Andrew J. Newman (1)

Valuable as a historical guide to a religious movement which is very significant today. Frankly, rather dry --a lot of very brief comments on a large number of Shia scholars who are little known except to specialists. The book begins with the debate over Ali's claim to succeed Muhammad and goes down to the end of the Safavid, but about 75% of it is devoted to the period before the Safavids gained control of Persia about 1501. This means during most of the era discussed, the Twelver Shia are a mostly powerless minority, mounting occasional futile revolts and often subject to mob attacks 9often, as today, Hanbali-inspired). After a survey of other Shia sects at the beginning , the focus of the book is almost entirely on the Twelver Shia, so the non-Twelver Fatimid caliphate and the Ismaili "Assassins" who had much more real power in parts of the pre-1500 period are only mentioned in passing.
One important point the book makes is that in this period much of the Twelver activity was in Iraq, even (as today) in some districts of Baghdad, or in other places like Lebanon and Bahrein, not in Iran. The author, who has studied modern Twelver groups outside Iran, estimates that even today only 40% or so of the Twelver Shia are in Iran, a much lower proportion than the usual image. However, he also does discuss early Iranian Twekver centers such as Qum.… (mehr)