteration, differences between Arabic and Farsi spellings and pronunciations, careful complete footnotes, glossary and reference lists, etc.

The book also contains several charts that make it much easier to gain an overview of the subject matter, in particular of politico-historic events compared to theological developments.

Dr. Momen does not claim to be an esoterist but rather has chosen an historic (zahiri) viewpoint without at all closing the door to the esoteric side (batini).

Dr. Momen makes it clear and plausible how Twelver Shi'ism has especially since Safavid rule in Iran moved towards a concentration on exoteric law with the legal experts gradually assuming several prerogatives original held reserved to the occulted 12th Imam. In other words, it seems that the Sunni Al-Azhar University's published opinion considering 12er Shi'a a 5th school of orthodox Islamic jurisprudence in addition to the four still extant Sunni schools is factually based. In all fairness, however, we should bear in mind that tendencies towards legalism are currently not restricted to Shi'i Islam but, alas, observable worldwide.

The more esoterically minded (batini) amongst the 12er ulama (doctors of theology) who do not share the view that jurisprudence (fiqh) is the central theme of Islamic knowledge have apparently gradually withdrawn and gone underground in a kind of relative occultation.

This reviewer heartily thanks Dr. Momen and hopes he is alive and well and will soon publish a second updated edition of his excellent work.

Editorial Review:

This book is a general introduction to Shi'i Islam-specifically to Twelver Shi'ism, to which the majority of Shi'is belong today. It deals with the history and development of this important religion, giving an account of Shi'i doctrines and focusing in particular on those areas in which it differs from Sunni Islam.

Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam Ali

Reza Shah-Kazemi

Amazon Price: $20.65 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: I. B. Tauris Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $19.04

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> History
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> Shi'ism
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ali b. Abi Talib, son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, first Shi'i imam and fourth caliph, is a monumental figure within the Islamic tradition. But despite the immense importance of Imam Ali, there is a dearth of literature in Western languages about his life and thought. This book -- the first serious engagement in English with the intellectual principles underpinning his teachings -- is therefore a welcome and valuable addition to the sources available. It consists of three parts. Part one introduces the person of Ali in a general manner, and focuses particularly on the spiritual and ethical content of his teachings. Part two evaluates Ali's "sacred conception of justice" Part three addresses the theme of spiritual realization through the remembrance of God, the central mystical practice of the Sufis. Justice and Remembrance will be of great value to students and scholars of Islamic thought, as well as to those interested in the relationship between spirituality and ethics.

The Book of Assistance

Imam 'Abdallah Ibn Alawi al-Haddad

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fons Vitae Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $7.60

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> Shi'ism
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> General
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Advice 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

The genius of this book is that it condenses the collected wisdom of centuries of Muslim spiritual doctors such as Imam-al Ghazali into a handy, brief manual. For centuries books like this have shaped men and women of all races, from Indonesians to Swahilis, into shining examples of godliness and beautiful conduct. Anyone who implements the advice here can become what Muslim mystics call a complete, perfected human being, characterized by everything from kindness and charity (including a cheerful countenance), to waking up in the middle of the night to worship, to inward states such as thankfulness and trust in God's will. Like all men of God, Imam al-Haddad's writing is clear, sober and eloquent.

Editorial Review:

There are many books in English that present Sufi doctrine, but few that can be used as practical travel guides along the Path. Originally written in classical Arabic, this volume is in widespread use among Sufi teachers in Arabia, Indonesia, and East Africa; its devotions, prayers, and practical ethics are invaluable as a guide along the Sufi Way.

Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity Among the Daudi Bohras

Jonah Blank

Amazon Price: $20.25 List Price: $22.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University Of Chicago Press Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $9.29

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> Shi'ism
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> General
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity among the ... 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Jonah Blank's book is well researched and written to appeal to both traditional Bohras and the second generation Daudi Bohras settled in the Western Hemisphere. The initial emphasis on the factual data and the rituals provides a credible introduction to the theme of the book. He discusses with decorum the intellectual controversies that have plagued the sect and exhibits non-judgemental finesse. The glossary, index and elaborate references are very helpful. Although his bias is implicit, he provides the readers with the varying view points. Further, although he worked with the "inner system" to come up with this book, he is limited by the lack of access he had, to the "batin" text. His discussion of the philosophy of the sect in the broader Shiite perspective provides a good balance and allows the readers to think through the nuances of orthropraxy, he frequently alludes to. However, a more in-depth comparison with the orthodox Shiite dogma and more elaborate a description of the Fatmid era and hierarchy would have been more enlightening. Maybe, a topic for future manuscripts!

Editorial Review:

In Jonah Blank's important, myth-shattering book, the West gets its first look at the Daudi Bohras, a unique Muslim denomination who have found the core of their religious beliefs largely compatible with modern ideology. Combining orthodox Muslim prayer, dress, and practice with secular education, relative gender equality, and Internet use, this community serves as a surprising reminder that the central values of "modernity" are hardly limited to the West.

An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi'i Lebanon (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics)

Lara Deeb

Amazon Price: $24.25 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Princeton University Press Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $18.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Gay & Lesbian -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Anthropology -> Cultural
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Gender Studies -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Based on two years of ethnographic research in the southern suburbs of Beirut, An Enchanted Modern demonstrates that Islam and modernity are not merely compatible, but actually go hand-in-hand. This eloquent ethnographic portrayal of an Islamic community articulates how an alternative modernity, and specifically an enchanted modernity, may be constructed by Shi'I Muslims who consider themselves simultaneously deeply modern, cosmopolitan, and pious.

In this depiction of a Shi'I Muslim community in Beirut, Deeb examines the ways that individual and collective expressions and understandings of piety have been debated, contested, and reformulated.

Women take center stage in this process, a result of their visibility both within the community, and in relation to Western ideas that link the status of women to modernity. By emphasizing the ways notions of modernity and piety are lived, debated, and shaped by "everyday Islamists," this book underscores the inseparability of piety and politics in the lives of pious Muslims.

Shi'ite Lebanon: Transnational Religion and the Making of National Identities (History and Society of the Modern Middle East)

Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr

Amazon Price: $30.00 List Price: $37.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Columbia University Press Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $28.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> General

Editorial Review:

By recasting the relationship between religion and nationalism in the Middle East, Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr proposes a new framework for understanding Shi'ite politics in Lebanon. Her study draws on a variety of untapped sources, reconsidering not only the politics of the established leadership of Shi'ites but also institutional and popular activities of identity production. Shaery-Eisenlohr traces current Shi'ite politics of piety and authenticity to the coexistence formula in Lebanon and argues that engaging in the discourses of piety and coexistence is a precondition to cultural citizenship in Lebanon. As she demonstrates, debates over the nature of Christianity and Islam and Christian-Muslim dialogue are in fact intertwined with power struggles at the state level.

Since the 1970s, debates in the transnational Shi'ite world have gradually linked Shi'ite piety with the support of the Palestinian cause. Iran's religious elite has backed this piety project in multiple ways, but in doing so it has assisted in the creation of a variety of Lebanese Shi'ite nationalisms with competing claims to religious and national authenticity. Shaery-Eisenlohr argues that these ties to Iran have in fact strengthened the position of Lebanese Shi'ites by providing, as is recognized, economic, military, and ideological support for Hizbullah, as well as by compelling Lebanese Shi'ites to foreground the Lebanese components of their identity more forcefully than ever before.

Shaery-Eisenlohr challenges the belief that Shi'ite identity politics only serve to undermine the Lebanese national project. She also makes clear that the expression of Lebanese Shi'ite identity is a nationalist expression and an unintended result of Iranian efforts to influence the politics of Lebanon.

The Secret Order of Assassins: The Struggle of the Early Nizari Ismai'lis Against the Islamic World

Marshall G. S. Hodgson

Amazon Price: $22.45 List Price: $26.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of Pennsylvania Press Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $22.44

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The sect known as "the Assassins," a corruption of an Arabic word that means hashish smoker, is familiar to the West as a mystical cult of killers led by the "Man in the Mountain" encountered by the Crusaders. But it was not defeat at the hands of Christians that ended more than a century of Assassin rule; it was the massive and brutal invasion of Mongols from the East who conquered Assassin strong points and mountain fortifications one by one, crushing nearly all traces of this once fearsome sect. For nearly two centuries the Fâtimids, Shi'ite Muslims who believed Mohammed's daughter Fâtimah was his successor, attempted to control the Islamic world from their seat in Cairo.

Following the death of the Fâtimid caliphate al Mustansir in 1094, members of a faction in Persia that supported a deposed claimant to the caliphate, Nizâr, believed they now represented Fâtimid interests. These Nizârî Ismâî'lîs ended up separating themselves from mainstream Islam and creating their own state in parts of present-day Syria, Iraq, and Iran. In order to establish and maintain regional control, the Nizârî Ismâî'lîs used political murders and spies to subjugate or influence rival caliphates and the dominant Saljûqs.

Marshall Hodgson's first major book, The Secret Order of the Assassins remains the most complete history of the Assassins. Beginning the story with the separation of Sunnis and Shi'ites and the rise of Ismâî'lîsm, an offshoot of Shi'ism, Hodgson traces the long and complex history of power struggles within Islam that led ultimately to the separation of the Nizârî Ismâî'lîs and their direct challenge to Muslim leadership. Hodgson goes on to explain the principles of the movement, provides an examination of their sacred texts, and follows the history of the group from the pinnacle of power in the mid-eleventh century to its legacy in the form of small pockets of followers in parts of contemporary Syria and India. Long out of print and appearing for the first time in paperback, this book is an illuminating study in the history of Islam.

Early Sufi Women: Dhikr an-Niswa al-Muta'abbidat as-Sufiyyat

Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami

List Price: $24.95 By: Fons Vitae Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $14.81

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Foreign Language Nonfiction -> Arabic
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> Shi'ism

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Where are the great women?? 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Where are they? Why aren't we like them? This ancient text leaves you with those questions, and has you drilling your heart over this final though...When will I become like them?

The introduction gives insight to the ancient text that was recored by As-Sulami Rahimullah. The life of him, and the basic orginization of his text Dhikr an niswa al muta 'abbidat as sufiyyat. The introduction is very useful to those who read english translated Sufi texts, because you must be trained formally and spiritually how to read a Sufi book. Why? Just because the book is old, translated into English and available does not make it a good rendering to the actual work itself.

Regarding thr format of the book, it is in a biogrophy style, with the Arabic text facing the English. The name of the women, her Kunya, or her name she was known by. Then the narration begins with the Isnad of how As-Sulami heard of the particular woman.

You are left with nothing but awe, love and want of the divine and at least left begging Allah for their qualities. these women were true devotees, they spent their time working hard for their akhira, and taking little from the dunya. May Allah give us all a glimpse of what these women had, for they had it (mar'ifa) at every waking momment!

Editorial Review:

This earliest known work in Islam devoted entirely to women's spirituality was written by the Persian Sufi Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami. The long-lost text provides portraits of 80 Sufi women who lived in the central Islamic lands between the 8th and 11th centuries C.E. As spiritual masters and exemplars of Islamic piety, they served as respected teachers and guides in the same way as did Muslim men, often surpassing men in their understanding of Sufi doctrine, the Qur'an, and Islamic spirituality. This bilingual edition includes pages from 10th-century manuscript.