The Sound Traditions: Studies in Ismaili Texts and Thought

Ismail K. Poonawala is Emeritus Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research mainly focuses on Ismaili manuscript tradition, history and doctrine. Kumail Rajani is a postdoctoral research fellow in Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. His research focuses mainly on Shiʿi history, law and literature.

Foreword


Preface


part 1: Ismaʿili Sources and Authorship


1 Ismaʿili Sources for the History of South-West Arabia


2 Ismaʿili Manuscripts from Yemen


3 Anonymous Works and Their Ascription to Famous Authors: Are They Cases of Mistaken Identity or an Outright Forgery?


4 The Contribution of Ismaʿili Colophons to the Discussion on the Birth and Construction of the Arabic Manuscript Tradition


5 Discovery of the Kitāb al-asrār Ascribed to the First Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Mahdī: Its Ramifications


part 2: Ismaʿili Rational Discourses (al-maʿqūlāt)


6 Why We Need an Arabic Critical Edition with an Annotated English Translation of the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ


7 Wealth and Poverty in the Qur’an and Traditions of the Prophet, and How Those Concepts are Reflected in the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ


8 Humanism in Ismaʿili Thought: The Case of the Rasāʾil ikhwān al-ṣafāʾ (The Epistles of the Sincere Brethren and Faithful Friends)


9 An Early Doctrinal Controversy in the Iranian School of Ismaʿili Thought and Its Implications


10 An Ismaʿili Treatise on the Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān


11 Al-Sijistānī and His Kitāb al-Maqālīd al-Malakūtiyya


part 3: Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān and Ismaʿili Transmitted Knowledge (al-manqūlāt)


12 Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Works and the Sources


13 A Reconsideration of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Madhhab


14 The Chronology of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Works


15 Sources for al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Works and Their Authenticity


16 The Beginning of the Ismaʿili Daʿwa and the Establishment of the Fatimid Dynasty as Commemorated by al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān


17 Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān and Ismaʿili Jurisprudence


18 The Evolution of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Theory of Ismaʿili Jurisprudence as Reflected in the Chronology of His Works on Jurisprudence


19 Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān and His Refutation of Ibn Qutayba


Copyright Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Index of Qurʾanic References

General Index