Date of Award
5-2008
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Legacy Department
History
Committee Chair/Advisor
Miller, James A
Committee Member
Miller , James A
Committee Member
Bein , Amit
Committee Member
Marks , Steven
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to explain how and why many modern Twelver Shi'a, Sunni, and Western scholars have structured political and religious conflict during the formative era of Islam (610-945 C.E.) around a partisan Sunni-Shi'a divide that did not truly exist, at least as we know it today, until the sixteenth century. By analyzing the socio-political and economic developments from the time of the Prophet Muhammad (570-632) to the Abbasid Revolution (750), I intend to show that there was no clear line that divided Sunni and Shi'a Muslims during the formative era of Islam, and that the concepts of Sunnism and Twelver Shi'ism took centuries to develop into the theological, legal, and spiritual characteristics that we associate with the two main sects of Islam today. In other words, I intend to show that Twelver Shi'ism and Sunnism were the products of several centuries of theological and legal speculation. During the first two centuries of Islam, a diversity of religious and political movements clouded the line between Sunnism and Shi'ism. Moreover, many of the life stories of important 'Twelver Shi'ite' and 'Sunni' historical figures of the formative era also blurred the line between what we know today as Sunnism and Shi'ism.
Recommended Citation
Bufano, Michael, "A Reconsideration of the Sunni-Shi'a Divide in Early Islam" (2008). All Theses. 331.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/331