LIMITS OF ORTHODOXY? THE TEXT AS LOST AND FOUND IN PRE-MODERN SHI`ISM

The religious ‘text’ has long been held to be the repository of the normative for those researching the history and development of Shi`ism in the pre-modern period. Dr Newman will explore the extent to which the texts, authored by a small number of identifiable scholarly elites when the community, as society at large, was overwhelmingly illiterate, can shed light on Shi`i dynamics across the centuries following the occultation of the Imam. He will also address the causes and implications of the relative loss of copies of such works over these years and their rediscovery in the later 17th century.

Dr Andrew Newman is the founder and moderator of the ‘Shi`i News’ list and its associated website ‘Shi News and Resources’. His most recent book, Twelver Shi`ism: Unity and Diversity in the Life of Islam, 632 to 1722, was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2013.

This event is free and open to the public (no registration required)

Tube: Jubilee Line to Willesden Green Station
Buses: 52, 260, 206, 460, 266, 302