Origins of Shiism: Identity, Ritual, and Sacred Space in Eighth-Century Kufa

The Sunni-Shiite divide is often presented as a struggle over the identity of the Prophet Muhammad’s successor. In reality, however, this explanation did not materialize until a century after Muhammad’s death, in the southern Iraqi city of Kufa (now Najaf). This book traces the origins and development of Shiite identity. Through a critical analysis of legal texts whose sources have only recently been investigated, this study will show how early Shiites carved out their own distinct social and religious identity through specific rituals and practices, and within the confines of such isolated sacred spaces. This book addresses two fundamentally controversial issues of early Islam: the history of the emergence of Shiite identity, and the ways in which Shiites demonstrated their difference from the dominant culture of Kufi society. This is an important book as it represents a precedent that opens a new field of study, which makes it a remarkable development in the study of the Islamic world in its early stages.