What Is Shiʿi Writing?

Abstract This article examines three Būyid-era adab compendia by Shiʿi authors—al-Ābī’s Nathr al-durr , al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā’s Ghurar al-fawāʾid and al-Sharīf al-Raḍī’s Nahj al-balāgha —analysing how these works express Shiʿi ideas and sentiments, and how these expressions are calibrated to take account of a presumed majority-non-Shiʿi readership. It is argued that this process is not simply one of dilution, rather the three works exhibit specific shared strategies that allow them to accommodate powerful assertions of Shiʿism without ceasing to be intelligible to non-Shiʿis. The article shows the complex relationships between these works, adab literature and Shiʿi legal and theological literature, inviting a reconsideration of how particular kinds of writing are deemed central or peripheral to Shiʿi thought and experience. In addition, these analyses supply important historical context for the composition of Nahj al-balāgha , a work that has long possessed immense status in multiple Muslim traditions as well as in Arabic literature.