A Critical Study of Montgomery Watt's Ideas about Shiism

Part of orientalists, studies focuses on Shiism. Using various methods, they have studied the development of Shiite Thought. Some of these methods have been typically unique, opening a new horizon before the Muslem scholars, while in some cases, due to different reasons, their results have ended in incorrect findings, not being compatible with the reality. One of the most important figures in the realm of Shiite studies in the west is William Montgomery Watt. Referring to his article, "The Shiites in the era of Umayyids" the present article critically surveys this western scholar's ideas on Shiism. To do this, we criticize his viewpoints by collecting evidences through valid books, analyzing each of them in brief and concluding from them based on methodology and content.