The expansion of prophetic experience : essays on historicity, contingency and plurality in religion /
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Abdulkarim Soroush is known primarily for his epistemological/hermeneutical theory, the "Contraction and Expansion of Religious Knowledge," and its application to Islamic political theory and religious pluralism. While his Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam applies that theory to plurality and the historicity of understanding and interpretation of religion, this book captures some of his original theories about religion itself. The Expansion of Prophetic Experience treats the historicity of the Prophet Muhammad's revelatory experience, including human and contextual influences on the genesis of the sacred Text. It presents substantial aspects of Soroush's Neo-Rationalist hermeneutical project for an Islamic reformed theology and ethics, systematically leading Islamic reformation beyond conventional projects of piecemeal adjustments to the Shariʿah or selective re-interpretations of the Qurʾān.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [345]-348) and index. :
9789047424369 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Zoroastrian myth of migration from Iran and settlement in the Indian diaspora : text, translation and analysis of the 16th century Qeṣṣe-ye Sanjān 'The story of Sanjan' /
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The Qesse-ye Sanjān is the sole surviving account of the emigration of Zoroastrians from Iran to India to form the Parsi ('Persian') community. Written in Persian couplets in India in 1599 by a Zoroastrian priest, it is a work many know of, but few have actually read, let alone studied in depth. This book provides a romanised transcription from the oldest manuscripts, an elegant metrical translation, detailed commentary and, most importantly, a radical new theory of how such a text should be "read", id est not as a historical chronical but as a charter of Zoroastrian identity, foundation myth and justification of the Parsi presence in India. The book fills a lacuna that has been acutely felt for a long time.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-242) and indexes. :
9789047430421 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The genesis of the Bábí-Baháʼí faiths in Shíráz and Fárs /
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The Bábí and Baháʾí Faiths represent two of the most important religious movements of modern times. This book relates the story of the evolution of the Bábí-Baháʾí community, beginning with the birth of its founder, Siyyid ʾAlí-Muhammad, known as the Báb, in 1819 and then traced over the next century and a half in the city of his birth, Shíráz. Its author, Mírzá Habíbuʾlláh Afnán, was himself born in the house of the Báb, reared by the widow of the Báb, who shared with him many stories of the Báb's life, then spent nearly a year with Baháʾuʾlláh in the ʾAkka-Haifa area, and some ten years in close proximity to Baháʾuʾlláh's son ʾAbduʾl-Bahá. He served for the next half century as the hereditary custodian of the house of the Báb, and as such was uniquely qualified to tell the story of the Bábí-Baháʾí Faiths in the city of Shíráz in remarkable and moving detail.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [381]-384) and indexes. :
9789047442349 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Arabic version of Tusi's Nasirean ethics : with an introduction and explanatory notes /
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Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī's (d. 672/1274) Nasirean Ethics is the single most important work on philosophical ethics in the history of Islam. Translated from the original Persian into Arabic in 713/1313, the present text was primarily intended for the Arabic-speaking majority of the people in Iraq. A fine example of medieval Persian-to-Arabic translation technique, this first edition carefully reproduces Middle Arabic elements that can be found throughout the text.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004307506 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Universal Science : An Introduction to Islamic Metaphysics.
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The Universal Science ( ʿIlm-i kullī ) by Mahdī Ḥāʾirī Yazdī , is a concise, but authoritative, outline of the fundamental discussions in Islamic metaphysics. For many years used as a textbook in Iran, this short text offers English readers a readily accessible, lucid, and yet deeply learned, guide through the Sadrian, Avicennan, and Illuminationist schools of thought, whilst also demonstrating how the 'living tradition' of Shīʿī philosophy engages with central ontological, epistemological, aetiological, and psychological questions. Discussions include the primacy of existence; the proper classifications of quiddity; and the manifold properties of causality and causal explanation. This is the first of the various influential works authored by this leading Shīʿah intellectual to have been translated into English from the original Persian.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004343115 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Majlis dar qiṣṣa-yi rasūl (ṣalawāt Allāh ʿalayhi) /
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In Persian literature, so-called ' majālis ' works typically evoke the atmosphere of a religious gathering. In such a gathering, a chronicler relates parts of the history of Islam and the lives and times of its prominent representatives, often referring to trustworthy sources. Besides, questions may be asked, while teachings or sermons may also be given. Examples are Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī's (d. 672/1273) Majālis-i sabʿa and Saʿdī's (d. 691/1292) Majālis-i panj-gānah . Judging by its title, the present work by an unknown author from the 5th/12th century-it is not known if it was originally written in Persian or translated from Arabic-would seem to belong to this same type of writings. Only, on closer inspection this is not the case. Being mostly inspired by Ibn Isḥāq's (d. 150/767) al-Sīra al-nabawiyya and Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī's (d. 322/933-4) Aʿlām al-nubuwwa , only its last five chapters are called majlis , but then lack the characteristics of a typical majālis work.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405769
9786002030122
Risāla-yi Ḥātimiyya /
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Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī, a pre-Islamic poet from the late sixth century CE, is especially known for his chivalry and magnanimity. A member of the tribe of Ṭayy in Yemen, he is mainly associated with the court of the Lakhmids in Ḥīra in Mesopotamia under king Nuʿmān b. Mundhir (reg. ca. 580-602). His poetry centers around the qualities that earned him his fame, even if part of the poems ascribed to him may be later inventions. Legend has it that his grandfather, who was his guardian, abandoned him when he saw that his grandson's generosity was incurable. Four mourning girls, hewn in stone, lined his grave, together with the cooking pots from which he had served his guests. A popular character in medieval Arabic literature, no separate work was ever dedicated to him, unlike the Persian tradition. The present text on his life and deeds by Wāʿiẓ Kāshifī (d. 910/1504-5) is the oldest to exist in Persian.
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1 online resource. :
9789004407299
9786002031297
Risāla-yi asṭurlāb-i Kūshyār Gīlānī /
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Kushyār (Pers. Kushyār) b. Labbān Gīlānī was a Persian astronomer and mathematician who flourished around 390/1000. All we know about his personal life is that he originated from the region of Gilan in northern Iran, bordering on the Caspian Sea. Given that he is cited in Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī's (d. after 442/1050) Kitāb fī ifrād al-maqāl fī amr al-aẓlāl , Kushyār must have become an authority by the time al-Bīrūnī came to write this work. From his works in mathematics, Kushyār's Kitāb fī uṣūl ḥisāb al-Hind on Indian arithmatic is the most important, and in astronomy his Zīj-i jāmiʿ . His Arabic work on the astrolabe is published here for the very first time, accompanied by a Japanese translation, both by Taro Mimura of Japan. In addition, this volume also contains a facsimile edition of the anonymous medieval Persian translation of this work, followed by a critical edition, both by Mohammad Bagheri of Iran.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406278
9786002030764
Ṣaḥīfa-yi Sajjādiyya bā tarjumaʾī kuhan bih Fārsī /
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The Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya is a compilation of supplicatory prayers ascribed to the fourth Imam of the Shīʿa, ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Sajjād (d. 94/712-13 0r 95/713-14). Alternatively referred to as the 'psalms' ( zabūr ) or the 'gospels' ( injīl ) of the family of the Prophet, the Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya ranks among the holiest books of the Shīʿa, together with the Qurʾān and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib's Nahj al-balāgha . Al-Sajjād was known for his piety and for his being given to prayer. Yet it is more likely that the Ṣaḥīfa is a later compilation of prayers attributed to him. The Ṣaḥīfa published here in facsimile is the 'complete' ( kāmila ) recension ascribed to Ibn Makkī (d. 786/1384) in a copy made just five years after Makkī's death, together with an early interlinear Persian translation. Apart from the orthographical and linguistic points of interest of this manuscript, its early dating may throw light on the history of transmission of Ibn Makkī's recension.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406674
9786002031068
Az nuskhahā-yi Istānbūl : Dastnivīshā-ī dar falsafah, kalām, ʿirfān /
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For those working with Islamic manuscripts the libraries of Istanbul have always been a treasure-trove. New discoveries are frequently reported and of many texts, the oldest or only copy is kept in some library in Istanbul. Since the publication of the defters of the Istanbul libraries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, many more catalogues and handlists have been produced in an effort to render the immense amount of material more accessible. Even if the bulk of this work is done by Turkish specialists, foreign scholars, too, do their part. The present collection of research notes is a case in point. They describe a number of important Arabic and Persian manuscripts in philosophy, theology and mysticism selected for publication by the Written Heritage Research Centre in Tehran. Some of these manuscripts are in the hand of, or contain marginalia by, Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274), Najm al-Dīn Kātibī (d. 675/1276), and others.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406018
9786002030399
Takmila-yi Nafaḥāt al-uns /
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Regarded by many as the last great mystical poet of medieval Persia, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492) spent the greater part of his life in Herat. As a student he excelled in every subject he engaged in and appeared destined for an academic career. But then, in his early thirties, he went through a spiritual crisis that ended in his joining the Herat branch of the mystical Naqshbandiyya order, led by the charismatic Saʿd al-Dīn Kāshgharī (d. 860/1456). A protégé of three successive Timurid rulers in Herat, Jāmī's wide network of friendships and relations extended from spiritual and literary circles through the political to the academic. With 39.000 lines of verse and over 30 prose works to his name, Jāmī's literary production is impressive. In his biographical handbook on Sufi masters, the Nafaḥāt al-uns , Jāmī did not mention himself. This is why his student ʿAbd al-Ghafūr Lārī (d. 912/1506) wrote this biographical supplement to it.
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1 online resource. :
9789004408098
9786002031334
Tuḥfat al-fatā fī tafsīr sūrat Hal atā /
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One of the challenges that the Qurʾān poses to its readers is the apparent contradictions that it contains. In order for these contradictions to be removed, Muslim scholars developed a doctrine according to which one verse could be abrogated by another. Abrogation being linked to temporality, the question whether a verse was revealed in Mecca or Medina became a major point of discussion. Ghiyāth al-Dīn Dashtakī (d. 949/1542) was one of the major representatives of the School of Shiraz in philosophy and a specialist in Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophy, as well as mysticism. The present volume contains a new edition of his commentary on Sūrat al-Insān (no. 76), which is one of the suras on whose time of revelation much had already been written. In this seminal and innovative work, emphasis is given to a mystico-philosophical reading of the text, an appoach that would reach its zenith in the work of Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640)
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1 online resource. :
9789004403017
9789646781740
Arbaʿīn al-ʿAlāʾī fi kalām al-ʿalī /
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In the history of Islamic literature, the 'Forty Traditions' genre goes back as far as the 3th/9th century at least and exists in all of Islam's major and minor languages. It finds its origin in the tradition saying that whoever commits forty traditions to memory will be reckoned among the jurists on Resurrection Day. Collections vary, from a simple listing of the basic teachings of Islam to more dedicated works around some specific theme, in either case with or without a commentary. There are also collections of sayings of the Prophet's son-in-law ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), from among which al-Sharīf al-Raḍī's (d. 406/1088) Nahj al-Balāgha is the most famous. The work by Yūsuf b. Āybayk published here is a Persian text in the arbaʿūn tradition but based on the Nahj al-balāgha . Dedicated to the Qaramānid ruler of Anatolia ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Beg (d. 800/1397-8), it deals mostly with ethics explained from a mystical perspective.
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1 online resource. :
9789004408135
9786002031341
Bih guzīn-i ʿAlī-nāma : Kuhantarīn manẓūma-yi Shīʿi-yi Fārsī /
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Until the discovery of the Persian ʿAlī-nāma , Ibn Ḥusām's Khawarān-nāma (830/1427) was believed to be the oldest Persian epic poem involving the often wondrous exploits of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and the beginnings of Shīʿism. The Khawarān-nāma takes its inspiration from Firdawsī's Shāh-nāma , but then adapted to fit the Shīʿī theme, with ʿAlī and his companions often taking the place of Rustam and other heroes. The ʿAlī-nāma , extant in one manuscript in Konya, is a much older poem on the same subject. Composed by someone using the alias of Rabīʿ, it was completed in 482/1089 in Khurāsān, just seventy years after the completion of Firdawsī's Shāh-nāma . The text is important because long before others, it acknowledges the heroes of the Shāh-nāma , some of whom were actually written into the script. Different from the edition by Omidsalar (2010), this edition only reproduces verses deemed worthy of Rabīʿ, rejecting two-thirds as the work of some unknown 'poetaster'.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405943
9786002030337
Irshād : Dar maʿrifat u waʿẓ u akhlāq /
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According to Majid Fakhry, ethical theories in Islam may be divided into four categories: 1. scriptural morality (moral precepts and judgments from the Qurʾān and the Traditions); 2. theological theories (rationalist interpretations of scriptural morality based on philosophical or theological methods and categories developed in the eighth and ninth centuries); 3. philosophical theories (ultimately relying on Greek sources, mainly Plato and Aristotle in neo-Platonic interpretations); 4. religious theories (based on the Qurʾānic view of man and his position in the universe, and differing from theological theories in that they were not dialectical, not polemical, and more concerned with moral theory than with questions of methodology). The present work comes under the last category, to which it adds an element of mysticism. Besides the more general sources and authorities, it also refers to scholars and mystics from Transoxania specifically, the work having been written there in the early 6th/12th century. Contains word material from that region.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404823
9789648700237
Dīwān-i Khāzin /
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About fifty years ago, during renovation works in the complex of Imam Reza in Mashhad, a hoard of manuscripts was discovered in a secret niche. These manuscripts had probably been stashed away in a time of unrest to prevent them from getting looted or destroyed. Among them, there was one quite remarkable codex, copied in 481/1088 and published here, containing the divan of ʿAbdallāh b. Aḥmad al-Khāzin, a poet who belonged to entourage of the Buyid vizier Ṣāḥib b. al-ʿAbbād (d. 385/995). Al-Khāzin was his librarian for a time, until he was banished from the court. Since most of the poems are dedicated to Fakhr al-Dawla (d. 387/997) and Ibn al-ʿAbbād, they must have been written after Fakhr al-Dawla was brought to power by Ibn al-ʿAbbād in 373/983. Even with sections missing, this manuscript contains no less than 1.922 verses by al-Khāzin, much more than the 241 verses quoted in al-Thaʿālibī's (d. 429/1038) Yatīmat al-dahr.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406506
9786002030955
Tarjuma-yi Kitāb al-milal wal-niḥal /
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Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm Shahrastānī was born in 479/1086-7 in Shahristān in today's Turkmenistan. After his basic education he went to Nishapur, then a major centre of learning. Afterwards, he taught for some years at the Niẓāmiyya academy in Baghdad. Returning to Khurāsān around 514/1120, he became a staff member at the chancellery of the Saljuq ruler, Sanjar (d. 552/1157), entertaining close relations with him. At some point Shahrastānī returned to his hometown, although it is not known why or when, dying there in 548/1153. His influential history of religions and sects, which also includes an account of Greek and Islamic philosophy, is one of his best known works. Until recently only two Persian translations of it were known: one by Afḍal al-Dīn Turka-yi Iṣfahānī dated 843/1449-50, and an improved edition of it by Muṣṭafā b. Khāliqdād, dated 1021/1612. The anonymous translation published here is much older and may even date from Shahrastānī's own lifetime.
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1 online resource. :
9789004406711
9786002031198
Uṣūl al-ḥikam fī niẓām al-ʿālam /
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Ḥasan Kāfī al-Āqḥiṣārī (951-1025/1544-1616) was born in Āqhiṣār, present-day Prusac in Bosnia, then part of the Ottoman empire. After his elementary training he went to Istanbul, studying under a number of established scholars there, focussing on law. After completing his studies he went back to Āqḥiṣār where he founded his own school in 983/1575. Eight years later he was appointed judge of Aqḥiṣār, and five years after that he transferred to the district of Srem to assume a judgeship there, writing and teaching on the side. At the outbreak of the rebellion of Moldavia and Wallachia against the Ottomans in 1004/1495 he quit his post as judge of Srem to return to Āqḥiṣār. It is there that he compiled the present collection of aphorisms, anecdotes and traditions on good governance, being the right balance between the four different 'interest groups' in any given society: military, administration, peasants, and traders/artisans.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405783
9786002030153
Tārīkh-i Harāt /
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This is a facsimile edition of a unique copy of an historical text in Persian, found in some antique shop in Yazd, Iran, several decades ago. The text is incomplete, but must have consisted of at least six chapters ( bāb ). What remains are the last part of chapter four, chapter five, and the first part of chapter six. Chapter four treats of the rulers of Khurāsān until the reign of Muʿizz al-Dīn Aḥmad Sanjar (d. 552/1157-8). Chapter five is about memorable events in Herat, while the remaining part of chapter six c0ntains a listing of the qualities of Herat and Khurāsān. The manuscript bears no title and no author is mentioned. The editors derive title and author from a reference in Muʿīn al-Dīn Isfizārī's (8th/14th cent.) Rawḍāt al-jannāt fī awṣāf madīnat Harāt . The text itself dates from the early 5th/11th, the manuscript from the 8th/14th century. Valuable as an early Persian text on Herat and Khurāsān.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404861
9789648700480
Al-Ifāda fī tarīkh al-aʾimma al-sāda /
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As is well known, the main difference between the Imāmiyya and Zaydiyya branches in Shīʿī Islam is to do with the fact that the Zaydiyya-named so after their first leader Zayd b.ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn (d. 122/740)-did not unconditionally condemn the first three caliphs before ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, while to the Imāmiyya branch, all Sunnīs were infidels. But even though the Zaydīs did not consider Sunnīs generally as infidels, they regarded rebellion against Sunnī rule -unlawful to them-as a religious duty for all. The Imāmīs on the other hand, while radical in doctrine, did not have a militant attitude comparable to that of the Zaydīs. Geographically, the Zaydīs divided into a Yemeni and an Iranian branch, concentrated along the shores of the Caspian sea. The present work contains the biographies of 15 Zaydī imams, some from the Caspian, the author-Abū Ṭālib Hārūnī (d. 424/1033)-being a Zaydī scholar from that region.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404960
9789648700572