Mehreen Zahra Jiwan is a Fellow and Research Assistant at the Berkeley Institute for Islamic Studies. She is currently an MA student at the University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion. She obtained her Honors BA in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations and Peace, Conflict & Justice Studies with the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.
Summary
This article is a critical review of Matthew Pierce’s 2016 monograph Twelve Infallible Men: The Imams and the Making of Shīʿism. Pierce introduces a refreshing approach to the study of collective memory in the nascent Shīʿi community through the genre of sacred biographies. However, his work may benefit from a closer engagement with his primary ḥadīth sources.
