Between Politics and Knowledge From Early Shiite Discourse in Medina to Today’s Shi’ism

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate, firstly, how the Shiite political discourse appeared in the city of Kufa and in the land of Karbala during the era of the first three Imams of Shi’a and, secondly, how, after that, a new knowledge-based discourse emerged in Medina and it could, relying on theoretical potential of the two disciplines of theology and jurisprudence, promote the Shi'a "religious identity" and its "group stability". Finally, in the conclusion, a chain of constructive relations is discussed that helped the discourse of Shi'a to identify and stabilize itself as the most and first important minority within Islam. The paper consists of an introduction, two central parts and a final section.