Even a minimal acquaintance with the writings of al-Ghazzali gives the distinct impression that he was highly concerned with the threat the Ismailis and their doctrines posed against both himself and Sunni Islam. By his own admission, he wrote six separate treatises to refute and condemn them, most importantly his "The Infamies of the Esoterics" (Fada'ih al-batiniyya), which he composed in the year 488 (1095)-not in 487 (1094) as commonly stated-in the months prior to his famous renunciation of government service and departure from Baghdad. The new young Abbasid caliph al-Mustazhir had requested the work. While Ghazzali scholars have certainly taken careful note of various aspects of this treatise and there is one modern book devoted to it, the exact historical context that engendered it at the time, as well as various facets of Ghazzali's knowledge of Ismaili doctrine remain imperfectly understood. His attack on the doctrine known as ta?l?m, with its insistence on the unrivaled absolute authority of a single infallible imam, is a key piece of evidence until now not sufficiently explained. The assumption that he had in mind the Alamut teaching by Hasan-i Sabbah of what later came to be called Nizari Ismailism is correct but dating it to as early as 488 strongly suggests that it was a doctrine already widely advocated, at least in the Abbasid-Saljuk east, even prior to the Nizari-Musta?li split, which commenced only with the succession dispute that followed the death of the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir. However, our knowledge of events in the career of Hasan and of his teachings come from much later sources and are fraught with problems. And they are in part legendary at best. Thus, although the doctrine of ta?lim, which was certainly implicit in Ismaili works long before, such as the Ikhtilaf usul al-madhahib of Qadi al-Nu?man, or various writings of al-Kirmani, in this particular work Ghazzali directed his attentions squarely against a teaching he encountered in his own time. We know it otherwise solely from imprecise accounts recorded much later. While his refutation deliberately renders that of his opponents weak and less than coherent-he has no incentive to fully and faithfully expound the doctrine of a heretical enemy-his is the earliest, and perhaps most complete, account of it available to us.

This paper examines the ways in which Zaydi and Imami authors of the late medieval and early modern periods appropriated the legacy of a particular subset of early Shi'i hadith narrators as it was transmitted in Sunni literature. In the eighth and ninth centuries, roughly two hundred narrators active in the proto-Sunni milieus that gave rise to the standard Sunni collections of hadith were labeled as Shi'is. These narrators ran the gamut of potential Shi'i affiliations, and while some of them were prominent contributors to Zaydi and Imami literature, for the most part their legacy was preserved and negotiated in Sunni biographical and hadith literature. Between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, both Zaydi and Imami authors employed this legacy towards a variety of ecumenical, polemical and apologetic ends. Among Zaydis, discussions of these narrators were inaugurated by Ibn al-Wazir (d.1436), who drew heavily on a hadith-based Sunni traditionalism in an ecumenical project that sought to transcend inherited sectarian boundaries. Ibn al-Wazir argued that Zaydis should benefit from the study of Sunni hadith and that the Sunni treatment of early Shi'i narrators was testimony to the objectivity of their methods. Later Zaydi authors under the Qasimi dynasty built on Ibn al-Wazir’s adoption of Sunni traditionalism, but were unanimous in their rejection of his assertion that Sunnis had treated early Shi'i narrators objectively. They argued that the Sunni tradition in fact displayed entrenched biases towards these narrators and the pro-'Alid material that they transmitted. At the same time, many Zaydis invoked the comments of Sunni hadith scholars on these narrators in order to establish a positive valence for Shi'ism from within the Sunni tradition. Among Imamis, Safavid era scholars beginning with Qadi Nur Allah al-Shushtari (d. 1610) inaugurated a new phase in the reception of these narrators by marshaling a substantial amount of material on them from Sunni sources in biographical works that were designed to demonstrate the substantial and ubiquitous nature of Shi'i contributions to all branches of Islamic learning and culture. Although these authors drew extensively on Sunni biographical literature, unlike the Zaydis, they had no intent of establishing themselves as legitimate participants in the Sunni tradition and they reproduced standard Imami polemics against Sunnism in their works. The trends established in the Imami and Zaydi scholarship of this era continue to shape modern discussions of this subject and have even influenced some pro-'Alid Sunni authors.

This research looks at women’s religious activism and the extent to which their involvement in the production of religious knowledge challenges and transforms hierarchal interpretations of sacred scriptures. I analyze how Iranian women are employing religious activism to challenge hegemonic religious configurations in order to transform the discourse on women and Islam. Women’s agency and their engagement in religious movement should be understood as an attempt to deconstruct traditional paradigms and renegotiate gender roles and spaces in an Islamic context. My research analyzes how the different modalities of agency are reconstituted in interaction with political and religious institutions and power structures. I contend that women’s activism and participation in the production of knowledge has transformed legal reasoning, legal institutions, and the nature of lawmaking in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Drawing upon ethnographic research methods and textual analysis, this project argues that women’s religious activism and their involvement in hermeneutic projects, is advancing egalitarian principles within the Shi'i tradition. In an effort to better comprehend women’s religious movements in Iran, I conducted a case study involving members of E'telaf-I Islamiyyih Zanan (Women’s Islamic Coalition) since 2008. I had familiarity with this organization before conducting relevant fieldwork in Iran. My insider status provided me with the advantage of direct knowledge of the subject and the benefits of academic training and inquiry. Since the Iranian Revolution, women’s rights activists have recognized that the only reform that can be effective needs to be rooted in Islamic jurisprudential approaches, which appeals to both the traditional sectors of society and the Islamic state. Accordingly, women’s resistance took on a new dimension as women became involved in hermeneutic projects. For the first time women’s rights advocates embraced religious activism as an alternative to the secular model in their struggle to achieve gender justice. The manifestations of women’s religious activism are as diverse as the women themselves, who differ in educational, social, and philosophical background. Although some express their scholarship in a reformist agenda, others categorize themselves as “traditionalists.” Through interviews and textual analysis, I highlight several factors that distinguish the reformists’ approach to gender equality from their traditional and secular counterparts. Women in this study are positioned not just as critics of the canon, but in some instances as reproducers of patriarchal norms and, in others, as reformers advancing liberal perspectives for theorizing about women’s legal status.