Project description
The first comprehensive history of the Shiʿi Imamate
The Shiʿi Imams, who are descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad, played a vital role in early Islam. Despite their influence, there is no comprehensive history of the Imamate. The ERC-funded ImBod project aims to create the first comprehensive history of the Shiʿi Imamate, presenting it as an interaction between the Imams and the Imami community that recognised them. ImBod will analyse the various spheres in which the Imams operated, including their households, elite Arab clans, Imamic agents, scholars, and Shiʿi communities. It will also chart interaction networks and identify the key individuals and institutions responsible for the Imamate. The project will explore the social processes associated with the Imams and how they exerted control over them.
Objective
The Shii Imams played a key role in early Islam. Revered scholars descended from the Prophet Muammad, they posed an existential threat to the legitimacy of the ruling caliphs in the 8th and 9th century CE. Their leadership defined the quietist yet oppositional Imami Shii community scattered throughout the Islamic empire. Imami Shiism was a key part of the turbulent thesis and antithesis which formed Islam, and it remains greatly influential until today. Remarkably, there is no comprehensive history of the Imamate. There are a number of reasons for this, central among which are that scholarship on Imami Shiism has approached it as a doctrinal and intellectual phenomenon. However, religious groups are also fundamentally social phenomena. ImBod will result in the first comprehensive history of the Shii Imamate. It will position the Imamate as a social phenomenon, framing it as an interaction between two aspects which are rarely explicitly theorised: the Imams, and the Imami community who recognised them. ImBod will identify and study the key spheres in which the Imams and the Imami community operated, including the Imams household, elite Arab clans (especially the Prophets family and the dynasties of the caliphs), the network of Imamic agents, the scholars, and the communities who came to be associated with Shii Islam through kinship, conversion and migration. ImBod will map out overlapping networks of interaction across these spheres and identify key actors and institutions responsible for mediating and performing the Imamate in the community. ImBod will not conceive of the Imamate as an essence, but as a set of social processes, some, but not all, instigated and controlled by the Imams themselves. Crucially, ImBod will study these processes as performed spatially and embodied materially by actors and physical objects linked to the Imams. ImBod will enrich Islamic history by providing a paradigm for studying how religious authority was embedded in society.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion religions islam
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2311 EZ Leiden
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.