Sound Traditions: Studies in Ismaili Texts and Thought

Ismail K. Poonawala is Emeritus Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research mainly focuses on Ismaili manuscript tradition, history and doctrine.Kumail Rajani is a postdoctoral research fellow in Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. His research focuses mainly on Shiʿi history, law and literature.

• ForewordPrefacepart 1: Ismaʿili Sources and Authorship1 Ismaʿili Sources for the History of South-West Arabia2 Ismaʿili Manuscripts from Yemen3 Anonymous Works and Their Ascription to Famous Authors: Are They Cases of Mistaken Identity or an Outright Forgery?4 The Contribution of Ismaʿili Colophons to the Discussion on the Birth and Construction of the Arabic Manuscript Tradition5 Discovery of the Kitāb al-asrār Ascribed to the First Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Mahdī: Its Ramificationspart 2: Ismaʿili Rational Discourses (al-maʿqūlāt)6 Why We Need an Arabic Critical Edition with an Annotated English Translation of the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ7 Wealth and Poverty in the Qur’an and Traditions of the Prophet, and How Those Concepts are Reflected in the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ8 Humanism in Ismaʿili Thought: The Case of the Rasāʾil ikhwān al-ṣafāʾ (The Epistles of the Sincere Brethren and Faithful Friends)9 An Early Doctrinal Controversy in the Iranian School of Ismaʿili Thought and Its Implications10 An Ismaʿili Treatise on the Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān11 Al-Sijistānī and His Kitāb al-Maqālīd al-Malakūtiyyapart 3: Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān and Ismaʿili Transmitted Knowledge (al-manqūlāt)12 Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Works and the Sources13 A Reconsideration of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Madhhab14 The Chronology of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Works15 Sources for al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Works and Their Authenticity16 The Beginning of the Ismaʿili Daʿwa and the Establishment of the Fatimid Dynasty as Commemorated by al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān17 Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān and Ismaʿili Jurisprudence18 The Evolution of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Theory of Ismaʿili Jurisprudence as Reflected in the Chronology of His Works on Jurisprudence19 Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān and His Refutation of Ibn QutaybaCopyright AcknowledgmentsBibliographyIndex of Qurʾanic ReferencesGeneral Index