The Akhbārī School dominated the intellectual landscape of Imāmī Shiʿism between the Seventeenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Its principal doctrines involved a reliance on scripture (primarily the sayings or akhbār of the Shiʿite Imams) and a rejection of the rational exegetical techniques which had become orthodox doctrine in Imāmī theology and law. However, the Akhbārīs were not simple literalists, as they are at times portrayed in secondary literature. They developed a complex theory of exegesis in which texts could be interpreted, whilst at the same time remaining doggedly committed to the ability of the revelatory texts to provide answers to theological and legal questions arising within the Shīʿī community. This book is the first in-depth study of the intellectual development and historical influence of the Akhbārī School.
The Akhbārī School dominated the intellectual landscape of Imāmī Shiʿism between the Seventeenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Its principal doctrines involved a reliance on scripture (primarily the sayings or akhbār of the Shiʿite Imams) and a rejection of the rational exegetical techniques which had become orthodox doctrine in Imāmī theology and law. However, the Akhbārīs were not simple literalists, as they are at times portrayed in secondary literature. They developed a complex theory of exegesis in which texts could be interpreted, whilst at the same time remaining doggedly committed to the ability of the revelatory texts to provide answers to theological and legal questions arising within the Shīʿī community. This book is the first in-depth study of the intellectual development and historical influence of the Akhbārī School.
In this volume, two classical texts of legal theory (usūl al-fiqh) are analysed. The authors of these works belonged to two schools of Shī‘ī jurisprudence: Yūsuf al-Baḥrānī (d. 1186/1772) was a key figure in the Akhbārī school, and his adversary, Muḥammad Bāqir al-Bihbahāanī (d. 1206/1791-2) was credited with the revival of the Usūli school and the defeat of Akhbarism after Baḥrānī's death. Through a comparison of the two writers' theories, this work describes the major areas of dispute between the two schools, examining how their different epistemologies lead to different conceptions of the sources and interpretation of the Sharī‘a, God's law for humanity. This work will, then, be of interest to historians of Islamic thought generally, and Shī‘ī thought and Islamic legal theory, in particular.
In this volume, two classical texts of legal theory (usūl al-fiqh) are analysed. The authors of these works belonged to two schools of Shī‘ī jurisprudence: Yūsuf al-Baḥrānī (d. 1186/1772) was a key figure in the Akhbārī school, and his adversary, Muḥammad Bāqir al-Bihbahāanī (d. 1206/1791-2) was credited with the revival of the Usūli school and the defeat of Akhbarism after Baḥrānī's death. Through a comparison of the two writers' theories, this work describes the major areas of dispute between the two schools, examining how their different epistemologies lead to different conceptions of the sources and interpretation of the Sharī‘a, God's law for humanity. This work will, then, be of interest to historians of Islamic thought generally, and Shī‘ī thought and Islamic legal theory, in particular.