Over the past fifteen years, members of the Shīʿī community have embarked on a large project of digitizing English-language articles and books on Islamic topics from Shīʿī authors. Various websites and Dropbox links provide web-based reading opportunities, PDF downloads, and e-Book offerings. In addition, academia has taken a stronger interest in Islamic Studies in general, and Shīʿī studies in particular; this has led to new publications by academic presses, as well an increase in works published for the general reader. But with this progress has also come the consternation of many seekers and readers as they fail to effectively wade through the mire of hundreds of texts whose topics range from refutations of Orientalist history to detailed discussions on Shīʿī philosophy of law.
This small project will organize a list of texts into useable categories as a basic reference for individuals who would like to find a text in a given field. The list will not be exhaustive; rather, we hope to provide the reader with specifically insightful or important texts—though this does not amount to an endorsement, as some of the foundational texts in a given field may have gaps or disagreeable content. This should eliminate some of the confusion and frustration that occurs when searching for a work on a particular topic. We hope that this will offer a rough curriculum for interested readers and give them a sense of the breadth of the available works in English.
At the outset, our list will remain small and dedicated primarily to introductory books to Islamic doctrine and practice in general. The list will be composed, primarily, of texts written by Muslim scholars in general and Shīʿī scholars in particular, but will also include relevant texts and articles written by others. We hope that this resource will build over time—both in terms of the number of texts represented and the categories into which they fit.
Our list will be organized by the last name of the author or editor, with the title thereafter. Occasionally, for translated works, authors names are transliterated differently due to different standards. For consistency’s sake, we have used the transliteration we have found to be most common; the reader ought to bear in mind that searching for a work in translation by a particular author may require searching various spellings of the author’s name; for example, “Murtaza Mutahhari” may sometimes be seen as “Murtada” or “Murtaẓa” or “Murtadha.” Translator names will be omitted unless it is relevant due to multiplicity of translations. Occasionally a text may fall into multiple categories and will be listed as such.
Introduction to Islam and/or Shīʿī Islam
- Bahonar, Jawad and Beheshti, Muhammad Husayni – Philosophy of Islam
- Chirri, Mohamad Jawad – Inquiries about Islam
- Chittick, William and Murata, Sachiko – The Vision of Islam
- Haider, Najam – Shīʿī Islam: An Introduction
- Kashif al-Ghita, Muhammad Husayn – The Shi’ah: Origin and Faith
- Lari, Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi – Lessons in Islamic Doctrine (4 Volumes – 1 – God and His Attributes 2 – The Seal of the Prophets and his Message 3 – Resurrection, Judgement, and the Hereafter 4 – Imamate and Leadership)
- Mudhaffar, Muhammad Ridha – The Faith of the Imamiyyah Shi’ah
- Mutahhari, Murtaza – Fundamentals of Islamic Thought: God, Man, and the Universe
- Mutahhari, Murtaza – Goal of Life
- Nasr, Seyyed Hossein – The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity
- Rahman, Fazlur – Islam
- Rizvi, Sayyid Muhammad – An Introduction to Islam
- Rizvi, Sayyid Muhammad – Islam: Faith, Practice, and History
- Rizvi, Sayyid Muhammad – Shīʿism: Imāmate and Wilāyat
- al-Sadr, Muhammad Baqir – Shi’ism: The Natural Product of Islam
- Shomali, Mohammad Ali – Discovering Shi’i Islam
- Tabatabaʾi, ʿAllamah Muhammad Husayn – Islamic Teachings: An Overview
- Tabatabaʾi, ʿAllamah Muhammad Husayn – Shi’ite Islam
