How It Began
In 1962, Kenneth Morgan, university chaplain and professor of religious studies at Colgate University, initiated a project to produce a text specifically dealing with Shi'a Islam, introducing the Islamic sect to the non Muslim western reader, written from a true Shi'a perspective. Presenting Oriental religion to the West from the point of view of an authentic representative is an important goal, and there are still very few authentic works by and about the Shi'a.
The aim of Professor Morgan to have a description of Shi'ism by one of the respected traditional scholars of the Shi'a, led him and collaborator Seyyed Hossein Nasr, to Allamah Tabataba'i in 1963.
Allameh Tabatabaei was particularly well suited for this task; he was a pillar of intellectual Shi'a thought who combined interest in jurisprudence and Quranic commentary with philosophy, theosophy, and Sufism, and represented a more universal interpretation of the Shi'a point of view.
The project took 6 years to complete, and was followed by two more extending volumes. William Chittick of SUNY collaborated with the editing, and the book was published by the State University of New York Press in 1979.
It remains a classic textbook for westerners trying to gain an introductory understanding of Shi'a Islam.
Read more about this topic: Shi'a Islam (book)
Famous quotes containing the word began:
“In a Kelton church, when a heated argument once began at morning services, a devout old deacon arose from his seat in the ‘amen corner’ and announced he was going to do for the church what the devil had never done—leave it.”
—Administration in the State of Sout, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)