The Shi’is and the Qur’an: Between Apocalypse, Civil Wars, and Empire

Abstract

The study is dedicated to the complex relationship between the Alides (supporters of ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and their descendants, later called the Shi’is) and the Qur’an, especially in the early times of Islam. Several points are examined in order to put these relations into perspective. First of all, it is important to remember that the Quranic corpus was elaborated in the atmosphere of the civil wars that marked the birth and the first developments of Islam. These wars seem to have played a major role in the elaboration of the official version of the Quran, which the Alides would have considered a falsified and hardly understandable version of the Revelation. The problem of falsification (taḥrīf) as well as the belief in the existence of a hidden meaning of the Quran led to the Shi’i doctrine on the necessity for interpretation (tafsīr, ta’wīl) in order to make the Sacred Text intelligible. It is also important to question the reasons for the civil wars between the faithful of Muḥammad. According to the Quran and the Hadith, Muḥammad came to announce the end of the world. He therefore also announced the coming of the Messiah, the Saviour of the end times. Now, according to some sources, ‘Alī is this Saviour. The problem is that after the death of Muḥammad, according to Shi’is, the opponents of ‘Alī took power. With the conquests and the birth of the Arab empire, the rewriting of history and the creation of a new collective memory seem to have become necessary in order to marginalise ‘Alī, among other reasons, and consolidate the caliphal power.