ISMAʿILISM xiii. ISMAʿILI LITERATURE IN PERSIAN AND ARABIC

 

ISMAʿILISM

xiii. ISMAʿILI LITERATURE IN PERSIAN AND ARABIC

Ismaʿili literature (“literature” is used here in its wider sense to include all the written products of scholarly disciplines delineated by learning, religion, and science) refers to the literary production of more than a millennium, from the middle of the 3rd/9th century (i.e., before the advent of the Fatimids in 909 in North Africa) to recent times. It deals with the writings of Ismaʿili missionaries (doʿāt, pl. of dāʿi) and religious dignitaries, either sponsored by the daʿwa (religio-political organization), or the Fatimid regime, or composed independently. Geographically, it covers wide regions stretching from North Africa to India, wherever Ismaʿili missions operated actively and were able to maintain a foothold through local converts and their support. The Fatimids (297-567/909-1171) were great patrons of learning and their newly founded capital, Cairo (al-Qāhera, i.e., the victorious), soon became a rival of older centers like Baghdad as a seat of learning and intellectual activity. Ismaʿili literature produced during the pre-Fatimid and Fatimid periods, often referred to as the classical period, with the exception of Nāṣer(-e) Ḵosrow’s works, is almost exclusively in Arabic.

After the fall of the Fatimids in Egypt, the Ismaʿilis of Yemen, known as the Mostaʿli-Ṭayyebi daʿwa, continued this tradition of producing Ismaʿili works in Arabic. It should be noted that from the very beginning of the Is-maʿili religio-political movement, Yemen had become an Ismaʿili stronghold. Although the first Ismaʿili state founded there by Ebn Ḥawšab (q.v.), generally known as Manṣur al-Yaman, disintegrated through inner dissentions at the beginning of the 10th century, and hence before the advent of the Fatimids in North Africa, the religious component of the mission survived and achieved new success under ʿAli b. Moḥammad Ṣolayḥi, who founded the Sulayhid dynasty in 439/1047. The Sulayhids, adherents of Ismaʿili faith and nominal vassals of the Fatimids of Egypt, ruled Yemen until 1138, first from their capital Ṣanʿāʾ, in the north, and then from Ḏi Jebla, in the south. With the waning of their power, the Ismaʿili Mostaʿli-Ṭayyebi community not only survived, but their stronghold in Ḥaraz became the headquarters of the daʿwa for the next four centuries. It was this Yemeni community that preserved a great portion of the classical Ismaʿili heritage and writing by copying and studying those works; as well as augmenting and enriching this literature through their own original contributions in various disciplines of learning. In 1567, following the death of the first Indian dāʿi, Yusof b. Solaymān, in Ṭayba in Yemen, the headquarters of the Mostaʿli-Ṭayyebi daʿwa was moved to Gujarat, on the west coast of India. In the wake of this move most of the Ismaʿili literature, preserved from the classical period and produced later in Yemen, was also transferred to India. The Bohras, Indian converts to Mostaʿali-Ṭayyebi daʿwa, continued the Arabic tradition by diligently copying and studying those earlier works, and at times commenting on them. Al-Jāmeʿa al-Sayfiya, a well-known seminary for the Dāʾudi Bohras, established by the dāʿi ʿAbd-e ʿAli Sayf-al-Din in 1814 for the religious education of the community, has continued the Arabic tradition to the present day. Beside preserving a major portion of Ismaʿili literature produced in North Africa, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere, the learned Bohra shaiks have put their own stamp on whatever they have added. The Arabic tradition also prevailed in the Nezāri Ismaʿili communities of Syria. They had succeeded in acquiring fortresses in the mountains of central Syria where they ruled from about 1100 to 1273, the year when their power was terminated by the Mamluk ruler of Egypt and Syria, Malek Ẓāher Baybars. Though the Syrian Nezāri community survived the adversity, they only succeed in preserving a very minute portion of the Fatimid heritage.

The Persian tradition in Ismaʿili literature, started by Nāṣer(-e) Ḵosrow, on the other hand, was continued exclusively by the reformed Ismaʿilism of Alamut, that is, the Persian Nezāris. The Nezāri branch originated from internal dissension among the Ismaʿilis over the issue of succession to the caliph-Imam Monstanṣer in 1094. Ḥasan(-e) Ṣabbāḥ (q.v.), an Ismaʿili dāʿi who had succeeded in gaining control of the strong mountain fortress of Alamut in Rudbār, in 1090, later broke off his relations with the Fatimids of Egypt in support of the claims of Nezār b. al-Mostanṣer. Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ expounded in Persian his new doctrine of taʿlim, that in religious faith one has to accept absolute authority of the teacher, that is, the Imam. Persian continued to be the language of the Nezāri state founded by Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ until its destruction by the advancing Mongols in 1256. The Persian Nezāris used Persian in their religious writings. They not only abandoned Arabic but also did not show much interest in the preservation of the earlier heritage that was in Arabic. The Persian tradition continued among the Nezāri communities that survived the Mongol onslaught in various parts of Persian speaking regions. Considerations of space do not allow a detailed description of Ismaʿili literature, hence only the most prominent aspects will be highlighted and only their most outstanding representatives will be enumerated here.

In Arabic. In their classification of various “sciences” or fields of learning, Muslim writers generally make a distinction between the “religious sciences” (al-ʿolum al-šarʿiya also called al-ʿolum al-naqliya, “traditional sciences”) and the “foreign sciences” (ʿolum al-ʿajam min al-Yunāniyin wa-ḡayrehem men al-omam, also called al-ʿolum al-ʿaqliya). The former includes Qurʾānic exegesis (tafsir), tradition (Hadith), theology (ʿelm-e kalām), jurisprudence (feqh), and other sciences, such as Arabic grammar, philology, rhetoric, and historiography that developed from them. The latter, that is, the so-called “foreign sciences,” include mathematics, natural sciences, medicine, astronomy, philosophy, etc. The Ismaʿilis, on the other hand, draw a fundamental distinction between the ẓāher and the bāṭen, the two aspects of religion. The ẓāher consists of exterior expressions of religion as laid down in the law (šariʿa) and explains the literal meaning of the Qurʾān. The ẓāher changes with each prophet in accordance with time and circumstances, whereas the bāṭen, comprised of the inner, true meaning of the Qurʾān and the šariʿa, remains unchanged. The prophet receives the revelation (tanzil), transmits it to the people and lays down the šariʿa, while it is the Imam who expounds the inner, esoteric meaning of the Qurʾān and the šariʿa through taʾwil (hermeneutics). The principle of hermeneutics developed by a number of outstanding dāʿis, such as Jaʿfar b. Ebn al-Ḥawšab, Qāżi Noʿmān b. Moḥammad, and Abu Yaʿqub Sejestāni, became the major method of Ismaʿili doctrine, so much so that it has come to be regarded as typical and characteristic of Ismaʿili thought. It was for this reason that the Ismaʿilis were often called bāṭeniya. Taʾwil begins as a method of verbal interpretation and consists in going from the surface level (ẓāher, exterior) of a given linguistic term or expression to the depth (bāṭen, interior) of its meaning. Ismaʿili taʾwil is not, therefore, a simple matter of verbal interpretation, rather it has an important ontological significance. For in Ismaʿili doctrine, whatever exists in the physical world conceals in its ontological depths an inner reality. Thus, the Is-maʿilis classify sciences into two major categories: ẓāheri sciences, and bāṭeni sciences. The former comprises of Arabic language and grammar, poetry, history, jurisprudence, and related disciplines; while the latter comprises of taʾwil and ḥaqāʾeq (lit. truth, reality). The highest level of knowledge is, therefore, called ḥaqāʾeq or ʿelm al-ḥaqāʾeq (the knowledge of the truth) which represents the ultimate cosmological and eschatological system of the Ismaʿili doctrine. Despite this twofold division of sciences and religion, they emphasize that both are complimentary to each other, and one cannot exist without the other. Ismaʿili literature is therefore overwhelmingly religious in character. In other words, it is heavily tinged with their particular ideology.

The earliest extant writings, such as the Ketāb al-kašf (The book of revelation), Ketāb al-rošd wa’l-hedāya (The book of proper conduct and guidance), and Ketāb al-ʿālem wa’l-ḡolām (The book of the master and the disciple), ascribed either to Ebn al-Ḥawšab or his son Jaʿfar, give us insights into the theory of the imamate, the practices of the mission, the technique used for the esoteric interpretation, and a partial picture of the entire framework of their doctrines. Another important work from the early period that occupies a unique position in the history of Islamic thought and exercised a great influence on the Muslim elite is Rasāʾel eḵwān al-ṣafāʾ wa-ḵollān al-wafāʾ (the epistles of the brethren of purity). Eḵwān al-ṣafāʾ (q.v.) was a pseudonym assumed by the authors of this well-known encyclopedia who described themselves as a group of fellow-seekers after truth. They deliberately concealed their Ismaʿili identity so that their treatises could gain wider currency and appeal to a broader cross-section of the society. The philosophical system of the Rasāʾel is a synthesis of reason (ʿaql) and revelation (waḥy), wherein the cosmos is viewed as a unified whole. The philosophical structure and the cosmology are derived from Neoplatonic and Neo-Pythagorean sources. The Rasāʾel offered a new political order headed by an ʿAlid Imam. Their utopia, referred to as al-madina al-fāżela al-ruḥāniya (the spiritual, virtuous city) or dawlat ahl al-ḵayr (the governance of virtuous people), was to be governed by a lawgiving philosopher-prophet or his spiritual successor. The organization and arrangement of the Rasāʾel and their classification of the sciences, although somewhat different from the twofold division into the ẓāheri and the bāṭeni, reflect their ultimate objective.

Conspicuously absent from Ismaʿili literature are the two important branches of Islamic sciences, Hadith and tafsir, classified as branches of the ẓāheri sciences. The reason for their absence could be explained by the fact that, after the establishment of the Fatimid dynasty, the imamate as conceived by Ismaʿili doctrine, unlike what happened in the case of the Imāmis (i.e., the Twelver Shiʿites), became a living institution. It implied that as long as the Imam (i.e., the Fatimid caliph-imam), who represented the living sonna of the Prophet was accessible, there was no need for the compilation of Hadith and tafsir. The traditions needed for clarification of the šariʿa and handed down by the Imams, were collected by Qāżi Noʿmān in his Daʿāʾem al-eslām, hence there was no further need for them. As for the external philological meaning of the Qurʾān, any tafsir could be used. Its inner true meaning, however, could be obtained only through the taʾwil derived from the rightful Imam. For this reason, the Imam, the repository of true knowledge and the authoritative interpreter of the Qurʾān, is often called “the speaking Qurʾān” (Qorʾān-e nāṭeq), while the Qurʾān, since it needs an interpreter, is called “the silent Qurʾān” (Qorʾān-e ṣāmet). There are numerous works on taʾwil that deal with specific verses or chapters of the Qurʾān. Qāżi Noʿmān’s Asās al-taʾwil (the foundation of taʾwil), Taʾwil al-daʿāʾem (Taʾwil of the pillars), and Taʾwil al-šariʿa (Taʾwil of the canon law of Islam) and Jaʿfar b. Manṣur al-Yaman’s Sarāʾer al-noṭaqāʾ or Asrār al-noṭaqāʾ (Secrets of the noṭaqāʾ, i.e., the major prophets), Ketāb al-farāʾeż wa ḥodud al-din (the book of religious duties and the hierarchy of the daʿwa), Ketāb al-reżāʿ fi’l-bāṭen (the book of the inner meaning of foster relationship), Ketāb taʾwil al-zakāt (the book of the esoteric interpretation of the alms tax), and Taʾwil surat al-nesāʾ (the esoteric interpretation of the Qurʾānic chapter on women) are noteworthy works of taʾwil from the early period. Sejestāni’s Ketāb al-efteḵār (The book of glory) is the best example of the whole range of taʾwil applied to the basic beliefs of Islam and its šariʿa; as well as being a compendium of Ismaʿili doctrine. Mezāj al-tasnim (medley of a fountain in Paradise) by Żiāʾ-al-Din Esmāʿil b. Hebat-Allāh, a partial tafsir from Surat al-tawba, verse 94, to Surat al-ʿankabut, verse 44, was compiled during the second half of the 18th century in Yemen.

Ismaʿili literature of pre-Fatimid and Fatimid periods reflects the general concern of Muslims and of Islamic theology, which was being developed and debated among scholars of various schools of thought, such as the Muʿtazilite, Ashʿarite, and the Imāmi theologians (motakallemun). The major Ismaʿili contribution to Islamic thought is their formulation of a new synthesis of reason and revelation based on Neoplatonic cosmology and Shiʿite doctrine. Thus, they offered a new world order under the Imam who resembles Plato’s philosopher-king. The classic formulation of this synthesis, as indicated above, is found in the Rasāel Eḵwān-al-Ṣafā (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity).

The philosophical trend was the most dominant in the Iranian school of the Ismaʿili daʿwa and it has contributed the lion’s share to this discipline. The elaboration of theoretical and doctrinal discourse among major dāʿis varied to a certain extent in keeping with their social and intellectual environment as well as their textual sources. The spirit of intellectual inquiry fostered by the daʿwa allowed some degree of freedom. In his Ketāb al-eṣlāḥ (The book of correction; lost), Abu Ḥātem Aḥmad Rāzi (q.v.) wrote a correction of Abu’l-Ḥasan Moḥammad b. Aḥmad Nasafi’s views expounded in his Ketāb al-maḥṣul (The book of the harvest). Rāzi disagreed with the latter concerning several issues, such as the precedence of qażāʾ (fate, predestination) over qadar (freedom of will), the imperfect nature of emanation (fayż) of the Soul (nafs) from the Intellect (ʿaql), and the dissociation of šariʿa from the first nāṭeq, that is, Ādam. In his Ketāb al-noṣra (The book of support; lost), Abu Yaʿqub Esḥāq Sejestāni (q.v.) disagreed with Rāzi’s corrections and upheld Nasafi’s opinions. In his Ketāb al-riāż (The book of the meadow), Ḥamid-al-Din Aḥmad Kermāni tried to harmonize the acrimonious debate that had raged within the daʿwa. He criticized the previous views and offered his own solutions. In his magnum opus, Rāḥat al-ʿaql, Kermāni modified the earlier Neoplatonic cosmology he had inherited by introducing the Ten Intelligences and their astronomical counterparts that had been current in philosophic circles since Abu Naṣr Fārābi (q.v.). In accordance with this system Kermāni revised the structure of the spheres, the hierarchies of the physical world and of the daʿwa, known as ḥodud-al-din. The refined cosmology of Kermāni was adopted with some modifications by the Mostaʿli-Ṭayyebis of Yemen. Again, considerations of space prevent one from elaborating on this except for citing some important works on ḥaqāʾeq during the Yemeni period: Kanz al-walad (The treasure of the offspring) by Ebrāhim Ḥāmedi, al-Anwār al-laṭifa (Delicate lights) by Moḥammad b. Ṭāher Ḥāreṯi, Ketāb al-ḏaḵira (The book of the treasure) by ʿAli b. Moḥammad b. Walid, and Zahr al-maʿāni (The blossoming of [spiritual] concepts) by ʿEmād-al-Din Edris. Numerous small treatises entitled al-mabdaʾ wa’l-maʿād or al-ebtedāʾ wa’l-entahāʾ (the beginning and the end) compiled during the Yemeni period attempt to summarize the ḥaqāʾeq system very much like the account of the soul’s initial downfall and its subsequent ascent through “knowledge.”

The Ismaʿilis view history as a progressive cycle, which advances through seven major cycles, each inaugurated by a nāṭeq (speaking prophet; pl. noṭaqāʾ) or ulu’l-ʿazm (endowed with resolution) who brings revelation and promulgates law in its external form. Ādam, (Adam), Nuḥ (Noah), Ebrāhim (Abraham), Musā (Moses), ʿIsā (Jesus), and Moḥammad were the six noṭaqāʾ. Each succeeding nāṭeq abrogates the law of his predecessor and brings a new law. Nāṭeq is followed by asās (foundation), or ṣāmet (one who remains silent) who promulgates the bāṭen through taʾwil. Šiṯ (Seth), Sām (Shem), Esmāʿil (Ishmael) or Esḥāq (Isaac), Hārun (Aaron), Yušaʿ (Joshua) the son of Nun, Šamʿun al-Ṣafāʾ (Simon Peter), and ʿAli were the six osos of the aforementioned six noṭaqāʾ. The asās, in turn, is followed by series of seven imams; the last rises in rank and becomes the nāṭeq of the following era. Thus, each major cycle contains seven minor cycles. The length of each cycle varies. Moḥammad b. Esmāʿil b. Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq, considered by some groups of Ismaʿilis as the seventh nāṭeq would abrogate the ẓāheri šariʿa of Mo-ḥammad and promulgate the bāṭen. This doctrine, however, has undergone many modifications in the course of Ismaʿili history. During the Fatimid period, ẓāher and bāṭen together were considered two complimentary aspects of religion and both were emphasized. However, dormant antinomian tendencies have resurfaced from time to time throughout Ismaʿili history.

Given this view of history one finds very few historical works in Ismaʿili literature. Qāżi Noʿmān was an early exception to this rule; and although he composed several historical works, only the following have survived: Eftetāḥ al-daʿwa wa-ebtedāʾ al-dawla (Commencement of the daʿwa and the establishment of the [Fatimid] state; Dachraoui has analyzed and summarized it in his edition in French) deals with the beginning of the Ismaʿili mission in Yemen and North Africa, leading to the establishment of the Fatimid dynasty. Noʿmān’s account is based on contemporary sources that have not survived. It is, therefore, a primary source for that period and has been exploited extensively by modern historians. Šarḥ al-aḵbār (The elucidation of the traditions), in three volumes, is a detailed account of the outstanding traits of ʿAli b. abi Ṭāleb and early Imams up to Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādeq, based on the traditions of the Prophet. It is followed by a brief account of the advent of the Fatimid Mahdi and the traditions concerning this event. Ketāb al-manāqeb wa’l-maṯāleb (the book of virtues and defects) treats the history of the two powerful clans, Banu Hāšem and Banu Omayya, from pre-Islamic times up to the reign of the Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Moʿezz. As the title indicates, Noʿmān exposes immoral traits and vices of the Banu Omayya by juxtaposing them with the piety and learning of the Imams from the House of Banu Hāšem. Ketāb al-majāles wa’l-mosāyarāt is a collection of Noʿmān’s intimate conversations with al-Moʿezz during their strolls together as well as through the correspondence between them.

Ismaʿili literature of the Fatimid period contained at least half a dozen autobiographies and biographies. Unfortunately, two important ones, Sirat Ebn Ḥawšab, and al-Sira al-Kotāmiya, used by Qāżi Noʿmān for his Eftetāḥ al-daʿwa, have not survived. Sirat al-Ḥājeb Jaʿfar (tr. into English and French), written by a scribe during the reign of ʿAziz, describes the journey of the Fatimid Mahdi from his hiding place in Salamiya, Syria, to Sejelmāsa and his subsequent arrival at Raqqāda. Sirat al-Ostāḏ Jawḏar (tr. into French) was written by a scribe who served Ostād Jawḏar, the chamberlain of Moʿezz. Sirat al-Moʾayyad is an autobiography of the famous dāʿi Abu Naṣr Moʾayyad fi’l-Din of Shiraz during the reign of the Caliph-Imam Mostanṣer, who played a leading role as an intermediary between the Turkish military leader Abu’l-Ḥāreṯ Arsalān Basāsiri and the Fatimid government in the campaign against the Saljuqs after the fall of the Buyids in Baghdad.

ʿEmād-al-Din Edris was another noted historian of the daʿwa during the Yemeni period. His ʿOyun al-aḵbār (The fountainheads of history), in seven volumes, narrates the history of the Prophet and the Ismaʿili Imams until the occultation of the twenty-first Mostaʿli-Ṭayyebi Imam, son of the Fatimid caliph-Imam Āmer, following the latter’s assassination in around 524/1130. Some of the sources used by Edris have not survived. The first three volumes still remain unedited. Although volumes four, five, and six have been edited, they cannot be regarded as definitive editions. The seventh volume, which also contains the history of the Sulayhid dynasty in Yemen, is available in a critical edition with an English summary. Nozhat al-afkār wa-rawżat al-aḵbār (The promenade of reflection and the meadow of history), in two volumes, is a political history of Yemen after the collapse of the Sulayhid dynasty up to the year 853/1449. It is considered a most important primary source for the three-hundred-year history of the Mostaʿli-Ṭayyebi community in Yemen. In his third work, entitled Rawżat al-aḵbār wa nozhat al-asmār (The meadow of history and the promenade of stories), Edris continued the history of Yemen where he had left off in the Nozhat al-afkār up to the year 870/1465. During the Indian period, the following works should be noted for the beginning and the early history of the Mostaʿli-Ṭayyebi daʿwa in Gujarat. Majmuʿ al-rasāʾel al-sett by Ḵawj b. Malek and Ketāb pali midu by Shaikh Ādam Ṣafi-al-Din. Montazaʿ al-aḵbār, in two volumes, by Qoṭb-al-Din Borhānpuri is a comprehensive history of the daʿwa. The first volume deals with the history of twenty-one Mostaʿli-Ṭayyebi Imams, and the second volume with the history of the dāʿis beginning with the first dāʿi moṭlaq, Ḏoʾayb b. Musā Wādeʿi, to the year 1824. It is an important source for the later Yemeni and early Indian periods.

Another genre peculiar to the Ismaʿilis is that of sermons (majāles; pl. of majles), prepared by the chief dāʿi to be delivered to the faithful at special sessions. Usually these lectures were written and submitted to the caliph-Imam for approval. Qāżi Noʿmān’s Taʾwil al-daʿāʾem is composed in this form and was delivered as sermons. The most famous is al-Majāles al-moʾayyadiya, in eight volumes, each volume with a hundred majles, composed by Moʾayyad fi-Din of Shiraz. Ḥātem Ḥāmedi abridged those eight volumes in his Jāmeʿ al-ḥaqāʾeq and divided it, according to the subject matter, into eighteen chapters. The al-Majāles al-monstanṣeriya of Abu’l-Qāsem Maliji were written during the reign of Mostanṣer, and the Ma-jāles Abi’l-Barakāt were composed by Abu al-Barakāt Ḥalabi during the reign of Āmer. In addition to these works the following should be noted. The Majāles Sayyedenā Ḥātem Ḥāmedi, Majāles al-noṣḥ wa’l-bayān of ʿAli b. Moḥammad b. Walid, and an anonymous work entitled Majāles ʿĀšuriya, containing sermons to be delivered during the first ten days of Moḥarram.

Among the anthologies of Ismaʿili literature three deserve special mention. The Majmuʿ al-tarbia, compiled by Moḥammad b. Ṭāher Ḥāreṯi, in two volumes, and Ketāb al-azhār wa majmaʿ al-anwār by Ḥasan b. Nuḥ Bharuchi in seven volumes. Both these anthologies have preserved extensive excerpts as well as complete treatises of some of the earlier works which are no longer extant. Ṣanduq al-laʾāliʾ is another anthology that was compiled by an anonymous author (Poonawala, 1977, pp. 144-48, 179-82).

Ismaʿili literature is rich in religious and devotional poetry. Diwāns of Moʾayyad of Shiraz and Solṭān Ḵaṭṭāb are just two outstanding examples among several of this genre of poetry. Semṭ al-ḥaqāʾeq by ʿAli b. Ḥanẓala is a versified version of Ismaʿili doctrines. Al-Orjuza al-moḵtāra by Qāżi Noʿmān, in 2,375 verses, deals with the imamate. His Montaḵaba is yet another attempt at versifying the Pillars of Islam and law. Among the several treatises on the question of the imamate the following should be noted: Taṯbit al-emāma by the caliph-Imam Manṣur, Eṯbāt al-emāma by Aḥmad Nisāburi, Resāla fi’l-emāma by Abu’l-Fawāres, and Ketāb al-maṣābih by Ḥamid-al-Din Kermāni.

Qāżi Noʿmān, the founder of Ismaʿili law, wrote numerous books on jurisprudence, with the Daʿāʾem as the most famous. Among the chancery documents, al-Sejellāt al-mostanṣeriya, and al-Hedāya al-āmeriya, are worth noting from the Fatimid period. Qarāṭis al-Yaman contains letters exchanged between the daʿwa dignitaries in Yemen and India (Poonawala, 1977, pp. 326-28). Ketab al-zina (The book of ornament) of Abu Ḥātem Rāzi is a dictionary of Islamic theological terms, which also contains a section on Islamic heresiography. It is a comprehensive work on Islamic nomenclature and Rāzi’s philo-logical method of discussing the etymologies of those terms sheds light on the history of Arabic linguistics. His other work, Aʿlām al-nobuwa (The distinguishing marks of prophecy), records Ismaʿili views in defense of religion and the principle of prophethood while refuting the arguments of his opponent, Abu Bakr Moḥammad b. Zakariyāʾ Rāzi. In his al-Aqwāl al-ḏahabiya fi’l-ṭebb al-nafsāni, Ḥamid-al-Din Kermāni supported Abu Ḥātem’s criticism of Abu Bakr Rāzi’s views on the therapy of the mind expounded in the latter’s al-Ṭebb al-ruḥāni. Lastly, Esmāʿil b. ʿAbd-al-Rasul Majduʿ’s Fehrest, compiled during the second half of the 18th century, provides a detailed catalog of extant Ismaʿili literature.

In Persian. Nāṣer(-e) Ḵosrow’s works were preserved by the Nezāris of Persia and Central Asia, and most of his extant works are edited and some translated into French, English, and Russian. He was the first Ismaʿili dāʿi to have used Persian exclusively for his intellectual and poetic discourse. His poetry is didactic. His Safar-nāma depicts a vivid picture of the 11th century Islamic world from Transoxania to Egypt and includes visits to Mecca and Jerusalem. He first traveled across the Caspian coast of Persia into eastern Anatolia and southward to Syria and Palestine. He spent three years in Cairo and returned taking the southern route down to Aswān and crossing the Red Sea to the Ḥejāz, the Arabian peninsula to Basra, and passing through the Carmathian (Qarmaṭi) state in Lahsā; finally arriving at Balḵ through southern Persia. His role in the establishment of Persian as a language of philosophical discourse is yet to be assessed.

The Persian Nezāris used Persian exclusively in their religious writings and did not develop any interest in the copying and preservation of the classical Arabic heritage of the Fatimid period. Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ expounded his new teaching (al-daʿwa al-jadida), often called the doctrine of taʿlim, by formulating four propositions. The first demonstrates the need for a teacher in order to know God by refuting rationalism in its contention that human reason by itself is capable of obtaining the absolute truth. Once the need for a teacher is established, the second proposition poses the question: Is any teacher acceptable or must the teacher be a trustworthy person? When the Sunni position that any teacher will do is refuted, the need for a trustworthy teacher (moʿallem-e ṣādeq) is established. The third proposition, directed against non-Ismaʿili Shiʿites, poses the question as to whether it is necessary to know that teacher and acquire knowledge through him. The fourth and the final proposition attempts to answer the issue raised in the third proposition by proving that a particular Imam, that is, an Ismaʿili Imam of Ḥasan Ṣabbāḥ, could be the authentic teacher. He expounded his doctrine in a Persian treatise, Čahār faṣl, which has been preserved only in fragments This doctrine had a great impact on the Sunni population, hence Abu Ḥamed Ḡazāli in his Mostaẓheri tried to wrestle with the intellectual issues posed by this doctrine (see ḠAZĀLI and THE BĀṬENIS).

A major shift in the Nezāri doctrine came during the time of Ḥasan II, the fourth ruler of Alamut, who proclaimed the doctrine of the qiāma (resurrection). From then on the lords of Alamut also claimed the imamate for themselves. With the new doctrine the imam became the focal point, and qiāma meant seeing God in the spiritual reality of the imam. The elaboration of this teaching with its cosmological implication and the development of the doctrine of the Perfect Man in contemporary Sufism paved the way for the future relationship of the post-Alamut Nezāris with Sufism. The Syrian Nezāris do not seem to have been affected by the qiāma doctrine, and they continued the earlier Fatimid tradition.

Naṣir-al-Din Ṭusi, a major intellectual figure of the 13th century, a scientist, a philosopher, and a theologian, should be mentioned here for his long association with the Nezāris. It appears that during that period he himself had embraced the Ismaʿili Nezāri faith. In his spiritual autobiography entitled Sayr wa soluk, he describes how his search for knowledge led him to embrace Ismaʿili esoteric philosophy. In it he also elaborates Ḥasan(e) Ṣabbāḥ’s doctrine of taʿlim. Another work, Rawżat al-taslim, also known as Taṣawworāt, an ethico-eschatological guide for ascending from the physical to the spiritual world, is an important testimony to Ṭusi’s Ismaʿili-oriented philosophy.

Despite the Mongol massacres, the Persian Nezāri communities did survive in certain areas, especially in Rudbār and Qohestān and they lived clandestinely under the cover of Sufism. The Nezāris of Badaḵšān and other remote regions succeeded in preserving the bulk of the extant Nezāri literature of the Alamut period. The widely scattered communities of post-Alamut period, differentiated in terms of their vernacular language and socio-ethnic background, more or less developed their own particular religious literature, independently of one another. Nezāri history, for the first two centuries after the fall of Alamut, remains quite obscure. The poet Nezāri Qohestāni was the first post-Alamut author who chose the verse and Sufi forms of expression to conceal his Ismaʿili identity and views; and later authors followed in his footsteps. The period known as Anjedān (q.v.; from the name of this village in central Persia), lasting about two centuries from the second half of the 15th century marks a revival in Nezāri thought and its missionary activities. It was during this period that the Nezāri Imams of the Qāsemšāhi line developed close associations with the Neʿmat-Allāhi Sufi order and attempted to extend their control over the remaining Nezāri communities. Most noteworthy poets and authors of this period are Abu Esḥāq of Qohestān and Ḵayrḵᵛāh of Herat. They were followed by Kāki of Ḵorāsān and his son ʿAliqoli Raqqāmi.

 

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Idem, al-Šāfeya, ed. and tr. Sami N. Makarem as Ash-Shâfiya, The Healer: An Ismâʿîlî Poem Attributed to Shihâb Ad-dîn Abû Firâs, Beirut, 1966.

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Idem, Resālat toḥfat al-mortād wa ḡoṣṣat al-ażdād, in Rudolf Strothmann, ed., op. cit., pp. 159-70.

Idem, al-Resāla al-mawsūma be-jelāʾ al-ʿoqūl wa zobdat al-maḥṣul, ed. ʿĀdel ʿAwwā, in idem, ed., Montaḵbāt Esmāʿīlīya, Damascus, 1958, pp. 87-153.

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Idem, Ketāb al-ḏaḵira fil-ḥaqīqa, ed. Moḥammad-Ḥasan Aʿẓami, Beirut, 1971.

Idem, Dāmeḡ al-bāṭel wa ḥatf al-monāżel, ed. Moṣṭafā Ḡāleb, 2 vols., Beirut, 1982.

al-Āmer be-Aḥkām Allāh (died 1130), al-Hedāya al-āmeriya fi eṯbāt daʿwat al-Nizāriya, ed. Āṣaf A. A. Fayżi (Fyzee), London, 1938; repr, in Jamāl-al-Din Shayyāl, ed., Maj-muʿat al-waṯāʾeq al-Faṭemiya, Cairo, 1958, pp. 203-30.

Idem, Resāla īqāʿ ṣawāʿeq al-erḡām, ed. Āṣaf A. A. Fayżi, in al-Hedāya al-āmeriya, pp. 27-39; repr. in Jamāl-al-Din Shayyāl, ed., op. cit, pp. 231-47.

Ḥasan b. Nuḥ Bharuchi (d. 1533), Ketāb al-azhār wa majmaʿ al-anwār I, ed. ʿĀdel ʿAwwā, in idem, ed., Montaḵbāt Esmāʿīlīya, Damascus, 1958.

Qoṭb-al-Din Solaymānji Borhānpuri (d. 1826), Montazaʿ al-aḵbār fī aḵbār al-doʿāt al-aḵyār, ed. Samer F. Traboulsi (partially edited up to the Dāʾudi-Solaymāni schism), Beirut, 1999.

Ebn Hāni Andalosi (d. 973), Diwān, ed. with commentary Zāhed ʿAli as Tabyin al-maʿāni fi šarḥ Diwān Ebn Hāni al-Andalusi al-Maḡrebi, Cairo, 1352/1933.

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Idem, Rawżat al-aḵbār wa nozhat al-asmār fi ḥawādeṯ al-Yaman (in md.; for these two mss., see Poonawala, 1977, pp. 172-73).

Idem, ʿOyun al-aḵbār wa fonun al-āṯār IV-VI, ed. Moṣṭfā Ḡāleb, Beirut, 1973-84; VII (part of), ed. Moḥammad Yaʿlāwi as Taʾrīḵ al-ḵolafāʾ al-Fāṭemīyīn be’l-Maḡreb, Beirut, 1985; VII, ed. Ayman Fuʾād Sayyid as The Fatimids and Their Successors in Yaman: The History of An Islamic Community, London, 2002 (Eng. summary by Paul E. Walker and Maurice A. Pomerantz).

Idem, Zahr al-maʿāni, ed. MosÂṭafā Ḡāleb, Beirut, 1991. Moḥammad Fedāʾi Ḵorāsāni (d. 1923), “Maṯnawi-e negārestān,” ed. Alexsandr A. Semenov, Iran 3, 1929, pp. 51-70.

Idem, Ketāb al-hedāyat al-moʾmenīn al-ṭālebin maʿruf ba tāriḵ-e Es-māʿiliya, ed. Alexsandr A. Semenov, Moscow, 1959.

Ebrāhim b. Ḥosayn Ḥāmedi (d. 1162), Kanz al-walad, ed. Moṣṭafā Ḡāleb, Beirut and Wiesbaden, 1971.

Ḥātem b. Ebrāhim Ḥāmedi (d. 1192), Resālat zahr baḏr al-ḥaqāʾeq, ed. ʿĀdel ʿAwwā, in idem, ed., Montaḵabāt Esmāʿilīya, Damascus, 1958, pp. 155-80.

Idem, Jāmeʿ al-ḥaqāʾeq (an abridged reduction of Moʾayyad’s Majāles), partial ed. Moḥammad ʿAbd-al-Qāder ʿAbd-al-Nāṣer, Cairo, 1975.

Abu’l-Qāsem Jaʿfar b. Manṣur Yaman (d. 957), Ketāb al-kašf, ed. Rudolf Strothmann, London, 1952; ed. Moṣṭafā Ḡāleb, Beirut, 1984.

Idem, Ketāb farāʾeż wa ḥodud-al-din, ed. and tr. Husayn F. Hamadani as On the Geneology of Fatimid (Statement on Mahdi’s Communication to the Yemen on the Real and Esoteric Names of His Hidden Predecessors), Cairo, 1958.

Idem, Sarāʾer wa-asrār al-noṭaqāʾ, ed. Moṣtafā Ḡāleb, Beirut, 1984.

Idem, Ketāb al-ʿālem wa’l-ḡolām, ed. and tr., James Winston Morris as The Master and the Disciple: An Early Islamic Spiritual Dialogue, London, 2001.

Abu ʿAli Manṣur Jawḏari (d. 996), Sirat al-Ostāḏ Jawḏar, ed. Moḥammad Kāmel Ḥosayn and Moḥammad ʿAbd-al-Hādi Šaʿira, Cairo, 1954; tr. Marius Canard as Vie de l’Ustadh Jaudhar (contenant lettres et rescrits des premiers califes Fâtimides), Algeria, 1958.

MKMK Moḥammad-Reżā Ḵayrḵᵛāh Herāti (d. after 1553), Kalām-e pir, ed. and tr. Wladimir A. Ivanow as Kalām-e Pir: A Treatise on Ismaili Doctrine, Bombay, 1935.

Idem, Faṣl dar bayān-e šenāḵt-e emām, ed. Wladimir A. Ivanow, Tehran, 1959; tr. W. A. Ivanow as On the Recognition of the Imam, Bombay, 1947.

Idem, Taṣnifāt-e Ḵayrḵᵛāh Herāti, ed. Wladimir Ivanow, Tehran, 1961.

Aḥmad Ḥamid-al-Din Kermāni (d. after 1020), Rāḥat al-ʿaql, ed. Moḥammad Kāmel Ḥosayn and Moḥammad-Moṣṭafā Ḥelmi, Cairo, 1952.

Idem, Ketāb al-riāż fi’l-ḥokm bayn al-ṣādayn ṣāḥebay al-eṣlāḥ wa’l-noṣra, ed. ʿĀref Tāmer, Beirut, 1960.

Idem, Ketāb al-maṣābīḥ fi eṯbāt al-emāma, ed. Moṣṭafā Ḡāleb, Beirut, 1969.

Idem, al-Aqwāl al-ḏahabīya fi’l-ṭebb al-nafsāni, ed. Ṣalāḥ Ṣāwi, Tehran, 1977; ed. Moṣṭafā Ḡāleb, Beirut, 1977.

Idem, Majmūʿat rasāʾel al-Kermānī, ed. M. Ḡāleb, Beirut, 1983 (a collection of eleven treatises).

Emāmqoli Ḵāki Ḵorāsāni (d. 1646), Diwān, ed. Wladimir A. Ivanow as An Abbriviated Version of the Diwan of Khaki Khorasani, Bombay, 1933.

Esmāʿil b. ʿAbd al-Rasul Majduʿ (d. 1769 or 1771), Fahrasat al-kotob wa’l-rasāʾel (Fehrest), ed. ʿAli-Naqi Monzawi, Tehran, 1966.

Abu’l-Qāsem ʿAbd-al-Ḥakim Maliji (fl. 11th cent.), al-Majāles al-monstanṣeriya, ed. Moḥammad Zinhom and Moḥammad ʿAzab, Cairo, 1992.

Abu Naṣr Hebat-Allāh Moʾayyad fi’l-Din Širāzi (d. 1078), Dīwān, ed. Moḥammad Kāmel Ḥosayn, Cairo, 1949.

Idem, Sīrat al-Moʾayyad fi’l-Din dāʿi-al-doʿāt, ed. Moḥammad Kāmel Ḥosayn, Cairo, 1949; for partial Eng. tr., see “The Autobiography of al-Muʾayyad,” in Dwight F. Reynolds et al., eds., Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, Berkeley, 2001, pp. 132-44.

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Abu Tamim al-Mostanṣer Be’llāh (d. 1094), al-Majāles al-mostanṣerīya (ascribed to al-Mostanṣer, the Fatimid caliph), ed. Moḥammad Kāmel Ḥosayn, Cairo, n.d.

Idem, Pandiyāt-e jawānmardī or Advices of Manliness, ed. and tr. Wladimir Ivanow, Leiden, 1953.

Idem, al-Sejellāt al-mostanṣerīya, ed. ʿAbd-al-Monʿem Mājed, Cairo, 1954.

Nāṣer-e Ḵosrow (d. after 1070), Safar-nāma, ed. Maḥmud Ḡanizāda, Berlin, 1922; ed. Nāder Wazinpur, Tehran, 1971; tr. Charles Schefer as Sefer Nameh, relation du voyage de Nassiri Khosrau, Paris, 1881; tr. Wheeler M. Thackston as Nāṣer-e Khosraw’s Book of Travels (Safarnāma), Albany, New York, 1986.

Idem, Zād al-mosāferin, ed. Moḥammad Baḏl-al-Raḥmān, Berlin, 1923.

Idem, Wajh-e din, ed. Maḥmud Ḡanizāda and Moḥammad Qazvini, Berlin, 1924; ed. Ḡolām-Reżā Aʿwāni, Tehran, 1977.

Idem, Šeš faṣl yā rowšanāʾi-nāma-ye naṯr, ed. and tr. Wladimir Ivanow, Cairo and Leiden, 1948.

Idem, Jāmeʿ al-ḥekmatayn /Le livre réunuissant les deux sagesses, ou harmonie de la philosophie Grecque et de la théosophie Ismaélienne, ed. Henry Corbin and Mo-ḥammad Moʿin, Bibliothèque Iranienne 3, Tehran and Paris, 1953; Ar. tr. by Ebrāhim Dasuqi Šatā, Cairo, 1974; tr. Isabelle de Gastines as Les Livre réunissant les deux sagesses, Paris, 1990. Idem, Ḵᵛān al-eḵwān, ed. ʿAli Qawim, Tehran, 1959.

Idem, Ketāb-e gošāyeš wa rahāyeš, ed. Saʿid Nafisi, rev. ed., Tehran, 1961; ed. and Eng. tr. Faquir Hunzai as Knowledge and Liberation: A Treatise on Philosophical Theology, London, 1998; tr. Pio Filippani-Ronconi as Il libro dello scioglimento e della liberazione, Instituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, Naples, 1959; Idem, Divān, eds. Mojtabā Minovi and Mahdi Moḥaqqeq, Tehran, 1974; partial Eng. tr. Peter Lamborn Wilson and Ḡolām-Reżā Aʿwāni (Aavani) as Forty Poems from the Dīvān, Tehran, 1977; partial Eng. tr. Annemarie Schimmel as Make a Shield from Wisdom: Selected Verses from Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s Dīvān, London, 2001.

Aḥmad Nisāburi (d. after 996), Estetār al-emām wa tararroq al-doʿāt fi’l-jazāʾer le-ṭalabehi, ed. Wladimir Ivanow, Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Egypt 4/2, Cairo, 1936, pp. 93-107.

Idem, Eṯbāt al-emāma, ed. Moṣṭafā Ḡāleb, Beirut, 1984. Abu Ḥanifa Qāżi Noʿmān b. Moḥammad Tamimi (d. 974), Daʿāʾem al-Eslām fi ḏekr al-ḥalāl wa’l-ḥarām wa’l-qażāya wa’l-aḥkām, ed. ʿĀṣaf A. A. Fayżi (Fyzee), 2 vols., Cairo, 1951-61; tr. A. A. A. Fyzee, as The Pillars of Islam, completely revised and annotated by Ismail K. Poonawala, 2 vols., New Delhi, 2002-4.

Idem, Ketāb al-eqteṣār, ed. Moḥammad Waḥid Mirzā, Damascus, 1957.

Idem, Asās al-taʾwīl, ed. ʿĀref Tāmir, Beirut, 1960.

Idem, al-Orjuza al-moḵtāra, ed. Ismail K. Poonawala, Beirut, 1970; ed. Yusof Beqāʿi, Beirut, 1999.

Idem, Ketāb eḵtelāf oṣūl al-maḏāheb, ed. S. T. Lokhandwalla, Simla, 1972.

Idem, Taʾwil al-daʿāʾem, ed. Moḥammad-Ḥasan Aʿẓami, 3 vols., Cairo, 1968-72; ed. ʿAref Tamir, 3 vols., Beirut, 1995.

Idem, Eftetāḥ al-daʿwa wa-ebtedāʾ al-dawla, ed. Farḥat Dašrāwi (Dashraoui), Tunis, 1975.

Idem, al-Majāles wa’l-mosāyarāt, ed. Ḥabib Faqi et al., Tunis, 1978.

Idem, Šarḥ al-aḵbār fī fażāʾel al-aʾemma al-aṭhār, ed. Moḥammad Ḥosayni Jalāli, 3 vols., Qom, 1409-12/1988-92.

Idem, Ketāb al-manāqeb wa maṯāleb, ed. Majid ʿAṭiya, Beirut, 2002.

Saʿd-al-Din Nezāri Qohestāni (d. 1320), Dastū-nāma, ed. and tr. Evgeniĭ E. Berthels in Vostochniy Sbornik, Leningard, 1926, pp. 37-104.

Rasāʾel Eḵwān-al-Ṣafā wa Ḵollān-al-Wafā, ed. ʿAref Tamir, 5 vols., Beirut and Paris, 1995.

Abu Ḥātem Aḥmad Rāzi (d. 934), Ketāb al-zina fi’l-kalemāt al-eslāmiya al-ʿarabiya, ed. Ḥosayn Hamdāni, 2 vols., Cairo, 1957-58, repr. by ʿAbd-Allāh Sallūm Sāmarrāʾi with an addition of a section on Islamic sects, in ʿA. Sallum, al-Ḡolow wa’l-feraq al-ḡāliya fi’l-hazāra al-Esmāʿiliya, Baghdad, 1972.

Idem, Aʿlām al-nobuwa, ed. Ṣalāḥ Ṣāwi and Ḡolām-Reżā Aʿwāni, Tehran, 1977.

Idem, Ketāb al-eṣlāhá, ed. Ḥasan Minučehr and Mahdi Moḥaqqeq, Tehran, 1998.

Jamāl-al-Din Šayyāl, ed., Majmūʿat al-waṯāʾeq al-Fāṭemīya, Cairo, 1958 (23 documents issued by the Fatimid state chancery).

Abu Yaʿqub Sejestāni (d. after 971), Kašf al-maḥjūb, ed. Henry Corbin, Tehran and Paris, 1949; tr. Henry Corbin as Le dévoilement des choses cachées: Kasf al-Maḥjub, Recherches de Philosophie Ismaélienne, Lagrasse, 1988.

Idem, Ketāb al-yanābīʿ, ed. and tr. Henry Corbin, in idem, Trilogie Ismaélienne, Bibliothèque Iranienne 9, Tehran and Paris, 1961; tr. Paul E. Walker as The Wellsprings of Wisdom, Salt Lake City, 1994. Idem, Eṯbāt al-nobūʾāt, ed. ʿĀref Tāmer, Beirut, 1966.

Idem, Ketāb al-efteḵār, ed. Moṣṭafā Ḡāleb, Beirut 1980; ed. Ismaʿil K. Poonawala, Beirut, 2000.

Solṭān al-Ḵaṭṭāb, Dīwān, ed. Ismail K. Poonawala, 2nd ed., Beirut, 1999.

Naṣir-al-Din Ṭūsi (d. 1274), Rawżat al-taslim, ed. and tr. Wladimir Ivanow as Rawżatu’t-Taslim Commonly Called Taṣawworāt, Leiden, 1950; ed. and tr. Sayyed Jalāl Ḥosayni Badaḵšāni as Rawżat al-taslim yā taṣawworāt/Paradise of Submission: A Medieval Treatise on Ismaili Thought, London and New York, 2005.

Idem, Sayr wa soluk, in Majmuʿa-ye rasāʾel-e Ḵᵛāja Naṣir-al-Din Moḥammad Ṭusi, ed. Moḥammad-Taqi Modarres Rażawi, Tehran, 1956, pp. 36-55; ed. and tr. S. J. Badakhchani as Contemplation and Action: The Spiritual Autobiography of a Muslim Scholar, London, 1998.

Amir Tamim b. al-Moʿezz, Diwān, ed. Moḥammad-Ḥasan Aʿẓami et al., Cairo, 1957.

Sohrāb Wali Badaḵšāni, Si o šeš ṣaḥifa, ed. Hušang Ojāqi, Tehran, 1961.

Moḥammad b. Moḥammad Yamāni (fl. 10th cent.), Sīrat al-Ḥājeb Jaʿfar b. ʿAli wa ḵoruj al-Mahdi men Salamiya, ed. Wladimir Ivanow, in Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Egypt 4/2, Cairo, 1936, pp. 107-33; tr. W. Ivanow, in idem, Ismaili Tradition Concerning the Rise of the Fatimids, London and New York, 1942, pp. 184-223; tr. Marius Canard as “L’autobiographie d’un chambellan du Mahdî ʿObeidallâh le Fâṭimide,” Hespéris 39, 1952, pp. 279-324, repr. in Marius Canard., Miscellanea Orientalia, London, 1973, art. V.

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(Ismail K. Poonawala)

Originally Published: December 15, 2007

Last Updated: April 5, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. XIV, Fasc. 2, pp. 197-204