Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of this article The foremost Ismaili jurist and founder of Fatimid Ismaili jurisprudence, Abu Hanifa al-Nu'man b. Muhammad al-Tamimi, better known as al-Qadi al-Nu'man, was born around 290 AH/ 903 CE into a learned family in Qayrawan, in North Africa. Very little is known about his family, childhood and education. His father Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad b. ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article. The celebrated Persian Sufi poet, Sa'd al-Din Mahmud Ibn 'Abd al-Karim Yahya Shabistari (d. after 1340 CE) was born in the last half of the thirteenth century at Shabistar, a small village northwest of Tabriz, located a few miles inland from Lake Urumiya in present-day province of eastern Adharbayjan in Iran. Almost nothing is ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Key words: Ishraq, "science of lights", al-Suhrawardi , Avicenna, Aleppo,nur al-anwar, asalaal-mahiyya, al-nur al-mudabbir, presential knowledge (al-'ilm al-huduri), Islamic thought, Sufi tradition,dhikr, Plato, Hermes, Empedokles, Pythagoras, Neoplatonic. Download PDF version of article (72 KB) Derived from "illumination," a conventional translation of the Arabic term ishraq (lit. radiance, shining of the rising sun), "illuminationism" refers to the doctrine of the ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Ismaili 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/9thcentury (i.e., before the advent of the Fatimids in 909 CE in North Africa) to recent times. It deals ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Al-Hakim's early career Abu 'Ali Mansur, the sixth Fatimidcaliph and 16th Ismaili imam (r. 386-411/996-1021). Born in 375/985, Abu 'Ali Mansur succeeded his father 'Aziz (r. 365-86/975-96) at the age of 11 on 28 Ramadan 386/14 October 996 with the caliphal title of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. The first Fatimid ruler to have been born in Egypt, Hakim had been ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (136 KB) The Use of the Term 'Da'i' (He who summons), a term used by several Muslim groups, especially the Ismailis, to designate their missionaries. It was adopted by the Seljuk 'Abbasid da'wa, or mission, in Khurasan and by the early Mu'tazila, but it soon became particularly identified with certain Shi'i groups, for example, ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Origins and Early History On the death of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq in 148 AH/765 CE, his followers from among the Imami Shi'i split into six groups of which two may be identified as proto-Ismailis or earliest Ismailis. Imam al-Sadiq had originally designated his second son Isma'il (the eponym of the Ismailiya) as his successor to the imamate. A majority ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of the article Abu 'Ali Ibn Sina (ca. 980-1037 CE), known in Latin as Avicenna, was a physician, natural philosopher, mathematician, poetic mystic, and princely minister. Of Persian descent, he was born in Afshana in the province of Bukhara. His chief philosophical work, Kitab al-shifa' (Book of Healing), which was known in Latin as Liber Sufficientia, ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- This is an edited version of an article that was originally published in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XIV, Fasc. 6, pp. 603-605, 2008. Javadan-nama (also known as Javdan-nama-ye kabir or Javdan-nama-ye elahi), the major work of Fadhl-Allah Astarabadi (d. 1394; q.v.), the founder of the Hurufi movement [1]. The title, which can be translated from Persian either as the "Eternal ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (30 KB)Imam Husayn ibn 'Ali was the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the son of Imam 'Ali and the Prophet's daughter Fatima. He is regarded as one of the early imams of the Shi'is, and his refusal to offer bayyah (allegiance) to the Umayyad Caliph Yazid, which led to his death and the ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (36 KB)Founded in 1977 by H.H. Prince Karim Aga Khan, the Institute functions today as a gathering point for the Ismaili community's interest in its own history and in its relationship with the larger world of Islamic scholarship and contemporary thought. Its stated mission is to promote the investigation of Muslim cultures and societies, ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download the Article in PDF format (68 KB) Khaki Khurasani, Imamquli, Isma'ili poet and preacher of 17th-century Persia (b. Dizbad; d. Dizbad, after 1056 AH / 1646 CE). He was born in Dizbad, a village in the hills half way between Mashhad and Nishapur, which at the time was the largest dwelling place of the Isma'ilis of northern Khurasan. ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (112 KB) Location and Description A fortress on the summit of an isolated rocky hill in the Alburz mountains, situated some 18km west of Damgan in northern Persia. Thrust forward into a sloping plain, the hill of Gerdkuh rises about 300 metres above its base, and seen from the south, the access direction to ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- This is an edited version of an article that was originally published in the Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XIV, Fasc. 4, p. 349, in December 2008. Ja'far b. Manusr al-Yaman was a high-ranking Ismaili author who flourished during the reigns of the first four Fatimid caliphs. His father, Ibn Hawshab (d. 302 AH / 914 CE), originated from a learned ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Derived from the Persian khwajah, a term of honour, the word Khoja referred to those converted to Nizari Ismaili Islam in the Indian sub-continent from about the thirteenth century onward. More particularly, it included certain groups, predominantly from Gujarat and Kutch, who retained strong Indian ethnic roots and caste customs while sustaining their Muslim religious identity under continual threats ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Ismaili historiography has been closely related to the very nature of the Ismaili mission, or da'wa,and the changing fortunes of the Ismailis during the various phases of their history. The Ismailis were usually persecuted by their numerous detractors, necessitating the observance of taqiyyaby them. The Ismaili da'is,who were at the same time the scholars and authors of their community, ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (105 KB) Nasir al-Din Tusi, Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Hasan, by far the most celebrated scholar of the 7th/13th century Islamic lands was born in Tus, in 597/1201 and died in Baghdad on 18 Dhu'l Hijja 672/25 June, 1274. Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon were his contemporaries in the West. Very little is known ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (32 KB)Key words: Optika, Ptolemy, vision, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, al-Kindi, Euclid, Ibn al- Haytham, astronomy, Islamic civilization, Avicenna, Nasir al-Din Tusi, intromission, Kitab al-manazir (The Optics), meteorology. Optics, as a scientific discipline that explores the nature and comportment of vision and light, finds its earliest methodic roots in Euclid's elementary treatise, the Optika (ca.300 ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (32 KB)Key words: Sufi, hagiographer, Nishapur, Mongol, Mawlana Rumi, mathnawi, Diwan, Mantiq al-Tayr, Khusraw-Nama, Gul-u-Hurmuz, Mukhtar Nama, Ilahi-Nama, KhusrawNama, Asrar-Nama, Maqamat al-Tuyur, Musibat-Nama, Tadhkirat al-Awliya, al-Hallaj, Simurgh, fikrat, mystical journey, soul, resurrection, death. A celebrated Persian poet and Sufi hagiographer, 'Attar lived during the second half of the twelfth century CE and the first ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of articleFew biographical details are available on Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Quhistani, a prominent Nizari Ismailiauthor and missionary (da'i), who flourished in the second half of the 9th AH / 15th CE century and died not too long after 904 AH/1498 CE. He was born in the district of Mu'minabad, to the east of Birjand, in Quhistan, ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- A Persian word. Place where the meal cloth is spread. Term for Sufi meetinghouse. Al-Maqrizi (d. 1461) wrote that khanaqahs first appeared in the tenth century and these buildings were 'exclusively dedicated to the worship of God almighty,' although other reports refer to their existence as early as the ninth century. Some of the earliest recorded khanaqahs in Persia ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of this article (32 KB) Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. 'Ali was one of the most learned Muslims of his age. He played a pivotal role in the history of early Islam as an authority on the exegesis of the Qur'an, the Traditions of the Prophet (Hadith), and on all matters relating to the rites, rituals, and ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of articleKahak is a village located about 35 km northeast of Anjudan and northwest of Mahallat in central Iran, with the ruins of a fairly large caravanserai. Kahak was an important locality in the late medieval period for the Qasemshahi NizariIsmaili community in Iran, but now it is a small and isolated village with a Twelver ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (32 KB)Key words Ka'ba, Mecca, bayt Allah (House of God), masjid al haram (sacred mosque), Prophet Muhammad,Islam, haram, pilgrimage (hajj), umra (minor pilgrimmage), pilgrim, worship, Black Stone (al hajar al aswad), tawaf, Well of Zamzam, Abraham (Ibrahim), Hagar, Ismail (Ishmael), Abrahamic tradition, maqam, qibla.The Ka'baThe structure and its immediate precincts in Mecca that also ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (105 KB) Research Institution A research institution founded on 16 February 1946 in Bombay, India under the patronage of the third Aga Khan, Sultan Muhammad Shah (1294-1376/1877-1957), the 48th imam of the Nizari lsmailis. Its primary objective, according to the charter, has been 'the promotion of independent and critical study of all matters connected ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article Table of contentsOrigins and Early History The Schism of 286 AH/899 CE and the Carmatian revoltsLater History of the Carmatian Movement (Arabic: Qaramita and singular: Qarmati), the name given to the adherents of a branch of the Ismailis during the 3rd AH/9th century CE. Originally, the term was evidently applied primarily to those Ismailis ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Although many of these castles in Persia were taken and demolished by the Mongols, the ruins still give an impression of their immense power. As far as we know, there are no other Ismaili monuments still extant with the exception of isolated remains of pottery kilns, for instance at Andij in Alamut. It should be remembered that Ismaili castles, ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (112 KB) Sijistani and Philosophy Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani was first and foremost a member of the Ismaili underground mission - the da'wa, as it is known in Arabic - that operated in the Iranian province of Khurasan and Sijistan during the tenth century. His activities and the works he wrote must be seen in ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (38 KB)KeyWordsDawr al-satr, Fatimid, Mubarakiyya, Mahdi, Taqiyya, Qarmati, Da'i, Zahir, Batin, Hafizi Ismaili, Tayyibi Ismaili, Nizari Ismaili, Hasan-i Sabbah, Alamut, Aga KhanTable of ContentsEarly Ismaili HistoryFatimid Period until 487 AH/1094 CEMusta'il IsmailisNizari Ismailis Early Ismaili History In 148 AH/765 CE, on the death of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, whohad consolidated Imami Shi'ism, the majority of ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Dezkuh (or Sahdez), a medieval mountain fortress situated in central Persia on the summit of Mount Soffa, about 8 km south of Isfahan. No information is available on the construction date of this strategically situated fortress, which guarded the routes to Isfahan, but, like some other ruins in the same region, it may have been built as early as ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- In its modern and scientific form, dating to the 1930s, Ismaili studies represent one of the newest fields of Islamic studies. Before this time, the Ismailis were almost exclusively studied and evaluated on the basis of evidence collected, or often fabricated, by their detractors. As a result, they were persistently misrepresented with a variety of myths and legends circulating ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article A learned theologian, poet, stylist and an accomplished diplomat, Shah Tahir Husayni was also the most famous Imam of the Muhammad-Shahi branch of Nizari Ismailism. He was born in the final decades of the 9th AH/ 15th CE century in the village of Khund, near Qazwin in northern Persia, where his forefathers known locally ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- A popularisation of the Sanskrit word jnan, which is generally defined as 'contemplative or reflective knowledge.' Among Ismailis originating in the Indian subcontinent, the word refers to the part of their tradition whose authorship is attributed to those who converted and preached beginning in the eleventh century. The languages in which the ginans exist reflect the areas from which ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (29 KB)Key words: Kitab al-Manazir, imamcaliph al-Hakim, Renaissance, science, art, mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, physics, intromission, extromission, Ptolemy, Aristotle, Risala fi'l-makan, Treatise on Light, Optics, conception of place (topos), analytical geometry, law of motion. Ibn al-Haytham The polymath Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (ca.965-1041 CE), known in Latin as Alhazen, was born in Basra, Iraq. ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Hasan Sabbah, prominent Isma'ili da'iand founder of the medieval Nizari Isma'ili state (b. Qum, mid-440s AH/1050s CE, d. Alamut. 518 AH/1124 CE). Little information is available on the early life of Hasan Sabbah, who was referred to as Sayyidna (our master) by his contemporary Nizari lsmailis. The colourful story, according to which Hasan, Nizam al-Mulk, and 'Umar Khayyam had ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Key words: Ikhwan al-Safa', Rasa'il, Isma'ilis, Jesus, Christians, The Gospels, Muslim-Christian relations. Download full version of this article with diacritics in PDF format (141KB). The pen-name Ikhwan al-Safa' ('Brethren of Purity') was used by the otherwise anonymous authors of the compendium of 52 treatises on various disciplines entitled Rasa'il ikhwan al-safa' wa-khullan al-wafa' ('Epistles of the brethren of purity ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (159 KB) Free Will in Ismaili Shi'ism Free will versus predestination was an important theological debate, with political implications, in Muslim society dating back to Omayyad times. The Ismailis adopted an intermediate position in thes debate and eventually accommodated the relevant issues within their theological doctrines. At one extreme, a variety of Islamic movements ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- The Nizari or more properly the Nizari Isma'ili Muslims, like other Shi'i communities, acknowledge 'Ali as imam after the Prophet. The Nizari Ismailis have continued to give allegiance to imams descended from Imam 'Ali, on the basis of the principle of designation (nass) by the imam of the time. As of 2002, His Highness the Aga Khan, Shah Karim ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (29 KB)Located in Cairo, Al-Azhar is one of the earliest Jami' (mosque/ university) complexes in the Muslim world. It was founded by the Fatimid Ismaili dynasty; the dynasty's Caliph, Imam Mu'izz li-Din Allah, established Cairo as his capital in 969-973 CE. The complex is so named in memory of the title al-Zahra ('the luminous'), ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download the PDF of the article Table of Contents:Hasan and Husayn in the Prophet's householdDuring the Caliphate of 'Ali b. Abi TalibRelations between Banu Ummaya and Banu HashamAscension of Yazid b. Mu'awiya to the CaliphateThe Shia uprising against Yazid b. Mu'awiyaYazid's orders to deter Husayn and his supportersWithdrawal of the Kufan ShiaThe Event of KarbalaEncounter between Husayn and Yazid's ...
