The Charismatic Community: Shi'ite Identity in Early Islam.

• Author: Walker, Paul E.
• Position: Book review

The Charismatic Community: Shi'ite Identity in Early Islam. By MARIA MASSI DAKAKE. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 2007. Pp. xii + 323. $75 (cloth); $25.95 (paper).

Despite much new work on what is often termed "early" Shi'ism, there is a tendency in this literature to focus on developments in the third and fourth centuries of Islam, when Imami and Isma'ili doctrine first crystallized. However, it is also clear that some form of community existed among the most ardent supporters of Ali and his descendants well prior to this period. Elements of Shi'ite devotion began most likely soon after the death of 'Ali, if not before. But at what point did the loyalties of individual partisans coalesce and then engender a sense of belonging to a social order separate and apart from that of ordinary Muslims? When, and how far back, did the Shi'ites assume a distinct identity?

In this richly documented study, Maria Dakake traces with great care and deep erudition the nuances in the pronouncements recorded on behalf of the earliest voices of the Shi'ites, such as they survive, principally, but not exclusively, in Shi'ite hadith literature. Given the troubling problem of dating such materials, as well as the variation over time of key terms and concepts--notably walaya--her task was and is not easy. Later elaborations often intrude and the attempt to segregate an earlier layer from a later rarely yields precise results. Nevertheless, on balance, Dakake's reconstruction is as convincing as it is thoroughly and thoughtfully based on a close analysis of the sources.

The main concept she investigates is that of walaya, commencing with what it might have meant or implied starting with the tradition of Ghadir Khumm at the time of which it may or may not have carried theological import. Did a pledge of allegiance to 'Ali recognize in him a spiritual distinction and, if so, for which of his supporters? It appears quite likely that the theology, and notions of the sacred charisma of the imams, grew slowly. Communal identity, or the sense of it, followed accordingly, not reaching full development until the second century, particularly with the imamate of Ja'far. By then devotion to the imam implied, for some, membership in a community long before preordained in myth and predestined for ultimate salvation.

A major thesis for the author is that, despite the political origins of Shi'ism in the struggle for supreme authority between the various candidates for...