Arabic-L:LIT:JAIS, vol. 5,2 (Second-century Ghulat)

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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1) Subject:JAIS, vol. 5,2 (Second-century Ghulat)

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1)
Date: 22 Apr  2004
From:"Joseph N. Bell" <joseph.bell at msk.uib.no>
Subject:JAIS, vol. 5,2 (Second-century Ghulat)

Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies
<http://www.uib.no/jais>
<http://enlil.ff.cuni.cz/jais/jais.htm>

 From Joseph Bell

The prepublication version of the following new article has been posted
today:

<http://www.uib.no/jais/v005/bayhomdaou1prp.pdf>Tamima Bayhom-Daou. The
Second-Century Gulat<http://www.uib.no/jais/v005/bayhomdaou1prp.pdf>:
Were They Really Gnostic? (Adobe Acrobat 6.0 PDF file, 356 kB, pp.
13-61).

Abstract: This paper questions the suggestion of our sources that
gnostic currents had already appeared among Shi'ites by the early
second/eighth century. It contends that gnosticism did not surface in
Shi'ism until the third/ninth century and that our information on its
existence among second-century Shi'ites is the result of retrospective
ascription to groups and individuals who, on account of their (real or
alleged) messianic beliefs, had already been identified by moderate
Imamis as ghulat. That information would have served to distance
Imamism and its imams from gnostic teachings by associating those
teachings with repudiated figures from the past. The paper examines
evidence showing that in his work on firaq Hisham b. al-Hakam (d.
179/795) was not aware of the existence of gnostic ideas in Shi'ism.
Other examined evidence also shows that references to gnostic ghuluww
are conspicuous by their absence from sources on Shi'ism that are
datable to before the third/ninth century.

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End of Arabic-L:  22 Apr  2004