Shi'ite Islam is an important text on the history and thought of
Shi'a Islam.
Written by
Muhammed H. Al-Tabataba'i, with the translation, editing, and introduction by
Dr. Sayyed Hussein Nasr, it was the first text to be written by a top Shi'a scholar and intended for western readership.
How it began
In 1962,
Kenneth Morgan, university
chaplain and professor of religious studies at
Colgate University, initiated a project to produce a text specifically dealing with
Shi'a Islam, introducing the Islamic sect to the non Muslim western reader, written from a true
Shi'a perspective. Presenting Oriental religion to the West from the point of view of an authentic representative is an important goal, and there are still very few authentic works by and about the Shi'a.
The aim of Professor Morgan to have a description of Shi'ism by one of the respected traditional scholars of the
Shi'a, led him and collaborator Dr.
Seyyed Hosein Nasr, to
Allamah Tabataba'i in 1963.
Allameh Tabatabaei was particularly well suited for this task; he was a pillar of intellectual Shi'a thought
ulema who combined interest in jurisprudence and Quranic commentary with philosophy,
theosophy, and
Sufism, and represented a more universal interpretation of the Shi'a point of view.
The project took 6 years to complete, and was followed by two more extending volumes.
William Chittick of
SUNY collaborated with the editing, and the book was published by the
State University of New York Press in 1979.
It remains a classic...
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