1Two notes may be made on the orthography and format of this paper. One, I have no fonts that can produce full diacritics. Only hamza, 'ain, and long vowels can be marked. Two, I chose to use footnotes, rather than embedded notes or endnotes, because they will be the most appropriate for a bibliographic paper like this.
[2] Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Le Guide Divin Dans Le Shi'isme Originel. Trans. by David Streight as The Divine Guide in Early Shi'ism: The Sources of Esotericism in Islam (State University of New York Press, Albany, 1994), 29ff.
[3] A few terms should be introduced here for the benefit of the reader with little familiarity with Arabic. "Shí'a" is the (uninflected) noun, "Shí'í" is the (nisba) adjective, and "Shí'ism" is the English term for the whole of this branch of Islam. In places these terms are somewhat interchangeable, and I chose arbitrarily. Also, I have used the phrases "Shí'a studies" and "Shí'í Qur'án," though perhaps they are not always the most felicitous. The former is meant to signify studies on Shí'ism, not necessarily studies by Shí'ís. The latter term will, in places, refer specifically to the unique Qur'án possessed by the Imams, but, more often, will simply refer to the Qur'án in the broader Shí'a tradition.
[4] Mahmoud Ayoub, "The Speaking Qur'an and the Silent Qur'an: A Study of the Principles and Development of Imámí Shí'í tafsír," in Andrew Rippin, ed., Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qur'án (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1988), 177
[5] The term "Orientalism" will usually be replaced in this essay by the less "loaded" term "Western" and its derivatives.
[6] cf. below, section 2.5
[7] Eric J. Sharpe, Comparative Religion: A History (Open Court, La Salle, Illinois, 1986), 37
[8] Cf. Sharpe, chapter 7, "Religion, Comparative and Absolute," 144-173
[9] Udo Schaefer, "Muhammad and the West," in The Light Shineth in Darkness: Five Studies in Revelation after Christ (George Ronald, Oxford, 1979), 136
[10] Cf. Inferno, Canto 28, vs. 10-12
[11] Schaefer, 136
[12] Kenneth Cragg, The Call of the Minaret (Oxford University Press, New York, 1964), 186
[13] Schaefer, 135, n. 481
[14] Literally, "Twelver," the Western term for the largest branch of Shí'ism. The term derives from the fact that this branch of Shí'ism recognizes a total of twelve Imams, as distinguished from another branch of Shí'ís, the Ismá'ílís, who only recognize seven Imams and are thus sometimes referred to as the "Seveners."
[15] Dwight M. Donaldson, The Shi'ite [sic] Religion: A History of Islam in Persia and Irak [sic] (Luzac and Company, London, 1933) vii, and Joseph Eliash, 'Alí b. Abí Tálib in Ithna-'Asharí Shí'í Belief (Doctoral thesis, University of London, 1966), 14
[16] Cf. Amir-Moezzi, 2f.
[17] Heinz Halm, Shiism (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1991), 3
[18] Garcin de Tassy, quoted in Amir-Moezzi, 80
[19] Amir-Moezzi, 80
[20] Amir-Moezzi, 1
[21] Halm, 3
[22] 'Allámah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabátabá'í, Shí'ah Dar Islam, translated by Seyyed Hossein Nasr as Shi'ite Islam (State University of New York Press, Albany, 1975), 17 and n. 14
[23] Halm considers Momen's An Introduction to Shi'i Islam to have surpassed Donaldson's in usefulness. (Halm, 3)
[24] Alessandro Bausani, in Forward to Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shi'i Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shi'ism (George Ronald, Oxford, 1985)
[25] Seyyed Hossein Nasr, et al, eds. Shi'ism: Doctrines, Thought, and Spirituality (State University of New York Press, New York, 1988), 1
[26] Abdulaziz A. Sachedina, The Just Ruler in Shi'ite Islam: The Comprehensive Authority of the Jurist in Imamate Jurisprudence (Oxford University Press, New York, 1988), viii
[27] Momen, xv
[28] Halm, 2
[29] To prevent confusion, the words "Imam" and "Imamate" as applied to the leader of Shí'ism and his institution will always be capitalized here. When used in other contexts, the words will not be capitalized.
[30] The following hadith, for example, is found, not only in numerous Shí'a accounts, but also in the Sunni hadith collection of Ibn Hanbal: At a place called Ghadír-Khumm, Muhammad "took 'Alí by the hand and said to the people: 'Do you not acknowledge that I have a greater claim on each of the believers than they have on themselves?" And they replied: "'Yes!' And he took 'Alí's hand and said: 'Of whomsoever I am mawla, than 'Alí is also his mawla.' O God! Be Thou the supporter of whoever supports 'Alí and the enemy of whoever opposes him.'" The problem is that there is no consensus on the significance in this hadith of the word 'mawla,' which means "client," "patron," or "Lord." (Hadith quoted in Momen, 15)
[31] Donaldson claims that it appears that 'Alí seriously considered pressing his claims even at this early stage, (Donaldson, 12) but Momen counters that, though 'Alí was urged to do so, he refused. (Momen, 18)
[32] Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates (Longman, London, 1986), 70
[33] Donaldson, 21
[34] Momen, 22. It must be pointed out that some scholars disagree with this statement. Cf. Halm, 8: "'Alí's Caliphate was disputed from the very beginning."
[35] Halm, 8
[36] It must be clarified again that both "Sunni" and "Shí'a" are retrospective terms. At the time, the factions in the Muslim world were not so clearly delineated.
[37] Momen, 28
[38] Quoted in Halm, 15
[39] Abdulaziz A. Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: the Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism (State University of New York Press, Albany, 1981), 39
[40] Momen, 162
[41] Sachedina, Messianism, 62ff.
[42] I have included no citations in the following discussion because the themes mentioned are broad in scope and were not culled from any specific sources.
[43] This paradox is discussed in two primary sources available in English. Cf. Asaf A. A. Fyzee, A Shí'ite Creed: A Translation of I'tiqádátu 'l-Imámiyyah (World Organization for Islamic Services, Tehran, 1982), 35f. and S. Husain M. Jafri, Origins and Early Development of Shi'a Islam (Librairie du Liban, London, 1979), "The Martyrdom of Husayn," 174-221.
[44] Amir-Moezzi, 125
[45] Sachedina, Messianism, 18
[46] The following summary of early Imamism is taken from Moezzi, 29-131
[47] Citations for these specifics discussed immediately below can be found in the more thorough discussion of the scholarship on the issue found farther below, sections 24 and 2.5.
[48] This is not quite as wild a conspiracy theory as it may sound. The Muslim community, caught between the dissolution of old norms and the emergence of new ones, was struggling to define both itself and its proper means of functioning. This struggle included many power issues, such as older tribal caste systems versus those of the new community, based not on clan ties but on religion, and the shift from tribal aristocracy to a hierarchy based on "precedence" in Islam. In light of these power struggles, Muhammad's instructions, both in the hadith and in the Qur'án, were not necessarily clear or eagerly followed. The issue as to which of the many variant renderings of the Qur'án should be accepted, then, was much more than a religious one.
[49] Defined fully in Momen, 39 and 183
[50] Ayoub, "The Speaking Qur'an," 187
[51] The Sunni interpretation of this verse must be mentioned for the sake of completeness. The complete fragment reads: "...But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part thereof that is allegorical, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings, but no one knows its hidden meanings except Allah, and those who are firmly grounded in knowledge. Say: 'We believe in the Book; the whole of it is from our Lord:' and none will grasp the Message except men of understanding." There are numerous verses in the Qur'án that open with "Say: ..." The alternate interpretation, then, is that there is a period after Allah, and the rest is one sentence. This would make it read that only God knows the meaning of the Book, and that it is "those who are firmly grounded in knowledge" who "say" the rest.
[52] Mahmoud M. Ayoub, The Qur'án and its Interpreters (State University of New York Press, Albany, 1984), 1
[53] Ayoub, Interpreters, 14
[54] Cf., e.g., Thomas Carlyle. Though Carlyle respects the Qur'án, he nonetheless criticizes its structure, calling it "A wearisome confused jumble, crude, endless iterations, long-windedness, entanglement..." Quoted in Cragg, 186
[55] Gabrieli, "Muhammad and Islam as phenomena of world-wide importance," 1956, quoted in Schaefer, 141f.
[56] Karen Armstrong, A History of God (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1993), 144. In calling Armstrong a nonspecialist I merely mean that, even though she has written a biography of the Prophet, she is not known as an Islamicist, per se.
[57] There is a third issue that has generated a fair amount of discussion, but it can only be mentioned in passing. This is the issue of Shí'a esotericism, including the concepts of taqiyya, changes in the esoteric/exoteric aspects of Shí'í doctrine, and the esoteric/exoteric aspects of Shí'í exegesis. I mention it here only in the interests of completeness for, though fascinating, it would require its own 30-page paper! If the reader is interested in this issue, I highly recommend the entirety of Amir-Moezzi's book. Though his presentation is suspiciously theosophical at times, it is unusually exhaustive scholarship and is academically sound.
[58] Daud Rahbar, "Relation of Shí'a Theology to the Qur'án." Muslim World, 51 (1961), 96. This statement is perhaps an exaggeration, as can be seen below, section 2.4.
[59] Hossein Modarressi, "Early Debates on the Integrity of the Qur'án: a Brief Survey." Studia Islamica, 77 (1993), 8f.
[60] Kristina Nelson, The Art of Reciting the Qur'án (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1985), 2
[61] J. J. G. Jansen, The Interpretation of the Koran in Modern Egypt (E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1974), 3
[62] Nelson, 3. The number of canonical variations is taken by different schools of thought to be either seven, ten, or fourteen.
[63] Jansen, 3
[64] Arthur Jeffery, "The Qur'án Readings of Zaid b. 'Alí." Rivista degli Studi Orientali, 16 (1936), 249
[65] This is discussed fully in Amir-Moezzi, 80, 90, and the corresponding footnotes.
[66] Cf., e.g., Joseph Eliash, 'Alí b. Abí Tálib in Ithna-'Asharí Shí'í Belief (cited above), 125, and Joseph Eliash, "'The Shí'ite Qur'án:' A Reconsideration of Goldhizer's Interpretation." Arabica: Revue d'Etudes Arabes, 16 (1969), 17
[67] Amir-Moezzi, 199, note 411
[68] Tisdall, with more knowledge of the Qur'án than I have, states "The style is imitated from the Koran... the verses are largely centos of Qur'ánic passages taken from their context." (W. St. Clair Tisdall, "Shi'ah Additions to the Koran." Moslem World, 3 (1913) 229)
[69] Tisdall, 228
[70] Amir-Moezzi, 79-91
[71] ibid., 90
[72] ibid., 90
[73] G. E. Von Grunebaum, Islam: Essays in the Growth of a Cultural Tradition (Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1961), 80
[74] Both Jafri and Tabátabá'í, two scholars writing in the guise of objective academia whom Halm warns should be considered primary sources expressing "Shiite self-understanding" (Halm, 4), clearly do not accept their authenticity to be even remotely possible. (cf. below, section 2.5)
[75] Jeffrey, "Zaid," 249. Jeffrey calls this an "as yet untouched problem."
[76] Specifically, these twelve are: Rahbar; Eliash, 'Alí...; Eliash "The Shí'ite Qur'án..."; Kohlberg, "...Imamite..."; Ayoub, "The Speaking Qur'án..."; Nasr; Fischer; Lawson; Bar-Asher; Hawting; Modarressi; and Amir-Moezzi. See bibliographies for full citations.
[77] Von Grunebaum, 80
[78] Meir M. Bar-Asher, "Variant Readings and Additions of the Imámí-Shí'a to the Qur'án." Israel Oriental Studies, 13 (1993), 46
[79] Momen, too, refers to these suras as Shí'í, and even claims that the Shí'ís tried to get them "accepted as being missing portions of the Qur'án but without success." This assessment, though, is but quotation from the same sources mentioned above. (Momen, 173, and 338, n. 5)
[80] Tisdall, 227
[81] Tisdall, 230
[82] Eliash, 'Alí, 123
[83] Eliash, 'Alí, 124
[84] Cf. Rahbar, who refers to this book as an "admirable work" which "rates among the very first to be translated into Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu as insemination for the birth of enlightened Muslim scholarship." (Rahbar, 96)
[85] Jeffrey, "Zaid," 251
[86] Jeffrey, "Zaid," 288
[87] Daud Rahbar, "Relation of Shí'a Theology to the Qur'án." Muslim World, 51 (1961), pp. 92-98 and 211-216, continued in Muslim World, 52 (1962), pp. 17-21 and 124-128. This is not a misspelling; The Moslem World became The Muslim World.
[88] Joseph Eliash, 'Alí b. Abí Tálib in Ithna-'Asharí Shí'í Belief, cited above
[89] ibid., 2
[90] Eliash wrote that the latter article "includes material used in [his] Ph.D. thesis..." (Eliash "Shí'ite," 15) In truth though, there are only two trivial differences between these two: One, the article has a paragraph break on page 21 between "...as well as some of the verses" and "They also claim..." which is not found in the dissertation. Two, Jeffrey has added sixteen lines to the article that are not found in the dissertation, namely, page 23 from "Concerning the "mushaf..." to page 24 "...and what is unlawful." Thus his phrasing "includes material" seems rather generous.
91Etan Kohlberg, "Some Notes on the Imamite Attitude to the Qur'án," in S. M. Stern, et al, eds. Islamic Philosophy and the Classical Tradition (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1972), 209-224.
92Michael M. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition (The University of Wisconsin Press, London, 1990)
93ibid., xxi
94ibid., 97
95Cf. ibid., 107-122
96Todd B. Lawson, "Note for the Study of a 'Shí'í Qur'án.'" Journal of Semitic Studies, 36/2 (Autumn, 1991)
[97] Bar-Asher, cited above
[98] ibid., 40
[99] These four categories are from ibid., 42f. Most of the examples, though, are mine.
[100] ibid., 47
[101] Modarressi (cited above), 5
[102] ibid., 10ff. While the "stoning verse" is a relatively well-known one, Modarressi lists over ten other, less well-known examples of verses reported to have been lost. Significantly, all are from non-partisan sources.
[103] For example, al-Ash'arí, writing in A.D. 935, divided the Shí'í theories about the Qur'án into something very similar to these groupings. Amir-Moezzi, writing in 1993 and in whose book al-Ash'arí's distinction is found, also adopted a very similar schema. (Amir-Moezzi, 86f.)
[104] Modarressi, "Early Debates...", 23-38
[105] Daftary claims that the party of 'Ali can not be said to have come into existence until after the Battle of Siffin, in AD 658. Farhad Daftary, The Ismá'ílís: Their History and Doctrines (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992), 45. There was, of course, no party of "Sunnis" either, but the term is convenient and not too misleading.
[106] Modarressi, 22
[107] ibid., 22
[108] ibid., 31
[109] ibid., 39. Italics in original
[110] Eliash, "The Shí'ite Qur'án," 15
[111] ibid. 15ff.
[112] Von Grunebaum, 80
[113] Cf. above, notes 77 and 79
[114] Amir-Moezzi, 80f.
[115] Modarressi, 28f.
[116] Amir-Moezzi, in toto
[117] Ayoub, "The Speaking Qur'án...", 184f.
[118] Momen, 189f.
[119] Sadúq, quoted in Jafri, Origins..., 311f. The explanatory comments are mine.
[120] Tabátabá'í, Shí'ah Dar Islam, 99
[121] Von Grunebaum, 80
[122] Cf. Donaldson, 195
[123] In saying this, I am not seeking to affront the Shí'a confessions of belief quoted above by declaring them disingenuous. My intent is merely to present my external, non-Muslim view of the matter.
[124] Bar-Asher, 46
[125] Cf. Lawson, 295
[126] Eliash, "The Shí'ite Qur'án," 24
[127] This example is hypothetical. I do not know if there are any verses in the Qur'án which could be misread in this fashion.