Study and Critique of Twelver Shiism: Unity and Diversity in the life of Islam, 632 to 1722 Andrew J. Newman

The present study reviews history and Shia beliefs based on the book “TwelverShiism: Unity and Diversity in the life of Islam, 632 to 1722» with a critical approach. The author of this book reviews the ultimate chalenges of history of Shia after demise of the Prophet and especially the absence of the twelfth Imam until the end of the Safavid Government to show the formation of Shia Hadith, jurisprudence, as well as geographic dispersion and statistical life of Twelver Shia in the current age. The history of Shia during these 1100 years, in his view, is full of a large variety of diversity and disagrements that the famous Shiite clerics’ oppinions influenced by the atmosphere of these external and internal challenges during this period. The author’s insight and technique, in my view, don’t have a significant difference with the other orientalists’ insight althogh his impressions about the formation of the Shiite theology and jurisprudence is so scientific and unbiased attitude with a lot of positive results that that can be used by any researcher working in the field of Shia studies.