Early Shīʿī History

This course takes as its remit an overview of the earliest texts produced by Muslim historians, albeit with their own proto-Shīʿī or proto-Sunnī inclinations. While acknowledging that both Shīʿī and Sunnī scholars often treat these historical texts with caution, the course nevertheless examines various accounts and interpretations of Islamic history, beginning with the event of Saqīfa (12-13 AH/632 CE) and ending with the assassination of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (40 AH/661 CE). The identities and political leanings of ḥadīth narrators and the historians that relied upon them are analysed in order for students to obtain a clearer understanding of the possible motives and contexts that have influenced how historical accounts have been compiled. The origins of terms such as ahl al-bayt (‘people of the house’) and shīʿa (partisan; follower) are explored through their pre-Islamic and Qur’ānic use; and the social, political and economic strategies of various competing interests in relation to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and Banī Hāshim are also critically examined, providing an insight into the factors that combined to bring about his death.

Syllabus

Aims

• To familiarise you with both primary and secondary texts related to the field of study.
• To offer an academic and analytical method of presenting texts.
• To offer the opportunity for questions, comments and discussion.

Level

This course is at the level equivalent to a Batchelor’s degree. The rate is standard for a non-accredited short course in the Humanities.

Edited Bibliography

• ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Sanʿānī, al-Muṣannaf, ed. Habīb al-Rahmān al-A’zamī (Beirut, 1390-92/1970-2).
• Abī, Mansūr b. Husayn. Nathr al-durar fī al-muḥāḍarāt(Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyah, 2004).
• Abū Zahra, Muḥammad. Ta’rīkh al-madhāhib al-islāmiyya (Cairo, n.d.).
• Akhbār al-dawla al-ʿAbbāsiyya, ed. Dūrī-Muṭṭalibī (Beirut, 1971).
• Al-‘Alī, S. A. Al-Tanẓīmāt al-ijtimā‘īya wa’l-iqtiṣādīya fi’l-Baṣra, 2^nd ed. (Beirut, 1969).
• Al-A’tham al-Kūfī, Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad b. ʿAlī. Kitāb al-Futūḥ (Hyderabad, n.d.).
• Al-Ash’arī, Saʿd b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Qummī. Kitāb al-Maqālāt wa’l-Firāq, ed. Muhammad Jawad Mashkur (Tehran 1963).
• Al-Ashʿarī, Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā b. Abī Bakr. Al-Tamhīd wa’l-bayān fī Maqtal al-Shahīd ‘Uthmān, ed. Maḥmūd Yūsuf Zāyid (Beirut, 1964).
• Al-Azraqī, Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh. Akhbār Makka,  ed. Rushdī al-Sāliḥ (Mecca, 1352 AH).
• Al-Balādhurī, Aḥmad b. Yahyā b. Jābir. Ansāb al-Ashrāf (‘Lineage of the Nobles’), Vol. I, ed.  Muhammad Hamīdullah (Cairo, 1955); Vol IV A-B, (ed.) Max Schloessinger (Jerusalem 1938-1971); Vol. V, (ed.) S. D.F. Goitein (Jerusalem, 1936).
• al-Balādhurī, Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. Jābir. Futūh al-buldān (‘Origins of the Islamic State’), ed. M. J. de Goeje, Liber expugnationis regionum (Leiden, 1866).
• Al-Basawī, Yaʿqūb b. Sufyān. Kitāb al-maʿrifa wa al-ta’rīkh, ed. Akram Diya’ al-‘Umari, (Beirut, 1974).
• Al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl. Jāmi‘ al-Saḥīḥ (Cairo, 1932).
• Al-Dabbī, al-‘Abbās b. Bikar. Akhbār al-Wāfidāt min al-nisā’ ʿalā Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān, ed. Sakīna al-Shihābī (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala, 1983).
• Al-Dhahabī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad. Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl fī naqd al-rijāl (Cairo: ʿĪsá al-Bābī al-Hạlabī, 1963).
• Al-Dhahabī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad. Ta’rīkh al-Islām (Beirut, 1960).
• Al-Dhubyānī, Nābigha. Dīwān (ed.) Shukrī Faysal, Beirut 1968; new ed.: G. Shaykh (Beirut: Mu‘assasah al-ʿAlamī li’l-Matbūʿāt, 2000).
• Al-Dīnawarī, Abū Hanīfa Aḥmad b. Dāwūd. Kitāb al-Akhbār al-Tiwāl (Cairo, 1960).
• Al-Hamadānī, Abī Bakr Aḥmad b. Muḥammad (Ibn Faqīh Hamadānī). Mukhtaṣar Kitāb al-buldān (Leiden: Brill, 2014).
• ʿAlī, Muḥammad Kurd (ed.). Rasā’il al-Balāgha (Cairo 1954/1374).
• Al-Isfahānī, Abū’l-Faraj. Kitāb al-Aghānī (Beirut 1973).
• Al-Iskāfī, Abū Ja‘far Muḥammad. Kitāb al-Miʿyār wa al-muwāzana, ed. Muḥammad Bāqir al-Maḥmūdī (Beirut, 1981).
• Al-Jādī, ʿUmar b. ʿAlī b. Samura. Tabaqāt fuqahāʾ al-Yaman, ed. Fuʾād Sayyid (Cairo, 1957).
• Al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr b. Baḥr. al-Bayān wa l-tabyīn, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn (Cairo, 1948).
• Al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr b. Baḥr. Rasā’il al-Jāḥiẓ, ed.  Hasan al-Sandūbī, ‘Min kitābihī fī’l-Abbāsiyya’ (Cairo, 1933).
• Al-Kashshī, ʿUmar b. Muḥammad. Maʿrifat Akhbār al-Rijāl (Mashhad, n.d.).
• Al-Khallāl, Abū Bakr. Kitāb al-Sunna (Riyādh: Dar al-Rāyā, 1994).
• Al-Kindī, Muḥammad b. Yūsuf. Kitāb al-ʿUmarā’ (al-Wulāt) wa Kitāb al-Quḍāt: The Governors and Judges of Egypt, ed. R. Guest (London, 1912).
• Al-Masʿūdī, ʿAlī b. Husayn. Murūj al-Dhahab (Beirut, 1966).
• Al-Masʿūdī, ʿAlī b. Husayn. Kitāb al-Tanbīh wa’l-Ishrāf (Leiden, 1894).
• Al-Māwardī, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad. Al-Aḥkam al-sulṭāniyya wa l-wilāyat al-dīniyya, ed. R. Enger (Bonn, 1853).
• Al-Minqarī, Naṣr b. Muzāhim. Waqʿat Siffīn,ed. ‘Abd al-Salām Muhammad Hārūn (Cairo, 1962).
• Al-Mubarrad, Muḥammad b. Yazīd. Kitāb al-Kāmil fī al-lugha wa-l-adab wal-naḥw wa-l-taṣrīf (Cairo, n.d.).
• Al-Mufīd, Muḥammad b. al-Nuʿmān. Al-Jamal wa l-nuṣra li-sayyid al-ʿitra fī harb al-Basra (‘The camel and the support of the Master of the Progeny [ʿAli ibn Abi Talib] at the Battle of Basra’), ed. ‘Ali Mir Sharifi (Qumm 1413/[1993]).
• Al-Mufīd, Shaykh. Kitāb al-Irshād: The Book of Guidance into the Lives of the Twelve Imams, trans. I.K.A. Howard (London and Sussex: Balagha Books and Muhammadi Trust, 1981).
• Al-Najāshī, Aḥmad b. ‘Alī. Fihrist Asmā’ Musnifī al-Shīʿa (Rijāl al-Najāshī) (Qumm: Jāmiʿa-yi Mudarrisin, 1416 AH).
• Al-Najāshī, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī. Kitāb al-Rijāl (Tehran n.d.).
• Al-Nawbakhtī, Al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā. Kitāb Firaq al-Shīʿa (Najaf, 1959); newly published as Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā al-Nawbakhtī, Shīʿa Sects (Kitāb Firaq al-Shīʿa), trans. Abbas K. Kadhim (London: ICAS Press, 2007).
• Al-Naysaburī, Muslim b. al-Hajjāj al-Qushayrī. Saḥīḥ (Bulaq, 1873).
• Al-Nuʿmān, Al-Qāḍī. Sharḥ al-akhbār fī faḍāʾil al-a’imma al-aṭhār, ed. Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Jalālī (Qumm, n.d.)
• Al-Qazvīnī, Muḥammad b. Yazīd b. Māja. Sunan Ibn Majā (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2007)
• Al-Qummī, Al-Ash’arī, Sa‘d b. ‘Abd Allāh. Kitāb al-Maqālāt wa’l-Firāq, ed. Muhammad Jawad Mashkur (Tehran 1963).
• Al-Ṣafadī, Khalīl b. Aybak Ṣalaḥ al-Dīn. al-Wāfī bi l-wafayāt, ed. H. Ritter et al. (Instanbul/Wiesbaden, 1931-)
• Al-Saffar, Muḥammad b. al-Hasan. Baṣā’ir al-darajāt (Beirut, n.d.)
• Al-Shafi‘ī, Muḥammad b. Idrīs. Diwan al-Imam al-Shafiʿī (Beirut: al-Maktaba al-Asriyah, n.d.).
• Al-Shāṭibī, Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā Abū Isḥāq. Al-Muwafaqāt fī usūl al-sharīʿah (‘The Reconciliation of the Fundamentals of Islamic Law) (Reading: Garnet Publishing Ltd., 2012).
• Al-Shaybānī, Abū Bakr b. Abī ‘Āsim. Kitāb al-Sunna, ed. M. Nasir al-Din al-Albani (Beirut and Damascus: Al-Maktab al-Islami, 1993).
• Al-Suyūtī, Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Rahmān. Ta’rīkh al-Khulafa’,ed. M. M. ‘Abd al-Hamīd (Cairo, 1964).
• Al-Ṭabarī, Abū Jaʿfar. Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān, eds. Mahmud Muhammad Shakir and Ahmad Muhammad Shakir (Cairo, 1373-88 /1955-69).
• Al-Ṭabarī, Abū Ja‘far Muḥammad b. Jarīr. Taʾrīkh al-Rusūl wa al-Mulūk (‘History of Prophets and Kings’), ed. M. J. de Goeje et al. (Leiden, 1879-1901).
• Al-Tabarsī, Aḥmad b. Abī Tālib. Kitāb al-Iḥtījāj,ed. Muhammad Baqir al-Khurasan (Najaf 1966).
• Al-Thaqafī al-Kūfī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm. Kitābal-Ghārāt, ed. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Muḥaddith (Tehran, 1975).
  • trans. A. J. Arberry as The Seven Odes (London, 1957).
• Al-Ya‘qūbī, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī Ya‘qūb al-Wāḍiḥ. al-Ta’rīkh (Beirut, 1960).
• Al-Zubaydī, Muhammad Ḥusayn. Al-Ḥayāt al-ijtimāʿiya wa’l-iqitṣādīya fi’l-Kūfa (Cairo, 1970).
• Al-Zubayrī, Muṣʿab b. ʿAbd Allāh. Kitāb Nasab Quraysh, ed. E. Lévi-Provençal (Cairo, 1953).
• Asbahānī, ‘Abd Allāh Afandī. Ta‘liqāt Amal al-‘amil (Qumm: Maktabat Mar’ashi, 1410).
• Guillaume, A. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, abridged by Ibn Hisham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
• Ibn ‘Abd al-Ḥakam. ‘Abd al-Raḥman b. ‘Abd Allah. Futūḥ Miṣr wa-akhbāruhā, ed. C. C. Torrey (New Haven, 1922).
• Ibn ‘Asākir, ‘Alī b. al-Hasan. Ta’rikh Dimashq (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.).
• Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr. Kitāb al-Isti‘āb, IV (Cairo, n.d.).
• Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Yūsuf b.ʿAbd Allāh b.Muḥammad. Al-Intiqāʾ fī Faḍāʾil al-Umma al-Thalātha al-Fuqahāʾ Mālik b. Anas al-Aṣbaḥī al-Madanī Muḥammad b. Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī al-Muṭṭalibī wa Abū Hanīfa al-Nuʾmān b. Thābit al-Kūfī, ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghudda (Aleppo: Maktab al-Maṭbūʿāt al-Islāmiyya, 1997).
• Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. Al-ʿIqd al-Farīd, ed. Aḥmad Amīn et al. (Cairo 1952-6).
• Ibn Abī al-Hadīd. Sharḥ Nahj al-Balāgha,ed. Muḥammad Abū’l-Faḍl Ibrāhīm, 2nd ed. (Beirut, 1965).
• Ibn Abī Salma, Zuhayr. Muʿallaqāt (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-I‘tisạ̄m, 1980).
• Ibn Abī Shayba, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad. al-Muṣannaf, ed. S. M. al-Laḥḥām (Beirut, 1989).
• Ibn Abī Tāhir Tayfūr, Aḥmad. Balāghat al-nisāʿ (Bayrūt: al-Maktabah al-‘Asriyah, 2000).
• Ibn Abī Tāhir Tayfūr, Aḥmad. Kitāb Ta’rikh Baghdād, ed. M. Z. al-Kawthari (Cairo, 1949).
• Ibn Abī Yaʿla al-Farra. Tabaqāt al-ḥanābila (Damascus, 1923).
• Ibn al-Athīr, Abū ‘l-Hasan ‘Alī b. Muḥammad. Usd al-ghāba fī maʿrifat al-ṣahāba [‘Lions of the Forest in the Knowledge of the Companions’] (Cairo, 1871).
• Ibn ʿAsākir, Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī b. al-Hasan. Ta’rīkh Madīnat Dimashq: ʿUthmān b. Affān, ed. Sukayna al-Shihābī (Damascus, 1984).
• Ibn Durayd, Muḥammad b. al-Hasan. Kitāb al-Ishtiqāq, ed. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (Gottingen, 1854); also ed. ʿA. H. Harun (Baghdad, 1979).
• Ibn Habīb, Muhammad b. Habīb. Kitāb al-Muhabbar (ed.) I. Lichtenstaedter (Hyderabad, 1942).
• Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalānī, Aḥmad b. ‘Alī. Al-Isāba fī tamyīz al-sahāba [‘the correct apprehension of the distinctive status of the companions’] (Cairo, 1905/ Beirut, Dār Ihyā’ al-Turāth al-‘Arabī, 1328/1910).
• Ibn Ḥajar al-‘Asqalānī, Fatḥ al-Bārī (Cairo, 1901-1911)
• Ibn Ḥajar al-‘Asqalānī, Tahdhīb al-tahdhīb (Hyderabad, 1325-7/1907- 9).
• Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, al-ʿIsāba fī tamyīz al-Sahāba (Cairo, 1323-5/1905-7).
• Ibn Ḥajar, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Haythamī. Al-Sawā’iq al-Muḥriqa, ed. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (Cairo, 1375 AH).
• Ibn Hamdān, Aḥmad. Kitāb al-zinā fī kalimāt al-Islāmīyya al-‘Arabīyya (Ṣan‘ā’: Markaz al-Dirāsāt wa-al-Buḥūth al-Yamanī, 1994).
• Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad. Muṣnad (Cairo, 1895).
• Ibn Hishām. Sīrat sayyidinā Muhammad rasūl Allah, (ed.) F. Wustenfeld, Das Leben Muhammeds nach Muhammed Ibn Ishak (Gottingen, 1859-60).
• Ibn Kathīr, Ismā’il b. ‘Umar. al-Bidāya wa al-Nihāya (Cairo, 1932ff).
• Ibn Khaldūn, ‘Abd al-Rahmān. al-Muqaddima, ed. ‘Alī ‘Abd al-Wāhid Wafī (Cairo, 1867).
• Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. al-ʿIbar (Cairo, 1897).
• Ibn Khallikān, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. Wafayāt al-Aʿyān, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās (Beirut, 1972).
• Ibn Khayyāt, Khalīfa. Taʾrīkh (‘History’), ed. Akram Diya’ al-ʿUmari (Damascus, 1977).
• Ibn Kulthūm, ‘Amr. Muʿallaqāt (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-I‘tisạ̄m, 1980).
• Ibn Manẓūr. Mukhtaṣar Taʾrīkh Madīnat Dimashq li-Ibn ʿAsākir, ed. Rūḥiyya al-Nahhas et al. (Damascus 1984-90).
• Ibn Muhammad, Al-Mufaḍḍal. Al-Mufaddaliyyāt, ed. Charles James Lyall (Oxford 1921).
• Ibn Nadīm, Muḥammad b. Isḥāq. Kitāb Fihrist, ed. Gustav Flügel (Leipzig, 1871).
• Ibn Qutayba, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muslim. Kitāb al-Maʿārif, ed. Tharwat ʿUkāsha (Cairo, 1960).
• Ibn Qutayba, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muslim. Al-Imāma wa’l-Siyāsa (attributed) (Cairo, 1957).
• Ibn Rabī’ah, Abū ‘Aqīl Labīd. Muʿallaqāt (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-I‘tisạ̄m, 1980).
• Ibn Sa‘d, Muḥammad. Kitāb al-tabaqāt al-kabīr (eds) E. Sachau et al (Leiden, 1905-40).
• Ibn Shabba, Abū Zayd ‘Umar. Ta’rīkh al-Madīna al-munawwara, ed. Fahīm Muhammad Shaltūt (Qumm, 1410/ [1989/90]).
• Kaḥḥāla, ʿUmar Ridā. Muʿjam Qabā’il al-‘Arab (Damascus, 1949).
• Khalīf, Yūsuf. Ḥayāt al-Shiʿr fī’l-Kūfa (Cairo, 1968).
• Maḥmūdī, Muḥammad Bāqir. Zafarāt al-thaqalayn fī māʾatim al-Ḥusayn (Qumm: Majma’ Ihya’ al-Thaqafah al-Islamiyah, 1412).
• Massignon, Louis. “Explication du Plan de Kufa (Iraq)” Opera Minora (Beirut 1963; Arabic trans. Taqī al-Mas‘abī, Khiṭaṭ al-Kūfa (Saida, 1939).
• Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj, Saḥīḥ (Cairo: Bulaq Press, 1290/1873).
• Nāshi’ al-Akbar, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad. Masā’il al-Imāma wa-muqtaṭafāt min al-Kitāb al-awsaṭ fī al-maqālāt (Bayrūt: al-Ma‘had al-Almānī lil-Abḥāth al-Sharqīyah fī Bayrūt, 2003).
• Naṣr, ʿUmar Abū. ʿAlī wa ʿĀ’isha (Baghdad, n.d.).
• Summarized Sahîh Al-Bukhâri. Compilation Al-Imâm Zain-ud-Din Ahmad bin Abdul-Lateef Az-Zubaidi. Trans. Dr Muhammad Muhsin Khân. (Al-Madina Al-Munawarra: Islamic University, 1994).
• Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn, Ta’rīkh wa al-‘ilal (Makka: Markaz al-Buhāth al-‘Ulamā’ wa Iḥya al-Turāth al-Islāmī, 1979)
• Yāqūt, Shihāb al-Dīn. Muʿjam al-Buldān (ed.) F. Wustenfeld, Leipzig 1866-73 (Beirut, 1955).

• Secondary references
• ‘Āmilī, Muḥsin b. ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Husaynī. Ā‘yān al-Shī‘a (Damascus, 1935).
• Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali. The Spirituality of Shi‘i Islam (London, New York: IB Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2011).
• Bravmann, M M. The Spiritual Background of Early Islam (Leiden, 1972)
• Bukhsh, Khuda. Politics in Islam (Lahore, 1920), a translation of A. von Kremer, Staatsidee des Islam.
• Caetani, Leone. Annali dell’Islam (Milan, 1905-25).
• Chirri, Muhammad Jawad. The Shiites Under Attack (London: Imam Ali Foundation, 1998).
• Daftary, Farhad. A History of Shi‘i Islam (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2013).
• Dakake, Maria Massi. The Charismatic Community (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007).
• Donner, F. The Early Islamic Conquests (Princeton, 1981).
• Elad, Amikam. The Rebellion of Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya in 145/762) (Leiden: Brill, 2015).
• Faqih, Irfan. Glimpses of Islamic History (Lahore: Kazi Publications, 1979).
• Hamidullah, Muhammad. ‘The City State of Mecca’, Islamic Culture XII (Hyderabad,1938).
• Hinds, Martin. “Kufan Political Alignments in the Mid-7^th Century AD”, International Journal of Middle East Studies (October, 1971).
• Hodgson, Marshal G. S. ‘How Did the Early Shia Become Sectarian?’ Journal of the American Oriental Society,LXXV (Michigan,1955).
• Ja‘farian, Rasul, A Glance at Historiography in Shiite Culture (World Ahlulbayt Assembly, n.d.).
• Ja‘fariyan, Rasul. ‘Shi‘ism and Its Types During the Early Centuries’, al-Tawhid (Qum: Foundation of Islamic Thought, 2004).
• Jafri, S. H. M. The Origins and Early Development of Shi‘a Islam (Longman Group Ltd and Librairie due Liban, 1979).
• Lammens, H. ‘Le triumvirat Abou Bakr, ‘Omar et Abou ‘Obaida’, Mélanges de la Faculté Orientale de I’Université St Joseph de Beyrouth, 4 (Beirut, 1910).
• Lammens, Henri. Fatima et les Filles de Mahomet (Rome, 1912).
• Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad [s] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
• Mahfūḍ, Huṣayn ‘Alī. Al-Ta’rikh al-Shī‘a (Karbala, n.d.).
• Nicholson, R. A. A Literary History of the Arabs (Cambridge, 1969).
• Petersen, E. L. ‘Ali and Mu‘awiya in Early Arabic Tradition (Copenhagen, 1964).
• Serjeant, R. B. ‘The “Constitution” of Medina’, The Islamic Quarterly, 8 (1964).
• Sharon, M. ‘Ahl al-Bayt – People of the House’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam,8 (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1986).
• Sharon, M. ‘The Umayyads as Ahl al-Bayt’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 14 (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,1992).
• Sharon, M. Black Banners from the East (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1983).
• Shoufani, E., Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia (Toronto, 1972).
• Stroumsa, G. G. ‘Seal of the Prophets: The Nature of a Manichean Metaphor’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam,7 (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1986).
• Vaglieri, L. Veccia. ‘ʿAbd Allah b. al-‘Abbas’, Encyclopedia of Islam (EI) (Leiden: Brill, 1954-2005, 2nd ed.).
• Vaglieri, L. Veccia. ‘Ghadir Khumm’, Encyclopedia of Islam (EI) (Leiden: Brill, 1954-2005. 2nd ed.).
• Vaglieri, L. Veccia. ‘ʿAbd Allah b. al-‘Abbas’, Encyclopedia of Islam (EI) (Leiden: Brill, 1954-2005, 2nd ed.).
• Vida, G. Levi della. ‘ʿOmar b. al-Khattab’, Encyclopedia of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1913-1938, 1^st ed).
• Watt, W. Montgomery. ‘ʿAbd Allāh b. al-ʿAbbās’, Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1954-2005, 2^nd ed.).
• Watt, W. Montgomery. ‘Shī‘ism under the Umayyads’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London, 1960).
• Watt, W. Montgomery. ‘Sidelights on Early Imamite Doctrine’ Studia Islamica (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, No. 31 1970), pp. 287-298.
• Watt, W. Montgomery. Islamic Political Thought (Edinburgh, 1968).
• Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad at Mecca (Oxford, 1953).
• Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman (Oxford, 1961).
• Wellhausen, Julius. The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall, trans. M. Weir (Calcutta, 1927).

Course date and time

Every Thursday night West Coast time/Friday morning UK time for eight weeks from 15th/16th February until 4th/5th April 9:00 pm West Coast time/5:00 am UK time.

Full course option £130/US$160/AUS$220: The full course consists of eight 90-minute live on-line classes. Once you have booked, you will be sent Reading Packs in pdf format, mp3 Recordings that guide you through each Reading Pack and a Syllabus. Classes are recorded. A certificate of attendance is awarded for attending all eight classes. To book the course, please click on the button below

Half-course option £65/$80: You can book the first half of the course with four 90-minute live on-line classes. To book, please click on the button below:

Self-study option £50/$65: You will receive a Syllabus, eight pdf Reading Packs and an mp3 Recording for each Reading Pack to guide you through. Study in your own time by reading the pdf Reading Packs and listening to the accompanying recorded lectures; write to the tutor with any questions and arrange one live tutorial.

For more information, please check the FAQs page, or write to [email protected]

IF YOU DO NOT APPEAR TO RECEIVE A REPLY, PLEASE CHECK YOUR JUNKMAIL.