The Precious Gift of the Hearts and Good Cheer for Those in Distress: On the Organisation and History of the Yamani Fatimid Da‘wa A critical edition of the Arabic and annotated English translation of Risālat Tuḥfat al-qulūb wa-furjat al-makrūb fī tartīb al-Hudā wa'l-Duʿāt fī Jazīrat al-Yaman
Saqi Books in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
The original work, Risālat Tuḥfat al-qulūb, was written at a time of great change. It followed the collapse of Fatimid rule in Egypt, Sulayhid rule in Yaman and the Ayyubid conquest of both territories, all of this in the context of the Crusades and the survival of the Tayyibi Ismaili community in the midst of a great upheaval in Middle Eastern politics.
The text of the Risālat Tuḥfat al-qulūb acts in the manner of a manifesto for the future conduct of the Tayyibi daʿwa providing a history of its beginning, its structure and doctrines and, perhaps most notably, highlighting the fact that its religion was of more importance than Yamani ethnicity.
This critical edition begins with looking at Sulayhid Yaman and the emergence of the Tayyibi daʿwa through the time of the dāʿī Ḥātim b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī and then moves through the study of various phases in the formation of Shi‘i communities with the aid of genealogical tables.
This publication will appeal to all students of heresiographical literature and all those interested in the emergence of the Tayyibi daʿwa.
Abbas Hamdani, Professor Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has a long-standing relationship with the IIS during which he has donated around 300 manuscripts, inherited through seven generations of his family, to the Institute’s Library. His scholarly expertise covers a wide range, including medieval Islamic philosophical thought and heresiographical literature, especially with regard to the twelfth-century text, the Tuḥfat al-qulūb (The Precious Gift of the Hearts).