Instructor: Shiraz Hajiani
Eight out of ten Muslims, today, may identify as Sunni. In studying the past; however, even the most careful scholars tend to project this make-up of Muslim societies into history. The Shiʿis were not always marginalised minority communities. Some scholars have labeled the 10th and 11th centuries in Islamicate history as the “Shiʿi Centuries”. During this period the Ismaili Shiʿi Fatimid dynasty (fl. 909-1171) ruled North Africa, the Levant, Syria and Arabia and at the same time the mostly Twelver (Ithnaʿashari) Shiʿi Buyid dynasty (fl. 945-1055) of military commanders captured Baghdad and ruled significant domains of the Sunni Abbasid caliphate (fl. 750-1258). While neither Shiʿi dynasty is known to have forced conversion to their interpretations of Islam, they did favour and promote Shiʿi practices and institutions. This began to change in the 1050s, with the rapid invasion of Islamicate realms by the Saljuq Turks who espoused and supported Sunni interpretations of Islam. The Mongol invasions of 1220s and three decades later, a second more permanent invasion resulted initially in the rule of non-Muslims over vast regions which had previously been ruled by Muslims. The Mongol Ilkhanid rulers (fl. 1256-1335) adopted Islam at the turn of the thirteenth century indicating wider acceptance of the faith among their followers. The brutal conquests followed by the long processes of sedentarisation of these warriors created immense social, political and religious tumult throughout the Islamicate realms.
In this advanced level multi-disciplinary course, we will unpack the complex histories of societies and study the socio-political, intellectual and theological developments from the Shiʿi Centuries to the Mongol Invasions. We will examine the crystallisation of Ithnaʿashari Shiʿism. We will survey the challenges of Fatimid and Nizari Ismaili thought as well as their religio-political conflicts and relations with the Sunni Abbasid-Saljuq establishment. We will probe the contexts and impetus for the emergence of Sunni hegemony. We will explore the rise of Alid loyalism and the spread of Sufi ṭarīqahs (orders). We will analyse the formation of nomadic empires and their impacts on religion and societies. We will scrutinize the shifts in legitimations of political authority in relation to the Prophet Muhammad to Chinggisid legitimations of rule after the twin decapitations by the Mongols of the Nizari polity in Iran (1256) and the Abbasid caliphate (1258).