What Is Shiʿi Writing

Nahj al-balāgha, Identity and Adab Literature in the Būyid Period

Bibliographic Data

ID22360332
AuthorsGeorge Warner (0000-0002-1818-6427, Institute of Ismaili Studies, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume2
Issue1
Pages28-61
Publication date2024-09-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religious Minorities under Muslim Rule (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2773-2134 • E-ISSN: 2773-2142
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/27732142-bja00009
OpenAlexW4402933994
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

This article examines three Būyid-era adab compendia by Shiʿi authors—al-Ābī’s Nathr al-durr , al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā’s Ghurar al-fawāʾid and al-Sharīf al-Raḍī’s Nahj al-balāgha —analysing how these works express Shiʿi ideas and sentiments, and how these expressions are calibrated to take account of a presumed majority-non-Shiʿi readership. It is argued that this process is not simply one of dilution, rather the three works exhibit specific shared strategies that allow them to accommodate powerful assertions of Shiʿism without ceasing to be intelligible to non-Shiʿis. The article shows the complex relationships between these works, adab literature and Shiʿi legal and theological literature, inviting a reconsideration of how particular kinds of writing are deemed central or peripheral to Shiʿi thought and experience. In addition, these analyses supply important historical context for the composition of Nahj al-balāgha , a work that has long possessed immense status in multiple Muslim traditions as well as in Arabic literature

Education and Islamic Studies · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy

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