Theoretical Challenges in Early Shi'i Theology: Methodological Background of an Early Collapse

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the examination of the methodological background of the collapse of the rationalist Imāmī School of Theology (kalām) in the early third century AH (10th century). The School of Kufa was the first theological school of the Imāmīyya in its intellectual history. This theological school was alive for a short period of time during the 2nd/9th century, and then it began to lose its dominance. The fundamental question is: what were the problems concerning the theological methodology that led to the collapse of the Imāmī theological system in 3rd/10th century? It seems that the complications of the speculative method or theorisation, deviation from explicit texts (nuṣūṣ), and consequently, the occasional oppositions by the Shi'i Imams to the theologians' method, as well as scholarly encounters with non-Shi'i rivals, gave rise to a serious uncertainty which finally led to the collapse of their intellectual method.