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003			OSt
005			20160905144513.0
008			160905b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780674737075
040			_aMH/DLC _beng _erda _cNVIC _dDLC _dYDXCP _dBTCTA _dBDX _dOCLCF
100	1		_aMatthew Pierce
245	1	0	_aTwelve Infallible Men: _bThe Imams and the Making of Shi'ism
264		1	_aCambridge, Massachusetts: _bHarvard University Press, _c2016
300			_aix, 254 p., _c24 cm
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505	0		_aSetting the stage -- Consolation for a community -- Betrayal and the boundaries of faithfulness -- Vulnerable bodies and masculine ideals -- Entering the cosmos.
520			_a"The rift between Sunni and Shīʻah Muslims is one of the most salient divisions in the history of Islam. Twelve Infallible Men explores the role of stories in the development of a distinctly Shīʻah identity, demonstrating how accounts of saintly figures were popularized to meet the needs of a religious community. This analysis of Shīʻah narratives provides insight into the social and religious significance of stories of the imams, helping explain what made them worth preserving. This book examines a form of biography that emerged around the beginning of the tenth century CE, when Shīʻah scholars began compiling accounts of individual imams into works spanning the lives of all twelve holy figures. These collective biographies canonized particular versions of the lives and deaths of the imams, in the process constructing a sacred history. The themes and motifs found in these biographies reveal the concerns of Shīʻah Muslim communities in the medieval period. Shīʻah accounts of the imams' lives often differed significantly from those of their adversaries, reflecting an emotionally-charged conflict about issues of religious authority and legitimacy. The collective biographies imbued select memories of the imams' lives with religious significance, thereby demarcating communal boundaries in enduring ways. The stories inspired and entertained, but more importantly they offered consolation to a community searching for meaning at a new stage of history. They became the focal point of communal memory, inspiring Shīʻah religious imagination for centuries to come."--Provided by publisher.
650		0	_aIslamic hagiography
650		0	_aImams (Shiites) _xBiography _xHistory and criticism
650		0	_aIdentification (Religion)
942			_2ddc _cBK
999			_c13607 _d13607