From Shams al-Din Kashi Up to Shi ite Ibn Rushd; Western Scholars of Shia Studies and Twelve-Imam Shia Principles: a Review

Nowadays, the study of different aspects of the Shia, Imami Shiism in particular, is the focus of Western scholars of Islam studies, and every year several works are written on this topic. Due to the large amount of the western research in this field, it is necessary that scholars of Shia Studies have some information concerning the dominant discourse among the western scholars of Shia studies and their point of views about Imami Shi’ism. Western Scholars of Shia Studies and Twelve-Imam Shia Principles is a book by Maryam Sāne’poor, published by Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies Publications in1393. The author of the present paper believes that if the mentioned book had had the least criteria of an academic research, it could have been an important step to the understanding of the western scholars’ ideas. Therefore, the author is going to criticize the book, and point out some of its content, editing, and structural deficiencies such as the problem in writing the names of the books, weak arguments, inaccurate translation and ….