An Analysis of the Views of the Authors of Article on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and Its Sects in the Second Edition of the Leiden Encyclopedia of Islam (EI2)
Written by: Razaghi Mousavi, Seyed Qasem[1], Assistant professor, Department for History of Shia, Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy, Qom, Iran.
Keywords: It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya, Sheikhiyya, Babiyya, Baha’iyya, Nasiriyya, Ahl-e Haqq, Leiden Encyclopedia of Islam (EI2), Shia orientalists.
Statement of the Problem:
One of the actions taken by orientalists to identify Islam is the compilation of the Leiden Encyclopedia of Islam in the Netherlands, which deals with various topics about Islam and is one of the reference sources for orientalists’ studies. The articles on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya, Sheikhiyya, Babiyya, Baha’iyya, Nasiriyya, Ahl-e Haqq are among its entries that introduce Shia It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects. Today, the recognition of Islam and Shia in the scientific centers of the world is based on the image presented by orientalists in their works, and the contribution of Islamic and Shia thinkers in this recognition is small. Orientalists, based on studies and researches, especially encyclopedia articles, present a picture of Shia beliefs, values, culture and civilization in scientific and non-scientific centers of the world, which is not in harmony with the Shia attitude and in some cases it lacks a scientific direction. Considering the effect of these works in creating the mindset of educated people and influential people in the society, it seems necessary to make more efforts to review and examine such works and present the correct image of Shia in the scientific centers of the world.
Primary and Secondary Questions:
Primary Question:
What is the status of the articles on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects in EI2 in terms of content, method, and documentation comparing to the Shia authentic sources and attitude?
Secondary Questions:
- What are the results of the content analysis of the articles on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects in EI2, comparing to the Shia authentic sources and attitude?
- What research methods have the orientalists used in the article on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects in EI2 and what effect have these methods had on their perception and general outlook?
- In terms of documents, how much the articles on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects are reliable in EI2?
Objectives
This book pursues the following objectives: 1) Fully understanding the views of the authors of the articles on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects by categorizing them; 2) Finding out about the strengths, shortcomings, and criticism of the content, method, and documentation of the articles comparing to the original sources.
Method
To find the answers to the research questions, this book examined and criticized the views of Orientalists by using descriptive, analytical and library collection method and using digital resources. In the first step, it was sought to see how much the authors’ introduction and depiction of It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects correspond to the real image of that sect from the point of view of the Shias and its followers, and then in the next step, the criticisms of these articles are mentioned after comparing them with the main sources of the sects.
Structure
These articles were examined and criticized in three chapters in terms of content, method, and documentation. In the first chapter, in addition to explaining the research plan with an overview of Islamology and Shia studies of orientalists and describing the second edition of EI2, its position and importance among the thinkers of scientific centers was explained. In the second chapter, the examination and content criticism of the article on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects in EI2 was considered, according to the articles in three sections: 1) It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and Sheikhiyya 2) Babiyya and Baha’iyya 3. Nasiriyya and Ahl-e Haqq. In the third chapter, a methodical and documentary examination of the articles on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects in the Islamic encyclopedia was done, and after the comparative examination of these methods in each of the articles, its results and consequences were dealt with.
Chapter one: The overview including research plan, a review of Islamology and Shia studies by orientalists and introduction of EI2 and its Shia articles.
Chapter two: The content analysis of the article on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects in EI2 including: 1. The content explanation and criticism of It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and Sheikhiyya, 2. The content explanation and criticism of Babiyya and Baha’iyya; 3. The content explanation and criticism of Alaviyan/ Nasiriyya, Ali-Elahi/Ahl-e Haqq.
Chapter Three: Methodological and documentary examination of the articles on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects in EI2 Including: 1. research methods of orientalists 2. Research methods of the articles on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects in EI2 3. Documents and sources examination.
Novelty
Perhaps the most important novelty of this book can be considered in the following cases:
- Examining and criticizing the authors’ viewpoints about the articles on It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya and its sects in three layers: 1) description, 2) explanation, and 3) analysis and criticism
- Examining and criticizing the articles in three areas of content, method, and document.
- Extracting the author’s method in writing the article by comparing the features of orientalists’ research methods with the information of each article along with its examples and description.
Results
This book was authored with the aim of examining and criticizing orientalists’ articles about It̲h̲nā ʿAs̲h̲ariyya Shia and its sects (Sheikhiyya, Babiyya, Baha’iyya, Nasiriyya, Ahl-e Haqq) in the Leiden Encyclopedia of Islam (EI2) in the three areas of criticism of content, methodology, and documents of articles. In general, it can be said that the articles were successful in introducing the sects and describing the historical course and presented a relatively true picture. The relatively detailed description of the religious aspects of the sects, the description of the historical course and the presentation of complete information about its developments, the description of the milestones and important periods in history, the reference to the geographical distribution and analytical and critical examination can be considered as positive points of these articles. On the other hand, lack of comprehensiveness of the articles and highlighting of the scientific and cultural aspect of the sects and not paying attention to the political, social and economic role-playing aspect, biased views in choosing the axes and presenting the content and some content contradictions are considered as its weaknesses. In terms of method, among experimental, historical, historicism and phenomenology research methods, most of the authors used historical and historicism methods and only Minorski used the descriptive phenomenological method in explaining Ahl-e Haqq article. In terms of document validity, based on research standards and conditions, they do not have high validity for sources, especially the use of the main sources of the same sects, since after statistical analysis, on average, the authors used 30% of Islamic and Shia sources and most of their contents were based on non-Islamic sources and usually from the works of previous orientalists.