Excerpt: But back to the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. Who are these Brethren? What exactly are their dates? Given the clear but widely inconsistent Shia leanings of the corpus, what is the precise nature of the authors’ ideological commitment? Are they Isma‘ili, as many people continue to believe? Or do they belong to some other Shia subsect? Or, else, are they just eclectic, espousing both Imami and Sufi ideas? Alas, none of these questions can be answered definitively — these questions have exercised many generations of scholars and continue to remain a matter for investigation, consultation, debate, and disagreement.
The authors of the Epistles, as I have already indicated, never reveal their identity; they constitute a secretive coterie, perhaps for good reasons. Regarding their time, all we can say with some degree of confidence is that their corpus was written by several generations of sages roughly between the first half of the ninth to the second half of the 10th century of our Common Era; and that they were centred in the city of Basra.
Click here to read COLUMN: In the Court of the Jinn: Animals vs. Humans – Magazine – DAWN.COM.
Related from the Ismailimail Archives:
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/tag/ikhwan-al-safa/
- On the Hidden Meaning of the Animal Fable in the Rasā’il Ikhwān al-Ṣafā
- Ikhwan al-Safa (Brethren of Purity) Wins 35th Iran National ‘Book of the Year’ Award
- The Ikhwan al-Safa was an intellectual catalyst in the development of the history of ideas
- Easy Nash: Mullings about recent Discoveries in the Cosmos as they pertain to Science and Religion in Islam
- Jesus, Christians and Christianity in the Thought of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ
- In the Court of the Jinn: Animals vs. Humans | Magazine – DAWN.COM
- A tenth-century Muslim brotherhood discussed the healing qualities of music
- Epistles of the Brethren of Purity Series – Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’
- Ikhwan al-Safaʾ (Brethren of Purity) – On Natural Sciences: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistles 15 & 21
- Abdullah Ibn Al Muqaffa: words of wisdom for the kings | GulfNews.com
- Latest Volume “On Music” in Epistles of the Brethren of Purity Series by Institute of Ismaili Studies and Oxford University Press
- Nāṣir-i-Khusrow and cosmic hierarchies in Ismā ‘ilism: translation of the 67th section of khwān al-ikhwān (the Feast of the Brethren)
- The 1000-year-old Muslim Perspective on Meat Eating | Religion Dispatches
- Book – On Music: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistle 5
- Ikhwan al-Safa’ (Brethren of Purity) – On Logic: Arabic and English translation of Epistles 10-14
- Book: The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn
- The Institute of Ismaili Studies – The Case of the Animals versus Man: A New Children’s Publication
- Paper on the Concept of Resurrection and the Hereafter in the thought of the Ikhwan al-Safa
- Introductory Volume on the Ikhwan al-Safa’
- Launch of The Ikhwan al Safa and their Rasa’il: An Introduction
- Ikwan al-Safa
- Epistles of the Brethren of Purity – The Ikhwan Al-Safa’ and Their Rasa’il: An Introduction
- Ikhwan al-Safa
- Director Institute of Ismaili Studies Professor Azim Nanji Speaks on Pluralism and its Contents
