The Study of Shi'i Islam in Western Academia

This paper will examine the historical study of Shi'ism in Western Academia. It will argue that until the last four decades, Western scholarship studied Shi'i Islam primarily through a Sunni lens. It will also show that since the 1980s, various socio-political factors like the Islamic revolution in Iran, the emergence of Hizbullah in Lebanon and the American invasion of Iraq forced Western scholars to look at Shi'ism in a different light. Consequently, they explored different facets of Shi'ism ranging from the Shi'i concept of centralized authority during the occultation of the Imam to Shi'i liturgies, rituals and Shi'i political theory.