Ismaili History and Intellectual Traditions

ISBN-13: 9781138288102 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 300 str.

Farhad Daftary

Opis

The Ismailis represent an important Shiʿi Muslim community with rich intellectual and literary traditions. The complex history of the Ismailis dates back to the 2nd/8th century when they separated from other Shiʿi groups under the leadership of their own imams. Soon afterwards, the Ismailis organised a dynamic, revolutionary movement, known as the daʿwa or mission, for uprooting the Sunni regime of the Abbasids and establishing a new Shiʿi caliphate headed by the Ismaili imam. By the end of the 3rd/9th century, the Ismaili dāʿīs, operating secretly on behalf of the movement, were active in almost every region of the Muslim world, from Central Asia and Persia to Yemen, Egypt and the Maghrib. This book brings together a collection of the best works from Farhad Daftary, one of the foremost authorities in the field. The studies cover a range of specialised topics related to Ismaili history, historiography, institutions, theology, law and philosophy, amongst other intellectual traditions elaborated by the Ismailis. The collation of these invaluable studies into one book would be of great interest to the Ismaili community, as well to anyone studying Islam in general, or Shiʿi Islam in particular.

Spis treści

Introduction   I. Shiʿi Communities in History  II. The Study of the Ismailis: Phases and Issues  III. Ismaili History and Literary Traditions  IV. Idris ʿImad al-Din and Medieval Ismaili Historiography  V. A Major Schism in the Early Ismāʿīlī Movement  VI. The Ismaili daʿwa under the Fatimids  VII. The Concept of ḥujja in Ismaili Thought VIII. Cyclical Time and Sacred History in Medieval Ismaili Thought  IX. ʿAlī in Classical Ismaili Theology  X. Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān, Ismāʿīlī Law and Imāmī Shiʿism  XI. The Iranian School of Philosophical Ismailism  XII. The Medieval Ismāʿīlīs of the Iranian Lands XIII. The ‘Order of the Assassins’: J. von Hammer and the Orientalist Misrepresentations of the Nizari Ismailis  XIV. Ismaili-Seljuq Relations: Conflict and Stalemate  XV. Sinān and the Nizārī Ismailis of Syria  XVI. Hidden Imams and Mahdis in Ismaili History XVII. Religious Identity, Dissimulation and Assimilation: The Ismaili Experience