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Ismā'īlī Notes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

The importance of the oath in Ismā′īlism was recognized at an early date, and some of the earliest tracts against the sect devote several pages to the oaths demanded from new recruits. Of particular interest is a passage in a medieval Egyptian manual for secretaries, giving the formula of oaths to be sworn by Ismā′īlīs. The work, the Tā′rīf bi ′l–Muskdah ash–Sharīf, is administrative rather than theological in scope, and may, on the whole, be relied upon as giving the approved formula for the numerous Ismallls still to be found in the Mamlūk dominions. The author was the respected and well known chief Qādī Shihāb ad–Dān b. Fadl Allah al–Umarā. Qalqashandi quotes the passage, with some explanatory and critical notes, in his chapter on the Ismā′īlīs.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1948

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References

page 597 note 1 B.g. Baghdādī, Al–Farq bain al–Firaq, Cairo, 1928, p. 288; Maqrīzī, Al–Khitat, Cairo, A.H. 1270, i, p. 396; cf. S. de Sacy, Exposé de la Réligion des Druzes, Paris, 1838, I. cxxxviii; Ivanow, Creed of the Fātimids, Bombay, 1936, p. 14.

page 597 note 2 Cairo, A.H. 1312, p. 157.

page 597 note 3 Subh al–Ashā, Cairo, 1918, xiii, p. 246.

page 597 note 4 T. has

page 597 note 5 Maimun al–Qaddāh, one of the founders of the Ismāīlī sect.

page 597 note 6 Qalqashandī (pp. 240–1) explains that the Ismāīlīs regard these offences against the first two Fātimid Caliphs and the conqueror of Egypt as being among the most heinous of crimes.

page 597 note 7 The day of Ghadlr Khumm, says Qalqashandī (241), is one of their great festivals. It is a thicket between Mecca and Medina, three days from Al– Juhfa. The reason for their making it a festival is that they say the Prophet halted there one day and said to Ali: By God, whoever has me as his Master, has Alī as his Master! O God, be a friend to his friends, and a foe to his foes! Aid those who aid him, forsake those who forsake him! Cause the Truth to accompany him wherever he may dwell! This formula also occurs in the form of oath for Twelver Shiites. On the festival of Ghadlr Khumm among the Nusairis see B. Dussaud, Histoire et Réligion dea Noaairis, Paris, 1900, pp. 137 ff. and R. Strothmann, Festkalender der Nusairier", Der Islam, xxvii, pp. 54 ff.

page 598 note 1 A reference to the Nizārī claim that Nizār′s line escaped and continued in Persia. See Q. 228–9, and A. A. Fyzee, Al–Hīdayatul–Amirīya, Oxford, 1938, p. 23.

page 598 note 2 The famous eleventh–century Nīzarī leader, founder of the new Da′wa in the eastern provinces.

page 598 note 3 This Alā ad–Dīn is the son of Jalāl ad–Dīn al–Hasan, called Al–Kiya. He was of the line of the above mentioned Hasan ibn as–abbah he obtained control of the castle of Alamūt and became a chief of the Nizārīya. To renounce him is considered by them a great sin.Qalq. 244–5.

page 598 note 4 Head of the Ismāālās in Syria, resident in Masyāf, d. 1192. Cf. S. Guyard, Un Grand Maître des Assassins, JA., 1877. Qalq. observes (247) that the Ta′rīf is at fault here, as Rāshid ad–Dīn and the Syrian Ismāīlīs were Mustalian and not Nizārī. Qalq. is of course himself in error here.

page 598 note 5 i.e. the Mustaiians.

page 598 note 6 For the Mustalian version of these events see Fyzee, op. cit.

page 598 note 7 A Kurdish, SunnI wazīr of the Fātimids, who is considered partly responsible for the downfall of the dynasty. He was murdered in 548/1153. Qalq. (242) suggests that the person disavowed by the Ismailis is not Ibn as–Sallar himself but his reprehensible stepson Ayyāsh, more usually referred to as Abbās. He further remarks, somewhat pertinently (247–8), that this and the following sentence should belong to the Mustalian rather than the common part of the oath, since the offences of Ibn as–Sallār and Saladin were committed against the Mustalian Caliphs, whom the Nizārīs in any case rejected.

page 598 note 8 Better known as Saladin

page 598 note 9 i.e. commit the impossible crime of approving the abolition of the Fātimid Caliphate and the restoration of Abbāsid suzerainty in Egypt.

page 599 note 1 The Risāla fī Kayfīyat ibtidā ad–da′wa al–Hādiya fī Jazīrat al–Hind, by Sayyidna Adam Safi ad–Din (d. 1621); v. Ivanow, A Guide to Ismaili Literature, p. 69.

page 599 note 2 Dewan Bahadur Jhaveri, K. M., ‘A Legendary History of the Bohoras”, JBBSAS., 1933, pp. 37 ff.Google Scholar

page 599 note 3 Levy, R., ”The Account of the Isma′ili Doctrines in the Jāmi al–Tawarikh of Rashld al–Dln Fadlaflah”, JSAS., 1930, p. 522.Google Scholar

page 599 note 4 Goeje M. J. de, Mémoire sur les Carmathes, Leyden, 1886, p. 203

page 599 note 5 Iftitāh ad–Da′wa wa Ibtidā ad–Dawla. On this author and his work see Asaf A. A. Fyzee, Qadi an–Numan, the Fatimid jurist and author, JSAS., 1934, pp. 1 ff.Google Scholar

page 599 note 6 MS. in my possession. Quoted by Maqrīzi in Muqaffa, translated by H.Faguaji, La Biographie d′Obeyd Allah, Centenario di Michele Amari, II, pp. 35–86, Palermo, 1910.

page 599 note 7 Cf. M. Nazim, Mahmud of Ghazna, Cambridge, 1931, pp. 96 ff. On the recognition of the Fāiniids by rulers in India see Minorsky, Sharaf al–Zamān Tāhir Marvazī on China, the Turks, and India, 1942, pp. 48 and 148 ff.

page 600 note 1 Al–Farq bain al–Firaq, ed. Muhammad Badri, Cairo, 1328, p. 277. Translated by A. S. Halkin, Muslim Schisms and Sects, Tel Aviv, 1935, p. 130.

page 600 note 2 British Museum, Arabic MS. Add. 11,661, fol. 36.