History of Shia Islam

History of Shia Islam

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Gender Bending in Islamic History

Building upon our exploration of gender in Islamic history we dive into the topic of gender bending and how it can help us see gender as socially constructed, historically contingent, and contextual. We explore multiple figures throughout Islamic history from the ghulamiyya to th ...  Show more

Transgender and Non Binary in Islamic History

Continuing our exploration of gender and sexuality in Islamic history we turn to the figure of the mukhannathun, a third gender category in early Islam. We trace ideas of gender as a fluid spectrum through the lives of these individuals examining their existence in the life of Mu ...  Show more

Recommended Episodes

Sunni and Shia Islam
In Our Time: Religion

Melvyn Bragg and guests Amira Bennison, Robert Gleave and Hugh Kennedy discuss the split between the Sunni and the Shia. This schism came to dominate early Islam, and yet it did not spring at first from a deep theological disagreement, but rather from a dispute about who should s ...  Show more

Lesley Hazleton, “After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split” (Doubleday, 2009)
New Books in Middle Eastern Studies

Sometimes a shallow explanation, the kind you read in newspapers and hear on television, is enough. “The home team was beaten at the buzzer” is probably all you need to know. Sometimes, however, it’s not. The intermittent conflict between the Shias and Sunnis in Iraq (and elsewhe ...  Show more

Episode 81: Splintering of the Shi’a
The Caliphs

Cataloguing the tapestry of Islamic traditions is a task that lies well beyond our scope, but every now and again the topic overlaps with the subjects we are interested in. It’s important to understand where the Qaramita and Fatimids came from, because these two foes will face th ...  Show more

1 - Shia Islamic Belief System - Shaykh Amin Rastani
Shia Islamic Belief System - Mizãn Institute

Synopsis: A series going over the doctrines of the Imamiyyah Shia faith in a concise manner, based on the book of Ayatullah Shaykh Jafar Subhani "Doctrines of Shi`i Islam: A Compendium of Imami Beliefs and Practices"