historiography by sunnīs on the subject of the purified imams (a.s.)’s life started along with the shī‘as’ and has continued ever since. the evolutionary development of this trend, which has had its ups and downs proportionate to the cultural vicissitudes of the muslim world, requires undergoing serious studies. despite addressing such issues as the why, the how, and the context of the producti...

SURELY the time has come to stop applying the word revolution to the rise of new scientific research programmes. Our century has seen many upheavals in scientific ideas--so many and so varied that the notion of scientific revolution has been stretched out of shape and can no longer be made to cover the processes of change characteristic of most sciences these past hundred years. By general cons...