Product Description
It is with the meaning of the suffering and martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet and spiritual head of the Shiite community, that this study will be concerned. His martyrdom has been seen by Shiites as necessary to the fulfillment of his role as Imam; without it, he could not have become the paradigm of selfless sacrifice, the measure of truth and falsehood, nor the intercessor on the Day of Judgment for his followers. The question to be investigated is in what way his martyrdom has been regarded as redemptive. The investigation will deal with representative classical and medieval devotional materials, beginning with the earliest available sources from the fourth century A.H., and ending with the writings of the ninth century A.H., just prior to the consolidation of Shi’i Islam as the state of the religion of Iran under the Safavid.