Jonathan Brown

Centrepiece of Confessional Ambiguity The confessional ambiguity between the spheres of Sunnism and Shiaism at various points in Islamic history is well known. But what is surprising is to see it appear among those Sunni scholars most known for antipathy towards Shiaism, such as the Ahl al-Hadith of the eighth-twelfth centuries CE. This presentation will look at how the persona and Hadith collection of Ali Reda served as a centrepiece for such confessional ambiguity, particularly in Persia from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries.