Thesiss

This study attempts to explain how and why the Twelver Shi'is adopted the guild-based system of jurisprudence first developed by the Sunnis. Drawing on Sunni legal and theological works, it first outlines a theory of legal heresy in Sunni Islam based on the concept of "violating…

The life of Muhammad is not the object of a continuous narrative, nor of a body of continuous narratives, but of individual accounts, each concerned with a specific event and provided with its own chain of transmission. Such accounts are subsumed under the category of Sira, lite…

The raison d'etre of this dissertation is the nebulous nature of Muslim public opinion with regard to the procedures of conducting state affairs and transfer of political power. Qur'an exhorts Muslims to manage their affairs, both private and public, through Shura (mutual consul…

The Islamic revolution of 1978 to 1979 brought to the foreground the subject of Islam's revolutionary potential. I explain the event by focusing on the constitutive role played by the severe beliefs and practices of Shii Islam in mobilizing Muslims for rebellious action. I do th…