The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism

by Toby Matthiesen

Overview

The authoritative account of Islam's schism that for centuries has shaped events in the Middle East and the Islamic world.

In 632, soon after the Prophet Muhammad died, a struggle broke out among his followers as to who would succeed him. Most Muslims argued that the leader of Islam should be elected by the community's elite and rule as Caliph. They would later become the Sunnis. Others—who would become known as the Shia—believed that Muhammad had designated his cousin and son-in-law Ali as his successor, and that henceforth Ali's offspring should lead as Imams. This dispute over who should guide Muslims, the Caliph or the Imam, marks the origin of the Sunni-Shii split in Islam.

Toby Matthiesen explores this hugely significant division from its origins to the present day. Moving chronologically, his book sheds light on the many ways that it has shaped the Islamic world, outlining how over the centuries Sunnism and Shiism became Islam's two main branches, and how Muslim Empires embraced specific sectarian identities. Focussing on connections between the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East, it reveals how colonial rule and the modern state institutionalised sectarian divisions and at the same time led to pan-Islamic resistance and Sunni and Shii revivalism. It then focuses on the fall-out from the 1979 revolution in Iran and the US-led military intervention in Iraq. As Matthiesen shows, however, though Sunnism and Shiism have had a long and antagonistic history, most Muslims have led lives characterised by confessional ambiguity and peaceful co-existence. Tensions arise when sectarian identity becomes linked to politics.

Based on a synthesis of decades of scholarship in numerous languages, The Caliph and the Imam will become the standard text for readers looking for a deeper understanding of contemporary sectarian conflict and its historical roots.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190689469
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/09/2023
Pages:	960
Sales rank:	590,601
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.40(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Toby Matthiesen, Senior Lecturer in Global Religious Studies, University of Bristol.

Toby Matthiesen is Senior Lecturer in Global Religious Studies at the University of Bristol. He is the author of several award-winning books and has previously held fellowships at the Universities of Oxford, Ca' Foscari of Venice, Stanford, Cambridge, and the LSE.

Table of Contents

Prologue: From Karbala to DamascusPART I THE FORMATION OF SUNNISM AND SHIISM, 632-1500Chapter 1 After the ProphetChapter 2 Sunni Reassertion and the CrusadesChapter 3 Polemics and Confessional AmbiguityPART II THE SHAPING OF MUSLIM EMPIRES, 1500-1800Chapter 4 The Age of ConfessionalisationChapter 5 Muslim Dynasties on the Indian SubcontinentChapter 6 Reform and Reinvention in the Eighteenth CenturyPART III EMPIRE AND THE STATE, 1800-1979Chapter 7 British India and OrientalismChapter 8 Ottoman Reorganisation and European InterventionChapter 9 The MandatesChapter 10 The Muslim ResponsePART IV REVOLUTION AND RIVALRY, 1979-Chapter 11 The Religion of MartyrdomChapter 12 Export and Containment of RevolutionChapter 13 Regime ChangeChapter 14 The Arab UprisingsConclusion: Every Place is KarbalaENDNOTESBIBLIOGRAPHYINDEX

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/30/2023

Matthiesen (The Other Saudis), a Marie Curie Global Fellow at Stanford University, delivers a monumental review of Suniism and Shiism’s complicated relationship. Tracing nearly 1,400 years, Matthiesen contends that “Islam’s foundational conflict” began as a political disagreement and devolved into a sectarian split defined by social, spiritual, and intellectual differences. Matthiesen takes readers from Karbala, Iraq, to Mount Tomor, Albania, and beyond, illustrating that while standard narratives of the Sunni/Shia split suggest a perennial state of conflict, the relationship has shifted constantly due to social and political forces. Focusing particularly on post-1500 history, Matthiesen examines conflicts between the Safavid and Ottoman empires (in which “Ottoman scholars extended the notion of jihad to justify going to war against fellow Muslims”), the post-WWI contest for hegemony (after colonial interventions, religious divisions were “institutionalized”), the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 to elucidate how Sunnis and Shiites are not “hermetically sealed” opposites, and took centuries to become distinct groups with cohesive identities. Matthiesen manages to balance thoughtful analysis of broad religious shifts with rigorous detail, making for a comprehensive yet readable resource. This is destined to become a standard text in the field. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Ambitious...undoubtedly an admirable study...an accessible introduction to the historical context that underpins the modern Middle East" -- Tariq Mir, BBC History Magazine

"The Caliph and the Imam offers an authoritative and original survey that challenges readers to imagine a wholescale re-conceptualization of Islam itself ." -- Eamonn Gearon, Times Literary Supplement

"a remarkable, ambitious and successful survey of Sunni-Shii relations that will be the definitive single-volume study of the subject for years to come." -- Eamonn Gearon, Times Literary Supplement

"clearly written, nuanced and meticulously documented" -- Malise Ruthven, Literary Review

"a truly ambitious book in its historical and geographic scope...This book should be read by any expert who deals in the Middle East" -- Francis Ghiles, Esglobal

"A useful correction to religious pigeonholes about Muslims, and to the easy-going prejudice that sectarian differences can never make things right with the Islamic world." -- Michiel Leezenberg, NRC Handelsblad

"Matthiesen's masterful survey of Sunni-Shiite relations in history is firmly grounded in the primary sources and ranges more widely geographically than is common in other works on the subject, including South Asia. The author avoids the glib truisms that have come to dominate discussion of this subject, while giving us thought-provoking, contextual insights into one of the key flash points within Islamic civilization." -- Juan Cole, Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History and Director, Program in Arab and Muslim American Studies, University of Michigan

"Ambitious in its historical as well as geographical scope, this is the first truly global account of the intimate and sometimes also violent relationship of Sunni and Shia in the making and remaking of Islam." -- Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford

"A remarkable book combining extensive first-hand experience across the Muslim world with profound scholarship to challenge all the preconceptions in the West about Sunnism and Shiism today." -- Professor Eugene Rogan, Professor of modern Middle Eastern History, Oxford University, and author of The Arabs: A History

"It is a dense history that fairly considers the various sides of this dispute, and attempts to sift out the propaganda from facts. There are extensive notes on all chapters that support the narrative with specific sources that it is based on. This is especially necessary for scholars in this complex field that want to research sub-topics further and need to follow the evidence to still deeper roots...Scholars of this topic will certainly benefit from reading this book cover-to-cover to benefit from Matthiesen's scholarly thoroughness." -- Anna Faktorovich, Pennsylvania Literary Journal

"Toby Matthiesen is quickly establishing himself as one of the more interesting historians of the Middle East. He has widened his lens in The Caliph and the Imam, grappling with the sectarian divisions that have plagued the region starting when the Prophet Muhammad was alive and continuing through to the Arab Spring. His thesis, that the sectarian divide was present from the beginning but became much more toxic after European colonial powers carved up the Middle East, is as provocative as it is insightful." -- Ray Takeyh, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy

From the Publisher

2022-12-06
Deeply researched history of the divergence of Shia and Sunni Islam and its geopolitical implications.

The epicenter of the Shia and Sunni split lies in the middle of the always fiercely contested territory of Iraq, where the Battle of Karbala was fought in 680 B.C.E. On one side was an army led by Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, massacred by the forces of the second caliph, who would lead the newly established religion. Shia embrace the claim of Muhammad’s bloodline, Sunnis that of the caliphs, and both sides have solid reasons for their stances. Yet, global religious studies lecturer Matthiesen shows, “key doctrinal positions, such as the ideas that Sunnis accept the first four Caliphs and Shia only the Caliphate of Ali, developed over time, and some adopted a middle ground.” Furthermore, notes the author, Sunnis and Shia have lived side by side without conflict; when the two factions come to blows, it is often because enmity has been put into motion by outside powers and proxies. Russia, for example, supported the Assad regime in Syria as a “continuation of Cold War ties,” taking part in a genocide that was “the result of the activation of communal memory in the context of civil war, regional polarization, foreign intervention and the institutionalization of sectarian identity in the modern state.” Meanwhile, the Islamic State group has attempted to rally the Shia in the Persian Gulf States to rise up against the hated Sunni Saudi Arabia even though many in the region consider IS “a Sunni vanguard against the Assad regime, Iran, and Shiism as a whole.” The competition for regional supremacy between Saudi Arabia and Iran may unfold in superficially religious terms, but Matthiesen demonstrates that it goes far beyond merely sectarian considerations—and the U.S. has not been shy about taking sides. The split may never entirely heal, but in Iraq, all sides have resisted intervention by American hands.

A lucid explanation of Islamic history in the context of both the ancient and modern worlds.

Kirkus Reviews