Talk Islam

razib

• 08:33:45 pm on May 19, 2008 | # | |
  Tags: history

  ali mentions debates about whether al-biruni was shia or sunni. one thing i’ve gotten the impression from my reading is that the “sunni” party as we understand it today is a relatively late-forming identity. a sort of catchall for all the groups before the fall of the abbassids to the mongols who weren’t shia or kharijite. al-biruni lived at a time when the lines were hardening, but the boundaries might not have been totally demarcated.

   

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  thabet 11:07 pm on May 19, 2008 | #

  I have exactly the same view. It also ties in with the Sunni view of others being ’sectarian’ (i.e. breaking away from the majority), while considering itself ‘catholic’ (universal).

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