7 - Sectarian Ambiguities, Relations, and Definitions

Summary

Chapter 7 is devoted to undercutting or problematizing claims that this book has made in the Introduction about the nature of sectarianism, as well as those which are implied in the structure of the work. This is done because the narrative-identity approach demands an appreciation of complexity. It aims to show that sectarian identifications are not clean, exclusive, or as permanent as the neat divisions of the preceding chapters seem to imply, neither is the definition of “sect,” “school,” or firqa stable or fixed. The chapter asks a few key questions: What does it mean for the study of Muslim sects and schools, then, when sect identification is not primary, or obvious? What was the nature of relations between sectarian and communal groups in the early period, and what can this tell us about the idea of “sectarianism”? Where does the definition of sectarianism itself break down and become unhelpful? This chapter explores these questions and ambiguities as a means toward understanding how sectarian identifications existed in relation to each other.