Course Description
This course is intended to familiarize students with the rich diversity of Shi’I primary sources in English translation. Although students who took my course on Shi’I Thought and History may find the readings chosen for this course especially relevant, the two courses are independent, neither of them is a prerequisite for the other.
The course will be conducted as a graduate seminar, where student participation is essential. Brief lectures introducing a given topic or theme will be presented as needed. The course will concentrate briefly on Isma’ilism, but largely on ImamiTwelverShi’ism.
Attendance
Attendance and on-time arrival is expected at all class sessions. If you are unable to attend a class session please inform the instructor or teaching assistant in advance so arrangements for make-up work can be made. Since attendance and participation constitute 10% of your grade, excessive tardiness or absence will lower your grade. Students who miss more than three classes will not be able to successfully pass the course.
Course Schedule and Weekly Readings
Most readings, unless otherwise noted, will be found in the extensive library of Shi`ite sources online: www.al-islam.org
Week 1: Introduction to the course
Week 2: Ismailism
An Anthology of Ismaili Literature: A Shi'i Vision of Islamby Samira Sheikh (Editor), K. Kassam (Editor), H. Landolt (Editor)
Week 3: General Readings
a. Shi’i Islam: Origins, Faith and Practices by Mohammad Ali Shomali
b. Doctrines of Shi`i Islam: A Compendium of Imami Beliefs and Practices by Ayatollah JafarSobhani (Author), Reza Shah Kazemi (Translator)
Week 4: Biographies of the Imams ‘Ali IbnAbiTalib and his great grandson Ja’far al-Sadiq. Kitab al-Irshad by al-Mufid
Weeks 5 and 6: Tafsir and Hadith
a. Selections from Al-Mizan http://www.shiasource.com/al-mizan/
b. Usul al-Kafi: the book of Aql and Jahl, the book of excellence of knowledge, the book of Hujjah to the end of the section, “the earth will never be devoid of the proof”
c. Nahjul-Balaghah: the letter to Malik al-Ashtar, the letter 31 to Imam al-Hasan, Kalimat al-Qisar
d. Jesus Christ through Shi’i narrations
Week 7: Devotions, rituals and the ethos of martyrdom
a. Selections from Sahifa al-Sajjadiyyah
b. Dua’ al-Kumail
c. M. Ayoub Redemptive Suffering in Islam selections from chapters 4 and 5 on
Martyrdom and the ziyarah ritual
Week 8: Fiqh
a. Selections from Khamenei’sAjwibat al-Istifta’at
b. Questions on Jurisprudence (by Sharaf al-Din al-‘ameli explaining the peculiar Shi’i juridical viewpoints)
Weeks 9 and 10: Kalam and Irfan
a. Tenets of Islam by Nasir al-Din Tusi
b. Shiite Creed by al-Shaykh al-Saduq (Ibn Babawayh al-Qummi)
Shiite Creed can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/7620120/Shia-Creed
c. Light within me (an anthology from Mutahhari, Khomeini and Tabatabai)
d. Attributes of the nobles (Awsaf al-Ashraf) By khwajaNasir al-Din al-Tusi (All readings are on line)
Weeks 11 and 12: Shia contemporary political thought
a. Shi’a Political Thought by Ahmed Vaezi
b. Islam and Revolution 1: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini by HamidAlgar (editor)
c. On the Sociology of Islam: Lectures by Ali Shari’ati by HamidAlgar (editor)
Course Requirements
All students are expected to read all weekly readings on time and participate in discussions. Every week a student will be assigned the task of introducing the readings for the week and lead the discussion on them. Every student will prepare a final term paper of 15-20 pages in length, with proper footnotes or endnotes and bibliography. All students will be asked – beginning week 9 – to share the fruits of their research and ideas for the final paper with the rest of the students in a 15-20 minutes class presentation.
Grading
Grades will be computed as follows:
-Class attendance and general participation 10%
-Introducing the readings and class presentations 40%
-Final term paper 50%
Required Texts
Algar,Hamid (translator). Islam and Revolution 1: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, Mizan Press, 1981.
Algar, Hamid (translator). On the Sociology of Islam: Lectures by Ali Shari’ati, Mizan Press, 1979
Samira Sheikh (Editor), K. Kassam (Editor), H. Landolt (Editor). An Anthology of Ismaili
Literature: A Shi'i Vision of Islam, Institute for Ismaili Studies, 2008
Shomali,Mohammad Ali.Shi’i Islam: Origins, Faith and Practices, Islamic College for
Advanced Studies, 2003
Sobhani, Jafar (Author), Reza Shah Kazemi (Translator). Doctrines of Shi`i Islam: A
Compendium of Imami Beliefs and Practices by Ayatollah Jafar Subhani, IB Tauris, 2001
For Further Reading
Ayoub, Mahmoud. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: a Study of the Devotional Aspects of `Ashura’ in TwelverShi`ism, the Hague, Mouton Publishers, 1978
----------------------. TheCrisis of Muslim History: Religion and Politics in Early Islam, Oxford, Oneworld Publications, 2003
Brunner, Ranie and Werner Ende, eds. The TwelverShia in Modern Times: Religious
Culture and Political History. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2001
Corbin, Henry. Cyclical Time and Ismaili Gnosis. London: The Institute of Ismaili
Studies Ltd., Kegan Paul Int’l with Islamic Publications, 1985 ed
Chittick, William, AShi’ite Anthology , London: Muhammadi Trust of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1980
Daftari, Farhad. A Short History of the Ismailis. Edinburgh University Press 1998
Halm, Heinz.Shiism. Second Edition. New York: Columbia University Press 2004
Halm, Heinz. Shi’a Islam: From Religion to Revolution. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 1997
Jafri, S. Husain M. The Origins and Early Development of shi’a Islam.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002
Kitab al-irshad - http://www.al-islam.org/
Martin, Vanessa. Creating an Islamic state: Khomeini and the making of New Iran. (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000)
Nasr, SeyyedHossein, HamidDabashi and SeyyedVali Reza Nasr, (eds). Expectation of the Millennium: Shi’ism in History. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988
Psalms of Islam - http://www.al-islam.org/sahifa/
Sachedina, Abdulaziz A. Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in TwelverShi’ism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981
Sadra,Mulla and William Chittick. The Elixir of the Gnostics: A parallel English-Arabic text (Islamic Translation Series), Bringham Young University, 2002
Tabataba’i, ‘Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husain, SeyyedHoseynNasr(translator). Shi’ite Islam. London: George Allen &Unwin, 1975
Tabataba'I, ‘AllamahSayyid Muhammad Husayn (Author), SeyyedHosseinNasr
(Contributor), Mohammad H. Faghfoory (Contributor), Sayyid Muhammad
HusaynHusayniTihrani (Contributor). Kernel of the Kernel: A Shi’a approach to Sufism, Suny Press, 2007
Walker, E. Paul. Orations of the Fatimid Caliphs: Festival Sermons of the Ismaili Imams
(Ismaili Texts and Translations), IB Tauris, 2009
For further research and additional readings, please consult the extensive library of Shi`ite sources on line: www.al-islam.org.
