Review of “The Crisis of the Imāmate and the Institution of Occultation in Twelver Shiism” by Saïd Amir Arjomand
Crises of succession in the institution of Imāmate were the prime source of division in the early Shiite community, and their affects have remained definitive till this day. The doctrine of Imāmate “evolved gradually” during the first Islamic century, and was given a “definitive shape” by the death of Jāʿfar b. Muḥammad as-Ṣādiq (d. 148 … Read more