Despite a growing interest in the last hundred years in both orientalism and comparative religions, and the fact that there are over fifty million Shi'a Muslims, until now there has been no thorough and objective study of that part of Islam called Shi'ism for Western scholars. The present work provides a clear account of the origin, history, and doctrines of an important sector of the Muslim religious community. It is written by a distinguished leader of that community, who, in addition to possessing a thorough knowledge of its traditional history and literature, presents its...