Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (118 KB) Ismailism belongs to the Shi'a branch of Islam, and, in common with various Muslim interpretive communities, has been concerned with developing a philosophical discourse to elucidate foundational Qur'anic and Islamic beliefs and principles. Labelling Ismaili Philosophy It would, however, be misleading to label Ismaili and other Muslim philosophical stances, as has been ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (32 KB)Key words:Esoteric, Basra, Baghdad, compendium, mathematics, music, logic, astronomy, physical sciences, natural sciences, soul, ethics, revelation, spirituality, philosophy, Ikhwan, Shi'a, Ismaili, Fatimid, Qur'an, Abrahamic monotheism, Torah, Canonical Gospels, ancient Indian and Persian classics, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Euclid, Ptolemy, syncretism, history of ideas in Islam, Muslim civilisation.Ikhwan al-Safa' Ikhwan al-Safa' (the Brethren ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (33 KB)Keywords Chinese wares, "fritware", lustre-painted ceramics, Seljuk,mina'i, Shahnama, Misr, glazed ceramics, khazaf, fakhkhar, ghadar, sini, slip-painted pottery, Islamic glazed ware, Iraqi potters, Iznik wares. Around the year 1135 CE, a merchant from Aden wrote the following letter to his counterpart in Egypt: "Please buy me six painted platters, made in Misr [Old Cairo]. ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Name of a mountain fortress in northern Iran. Situated about forty-five kilometres northeast of the city of Qazwin, Alamut was built on the summit of an inaccessible rock in the central Alborz mountains. According to legend, an eagle indicated the site to a Daylami ruler, whence its name in the Daylami dialect, derived from aloh (eagle) and amukht (taught). ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (32 KB)After the defeat of the Iranian Sasanian dynasty in 637-638 CE, the conquering Muslim army occupied Iraq and established on the banks of the Euphrates a garrison town called Kufa. The new province would henceforth be ruled from this newly founded settlement. In time, it grew into a major administrative capital that had ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of the article (121 KB) Hamdan Qarmat b. al-As'at (d. 321 AH / 933 CE), was an Ismaili da'iand founder of the Ismaili movement in Iraq. He came from a village in the tassuj of Badaqla, east of Kufa, and is described as working as a carter when he was converted by the Ismaili da'i Husayn ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Keywords Ethics, Sunnah, Reason, Mutazila, Sunni, Shia, Sufism, Muslim Philosophers Download PDF version of article (55 KB) Table of contentsIntroductionBeginnings and development: Foundational ValuesFoundational Sources of Islamic BeliefQur'an and the SunnahThe interaction between relevation and reasonWhat is Taqwa?Islam as a way of lifeIndividual duties in a Muslim polityLegal and moral expressionsTheological and traditionalist approachesMutazila Approach Sunni ApproachPhilosophical approachesShia and ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article Key Words Piety, fear of God, godliness, abstinence, iman, hadith, Sufism, Qu'ran,sura, heart, sirr, wara', khawf, muhasaba, 'spiritual stations', makamat, muttakiyan, fana, Kubrawi. Table of ContentsEtymology and Range of MeaningsTaqwa in the Qur'an and HadithTaqwa and ImanThe Mystical Theology of TaqwaTaqwa as abstinenceTaqwa as heart-abstinence Taqwa in the Spiritual Stations of SufismTaqwa's Apophasis in ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Aga Khan is the title inherited by the modern imams of the Shi'a Nizari Ismaili Muslims. The title was first granted by the Iranian ruler Fath 'Ali Shah to Imam Hasan 'Ali Shah (1804 -1881), who also served as governor of Qum, Mahallat, and Kirman. Forced to leave Iran, he settled eventually in British-ruled India. His son, Imam Shah ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Medieval Nizari Ismaili missionary in Syria. He reorganized the Nizari community in Syria and played a prominent role in the regional politics of his time, entering into shifting alliances with Salah al-Din (Saladin), the Crusaders, and others to safeguard the independence of his community. Sinan was the original 'Old Man of the Mountain' of the Crusaders, who made the ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Hasan II, 'Ala Dhikrihi'l Salam,NizariIsma'iliImam and the fourth ruler of Alamut (557-61 AH/1162-66 CE). Born in 520AH /1126 CE, Imam Hasan II, whom the Nizaris address as 'ala Dhikrihi'l Salam (on his mention be peace), succeeded to the leadership of the Nizari Isma'ili da'wa and state on the death of the third ruler of Alamut, Muhammad b. Buzurg-Umid on ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- The Ismailis consist of two main branches - the Nizari Ismailis and the Musta'lian Tayyibi Ismailis. Both have their roots in the Fatimid period of Ismaili history and differ primarily over their respective belief in the Imamat, that is, spiritual leadership of the community. The Nizari branch believes in a living, physically present Imam. Their present and forty-ninth Imam ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of the article Khayrkhah Harati, Muhammad Reza b. Sultan Husayn Ghuriani, Nizari Ismaili da'i, author, and poet. He was born into a prominent Nizari Ismaili family in Ghurian near Harat, in present day western Afghanistan, in the final decades of the 15th century CE and died not long after 960 AH/1553 CE, the latest date cited ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Key words:Guregen, Samarqand, Chagatai, Chingiz Khan, Khurasan, Transoxania, Persia, zayl, Majma', Zubdat al-Tawarikh, Muzzafarids, Mamluk, Ottoman, Shah Rukh, Ulugh Beg.Download PDF version of article (72 KB) The Timurids were a dynasty of Central Asian nomadic origin that dominated the Middle East and Central Asia in the 8th AH (14th CE) and 9th AH (15th CE) centuries. The founder, Timur ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download the article in PDF format Zaydiyya is a branch of the Shi'a arising out of the abortive revolt of Zayd b. 'Ali b. al-Husayn in Kufa in 122 AH / 740 CE. During the preparations for the revolt, a part of the Kufan Shi'a withdrew their support from Zayd in protest against his refusal to condemn unconditionally the ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of the articleClassical concepts of time confronted philosophers with perplexing paradoxes. Some wondered whether time altogether was nonexistent, whereas others doubted the reality of its divisibility into parts by arguing that the past ceased to be, the future does not yet exist, and the present as a moment/now that is without magnitude (i.e., like a mathematical ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (113 KB) Introduction and Early Life Muhammad b. Zayn al-'Abidin b. Karabala'i Dawud (b. ca. 1266/1850; d. 1342/1923), foremost Persian Nizari Ismaili author and poet of modern times, who is referred to as Haji Akhund in the Persian Nizari community. Feda'i was born in Dezbad/Dizbad or Dezbad-i Bala (Razmara, Farhang IX, p. 180), an ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Dawr(Ar. and Pers.), period, era, or cycle of history, a term used by Isma'ilis in connection with their conceptions of time and the religious history of mankind. The early Isma'ilis conceived of time (zaman) as a progression of cycles or eras, dawrs (Ar. pl. adwar), with a beginning and an end. On the basis of their eclectic temporal vision, ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (121 KB) An important Shi'i Muslim community, the Ismailis as an entity emerged in 765 from a disagreement over the successor to the sixth imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq. The Ismailis chose Isma'il and then traced the imamat through Isma'il's son Muhammad and the latter's progeny. The bulk of other Shi'i, however, eventually recognised 12 imams, ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (112 KB) Biographical Details Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, a prominent Ismaili da'i or missionary and one of the most learned Ismaili theologians and philosophers of the Fatimid period. As in the case of other prominent missionaries who observed strict secrecy in their activities in the midst of hostile milieus, few biographical details are available on ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of this article (68 KB) A major Isma'ili Shi'ite dynasty, the Fatimids founded their own caliphate, in rivalry with the 'Abbasids, and ruled over different parts of the Islamic world, from North Africa and Sicily to Palestine and Syria. Established in 297/909 in Tunisia, the seat of the Fatimids was later transferred to Egypt in 362/973. ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of this article 'Ayn al-Qudat Al-Hamadani, Abu 'l-Ma'ali 'Abdallah [or Muhammad] b. Abi Bakr Muhammad b. [Abi 'l-Hasan] 'Ali b. al-Hasan b. 'Ali al-Mayanaji [or al-Miyanaji] was an influential Sufi and important author of original works on mystical theology and spiritual practice in both Arabic and Persian; famous as a Sufi martyr. He was publicly executed ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article Key words Hamat, Hims, Abbasids, imam, da'wa, Hashimid, Ismaili, Qarmati, Fatimid, Isma'il b. Muhammad, makam al-imam, Bedouin. Salamiyya, a town in central Syria in the district of Orontes (Nahr al-'Asi), about 25 miles south-east of Hamat and 35 miles north-east of Hims (for the town's exact situation, see Kiepert's map in M. von Oppenheim, ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Assassin is a name that was applied originally by the Crusader circles in the Near East and other medieval Europeans to the NizariIsmailis of Syria. From the opening decade of the twelfth century, the Crusaders had numerous encounters with the Syrian Nizaris, who reached the peak of their power under the leadership of Rashid al-Din Sinan (d. 1193 CE), ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of this article. Table of contentsEarly life of Ivanow A Shift in Research Ivanow meets Aga Khan III Pioneering Steps in Ismaili Studies Early life of Ivanow Vladimir Alekseevich Ivanow, (b. St. Petersburg, Russia, 3 November 1886, d. Tehran, 19 June 1970; variously spelt Ivanov and Wladimir), was a Russian orientalist and leading pioneer in modern ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Life In striking contrast to other Ismaili writers of the time (s.v., Hamid ai-din al Kirmani; Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani), a good deal of information exists on Khusraw's life, most written by his own hand, some by a (hostile) contemporary, some by later historians, and some apocryphal. He has been included in every major literary or historical survey produced since ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- In common with all major Shi'a groups, the Ismailis believe that the Imamate is a divinely sanctioned and guided institution, through whose agency Muslims are enabled to contextualise the practice of their faith and to understand fully the exoteric and esoteric dimensions of the Qur'an. The Imamate exists to complement prophethood and to ensure that the divine purpose is ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Akhlaq, the plural form of khuluq, refers to innate disposition or character and, by extension in Muslim thought, to ethics. In the Qur'an the term is used to refer to Prophet Muhammad's exemplary ethical character (68:4). The Qur'an also emphasises the significance of ethically guided action as the underpinning for a committed Muslim life. Qur'anic ethics emphasise in particular ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Language group within the family of Pamir languages, which belong to the Modern Eastern Iranian languages. Languages of the Shughni-Rushani group are spoken in the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, particularly in the autonomous region of Badakhshan; in the Afghan province of Badakhshan; and in Xinjiang in China. The Shughni-Rushani language group consists of five languages: Shughni, with the ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of this article Satr, "concealment", a term used in a variety of senses, particularly by the Isma'iliyya. The Isma'ilis originally used it in reference to a period in their early history, called dawr al-satr, stretching from soon after the death of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq in 148/765 CE to the establishment of the Fatimid state in 297/909 ...
