Rulers as Authors: ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and the Other Twelver Imams

Bernheimer, Teresa (2024): Rulers as Authors: ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and the Other Twelver Imams. In: Fierro, Maribel; Brentjes, Sonja und Seidensticker, Tilman (eds.) : Rulers as Authors in the Islamic World : Knowledge, Authority and Legitimacy. Islamic History and Civilization, Vol. 213. Leiden: Brill. pp. 9-29

Abstract

From commentaries on the Quran, to poetry, sermons, medicine, law, works of supplication, alchemy, even advice on sexual conduct: the Shiʿite Imams are recorded as authors for works of an astonishing variety of topics and genres. The article gives a first overview of the kinds of works ascribed to the Imams of the Twelver Shiʿi tradition, and explores the purpose and context of these ascriptions. The division into categories of works (exegetical works, collections of traditions, masāʾil works, legal works, devotional literature, sermons and sayings, theological treatises, medical works, poetry, alchemy) is necessarily tentative, and often ambiguous, as the material overlaps or cannot be clearly defined, or is extant only in short citations in later works. Some works are known only by title. The overview is thus meant to illustrate the breath of material ascribed to the Imams, which may tell us more about community formation and the development of scholarship in Islam than about authorship.

• Item Type: Book Section
• Faculties: Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures > Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies; Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures > Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies > Jewish studies
• Subjects: 200 Religion > 200 Religion; 200 Religion > 290 Other religions; 900 History and geography > 900 Geschichte
• ISBN: 978-90-04-69061-5
• Place of Publication: Leiden
• Language: English