Over the Fatimid period, a significant body of ta‘wīl literature was produced, much of which has only recently come to the attention of modern scholarship … The Kitāb Ta‘wīl al-sharī‘a, compiled and articulated by al-Qāḍī al-Nu‘mān on the authority of the fourth Fatimid Imam al-Mu‘izz li-Dīn Allāh, is one such work.
Esoteric Explorations of the Sharī‘a, the path to the Divine: A Fatimid Exposition. by Jamal, Nadia E.
It is well-known that the interrelated ideas of esoteric knowledge (‘ilm al-bāṭīn) and interpretation (ta‘wīl), as qualities borne by the sole righteous Imam, were central to Fatimid Ismaili thought and were amongst its most distinctive characteristics. Over the Fatimid period, a significant body of ta‘wīl literature was produced, much of which has only recently come to the attention of modern scholarship through the production of critical editions. The Kitāb Ta‘wīl al-sharī‘a, compiled and articulated by al-Qāḍī al-Nu‘mān on the authority of the fourth Fatimid Imam al-Mu‘izz li-Dīn Allāh (r. 341-65/953-75), is one such work. This treatise became influential in subsequent periods and was mandated by later Fatimid dā‘īs as a pre-required reading for those seeking intellectual advancement in the doctrines of the da‘wa.
This paper examines how the ideological and doctrinal content of the Ta‘wīl al-sharī‘a itself was conditioned by an over-riding interest in preparing the audience, that is the Fatimid dā‘īs, with a body of doctrine relevant to the dominant intellectual debates of the 10th and 11th century. It is thus now apparent that much of the content of the Ta‘wīl literature was deeply concerned with producing affirmations or reposes to cosmological and eschatological doctrines circulating in that era, particularly those dominant in theological debates that were then still raging between the Mu‘tazila and other schools of thought. While secondary impressions of ta‘wīl once suggested that it was narrow and insular in its own idiosyncratic methods, the Ta‘wīl al-sharī‘ā indicates instead a body of thought resonant with the dominant intellectual streams of the time.
Dr Nadia Eboo Jamal received her PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Literature from New York University in 1996 and is a specialist in Persian history and culture in the period of Mongol rule, with a particular emphasis on the Ismaili communities of the time.
Over the past fifteen years, Dr Eboo Jamal has been actively involved in varying capacities with the Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Boards in the United Kingdom and the United States, providing her expertise and assistance to teaching activities, developing educational materials and human resources, and contributing to the Ismaili community’s diverse religious education programmes. She also provided her expertise in the field of Islamic Studies and has worked with the IIS on some of its programmatic activities.
More on Dr Nadia Eboo-Jamal from Ismailimail Archives:
- Esoteric Explorations of the Sharī‘a, the path to the Divine: A Fatimid Exposition – Nadia Eboo-Jamal’s Presentation at MESA 2014 Conference, Washington, DC
- Event – November 22-25 | Washington DC: 2014 Annual Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Meeting with Ismaili Scholars
- Scholars from IIS, Harvard, and Indiana host panels on Ismaili History and Philosophy at MESA 2014
- A Reading Guide by Fayaz S. Alibhai: Surviving the Mongols: Nizari Quhistani and the Continuity of Ismaili Tradition in Persia
- Institute of Ismaili Studies Appoints Dr Nadia Eboo-Jamal as Interim Head of the Department of Community Relations
- From Ismaili Muslim History – Salamiyya, Syria
About MESA:
The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) is a private, non-profit, non-political learned society that brings together scholars, educators and those interested in the study of the region from all over the world. MESA’s 48th annual meeting will be held in Washington, DC at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
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All related MESA 2014, from Ismailimail Archives:
- The Neoplatonic Qur’anic Exegesis of Nāṣir-i Khusraw – Khalil Andani’s Presentation at MESA 2014 Conference in Washington, DC
- Echoes of the Gnostics: Incorporation of Mythic Cosmology into Ismāʿīlī Thought – Paul Anderson’s Presentation at MESA 2014 Conference in Washington, DC
- Rethinking the Kalām-i pīr and Its Role in the Central Asian Ismāʿīlī Tradition – Daniel Beben’s Presentation at MESA 2014 Conference in Washington, DC
- The Conversions of Hasan-i Sabbah – Shiraz Hajiani’s Presentation at MESA 2014 Conference in Washington, DC
- Realpolitik & Sectarian strife: A re-appraisal of Fatimid rule in Syria – Shainool Jiwa’s Presentation at MESA 2014 Conference, Washington, DC
- Esoteric Explorations of the Sharī‘a, the path to the Divine: A Fatimid Exposition – Nadia Eboo-Jamal’s Presentation at MESA 2014 Conference, Washington, DC
- A Newly Discovered Treatise from the Earliest Fatimid Period – Professor Paul E. Walker’s Presentation at MESA 2014 Conference, Washington, DC
- Event – November 22-25 | Washington DC: 2014 Annual Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Meeting with Ismaili Scholars
- Scholars from IIS, Harvard, and Indiana host panels on Ismaili History and Philosophy at MESA 2014
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- Event – October 16-17 | Chicago: First Ever “Ismaili Studies Conference” at University of Chicago
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