The Fatimids and Their Successors in Yaman The History of an Islamic Community: Idrīs ʿImād al-Din's 'Uyūn al-akhbār
I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
The ʿUyūn al-akhbār is the most complete extant text by an Ismaili author on the history of the Ismaili community from its origins up to Idrīs ʿImād al-Dīn’s own time in the 15th century. The seventh volume, edited here together with a summary English translation, deals in particular with the period of the three Fatimid caliphs, al-Mustanṣir, al-Mustaʿlī and al-Āmir, in addition to the Tayyibi Ismaili community in Yemen.
The author, Idrīs ʿImād al-Dīn (d. 1468), who was himself a leader of the Ṭayyibīs, took a special interest in the commencement of the Ismaili movement in Yaman, in the schism that split the Ismailis into two rival communities following the death of al-Mustanṣir in 1094, and the final rupture with Egypt after the murder of al-Āmir in 1130. He also devotes a substantial portion of this volume to the history of the later Ismailis in Yaman, and the pivotal role of al-Sayyida al-Ḥurra, the famous Ṣulayḥid queen, in establishing the Ṭayyibī Ismaili community of Yaman independent of the Fatimids in Egypt.
Foreword by Farhad Daftary
Introduction
ʿUyūn al–akhbār, vol. 7 (English Summary of the Arabic Text)
Bibliography
Index to the English Text
ʿUyūn al–akhbār, vol. 7 (Arabic Text, Bibliography and Indices)
‘...remarkable for its accuracy in every respect...a fine piece of scholarship...’
– Caesar E. Farah, Digest of Middle East Studies
Ayman Fuʾad Sayyid studied at Cairo University and obtained his doctorate from the University of Paris. For over a decade he was academically affiliated to the Arab League Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ALESCO). Later he served as director of the Egyptian National Library and taught Islamic history and Arabic codicology at universities in Cairo, Paris and Tokyo. One of the foremost authorities on the history of medieval Egypt and Yemen, he has edited and published numerous Arabic texts. His most recent books include La capitale de l'Égypte jusqu'à l'époque Fatimide, al-Qahira et al-Fustat (Beirut, 1998) and al-Dawla al-Fāṭimiyya fī Miṣr (2nd ed., Cairo, 2000).
Paul Walker is an historian of ideas affiliated with the University of Chicago.
Maurice Alex Pomerantz is a PhD candidate in Islamic History at the University of Chicago.