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The origins of a specifically Shii collection of Hadith and the attendant emergence of a body of religio-legal norms is an area which has received little attention within the critical tradition of Western scholarship. This is despite the fact that the elaboration of Shi religio-legal norms was clearly of major significance in the evolution of a truly sectarian Shi ism.
In the following it will be argued that the first major impulse towards identifying a coherent and comprehensive set of Shii religio-legal norms distinct from those of the majority of Muslims occurred during the time of the first Abbasids. This development came as a corollary to that dynasty's accession, in the resort of the Khurasanian revolutionary movement to Sht i symbolism which gave promise of a Talibi caliphate, and the ensuing disillusionment when the new regime failed to fulfil its potential. This failure to realize the expectations of the Talibi sympathizers did not immediately result in insurrection, but rather first and foremost in strenuous efforts to define a Shii identity v's-fid-vJs the Abbasids in particular and the majority of Muslims in general. The framework within which this activity was to take place ensued from the growth of legal enquiry at the hands of legal specialists, the results of which were enshrined in Hadith. The Development of Hadith
Until the latter part of the Umayyad caliphate, Islamic law, in the sense of being rooted in and drawing its inspiration from a religious ideal, can hardly be said to have existed.' From the time of the Prophet legal questions had been addressed on an ad hoc basis and to meet any new circumstances with which the Muslim community found itself confronted. In addition to the solutions thus arrived at, Qur>anic injunction was often, but not always, resorted to, and this was supplemented by local custom and the legal and administrative practices of the conquered territories. However, during the final few decades of the Umayyad caliphate, pious scholars (the ulama or fugaha) began to associate together and to discuss the correct way to behave in Islamic terms. Their main objectives were to systematize the law, to Islamicize it and to make it incumbent on the whole Muslim community. The corpus of doctrine was developed by using the foundations...