The Shi'ah Pioneers

An interesting book that was written by ‘Allamah Sayyid Hasan al-Sadr in response to the claims that the Shi’ah had actually contributed little or nothing to the development of Islamic sciences and were instead mere followers of what was developed painstakingly by the Sunni scholars, is titled Ta’sis al-Shi’ah li ‘Ulum al-Islami. In this book, the author proves that the opposite is true. He shows that it was actually the Shi’ah scholars who were responsible for laying the groundwork for many (if not most) of the Islamic sciences. From Sarf and Nahw to ‘Ulum al-Hadith and Fiqh, all major sciences can be traced back to a Shi’I scholar. Though personally I found that many of his arguments were a little outlandish, there is little doubt that this is a valuable work that needs to be given more attention.