The Sunna and Shi'a in history
Subtitle: division and ecumenism in the Muslim Middle East
By: edited by Meir Litvak and Ofra Bengio
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 278
ISBN-13: 9780230120921
Subjects: Sunnites; Shīʻah; Relations; History
Description: Sunni-Shi'i relations have undergone significant transformations in recent decades. The 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran had a major spill-over effect on the entire Middle East, and the 2003 war in Iraq transformed the Shi'is into the dominant force in Iraq. The emergence of Iran as a regional power following Saddam Husayn's removal, along with the weakness of the Arab state system, raised the specter of the "Shi'i Crescent" threatening Sunni-Arab domination in the region. The present volume demonstrates the complexity of Sunni-Shi'i relations by analyzing political, ideological, and social encounters between the two communities from early Islamic history to the present. While analyzing specific case studies in various Middle Eastern regions, the book provides a panoramic picture ranging from hostility to efforts of cooperation and ecumenism. -- Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction / Ofra Bengio and Meir Litvak; title: Responses to unwanted authority in early Islam: models for current Shi'i and Sunni activists / Jacob Lassner; title: Early Hanbalism and the Shi'a / Nimrod Hurvitz; title: The confrontation between Sunni and Shi'i empires: Ottoman-Safavid relations between the fourteenth and the seventeenth century / Max Scherberger; title: Encounters between Shi'i and Sunni 'ulama' in Ottoman Iraq / Meir Litvak; title: The Ottoman dilemma in handling the Shi'i challenge in nineteenth-century Iraq / Ismail Safa Ustun; title: Religious extremism and ecumenical tendencies in modern Iraqi Shi'ism / Amatzia Baram; title: Quietists turned activists: the Shi'i revolution in Iraq; title: Ofra Bengio; title: The Sunni-Shi'i struggle over Lebanon: a new chapter in the history of Lebanon / Eyal Zisser; title: The Wahhabiyya and Shi'ism, from 1744/45 to 2008 / Guido Steinberg; title: Unity or hegemony? Iranian attitudes to the Sunni-Shi'i divide / Ze'ev Maghen; title: Debating the "awakening Shi'a": Sunni perceptions of the Iranian Revolution / Meir Hatina; title: Interesting times: Egypt and Shi'ism at the beginning of the twenty-first century / Rainer Brunner; title: Epilogue: the Sunni-Shi'i paradox / Ofra Bengio and Meir Litvak.