Case studies of women exercising religious authority in Shi?i Islam from the classical period to the present Islamic religious authority is conventionally understood to be an exclusively male purview. Yet when dissected into its various manifestations leading prayer, preaching, issuing fatwas, transmitting hadith, judging in court, teaching law, theology, and other Islamic sciences and, generally shaping the Islamic scholarly tradition nuances emerge that hint at the presence of women in the performance of some of these functions. This collection of case studies, covering the period from classical Islam to the present, and taken from across the Shi?i Islamic world, reflects on the roles that women have played in exercising religious authority across time and space. Comparative reflection on the case studies allows for the formulation of hypotheses regarding the conditions and developments whether theological, jurisprudential, social, economic or political that enhanced or stifled the flourishing of female religious authority in Shi?i Islam.

The first encyclopedia of Islamic political thought from the birth of Islam to today, this comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible reference provides the context needed for understanding contemporary politics in the Islamic world and beyond. With more than 400 alphabetically arranged entries written by an international team of specialists, the volume focuses on the origins and evolution of Islamic political ideas and related subjects, covering central terms, concepts, personalities, movements, places, and schools of thought across Islamic history. Fifteen major entries provide a synthetic treatment of key topics, such as Muhammad, jihad, authority, gender, culture, minorities, fundamentalism, and pluralism. Incorporating the latest scholarship, this is an indispensable resource for students, researchers, journalists, and anyone else seeking an informed perspective on the complex intersection of Islam and politics. * Includes more than 400 concise, alphabetically arranged entries * Features 15 in-depth entries on key topics * Covers topics such as: * Central themes and sources of Islamic political thought: caliph, modernity, knowledge, shari'a, government, revival and reform * Modern concepts, institutions, movements, and parties: civil society, Islamization, secularism, veil, Muslim Brotherhood * Islamic law and traditional Islamic societies: justice, taxation, fatwa, dissent, governance, piety and asceticism, trade and commerce * Sects, schools, regions, and dynasties: Mu'tazilis, Shi'ism, Quraysh, Mecca and Medina, Baghdad, Indonesia, Nigeria, Central Asia, Ottomans * Thinkers, personalities, and statesmen: Mawardi, Shafi'I, Saladin, Tamerlane, Akbar, Ataturk, Nasser, Khomeini * Contains seven historical and contemporary maps of Muslim empires, postcolonial nation-states, populations, and settlements * Guides readers to further research through bibliographies, cross-references, and an index

This book covers significant themes explaining the practice of Islamic law. The first essay treats taqiyyah (literally, "caution"), the concealment of one's religion when to reveal it would incur danger, which is based on a Koranic passage. The author provides not only a legal and religious analysis of taqiyyah, but also, through the detailed examination of a prominent sixteenth-century Shiite scholar and cleric, reveals a complex pattern of behavior that allows Twelver Shi'is and other sectarian groups to reduce the risks entailed by participation in societies dominated by a Sunni majority. The second essay inquires into norms for physical and sexual contacts between individuals, even husbands and wives, defining rights to look, to touch, and even to mutilate. The third essay evaluates the Ottoman records of local fines. This report on legal regulations and their execution as well as on practices of law and tradition in villages of Northern Palestine creates a colorful picture of life in the sixteenth century.