The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism [Hardcover]

No sectarian division has had a more momentous impact than that between the two dominant branches of Islam. Widely considered the world's leading expert on the subject, Toby Matthiesen offers the full story of the Sunni-Shia split, delving down to its roots in the early days of Islam and following it to the present day and its effect on current events not just in the Middle East but globally.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 asCaliph. They would later become the Sunnis. Otherswho would become known as the Shiabelieved that Muhammad had designated his cousin and son-in-law Ali as his successor, and that henceforth Ali's offspring should lead asImams. This dispute over who should guide Muslims, theCaliphor theImam, 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 anlƒ)