"Ambitious...undoubtedly an admirable study...an accessible introduction to the historical context that underpins the modern Middle East" – Tariq Mir, BBC History Magazine
"
The Caliph and the Imam offers an authoritative and original survey that challenges readers to imagine a wholescale re-conceptualization of Islam itself ." – Eamonn Gearon,
Times Literary Supplement"a remarkable, ambitious and successful survey of Sunni-Shii relations that will be the definitive single-volume study of the subject for years to come." – Eamonn Gearon, Times Literary Supplement
"clearly written, nuanced and meticulously documented" – Malise Ruthven, Literary Review
"a truly ambitious book in its historical and geographic scope...This book should be read by any expert who deals in the Middle East" – Francis Ghiles, Esglobal
"A useful correction to religious pigeonholes about Muslims, and to the easy-going prejudice that sectarian differences can never make things right with the Islamic world." – Michiel Leezenberg, NRC Handelsblad
"Matthiesen's masterful survey of Sunni-Shiite relations in history is firmly grounded in the primary sources and ranges more widely geographically than is common in other works on the subject, including South Asia. The author avoids the glib truisms that have come to dominate discussion of this subject, while giving us thought-provoking, contextual insights into one of the key flash points within Islamic civilization." – Juan Cole, Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History and Director, Program in Arab and Muslim American Studies, University of Michigan
"Ambitious in its historical as well as geographical scope, this is the first truly global account of the intimate and sometimes also violent relationship of Sunni and Shia in the making and remaking of Islam." – Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford
"A remarkable book combining extensive first-hand experience across the Muslim world with profound scholarship to challenge all the preconceptions in the West about Sunnism and Shiism today." – Professor Eugene Rogan, Professor of modern Middle Eastern History, Oxford University, and author of
The Arabs: A History"It is a dense history that fairly considers the various sides of this dispute, and attempts to sift out the propaganda from facts. There are extensive notes on all chapters that support the narrative with specific sources that it is based on. This is especially necessary for scholars in this complex field that want to research sub-topics further and need to follow the evidence to still deeper roots...Scholars of this topic will certainly benefit from reading this book cover-to-cover to benefit from Matthiesen's scholarly thoroughness." – Anna Faktorovich,
Pennsylvania Literary Journal
