Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi Explained

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi
Nationality:Iranian, French
Known For:Historian of Islam
Notable Works:The Divine Guide in Early Shi‘ism

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi is an Islamologist at the École pratique des Hautes Études. He is one of the leading academics within the study of early Twelver Shiʿism.

Views on Early Shi'ism

Early Shi'is held supra-natural beliefs about the Imams

One of Amir-Moezzi's fundamental arguments is that the supra-natural and supra-rational beliefs about the Twelve Imams were the core of Twelver Shiʿism. This puts him in conflict with the prevailing interpretation that it was the rational tradition, led by figures such as Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, that constituted this core. This argument was initially put forward in Le guide divin dans le Shiisme original (The Divine Guide in Early Shi‘ism), and continued to be developed in his later work. This view is generally contrasted with the views of Hossein Modarressi. Amir-Moezzi describes this early Shiʿi view as such:

Without the Imam, the universe would crumble, since he is the Proof, the Manifestation, and the Organ of God, and he is the Means by which human beings can attain, if not knowledge of God, at least what is knowable in God. Without the Perfect Man, without a Sacred Guide, there is no access to the divine, and the world could only be engulfed in darkness. The Imam is the Threshold through which God and the creatures communicate. He is thus a cosmic necessity, the key and the center of the universal economy of the sacred: "The earth cannot be devoid of an imam; without him, it could not last an hour."

ʿAql as Hiero-Intelligence not Rationality

In order to offer a new understanding of early Shiʿi viewpoints, Amir-Moezzi's begins by reconstructing the concept of rationality. The standard understanding considers Imami thought as being a rational theology similar to the Muʿtazila. Amir-Moezzi argues that this assumption distorts the understanding of the early Shiʿi narrations, especially the narrations on ʿaql, which is often translated as reason. The narrations state that the ʿaql is the means through which the doctrine of the Imams is understood. However, ʿaql was equated with rationality later on due to the influence of Greek philosophy, but in the early sources ʿaql was rather what he labels as "hiero-intelligence." This "hiero-intelligence" has four dimensions: cosmogonic, ethical-epistemological, spiritual, and soteriological. The cosmogonic dimension is that the ʿaql proceeded "from the God's Light, was the first of God's creations; it is characterized by its submission and its will to be near God." The epistemological dimension is that the ʿaql "is not just an acquired quality, but a gift from God." The spiritual dimension is that ʿaql is the "inner proof" and while the Imams are the "exterior proof." The soteriological dimension means that "the absence of ʿaql, the 'organ' of religion, there can only be false religiousness, an appearance of piety, hypocrisy."

Distinctions

Honours

Publications

Most of Amir-Moezzi's publications are in French, but some have been translated to English and Italian.

English

French

Italian

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Le Grand Prix des Journées de l’Histoire du monde arabe remis à Mohammad-Ali Amir-Moezzi et Guillaume Dye pour Le Coran des historiens.
  2. Web site: Prix Pierre-Antoine Bernheim.
  3. Web site: Inspirational figures win Mediterranean Culture Prize.
  4. Web site: Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi.
  5. Web site: Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi.
  6. Web site: Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi.
  7. Web site: Légion d’honneur. Promotion du 14 juillet 2022. 2022-07-17.
  8. Web site: Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi.
  9. Web site: Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi.

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