Texts, scribes and transmission : manuscript cultures of the Ismaili communities and beyond

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 Shi'i 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 the 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 problems 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, the volume will be of interest to those working on textual scholarship, manuscript and literary cultures and Islamic studies. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Islamic Publications Ltd Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page The Institute of Ismaili Studies Contents Acknowledgements Note on Contributors Transliteration, Dates, and Abbreviations Introduction Wafi A. Momin NOTES SECTION I THE SHAPING OF A NEW FIELD 1 Ismaili Manuscripts and Modern Scholarship in Ismaili Studies Farhad Daftary Phase I: Orientalist Perspectives, 1810–1930 Phase II: Commencement of Modern Scholarship, 1931–1945 Phase III: Consolidation of Modern Scholarship, 1946–1977 Phase IV: Continuing Progress, 1977–Present NOTES 2 Husain Hamdani, Paul Kraus, and a Suitcase Full of Manuscripts François de Blois NOTES SECTION II RASĀIL IKHWĀN AL-SAFĀ, KITĀB AL-ZĪNA, AND THEIR MANUSCRIPT TRADITION 3 The Ikhwān al-safā’s Epistles on Logic in Some Manuscripts of the IIS Arabic Collection Carmela Baffioni Introduction MS 1040, MS 576, and MS 927 in the Catalogues Epistle ‘On the Isagoge’ Epistle ‘On the Categories’ Epistle ‘On the On Interpretation’ Epistle ‘On the Prior Analytics’ Epistle ‘On the Posterior Analytics’ A Special Omission Conclusion NOTES 4 The Missing Link? MS 1040: An Important Copy of the Rasāil Ikhwān al-Safā in the Collection of The Institute of Ismaili Studies* Omar Alí-de-Unzaga Description of IIS MS 1040 The Individual Epistles in MS 1040 Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Conclusion NOTES 5 The Manuscript Copies of Abū Hātim al-Rāzī’s Kitāb al-Zīna at The Institute of Ismaili Studies* Cornelius Berthold Introduction Abū Hātim al-Rāzī and his Kitāb al-Zīna Extant Manuscript Copies of the Kitāb al-Zīna A Comparison of Formal Features of the London Copies A Comparison of the Main Text in the London Copies Conclusion NOTES SECTION III EXPLORING TWO EARLY AYYIBĪ WORKS AND THEIR TRANSMISSION 6 The Majmū al-tarbiya between Text and Paratext: Exploring the Social History of a Community’s Reading Culture Delia Cortese A ayyibī Work, its Bohra Manuscripts and their Paratextual Apparatus Author or Compiler? Pedagogical Practices: Copying and Reading the MT Conclusions NOTES 7 Textual, Orthographic Variations and Scribes’ Annotations: A Possible Tool for the Transmission Analysis of the Text? Monica Scotti Manuscripts of the Mukhtasar al-usūl The Linguistic Idiosyncrasies Conclusion: Is the Collection of Such Data a Possible Tool for Understanding the Transmission of the Text? NOTES SECTION IV REVISITING NIZĀRĪ HISTORY OF ALAMŪT TIMES 8 Alamūt and Badakhshān: Newly Identified Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā Manuscripts and their Background Miklós Sárközy Part I: Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā and the Nizārī Historiography Introduction: Nizārī Ismaili Historical and Doctrinal Sources of the Alamūt Period Nizārī Ismaili Doctrinal Works of the Alamūt Period as Sources of Nizārī Ismaili History The Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā and Persian Historiography The Tehran Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā Part II: The Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā Manuscripts at The Institute of Ismaili Studies Assessment of Manuscripts 162 and 177 of the Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā A ‘New’ Group of Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā Copies and their Importance Time and Homeland of the New Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā Versions The Manuscripts Copyists The Titles Content The Badakhshāni Milieu and its Influences on Sargudhasht-i Sayyidnā Versions The Qāsim-Shāhī Renaissance and Badakhshānī Ismaili Literature Conclusion and Future Prospects NOTES 9 Ahd-i Sayyidnā, a Newly Discovered Treatise on the Consolidation of the Nizārī Dawa in Alamūt Karim Javan Introducing the Text Manuscripts of the Ahd-i Sayyidnā The Content of the Ahd-i Sayyidnā Authorship Reason for Writing the Risāla Variation in the Account in Manuscript Copies Conclusion NOTES 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 Qāimiyyāt of Hasan-i Mahmūd-i Kātib S. J. Badakhchani Contextualising the Haft Bāb and the Dīwān-i Qāimiyyāt Manuscripts of the Texts and their Editing Concluding Remarks NOTES SECTION V COMMUNAL SCRIPT, SCRIBAL ELITE, AND SATPANTH MANUSCRIPT CULTURE 11 Khwājah Sindhi (Khojki): Its Name, Manuscripts and Origin* From All Bar None: Recovering South Asian Islam From Sindhi to Khojki: The Evolution of a Name Ancient Manuscripts, Modern Neglect Pīr Sadr al-Dīn and Khwājah Sindhi: From Attribution to Tradition Afterword: Questions and Conundrums NOTES 12 A Forgotten Voice: The Agency of the Scribal and Literate Elite and the Satpanth Manuscript Culture Wafi A. Momin The Problem: Questioning an Image Probing a Silence: Locating the Satpanth Scribal and Literate Elite Fragments of a Forgotten Voice Concluding Observations NOTES SECTION VI IDENTITY, CULTURAL INTERACTIONS, AND ESOTERIC INTERPRETATION AMONG CENTRAL ASIAN ISMAILI COMMUNITIES 13 Ismaili–Sufi Relationships in the Light of the Nimat Allāhī Manuscripts in the Holdings of The Institute of Ismaili Studies* Orkhan Mir-Kasimov Doctrinal and Historical Links between Nimat Allāhīs and Ismailis Manuscripts of Works Attributed to Shāh Nimat Allāh Walī in the Collection of the IIS Poetry Doctrinal Works Conclusion NOTES 14 Poems of Allegiance: Shāh Diyāī-i Shughnānī’s Salām-nāma* Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev Introduction The Politics of Rule in Badakhshān in the 16th Century The Biography of Shāh Diyāī-i Shughnānī The Manuscripts of Salām-nāma The Salām-nāma: A Poem of Allegiance The Use of Qurān and Hadīth in Salām-nāma Expressing Devotion to the Imams Conclusion NOTES 15 The Sahīfat al-nāzirīn: Reflections on Authorship and Confessional Identity in a 15th-Century Central Asian Text* Daniel Beben The Historical Context: Ismailism in Badakhshān to the 15th Century The Sahīfat al-nāzirīn and its Manuscripts Sayyid Suhrāb Walī and the Sahīfat al-nāzirīn The Second Redaction Ghiyāth al-Dīn Alī Isfahānī On the Authorship of the Text Conclusion NOTES 16 The Seven Pillars of the Sharīa and the Question of Authority in Central Asian Ismaili Manuscripts: An Ismaili Esoteric Discourse Yahia Baiza Codicological Analysis The Concept of Tawīl in the Ismaili Esoteric Tradition 1. Testimony (shahādat) 2. Purification (tahārat) 3. Prayer (namāz) 4. Fasting (rūzah) 5. Alms (zakāt) 6. Pilgrimage (hajj) 7. Striving (jihād) Conclusion NOTES SECTION VII APPROACHING TEXTUAL TRANSMISSION THROUGH QURĀNIC MANUSCRIPTS AND HOLOGRAPH/AUTOGRAPH COPIES 17 Writing the Qurān between the Lines: Preliminary Remarks on Marginalia in the Qurān Manuscripts held by The Institute of Ismaili Studies* Asma Hilali Introduction Qurān Manuscripts at The Institute of Ismaili Studies Presentation of the Material Marginal and Interlinear Annotations and Contexts of Transmission NOTES 18 The Making of Holographs/Autographs: Case Studies from the Special Collections of The Institute of Ismaili Studies Walid Ghali Introduction The Manuscript Corpus at the IIS Holograph and its Terminologies Major Physical Characteristics The Private Live of the Holographs Text and Composition Conclusion NOTES List of Illustrations Index "The past few decades have seen a burgeoning of 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. But the intellectual and literary heritage of Ismaili communities, forming a major branch of Shi'i 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 the manuscript cultures nurtured by Ismaili communities until well after the widespread dissemination of printed books. The wide-ranging materials transmitted via these manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Indic languages also reflect the doctrinal and literary preoccupation of Muslims at large and of other groups from the societies where Ismailis lived. Hence, the manuscripts bear the imprint of their respective cultural contexts, namely a number of regions from the Near East, Central and South Asia. As well as engaging with multifaceted problems 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, script, religious identity and interactions of ideas across ideological denominations. With contributions from both seasoned and younger scholars, the volume will be of interest to those working on textual scholarship, manuscript and literary cultures, and Islamic studies."-- Provided by publisher