Texts, Scribes and Transmission Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond
I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
This book is also available OPEN ACCESS to download or read online for free.
The past few decades have seen a burgeoning interest in the manuscript cultures of the Muslim world. The study of manuscripts has brought to light new perspectives on the transmission of texts and larger questions of cultural practices passed down within the learned circles of premodern Muslim societies. The intellectual and literary heritage of Ismaili communities, who form a branch of Shiʿi Islam, has until recently been preserved in private and largely inaccessible libraries. This open access volume brings together studies offering insights on different aspects of manuscript cultures nurtured by Ismaili communities until well after the widespread dissemination of printed books. The range of materials transmitted via these manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Indic languages also reflects the doctrinal and literary preoccupations of Muslims at large and of other groups from the societies in which Ismailis lived. Hence, the manuscripts bear the imprint of their respective cultural contexts, namely a number of regions from the Near East to Central and South Asia. In addition to engaging with multifaceted questions surrounding the processes of textual transmission, the chapters in this book deal with other connected aspects, like codicology, scribal and reading practices, educational and social history, authorship, communal script, religious identity and interactions of ideas across ideological denominations. With contributions from specialists and early-career scholars, this volume will be of interest to those working on textual scholarship, manuscript and literary cultures, and Islamic studies.
Acknowledgements
Note on Contributors
Transliteration, Dates, and Abbreviations
Introduction
Wafi A. Momin
SECTION I: THE SHAPING OF A NEW FIELD
1. Ismaili Manuscripts and Modern Scholarship in Ismaili Studies
Farhad Daftary
2. Husain Hamdani, Paul Kraus, and a Suitcase Full of Manuscripts
François de Blois
SECTION II: RASĀʾIL IKHWĀN AL-ṢAFĀʾ, KITĀB AL-ZĪNA, AND THEIR MANUSCRIPT TRADITION
3. The Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ’s Epistles on Logic in Some Manuscripts of the IIS Arabic Collection
Carmela Baffioni
4. The Missing Link? MS 1040: An Important Copy of the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ in the Collection of The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Omar Alí-de-Unzaga
5. The Manuscript Copies of Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī’s Kitāb al-Zīna at The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Cornelius Berthold
SECTION III: EXPLORING TWO EARLY ṬAYYIBĪ WORKS AND THEIR TRANSMISSION
6. The Majmūʿ al-tarbiya between Text and Paratext: Exploring the Social History of a Community’s Reading Culture
Delia Cortese
7. Textual, Orthographic Variations and Scribes’ Annotations: A Possible Tool for the Transmission Analysis of the Text?
Monica Scotti
SECTION IV: REVISITING NIZĀRĪ HISTORY OF ALAMŪT TIMES
8. Alamūt and Badakhshān: Newly Identified Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā Manuscripts and their Background 207
Miklós Sárközy
9. ʿAhd-i Sayyidnā, a Newly Discovered Treatise on the Consolidation of the Nizārī Daʿwa in Alamūt 237
Karim Javan
10. The Discovery, Description and Publication of the Manuscripts of Two Major Nizārī Ismaili Texts from the Alamūt Period: The Haft Bāb and the Dīwān-i Qāʾimiyyāt of Ḥasan-i Maḥmūd-i Kātib
S.J. Badakhchani
SECTION V: COMMUNAL SCRIPT, SCRIBAL ELITE, AND SATPANTH MANUSCRIPT CULTURE
11. Khwājah Sindhi (Khojki): Its Name, Manuscripts and Origin
Shafique N. Virani
12. A Forgotten Voice: The Agency of the Scribal and Literate Elite and the Satpanth Manuscript Culture
Wafi A. Momin
SECTION VI: IDENTITY, CULTURAL INTERACTIONS, AND ESOTERIC INTERPRETATION AMONG CENTRAL ASIAN ISMAILI COMMUNITIES
13. Ismaili-Sufi Relationships in the Light of the Niʿmat Allāhī Manuscripts in the Holdings of The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Orkhan Mir-Kasimov
14. Poems of Allegiance: Shāh Ḍiyāʾī-i Shughnānī’s Salām-nāma
Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev
15. The Ṣaḥīfat al-nāẓirīn: Reflections on Authorship and Confessional Identity in a 15th-Century Central Asian Text
Daniel Beben
16. The Seven Pillars of the Sharīʿa and the Question of Authority in Central Asian Ismaili Manuscripts: An Ismaili Esoteric Discourse
Yahia Baiza
SECTION VII: APPROACHING TEXTUAL TRANSMISSION THROUGH QURʾĀNIC MANUSCRIPTS AND HOLOGRAPH/ AUTOGRAPH COPIES
17. Writing the Qurʾān between the Lines: Preliminary Remarks on Marginalia in the Qurʾān Manuscripts held by The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Asma Hilali
18. The Making of Holographs/Autographs: Case Studies from the Special Collections of The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Walid Ghali
List of Illustrations
Index
“This invaluable volume will be of immense value and interest to scholars working primarily in the field of manuscript studies, Ismaʿili studies and cultural studies of the Islamic world.”
– F. Redhwan Karim, Muslim World Book Review
“Through the variety of subjects covered, the up-to-dateness of their content, and the formal quality of the book as a whole, there is no doubt that this open access and richly illustrated volume ... will provide an excellent basis for future research not only in the field of Ismaili studies stricto sensu, but also in Islamic studies more generally.”
– Godefroid de Callataÿ, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
Wafi A. Momin is Head of the Ismaili Special Collections Unit at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK, where he also teaches courses on developments in modern and contemporary Muslim Societies and aspects of Islam in South Asia. He received his doctorate in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago, USA.