Liyakat N. Takim, Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. 215 pages.

This substantially revised version of a dissertation completed at the School of Oriental andAfrican Studies in 1990 focuses on the disciples (rijal) of the Imams in the Twelver Shiite tradition, arguing that they developed, through the routinization of charisma, a distinct type of religious authority in the eighth and ninth centuries based on their special relationship with the Imams, but to some extent independent of them. It investigates an important chapter in Twelver Shiite religious history while touching on questions of religious authority and orthodoxy in Islam that remain poorly described in scholarship to date.

The work includes two chapters on aspects of religious authority in classical Islam, two on the Imams’ disciples and the roles they played, and one on how these disciples were portrayed in later biographical texts. Chapter 1, “The Scholars Are Heirs of the Prophets,” points out that various groups in Islamic history have used this famous hadith to justify their claim to religious authority: Sunni ulama against the authority of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, as well as Shiite ulama who filled a vacuum created by the Imams’ compromised political position. Takim rightly emphasizes the field of law here, though he recognizes the ulema’s differentiated specialization in many fields. However, he refers to the jurists (fuqaha’) by the odd term shari` men, which recalls Marshall Hodgson’s term shari`ah-minded but makes little sense in Arabic.

Chapter 2, “The Holy Man in Islam,” discusses the Imams and Sufi masters as examples of the holy man who wields charismatic authority. Chapter 3, “Routinization of Charismatic Authority: The Shi`i Case,” suggests that the Imams’ charismatic authority was routinized as they delegated authority to their disciples as their deputed agents. These agents enjoyed epistemic authority as experts in particular fields who could be consulted by lay Shiites and engaged in preserving and interpreting the tradition, particularly when the Imam was not accessible. Chapter 4, “The Office of CharismaticAuthority: The Functions of the Rijal,” focuses on the disciples’ roles: identifying the legitimate Imams and acclaiming their successors, transmitting their traditions, authoring Shiite doctrinal works, engaging in polemics with rivals and detractors, and setting legal precedents. Chapter 5, “Textual Authority and the Struggle for Legitimacy in Biographical Texts,” focuses on such Shiite biographical works as al-Shaykh al-Tusi’s Fihrist Kutub al-Shi`ah and al-Najashi’s Kitab al-Rijal, stressing their role in idealizing the Imams’ disciples and establishing their authority by explaining away unfavorable accounts and depicting themas reliable transmitters of the Imams’ reports and adherents to orthodox Shiite doctrine.

The Heirs of the Prophet provides an intelligent introduction to the Imams’ disciples during this stage in Twelver salvation history, offering a coherent overview of their activities and relationship with the Imams. In its approach to questions of religious authority and orthodoxy in Islam, the study stands out as exceptional for its recognition that religious authority in classical Islam was not monolithic, but rather changed over time, and that various societal groups promoted competing claims to religious authority often using the same scriptural texts as justification.

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