I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
Few doctrines in Islam have engendered as much contention and disagreement as those surrounding the imamate, the office of supreme leader of the Muslim community after the death of the Prophet. In the medieval period while the caliphate still existed, rivalry among the claimants to that most lofty position was particularly intense. The early 5th/11th-century Ismaili da'i Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani worked for most of his life in the eastern lands of the Islamic world, principally within the hostile domain of the Abbasid caliphs and the Buyid amirs.At a critical point he was summoned by the da'wa to Egypt where he taught and wrote for several years before returning once again to Iran and Iraq. About 405/1015, just prior to his move from Iraq to Cairo, he composed a treatise he called Lights to Illuminate the Proof of the Imamate (al-Masabih fi ithbat al-imama) in the bold hope of convincing Fakhr al-Mulk, the Shi'i wazir of the Buyids in Baghdad, to abandon the Abbasids and support the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim. For that purpose he produced a long, interconnected series of philosophically sophisticated proofs, all leading logically to the absolute necessity of the imamate.
This work is thus unique both in the precision of its doctrine and in the historical circumstance surrounding its composition. The text appears here in a modern critical edition of the Arabic original with a complete translation, introduction and notes.
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70
master
of
the
age
because
God
singled
it
out
with
a
superior
excellence.
Examples
include
the
following:
for
the
various
kinds
of
minerals,
the
ultimates
are,
for
those
that
melt
and
can
be
forged,
gold,
and
for
those
that
are
stone
that
neither
melt
nor
are
forged,
the
ruby.
Among
the
various
species
of
plants,
the
ultimates
are,
for
edible
grains,
wheat,
and
for
those
that
produce
fruit,
the
date
palm.
The
human
being
is
a
spe-
cies
of
animal
and
it
is
likewise
necessary
that
they,
too,
have
an
end,
ultimately,
in
what
is
nobler
than
the
rest
and
more
knowledgeable
than
all
of
them.
He
is
their
chief
because
of
God’s
singling
him
out
with
superior
excellence,
just
as
is
the
case
with
every
other
species.
That
person,
who
is
the
ultimate,
is
he
whom
God
inspires
with
what
He
reveals
to
him
and
the
inspired
person
is
the
messenger.
Thus,
the
prophetic
office
is
essential.
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-title
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Translation of al-Maṣābīḥ fī ithbāt al-imāma: Lights to Illuminate the Proof of the Imamate
- Part One: The Proof of the Premises
- Part Two: The Proof of the Imamate
- Bibliography
- English Index
- List of Tables and Plates
- Tables and Plates
- Arabic Text
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