Western Studies of Shi‘i Islam

Abstract

This paper will examine the historical study of Shi‘ism in the
western academy and argue that until the last two decades, western
scholarship looked at it primarily through a Sunni lens. This
changed during the 1980s due to various socio-political factors,
among them Iran’s Islamic revolution, Hizbollah’s emergence in
Lebanon, and the American invasion and occupation of Iraq,
forced western scholars to look at it in different light. Consequently,
they began to examine different facets of this branch of
Islam, ranging from its concept of centralized authority during the
Twelfth Imam’s Greater Occultation to liturgies, rituals, and political
theory.