A Code of Conduct: A Treatise on the Etiquette of the Fatimid Ismaili Mission 9780755607778, 9781780761268

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The Institute of Ismaili Studies

The Institute of Ismaili Studies was established in 1977 with the object of promoting scholarship and learning on Islam, in the historical as well as contemporary contexts, and a better understanding of its relationship with other societies and faiths. The Institute’s programmes encourage a perspective which is not confined to the theological and religious heritage of Islam, but seeks to explore the relationship of religious ideas to broader dimensions of society and culture. The programmes thus encourage an interdisciplinary approach to the materials of Islamic history and thought. Particular attention is also given to issues of modernity that arise as Muslims seek to relate their heritage to the contemporary situation. Within the Islamic tradition, the Institute’s programmes promote research on those areas which have, to date, received relatively little attention from scholars. These include the intellectual and literary expressions of Shi‘ism in general, and Ismailism in particular. In the context of Islamic societies, the Institute’s programmes are informed by the full range and diversity of cultures in which Islam is practised today, from the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and Africa to the industrialised societies of the West, thus taking into consideration the variety of contexts which shape the ideals, beliefs and practices of the faith. These objectives are realised through concrete programmes and activities organised and implemented by various departments of the Institute. The Institute also collaborates periodically, on a programmespecific basis, with other institutions of learning in the United Kingdom and abroad.

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The Institute’s academic publications fall into a number of interrelated categories: 1. Occasional papers or essays addressing broad themes of the relationship between religion and society, with special reference to Islam. 2. Monographs exploring specific aspects of Islamic faith and culture, or the contributions of individual Muslim thinkers or writers. 3. Editions or translations of significant primary or secondary texts. 4. Translations of poetic or literary texts which illustrate the rich heritage of spiritual, devotional and symbolic expressions in Muslim history. 5. Works on Ismaili history and thought, and the relationship of the Ismailis to other traditions, communities and schools of thought in Islam. 6. Proceedings of conferences and seminars sponsored by the Institute. 7. Bibliographical works and catalogues which document manuscripts, printed texts and other source materials. This book falls into category three listed above. In facilitating these and other publications, the Institute’s sole aim is to encourage original research and analysis of relevant issues. While every effort is made to ensure that the publications are of a high academic standard, there is naturally bound to be a diversity of views, ideas and interpretations. As such, the opinions expressed in these publications must be understood as belonging to their authors alone.

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Acknowledgements

A long time has passed since my first encounter with the Risāla al-mūjaza fī ādāb al-duʿāt, written by the Ismaili author Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Naysābūrī. It was in the 1980s that I first read about this work and its surviving manuscripts in Ismail K. Poonawala’s Biobibliography of Ismāʿīlī Literature. While working in Tübingen, Germany, on my doctoral thesis – about the sīra of the Ismaili dāʿī al-Muʾayyad fī’l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī – the civil war in Lebanon was raging. Despite the political turmoil, Professor Wadad al-Qadi brought me the microfilm of a manuscript held at the Library of the American University in Beirut. The manuscript was a copy of the second volume of the compilation Kitāb al-azhār written by Ḥasan b. Nūḥ al-Bharūchī and it contained the above-mentioned treatise of al-Naysābūrī. Al-Naysābūrī’s Risāla turned out to be a decisive hermeneutical key for my analysis of the sīra. In fact, it became clear that, in the description of his work, al-Muʾayyad to a large extent followed the norms and ideals presented by al-Naysābūrī in his Risāla – a work written specifically for the Fatimid dāʿīs. As a consequence, a facsimile of the Beirut manuscript of al-Naysābūrī’s Risāla was added as an appendix to my doctoral thesis (Frankfurt am Main, 1989). In 2003, the thesis was published as a revised edition in English by The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) as part of its Ismaili Heritage Series. Here, the appendix included a summary of al-Naysābūrī’s remarks on the hierarchy and pedagogy of the Fatimid daʿwa. Subsequently, Dr Farhad Daftary, Head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications at the Institute, suggested I write a critical edition of al-Naysābūrī’s Risāla. Several trips to Beirut and The Institute of Ismaili Studies in London followed, in order to study known manuscripts of this text and select the relevant material. Unfortunately, the manuscript of the Risāla in the possession of Abbas Hamdani, which became part of The Institute of Ismaili Studiesʾ collection only in 2008 (see François de Blois, Arabic, Persian and Gujarati Manuscripts: The Hamdani Collection in the Library of The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2011), could not be taken into account for the present edition. xi

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Preparing this edition has been a commitment for several years. In this extended period of time dedicated to the Risāla, there have been many who contributed to its completion in a number of ways. I owe a great debt of gratitude to all of them. First of all, I would like to thank Dr Susanne Karam (Jeddah). Her excellent work and her dedication have been indispensable for this publication. As a doctoral student at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Leipzig, Germany, she prepared the first digital version of this edition under my supervision, as well as the first version of a critical apparatus. Her work gives evidence of her precision, as well as her patience with and enthusiasm for the material. For several terms, Susanne and I offered courses for a group of students of Arabic Studies, exemplifying basic principles of editorial work with the help of al-Naysābūrī’s Risāla. Reading the text and analysing it, alongside vivid discussions, we studied its intertextual complexity with regard to the Qurʾān and ḥadīth. It was again Susanne who traced back a number of references in al-Naysābūrī’s Risāla to ḥadīth and other kinds of text. Second, my appreciation and gratitude go to Professor Wadad al-Qadi. Due to her efforts and help this unique but hitherto unknown work of al-Naysābūrī became accessible to academia. I am grateful to Dr Farhad Daftary, now Co-Director at the IIS, who has encouraged me to prepare this edition and has provided me with four manuscripts from the collections of The Institute of Ismaili Studies with the kind assistance of Alnoor Merchant, the Institute’s Head Librarian. At this point of completing the English edition of the Risāla, it is a pleasure to acknowledge Professor Paul Walker, who produced a precise and formidable translation of this treatise in collaboration with Susanne Karam and myself. As one of the world’s most knowledgeable specialists in Ismaili sources, he also enriched our Introduction with his research on dating the Risāla. I also thank Dr Arzina R. Lalani at The Institute of Ismaili Studies with whom I had a number of stimulating and fruitful discussions on al-Naysābūrī and his work. She was so kind as to make parts of her introduction on the Kitāb ithbāt al-imāma of al-Naysābūrī available to me, which was subsequently published by the IIS as Degrees of Excellence: A Fatimid Treatise on Leadership in Islam (2010). Last but not least, my gratitude goes to Hamid Haji for his meticulous attention in reviewing the Arabic edition and in preparing the index of the Qurʾānic citations, and to Fayaz S. Alibhai and the editorial team at The Institute of Ismaili Studies for their knowledgeable and accurate editorial supervision. Verena Klemm Leipzig

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Introduction

Context, author and work There is no doubt that the Ismaili daʿwa is a complex and crucial aspect of Ismaili studies. The term daʿwa comes from daʿwat al-ḥaqq, ‘call to truth’; hence, it constitutes an appeal and encouragement to adhere to the Ismaili faith. It is an encompassing and multi-faceted term that is applicable to both the historical and religious characteristics of the movement. Historically, daʿwa constitutes the fascinating phenomenon of Ismaili propaganda, summons or calling, and religious instruction that accompanied the initial Ismaili mission. Daʿwa, comprised of multifarious subgroups that developed out of the heterodox Shiʿi milieu in 8th-century Iraq, can be considered the central vehicle for Ismaili political expansion and success. The strategy of the daʿwa proved to be effective, and led ultimately to the apogee of Ismaili political power: the Fatimid state, which was established as a counter-caliphate in the year 297/909. For three centuries, this unprecedented triumph over the Abbasid caliphate split the political and religious realm of the Islamic world into a Sunni and a Shiʿi-Ismaili sphere. At the same time, the term daʿwa also refers to the subject matter of this call, that is, Ismaili religious and philosophical teaching. As such, the term can be used interchangeably with the term dīn.1 Moreover, it is a religio-political institution. Historically, the institutional daʿwa features a multi-level hierarchy which is derived from, and reflects, the Neoplatonic structured spiritual cosmos of Ismaili religious thought.2 Various ranks of dāʿīs (pl. duʿāt) . Marius Canard, ‘Daʿwa’, in EI2, vol. 2, pp. 168–170 (on the polyvalence of the term within the Ismailiyya, see p. 170); Wladimir Ivanow, ‘The Organization of the Fatimid Propaganda’, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, NS, 15 (1939), pp. 18ff. also calls attention to this and other aspects of the broader term. . See Abbas Hamdani, ‘Evolution of the Organisational Structure of the Fāṭimī Da‘wah. The Yemeni and Persian Contribution’, Arabian Studies, 3 (1976), pp. 85–114.

1

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are arrayed between the religio-political leadership of the imam and the ordinary believer; at the top the imam himself is represented by a chief dāʿī, who is followed by several dāʿīs of varying ranks, down to initiated adepts. Both ideally and in historical reality, dāʿīs function as religious agents and intermediaries between the spiritual and terrestrial spheres. They are ‘summoners’, constituting a hierarchy of spiritual guides, preachers and missionaries who utter the ‘call to truth’ (daʿwat al-ḥaqq). Furthermore, they are responsible for the leadership, instruction and spiritual and social care for the Ismaili community, as well as for the conversion and initiation of new believers. The organisation of the daʿwa as an institution has continued to serve as a central structural element throughout the history of Ismaili communities. The complex religio-philosophical elaboration of the religious ranks of the daʿwa (ḥudūd al-dīn) reached its apogee with Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī’s (d. after 411/1021) treatise Rāḥat al-ʿaql.3 The theoretical ranks of daʿwa that he elaborated there in a Neoplatonic way were only partially reflected in historical reality.4 Yet, even after the decline of the Fatimid dynasty, Ismaili groups, as minorities on the periphery of Islamic ecumenism, were able to preserve their religious and social order according to the Fatimid example. To this day, this holds true both for the Nizārī Ismailis as well as the Ṭayyibī Mustaʿ līs, who, as former adherentsʾ and vassals of the Fatimid state, were able to preserve their religious heritage and literature in Yemen. Bohra Ismailis, predominantly those settled in India, still transmit the text presented here, which dates from the time of the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh (386–411/996–1021) and have, thereby, secured its survival. This treatise is a key work on the Ismaili daʿwa and remains relevant within the Bohra community, which is currently guided by the dāʿī muṭlaq. Even in the 20th century handwritten copies were still produced. This present work constitutes a critical edition of the Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt (A Brief and Concise Treatise on the Code of Conduct for the Dāʿīs), which was written by the Ismaili author Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Naysābūrī (5th/11th century). It is sometimes also referred to as Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī shurūṭ al-daʿwa al-hādiya

. Paul E. Walker, Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī: Ismaili Thought in the Age of al-Ḥākim (London, 1999) and Farhad Daftary, Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and Studies (London and New York, 2004), pp. 124–128. . Ivanow, ‘Organization’, pp. 9–11.

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(A Brief and Concise Treatise on the Requisites of the Rightly-Guiding Mission). The versatile author of this work is known to us especially for his historically orientated work Istitār al-imām wa tafarruq al-duʿāt fi’ljazāʾir li-ṭalabihi (Book of the Imam’s Concealment and the Dispersal of Dāʿīs in Search of Him to Different ‘Islands’)5 which pertains to the preFatimid period, as well as for his philosophical-theological treatise Ithbāt al-imāma (Proof of the Imamate). The Risāla al-mūjaza constitutes the only extant work in Ismaili literature that tackles a specific aspect of the daʿwa: a normative guideline for Ismaili dāʿīs. This guideline communicates to target groups the ideals practised by the daʿwa. The text thus mirrors the knowledge, the inner attitude and the deeds of dāʿīs in action. Fluctuating between spiritual and worldly spheres, it is marked by both dimensions. In addition to the basic theological principles of the daʿwa, various religious and social aspects of a dāʿī’s practical work are elucidated. Even though its historical background is no more than implied, we do gain insights in terms of the historicity of the daʿwa and their functioning agents, the dāʿīs. An earlier study has already shown that the famous dāʿī of a slightly later period, al-Muʾayyad fi’l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, who came from and worked in Iran before later fleeing to Cairo, distinguished himself in his Sīra as an example of the ideals described in the Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt. Hence, the Risāla al-mūjaza appears as a subtext of al-Muʾayyad’s memoir.6 Various studies have attempted to outline Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Naysābūrī’s life and work.7 Most recently, Arzina Lalani has tried to explain the historical and intellectual backdrop of his work in the introduction to her edition and translation of his Kitāb ithbāt al-imāma.8 . Wladimir Ivanow, Ismaili Tradition Concerning the Rise of the Fatimids (London, 1942) pp. 157–183. The text was edited by Ivanow and jointly published with the Sīrat Jaʿfar al-Ḥājib in Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts, Egyptian University, 4 (1936), pp. 89–133. . Verena Klemm, Memoirs of a Mission: The Ismaili Scholar, Statesman and Poet al-Muʾayyad fī’l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (London, 2003); the earlier German version of this book referred to a facsimile of the manuscript MS 292.822: B151 kA at the American University of Beirut; see Die Mission des fāṭimidischen Agenten al-Muʾayyad fī d-dīn in Šīrāz (Frankfurt am Main, 1989), Appendix II. . The latest is Daftary, Ismaili Literature, pp. 140ff. . Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Naysābūrī, Kitāb ithbāt al-imāma, ed. and tr. Arzina R. Lalani as Degrees of Excellence: A Fatimid Treatise on Leadership in Islam (London, 2009); see also Arzina Lalani, ‘Al-Naysaburi, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim’,

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Hence, in the present introduction, I intend to address the life and work of this author only briefly, before turning towards the Risāla al-mūjaza and its critical edition. There are no specific dates or information about the life of Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Naysābūrī. His nisba indicates that his native town was Naysābūr in the north-eastern province of Khurāsān of present-day Iran, once an ancient centre of Ismaili activity. Like his contemporary Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī, and al-Muʾayyad fi’l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī a few decades later,9 he travelled from Iran to Cairo in order to fill a position, presumably of high rank, within the institutional daʿwa at the court of the imam-caliph. It is estimated that he served at the court during the reigns of the Imam-Caliphs al-ʿAzīz biʾllāh (365–386/975–996) and al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh (386–411/996–1021). Paul E. Walker assumes in his section at the end of this introduction that al-Naysābūrī held a high and respected status within the central daʿwa of the capital city, at least during certain periods of al-Ḥākim’s reign. Walker’s analysis suggests that the Risāla al-mūjaza was written between 404/1013–1014 and the beginning of 406/1015. According to him, both this work and the Ithbāt al-imāma indicate the author’s loyalty to this ruler, and his defence of the imam-caliph’s legitimacy during the politically unstable periods of Druze uprisings. However, the Ithbāt al-imāma, probably written only a few years after the Risāla al-mūjaza, is not an account of uprisings and their historical backdrop; rather, it constitutes a philosophical justification, Aristotelian in orientation, of the imamate as the foundation of religion and spiritual guidance.10 A further work by al-Naysābūrī, the Istitār al-imām wa tafarruq al-duʿāt li-ṭalabihi, is equally uninformative about the author’s life. Yet this work is generally considered a significant and unique historical source for the early Ismaili period, as it delineates the dramatic events between Salamiyya, the headquarters of the pre-Fatimid daʿwa, and the establishment of Fatimid rule in North Africa that marked ʿAbd Allāh al-Mahdī’s establishment of the Fatimid caliphate in 297/909. In her introduction, Lalani refers to two further works of al-Naysābūrī: an eschatological treatise called al-Risāla al-Zāhira Dictionary of Islamic Philosophers, ed. Oliver Leaman (London and New York, 2006), vol 2. pp. 158–160. . Presumably around 437 or 438/1045–1048 during the reign of al-Mustanṣir bi’llāh. See Klemm, Memoirs of a Mission, p. 69. . Lalani, Degrees of Excellence, pp. 7ff.

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fī maʿrifat al-dār al-ākhīra (The Resplendent Treatise on the Recognition of the Abode of the Hereafter), as well as a theologicallycoloured Kitāb al-tawḥīd (The Book of Unity), mentioned in the Ithbāt al-imāma. The former seems to be no longer extant, but the latter may have survived.11

Transmission of the Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt The Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt was transmitted in two of the most well-known anthologies of the Ṭayyibī daʿwa: one by the Yemeni author and dāʿī Ḥātim b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī (d. 596/1199), and the other by the Ṭayyibī Bohra author Ḥasan b. Nūḥ al-Bharūchī (d.  939/1533). Al-Ḥāmidī appended the Risāla to his anthology, the Tuḥfat al-qulūb wa furjat al-makrūb; unfortunately, however, he omitted the introductory ‘long commentary’ (sharḥ ṭawīl) (§1). Similarly, al-Bharūchī included this same shortened version of the Risāla al-mūjaza in the second volume of a seven-volume compilation, the Kitāb al-azhār wa majmaʿ al-anwār al-malqūṭa min basātīn al-asrār majāmiʿ al-fawākih al-rūḥāniyya waʾl-thimār.12 Thus, there remains no complete version of the Risāla al-mūjaza preserved that includes its introduction. The extent of its transmission in manuscript form is addressed in a separate section below. A full edition of the Risāla al-mūjaza has not previously been undertaken. A manuscript copy of the text taken from the Kitāb al-azhār has been published as a facsimile13 and has been partially summarised and translated,14 but the Risāla in its entirety has also not been previously translated. An English paraphrase was edited in 1920,15 which Wladimir Ivanow severely criticised as being . Recent research no longer considers the eschatological work to be that of al-Naysābūrī. I thank Arzina Lalani for this information. . On this work see Ismail K. Poonawala, Biobibliography of Ismā‘īlī Literature (Malibu, CA, 1977), pp. 179–183 and Daftary, Ismaili Literature, p. 110. . Klemm, Die Mission des fāṭimidischen Agenten, pp. 205–277. . Klemm, Memoirs of a Mission, Appendix II ‘The Hierarchy and Pedagogy of the Fatimid daʿwa’, pp. 113–127. See also Heinz Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning (London, 1997), pp. 62–70. . Gulzare Daudi for the Bohras of India: A Short Note on the Bohras of India, their 21 Imams and 51 Dais, with their Customs and Tenets, compiled and published by Mian Bhai Mulla Abul Husain (Ahmedabad, 1920).

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erroneous. Ivanow went on to publish a paraphrase translation of his own.16 The latter version was also abridged and newly rearranged, since he considered the original text as being not only full of repetition but also ‘somewhat chaotically’ assembled.17 His translation was preceded by the translation of a short chapter on the virtues of the dāʿī taken from Kitāb al-himma fī ādāb atbāʿ al- aʾimma (The Book of Etiquette Necessary for the Followers of the Imam)18 and authored by al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān (d. 363/974).19 The chapter in it entitled Dhikr mā yanbaghī an yastʿamilahu al-duʿāt ilāʼl-aʾimma ṣalawāt Allāh ʿalayhim fī duʿāʾihim ilayhim (Disquisition on what the dāʿīs are supposed to apply in their summoning on behalf of the imams) as well as the Risāla al-mūjaza written several decades later, are the only known and preserved Ismaili texts that address the dāʿīs’ code of conduct. Despite a great disparity in the breadth of elaboration, both texts are dedicated to the promotion of the ideals and duties that accompany the profession of a dāʿī. Each enlists a catalogue of ethical principles and virtues as well precise instructions for their behaviour and duties, particularly towards members of the community and novices under their supervision. In both works, the intent of the instructions is to promote and stabilise the dāʿī’s influence and authority in his congregation. This constitutes an important requisite for maintaining the inner order of the daʿwa and preventing disintegration in the religious, political and social spheres of the Ismaili system.

. Ivanow, ‘The Organization of the Fatimid Propaganda’, pp. 18–35. . Ibid., p. 19. . Edited by Muḥammad Kāmil Ḥusayn (Cairo, 1948). The 15th chapter, entitled Dhikr mā yanbaghī an yastʿamilahu al-duʿāt ilā’l-a’imma (ṣalawāt Allāh ʿalayhim fī du‘ā’ihim ilayhim), is found on pp. 136–140; Ivanow’s argument is found in his ‘The Organization of the Fatimid Propaganda’, pp. 15–17. S. M. Stern criticises Ivanow’s translation for being ‘full of mistakes’: see ‘Cairo as the Centre of the Ismā‘ īlī Movement’, reprinted in his Studies in Early Ismāʿīlism (Jerusalem and Leiden, 1983), p. 250, n. 29. . Daftary, Ismaili Literature, pp. 142–146. See also Sumaiya A. Hamdani, Between Revolution and State: The Path to Fatimid Statehood (London, 2006), pp. 113–130.

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Literary tradition The genre of adab al-dāʿī (Etiquette of the Summoner) is sparse and barely elaborated on. There may be an obvious correlation between the relevant chapter of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Kitāb al-himma and al-Naysābūrī’s Risāla al-mūjaza; nonetheless, it is difficult to tell whether the book by al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān, that distinguished scholar and jurist, whose progeny filled the position of the chief judge and chief dāʿī during the reign of al-Ḥākim until the year 398/1008,20 served as a direct source. Certainly, al-Naysābūrī was familiar with the great Qāḍī’s works, including the epochal Daʿāʾim al-Islām, which laid down the formulation and religious foundation of the Ismaili system of law. Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān was also key to the religio-political definition of the Fatimid imamate as it developed during this period. Even though a direct textual transmission is not explicit, one can certainly denote al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s short elaboration of the dāʿīs’ duties as the initial source which al-Naysābūrī drew upon, in order to build his more systematic and detailed treatise. If one compares the two texts there are several examples of common terminology. One such linguistic similarity is the frequent recurrence of the central phrase wa yanbaghī liʾl-dāʿī (the dāʿī must …/it is the duty of the dāʿī …). Juxtaposed with the brief history of the genre of adab al-dāʿī within Ismaili literature is the explicit and implicit intertextual relationship of the Risāla al-mūjaza with other works and genres. For one, we have to stress the various explicit references to religiously authoritative texts of the Islamic tradition. First among them is, of course, the Qurʾān. In the beginning of the Risāla al-mūjaza (§1–12), al-Naysābūrī derives the religious foundation and legitimisation for the daʿwa and the position of a dāʿī by applying the method of allegorical exegesis (taʾwīl) to the Qurʾān, and in the same vein refers to Qurʾānic verses all throughout the treatise in order to prove religiously the necessity of the daʿwa. Just as frequently, he makes use of quotes from the Prophet and his sonin-law, the first Shiʿi imam, ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. These references bear witness to al-Naysābūrī’s deep roots in the tradition of authoritative texts, which is shared by all Muslims and which is exemplified by Sunni and Shiʿi ḥadīth compilations. In the case of this text, constantly recurring . Daftary, Ismaili Literature, pp. 142–146; Heinz Halm, Die Kalifen von Kairo. Die Fatimiden in Ägypten 973–1074 (Munich, 2003) pp. 242–251, and Paul E. Walker, Exploring an Islamic Empire: Fatimid History and its Sources (London, 2002) pp. 42ff.

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references to traditions of the Shiʿi Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq attest to an exclusively Shiʿi tradition that is adopted by al-Naysābūrī and to which he applies the method of taʾwīl, for the sake of the Ismaili daʿwa. However, beyond the tight network of the Islamic religious texts, the Risāla al-mūjaza is also linked to other literary genres. Obviously, there is a connection with the so-called ‘professional adab’ literature, a subcategory of adab literature that had educational and entertainment purposes for upper classes and was prevalent in classical Islamic culture. Professional adab literature exclusively addresses groups belonging to certain occupations, such as secretaries (kuttāb), qāḍīs, or scholars (ʿulamāʾ), and instructs them in specific ethical principles and codes of conduct. Works of this kind, being highly specialised and addressed to limited circles, were frequently composed commencing in the early Abbasid period, in the second half of the 8th century.21 Apparently, our author, writing in the Fatimid daʿwa headquarters in Cairo, used this genre because he considered it suitable for instructing and counselling Ismaili dāʿīs at home and abroad. In terms of its content, the Risāla al-mūjaza can be linked to yet another literary genre which is also considered a subcategory of adab literature: the Mirror of Princes, which is transmitted in various forms and is often referred to as Naṣīḥat al-mulūk (Advice for Kings). The history of Mirror of Princes literature goes back to pre-Islamic Persia. During the Islamic period it was especially, albeit not exclusively, popular among authors of Persian origin. Its addressees were usually rulers, princes, statesmen and others occupying political positions of high rank who were taught therein the religious and ethical principles of rightly guided, responsible and devout behaviour. Practical and pragmatic execution of these ethics in state politics and in the governance (siyāsa) of subordinates was also a part of the guidance. Thus, the Mirror of Princes literature encompassed ethical, philosophical and practical aspects. They display the ideal and practice of rulership in Islamic life and society.

. On professional adab literature see Heribert Horst ‘Bildungs- und Unterhaltungsliteratur’, in Helmut Gätje, ed., Grundriss der arabischen Philologie, vol. II: Literaturwissenschaft (Wiesbaden, 1987), pp. 212–215; Julia Bray, ‘Arabic Literature’, in The New Cambridge History of Islam, vol. 4: Islamic Cultures and Societies to the End of the Eighteenth Century, ed. Robert Irwin (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 383–413 (in particular pp. 384–38 on adab al-kātib).

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The first known Mirror of Princes work in Arabic-Islamic literature was written during the reign of the Umayyads. In the early Abbasid period, it becomes more obvious that materials from the Mirror of Princes of Persian tradition had entered Islamic culture. It reached its first apogee with the famous book al-Adab al-kabīr by the Persian author ʿAbd Allāh Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (d. 137/755).22 Thereafter, themes and motives of the Mirror of Princes literature became pervasive and developed into varying literary forms, such as the risāla and the waṣīya (political testament). Already in the second half of the 4th/10th century, the Mirror of Princes constituted a well-defined genre. Many of the concepts contained therein – such as the reason for, and understanding of, rulership – had acquired an Islamic colouring. Alongside these characteristics, this literary genre also retains concepts of Persian traditions of kingship and government, thematic elements of the middle Persian Pand nāmak (Book of Counsels), as well as Hellenistic traditions that entered Sassanian, as well as Islamic, culture through translation.23 It is commonly known that these sources provided an inspirational impulse in diverse fields of scholarship and literature.24 Particularly for the religio-philosophic tradition of the Ismailis, the strong influence of Iranian culture is well attested, and has often been analysed. Outstanding scholars and authors such as Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, Muḥammad al-Nasafī, Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī and Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī brought with them their Neoplatonic Iranian heritage, which subsequently became closely intertwined with Ismaili Shiʿi

. Horst, ‘Bildungs- und Unterhaltungsliteratur’, p. 209; C. E. Bosworth, ‘Mirror of Princes’, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (London and New York, 1998), vol. 2, pp. 527ff; and Bray (2010), p. 386 and p. 402. . C.E. Bosworth, ‘Naṣīḥat al-mulūk’, EI2, vol. 7, pp. 984–988. S. Leder, ‘Aspekte arabischer und persischer Fürstenspiegel. Legitimation, Fürstenethik, politische Vernunft’, in Hallesche Beiträge zur Orientwissenschaft, ed. Walter Beltz and Sebastian Günther, 25 (1998), pp. 126ff.; C.E. Bosworth. ‘An Early Arabic Mirror for Princes: Ṭāhir Dhū l-Yamīnain’s Epistle to his son ʿAbdallāh (206/821)’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 29 (1970), pp. 25ff. . Dimitri Guttas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ‘Abbāsid Society (2nd-4th/8th – 10th centuries) (New York, 1998).

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traditions.25 It could be said that it is self-evident that in the work of a literarily so versatile an author such as al-Naysābūrī, the extensive literary heritage of his Iranian homeland would leave its mark. Even though they show no direct relation to the Risāla al-mūjaza, there are three other Arabic Mirrors of Princes texts which were written in geographical and contemporary proximity to al-Naysābūrī. The first of these is a famous and widely spread political testament (waṣīya) written by the Abbasid governor Ṭāhir b. Ḥusayn (who lived in Naysābūr from 205/821)26 for his son, ʿAbd Allāh (d. 230/844)27 around the time the caliph al-Maʾmūn ordered the latter to rule the region between southern Anatolia and Egypt in 206/821–822. The second significant example of the Persian Mirror of Princes composed by a contemporary of al-Naysābūrī is a treatise called Kitāb fī’l-siyāsa (On Right Governance) by an author of possible Persian descent, al-Wazīr al-Maghribī (d. 418/1027), who dedicated his work to the Mesopotamian prince Naṣr al-Dawla Aḥmad b. Marwān.28 Al-Maghribī was a high-ranking official under al-Ḥākim until he was forced to flee. He also most certainly knew al-Naysābūrī personally. Although he was a contemporary, al-Maghribī in fact wrote his treatise years after leaving Egypt for the east in late 400/1010 so the Kitāb fī’l-siyāsa probably was not available to al-Naysābūrī. However, there are great similarities with the Risāla al-mūjaza in terms of themes and motives. Finally, al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān incorporated a section of naṣīḥat al-mulūk in his Daʿāʾim al-Islām, . Farhad Daftary, A Short History of the Ismailis: Traditions of a Muslim Community (Edinburgh, 1998), pp. 81–89; and his ‘Intellectual Life among the Ismailis: An Overview’, in F. Daftary, ed., Intellectual Traditions in Islam (London, 2000) pp. 95–98. 6. It was in Naysābūr, founded by the Sassanian king Shāpūr I, that the relatively autonomous rule of the Ṭāhirids was established, covering an area from Rayy to the Indian border. . Ṭāhir b. al-Ḥusayn, Risāla ilā ibnihi ʿAbdallāh, in al-Ṭabarī, Ta’rīkh al-rusul wa’l-mulūk, ed. M.J. de Goeje et al. (Leiden, 1879-1901), vol. 2, pp. 1046–1062. English trans., C.E. Bosworth, ‘An Early Arabic Mirror for Princes’, pp. 25–41. See Leder, ‘Aspekte arabischer und persischer Fürstenspiegel’, pp. 128ff. . Abu’l-Qāsim al-Wazīr al-Maghribī,’ Kitāb fī’l-siyāsa, ed. Sāmī al-Dahhān (Damascus, 1367/1948). See Leder, ‘Aspekte arabischer und persischer Fürstenspiegel, pp. 142ff. See also P. Smoor, ‘al-Maghribī’, EI2, vol.  5, pp. 1210–1212.

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where it can be found in the chapter ‘Kitāb al-jihād’.29 These mostly ethical, but also practical, counsels are (written) in an elaborate, sometimes rhymed prose style (saj‘). They are intended for commanders (umarā’ ) and rulers (wulāt) and give advice on how these persons should comport themselves, not only in cases of conflict and war, but in a broad understanding of government, e.g. towards different groups of subjects and subordinates.30 It seems rather likely that al-Naysābūrī was influenced by the literary tradition of the Mirror of Princes, which had begun to be more and more popular and widespread in his time. The similarities indicate that al-Naysābūrī’s treatise belongs to a network of interrelated literary traditions. A consideration of such intertextuality adds several additional layers and dimensions to the Risāla al-mūjaza, which otherwise remains almost isolated in its unique role within Ismaili literature. To al-Naysābūrī, the dāʿī is endowed with an authority and responsibility to such a degree that he is only exceeded by the imam-caliph. Especially in regard to the ethical conduct and governance (siyāsa) of subordinates within any region of the daʿwa (jazīra) that the dāʿī is responsible for, al-Naysābūrī seems to have drawn from themes of the Mirror of Princes. Alongside ʿilm (knowledge), he defines taqwā (fear of God, piety) and siyāsa as the two main fields of the daʿwa (§13) and dedicates large portions of the Risāla al-mūjaza to these themes. Interaction with, and attitudes towards, subordinates is addressed, as well as the management of the dāʿīs’ private home, including its personnel. Further . Daʿāʾim al-Islām, ed. A.A.A. Fyzee (Cairo, 1963), vol. 1, pp. 359–377. English trans., The Pillars of Islam, tr. A.A.A. Fyzee, completely revised by I.K. Poonawala (New Delhi, 2002–2004), vol. 1, pp. 422–494. . For an abridged English translation see Gerald G. Salinger, ‘A Muslim Mirror for Princes’, Muslim World, 46 (1956), pp. 24–39. According to al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān, the document (al-ʿahd) has been transmitted from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. As Salinger states, a slightly differing version can be found in Nahj al-balāgha compiled by Sharīf al-Rāḍī (359/970–406/1016). See also Sumaiya A. Hamdani, Between Revolution and State (London, 2006), pp.  125–130. According to Hamdani, the political manual reflects the real – socio-political – as well as the ideal shape of Fatimid rule in al-Muʿizz’s time. Wadad al-Qadi, ‘An Early Fāṭimid Political Document’, Studia Islamica, 48 (1978), pp. 71–108, considers the document ‘as the first political constitution of the Fatimid state after its final establishment as Dawla’ (p. 104).

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elements of its contents that might echo the tradition of the Mirror of Princes are the dāʿīs’ traits of character and lifestyle, both of which require a broad spectrum of virtues. Many of the listed qualifications are consistent with common topoi of those characteristics in the Mirror of Princes: the ideal characteristics of a ruler – such as piety, chastity, uprightness, mercy, forgiveness, humbleness and generosity. The social functions of a dāʿī also mirror the traditionally described duties of a responsible ruler: he has to maintain the community, protect the weak, fight and punish crime, corruption and disintegration. However, al-Naysābūrī always sets these requirements, and his advice, in the context of the Ismaili daʿwa and explains their reason and value thereof.

Reflections of history and intertextuality Various details in the Risāla al-mūjaza emphasize that Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Naysābūrī was a professional servant of the daʿwa, and had the authority not only to give a survey of the entire system but also to offer specific insights into the daily challenges and problems that a dāʿī had to face in the daʿwa enclaves outside the Fatimid empire. Hence, the Risāla al-mūjaza has to be considered a unique source for the organisational and practical aspects of the Ismaili daʿwa. Al-Naysābūrī’s meticulous instruction concerning the gradual education and initiation of adepts, as well as their concluding pledge (ʿahd) (§75–77), is especially valuable for historians. The same holds true for the institution of Ismaili sessions (majālis, sing. majlis) led by the dāʿī for the pious and novices, as well as for various social and pedagogical tasks and responsibilities in the community.31 However, when reading the Risāla al-mūjaza historically, one must bear in mind that the author does not explicitly function as a contemporary or eyewitness, as he is not directly voicing his personal experiences. Rather, his own perspective is for the most part intertwined with reflections that have a systematic and idealised intention.32 Such reflections define the daʿwa as central to the rules and standards of the Fatimid state system and thereby elevate the dāʿī to the position of a role model. . See Heinz Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning, pp.  17–29, and his ‘The Ismaʿili Oath of Allegiance (ʿahd) and the Sessions of Wisdom (majālis al-ḥikma) in Fatimid Times’, in F. Daftary, ed., Mediaeval Ismaʿili History and Thought (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 91–115. . Cf. Leder, ʽAspekte arabischer und persischer Fürstenspiegel’, p. 127.

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The  most noble and important scope of his duties is to maintain the cohesion of the community, in addition to the education of novices. Hence, the practice-oriented, historical dimension of the text is clearly focused on guaranteeing the preservation and continuity of the Ismaili community. In any historical analysis the ideological scope of the text has to be taken into account. The fact that the work is embedded in a wider literary tradition gives an additional dimension to the Risāla al-mūjaza. As shown, al-Naysābūrī’s catalogue of the dāʿī’s ideal traits and attributes stands in the tradition of the Mirror of the Princes, which has the ethical and political ideals of Islamic rulership as its main theme. Al-Naysābūrī repeatedly recalls the motives and topoi of this tradition, but sets them in the context of the Ismaili daʿwa. At the same time, the author makes use of the professional adab literature, which is already implied in the title Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt. To invoke such a renowned genre, which is exclusively reserved for respectable and influential professions, doubtless grants authority and dignity to the Risāla al-mūjaza. The generic intertextuality thematically and conceptually intensifies the strong relation to a chapter on the adab of the dāʿī in al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s Kitāb alhimma. Therefore, both texts are tightly interrelated: Even though we do not know with certainty if al-Naysābūrī actually used his predecessor’s work, we can observe that both treatises were dedicated to the special requirements of this profession based on wider Islamic and specifically Ismaili notions. Hence, both texts belong to a common Ismaili tradition. In the light of its literary references, al-Naysābūrī’s treatise appears as a fascinating testimony to a broad network that crossed over various frames of time and space, and within which influences from different genres, texts, and motives are solidified. This suggests also that the Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt should not be interpreted as merely a direct or unidimensional reflection of the historic reality of the daʿwa and its ideals. When studying it, one should always bear in mind these intertextual dimensions and literary qualities.

Structure, contents and style In his Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt, al-Naysābūrī addresses religious, political, and social aspects of a Fatimid dāʿī’s work. The intended audience are the dāʿīs from the bāb to the mukāsir (§112), that is, from the chief dāʿī in Cairo (bāb) to the entire trained missionary

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force operating in inimical foreign lands who are appointed to lead the Ismaili community and, under difficult and dangerous circumstances, to ‘crush’ other religious persuasions (mukāsir). Al-Naysābūrī’s primary goal was a concise and clear instruction for the dāʿīs (cf. §113) without giving too much consideration to literary style or the form of presentation. Thus, for his explanations, he chose a form of continuous, unstructured treatise with an inner build-up and organisation that is not easily accessible to its readers. Much of the subject matter of the Risāla al-mūjaza is found in different passages scattered throughout the text. Hence, the Risāla al-mūjaza at times appears repetitious, and even redundant. The style of writing is correct in terms of grammar. However, it sometimes reveals the influence of Middle Arabic, as in a missing congruence in the gender of subject and verb in the third person singular. To the author, an explicit justification of the rules and principles he had put down in writing seemed to be more important than a clearly outlined and structured form and an exalted style. In order to strengthen this justification, he not only refers to the Qurʾān but also to the Prophet and his ancestors from the Old Testament, Noah and Moses, as well as the early Shiʿi Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, whose statements he quotes and interprets. In order to enhance the persuasive power of his explanations for those he addresses, he insistently, and at times meticulously, outlines the negative, or even disastrous, consequence for the religious and social continuity of the Ismaili community if these rules and principles are not observed. In light of this background, the organisation of the Risāla al-mūjaza is as follows: §1 Introduction by Ḥātim b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī §2–12: Religious foundation and legitimation of the daʿwa and the profession of the dāʿī §2 The most exalted and sublime position of the daʿwa §3 Dāʿīs in the nations of the past §4 Dāʿīs to the truth and dāʿīs who lost their way §5 Sincere and insincere reasons to enter into religion §6–12 Conditions of God’s summons to creatures and taʾwīl §13–32: The basis of the qualifications for the daʿwa rest on knowledge, God-fearing piety and governance: §14–16 Knowledge, divided into two parts: knowledge of the external and knowledge of the internal; the five divisions of external knowledge §17 Inner knowledge breaks down into many types:

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§18 Sensate knowledge §19 Cognitive and imagined knowledge §20 Intellectual knowledge §21–22 Stages and apprehension of inner knowledge §23–25 Interpretation and comprehension of sciences §26 God-fearing piety §27 Governance, divided into three grades: governance of the individual, of the household and of the community: §28 Governance of the individual §29 Governance of the household §30–31 Governance of the community and of subordinated dāʿīs §32 Further explanation and clarification of the general qualifications of the dāʿī and what might happen if he does not keep to the conditions that have been mentioned §33–111 Catalogue of qualifications, virtues, and duties of the dāʿīs and their explanation: §33 Virtues of the dāʿī, who should possess all of the virtues that are found separately among the rest of the people (enumeration) §34 What happens if these qualifications are not truly in the dāʿī §35–74 Continuation: Qualifications, virtues, duties of the daʿwa and their explanation (enumeration) §75–78 Selection and education of the novices and the covenant §79 Continuation: virtues of the dāʿī §80–87 Religious sessions (majālis) for believers and the novices, selection of novices from among the believers, moral education, rules for education §88–94 Household and servants of the dāʿī §95–99 Governance of the congregation and of the session for the believers, the skills that are necessary for the dāʿī §100–101 Emissaries, visitors, messengers §102 Continuation: virtues of the dāʿī §103–105 Administration of the daʿwa, responsibilities towards the imam §106–111 Cohesion and solidarity in the congregation, obedience, loyalty and disloyalty towards the imam, rebellion and punishment §112–113 End of the Risāla al-mūjaza: §112 Personal closing remarks to the addressees of the Risāla al-mūjaza, appeal to put all stipulations into effect, warning §113 Explanation for the shortness of the treatise, summary, concluding religious formula.

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The present edition of the Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt is based on manuscripts of the two anthologies that transmit the text, by Ḥātim b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī and Ḥasan b. Nūḥ al-Bharūchī, as previously mentioned. Altogether five manuscripts were selected. a. Kitāb Tuḥfat al-qulūb wa furjat al-makrūb by Ḥātim b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī (d. 596/1199) The Tuḥfat al-qulūb is an anthology of religious literature written by the Yemeni dāʿī Ḥātim b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī. It was partially compiled from Fatimid-Egyptian as well as Ṭayyibī-Yemeni sources. Among other things, the book addresses the hierarchy of the Ismaili daʿwa, both in heaven and on earth. According to the compiler, the introduction of the Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt has been abridged. The remaining part was, however, transmitted in its entirety in the anthology (§1).33 The Tuḥfat al-qulūb is preserved in several manuscripts, three of which are held in the collection of The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) in London.34 All three have been used for the present edition. These manuscripts come from the early holdings of the Chhotu Lakhani Collection (MS 717) as well as from the Ismaili Society (MS 219, MS 220), transferred to the IIS in the early 1980s. Copies of these manuscripts, listed below, were provided by the IIS. There are no further manuscripts named in Poonawala’s Biobibliography. Unfortunately, another manuscript of this text, which is part of the collection of Abbas Hamdani, was not accessible to us.35 . Ismail K. Poonawala, Biobibliography of Ismāʿīlī Literature (Malibu, CA, 1977), p. 153. Al-Majdū’, Fahrasat al-kutub wa’l-rasā’il, ed. ʽAlīnaqī Munzawī (Tehran, 1344/1966), pp. 261ff., gives an elaborate synopsis of this piece. Abbas Hamdani, ‘The Dāʿī Ḥātim Ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī (d. 596 H/1199 AD) and his Book Tuḥfat al-Qulūb’, Oriens, 23–24 (1970–1971), pp. 258–300, sets both the author and his book in the context of Yemeni daʿwa in the 6th/12th century. . See Adam Gacek, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of The Institute of Ismaili Studies (London, 1984), vol. 1, pp. 133ff. . Poonawala, Biobibliography, p. 153; Hamdani, The Dāʿī Ḥātim Ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī’, p. 298, refers to a forthcoming edition, based on manuscripts of the Tuḥfat al-qulūb, in his possession. Now see F. de Blois, Arabic, Persian and

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Manuscript T1 (Collection of the IIS, MS 717)36 The oldest known manuscript of the IIS’s collection was copied in Bandar, Mumbai, in the month of Rabīʿ I 1280/July–August 1863. The copyist was ʿAbd al-Qādir who was a contemporary of the dāʿī ʿAbd al-Qādir Najm al-Dīn. The manuscript was copied with utmost accuracy. The text is encircled with a threefold embellishment and collated on the edge. The Risāla starts on folio 10 and ends on folio 15b. Manuscript T2 (Collection of the IIS, MS 219)37 This manuscript was copied by Ghālib ʿAlī Ḥusayn Muḥsin al-Jabalī in the month of Ramaḍān 1350/January 1932. It was read in front of Shaykh ʿĪsā al-Qāḍī. The edge displays various comments and corrections. Manuscript T3 (Collection of the IIS, MS 220)38 The manuscript MS 220 was copied in the same year as T2 in the month of Shawwāl/February. The colophon identifies ʿAlī ibn Ḥammūd ibn Ṣāliḥ Saʿīd Shubayl al-Hamdānī as the copyist, following the dictation of al-Shaykh ʿĪsā-bhāʿī. There is reason to suspect that this Shaykh is identical with the one mentioned in the colophon of T2.

b. Kitāb al-azhār wa majmaʿ al-anwār al-malqūṭa min basātīn al-asrār majāmiʿ al-fawākih al-rūḥāniyya waʾl-thimār of Ḥasan b. Nūḥ al-Bharūchī (d. 939/1533) The Kitāb al-azhār is an anthology of Ismaili literature in seven volumes. It encompasses various religious and historical writings of the Fatimid and Ṭayyibī traditions, either in their entirety or in part.39

Gujarati Manuscripts: The Hamdani Collection in the Library of The Institute of Ismaili Studies (London, 2011). . Gacek, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts, vol. 1, p. 133. . Gacek, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts, vol. 1, p. 134. . Ibid., p. 134. . Poonawala, Biobibliography, pp. 179–183; Delia Cortese, Ismaili and other Arabic Manuscripts: A Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of The Institute of Ismaili Studies (London and New York, 2000), pp. 9–14.

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The second volume contains excerpts from Ḥātim b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī’s Tuḥfat al-qulūb about the duʿāt in Yemen during the reign of the Imam-Caliph al-Mustanṣir biʾllāh, including a copy of the Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt.40 Subsequent to these passages, the Kitāb al-azhār contains the Qaṣīda al-tisʿuniyya fī ithbāt mawlānā al-imām al-Ṭayyib of ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Qurashī,41 which constitutes the ‘seal’42 of this volume. Various volumes of this collected edition, including the aforementioned second volume, are preserved in a number of more recent manuscripts.43 Manuscript A1 (Collection of the American University of Beirut, MS 292.822: B151 kA) In April 2005, I studied a two-volume manuscript of the second part of the Kitāb al-azhār in the collection of the American University of Beirut.44 The two volumes were copied by at least five different copyists. Both volumes are bound of layers of paper, similar to packaging paper, each of which diverge in colour. The paper structure of individual sheets ranges from thin and smooth, to rough and uneven. At the opening and the end of the first volume, the paper bears a watermark reading ‘Howard & Jones London’. The first part is closed with a colophon, according to which this copy of the manuscript was finalised by ʿAbdallāh Daʿūdjī b. Jalāl Sālzadhūrājī on 9 Ramaḍān AH 1324/September 1906.45 Some sheets of the second volume bear the watermark ‘Borling & Gregor London 1863’. However, the date is not completely legible and could also be ‘1865’. Following some majālis of Abu’l-Barakāt Bišr b. . Summary of the second volume in Majdūʿ, Fahrasat, pp. 79ff. . Poonawala, Biobibliography, p. 139. . al-Majdūʿ, Fahrasat, p. 79. . Poonawala, Biobibliography, pp. 183. Poonawala refers to the oldest manuscript as dating from 1140/1727–1728. Most of the manuscripts date from the first decades of the 20th century. For further copies see Cortese, Ismaili and Other Arabic Manuscripts, pp. 10–14. . See Yūsuf Q. Khūrī, al-Makhṭūṭāt al-ʿArabiyya al-mawjūda fī maktabat al-Jāmiʿa al-Amrīkiya fī Bayrūt, (Beirut, 1985), pp. 53ff. This manuscript is referred to in Poonawala, Biobibliography, p. 183; for facsimile edition see Klemm, Die Mission, pp. 205–277. . Cf. Khūrī, al-Makhṭūṭāt al-ʿArabiyya, p. 184.

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al-Ḥalabī,46 the Risāla starts on folio 50b on a layer of smooth paper without watermark. Folio 82b is not inscribed. The text is resumed without discontinuance on folio 83a and ends on folio 85a. Hence, the Risāla encompasses a total of 34 folios. The edge of the text is collated with pencil. The second volume of the manuscript does not bear a colophon. Manuscript A2 (Collection of the IIS, MS 938) This manuscript of the second volume of the Kitab al-azhār is from the holdings of the collection of the IIS and bears the signature MS 938.47 In 1328/1911, it was copied by ḤasanʿAlī b. Rasīlbhāʿī in Mahūʿ. The manuscript encompasses 111 folios and is collated. All the five present manuscripts were copied with the utmost accuracy. Collations as well as the methods of reading (T2) and of dictation (T3) give reason to suspect that the Bohra community in India applied classical Islamic modes of transmission in reproducing and transmitting the Risāla al-mūjaza up to the 20th century. This fact stresses the high religious significance of the Risāla. Given the careful transmission of the text which came along with its collation and correction, it is no surprise that all five manuscripts are in close agreement with each other. There are only a few variations that occur in the context of set phrases such as eulogies and introductions to Qurʾānic verses. It is significant that the Risāla al-mūjaza which is contained in the Kitāb al-azhār commences with the same introductory phrases, the incipit, as the Tuḥfat al-qulūb. This incipit states that the lengthy introduction of al-Naysābūrī’s text was abridged. Consequently, the version of Tuḥfat al-qulūb was linearly or directly copied in the Kitāb al-azhār. Therefore, the text preserved in the anthology Tuḥfat al-qulūb is the only remaining version of the original Risāla. The linear tradition of al-Naysābūrī’s Risāla al-mūjaza can be represented in the following diagram:

. Poonawala, Biobibliography, p. 128. . See Cortese, Ismaili and Other Arabic Manuscripts, pp. 10ff. There is no reference made to this manuscript in Poonawala, Biobibliography.

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A Code of Conduct (4th/10th century) Original text (lost)

(6th/12th century) Tuḥfat al-qulūb

(T-Tradition)

(10th/16th century) Kitāb al-azhār

(A-Tradition)

As stated above, the present edition is not based on one complete surviving manuscript, but on five manuscripts that constitute two distinct traditions of transmitting one single version of the Risāla, which I have labelled T-tradition and A-tradition. The linear circumstances of transmission, as well as the relatively large number of rather recent manuscripts of the collected editions of the Tuḥfat al-qulūb and the Kitāb al-azhār, render a critical method of editing that aims at the reconstruction of the lost original text ahistorical. Hence, an attempt to reconstruct the original version according to the author’s intention is substituted with the representation of the text in authorised variants. A text is considered as legitimately authorised if the direct involvement of a scholar or authority, who controls the copying of the text in the framework of the Islamic teaching tradition, is verified. With regard to the present five manuscripts, a religious scholar’s authorisation, or at least involvement, is proven through reference to a shaykh’s listening to the scholar’s reading of the text (T2), through the copy of a dictation (T3) as well as through collations (T1, A1, A2) on the edge of the text. The authorised transmission which is implemented in both text strands (A-tradition and T-tradition) displays hardly any deviations. This gives reason to suspect that the present manuscripts are in very close agreement with the original version, or at least with the version of the Risāla that was compiled and copied by the 12th-century scholar Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī, about 150 years after al-Naysābūrī’s version.

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Hence, in the light of the findings presented above, it appears inappropriate to aim at an edition which takes all these surviving manuscripts into account. Specifically, we intend to critically delineate the documentation of the text in both of the parallel strands of transmission, A and T. This documentation may constitute a foundation for a scholarly analysis of the unique Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt. Due to its age and the accuracy of its copy, T1 was chosen as the leading manuscript for the present work, and so the main text in both the Arabic edition and the English translation refers to this manuscript. However, the notes to the text examine variants with other manuscripts. In particular, T1 is compared with the oldest manuscript of the Kitāb al-azhār, A1, as these two text versions (T1 and A1) are given priority within the process of developing this edition. Based on the A1 text, certain orthographic mistakes in T1 have been corrected. The following gives a more detailed account of the principles applied in this edition: a. Deviations from T1 in A1 were recorded as text variants in these cases: – All deviations from T1 in A1, except from minor and obvious scribal errors. – Repeated deviations from T1 in A1 in the introduction of Qurʾānic citations and in eulogies. b. Deviations from T1 in A2, T2 and T3 were recorded as text variants in these cases: – In cases of major deviations such as the omission and addition of text, or the employment of diverging words (nouns, verbs). – If they give a diverging meaning or in cases of doubt (e.g. prepositions min instead of ʿan). – Deviations in the introduction of Qurʾānic citations and eulogies were recorded only in cases when it implies a new meaning. c. In cases where A2, T2 and T3 support variants in A1 or T1, they are furthermore recorded in the footnotes. d. No references to A1, A2, T1, T2, T3 were made in the footnotes in case of: – Obvious orthographical errors, incorrect grammar or Middle Arabic grammar (i.e. disagreement of the genus from verb and subject in the third form singular and plural). Only where all five manuscripts have the same mistake is it corrected in the text and the mistake mentioned in a footnote. – Diverging diction of hamza, alif maksūra, ta marbūta, etc.

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In stating the degrees of correlation and agreement between the manuscripts, T1 is obviously very close to T2, followed by an obvious relationship between A1 and A2, as illustrated below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

T1 – T2 A1 – A2 T1 – T2 – T3 A1 – T2 T1 – A1

This listing also indicates that the greatest divergence is between T1 and A1. The manuscripts within the A-tradition closely resemble each other. Similarly, those within the T-tradition resemble each other. Thus, the manuscripts of the A-tradition as well as those of the T-tradition are of greater similarity within their respective group (T or A) than among the two traditions. This indicates that, in spite of the high degree of agreement, both strands represent two different lines of transmission.

Format of the Arabic edition The original Arabic text constitutes a continuous body of text, without obvious structuring. In the present edition, the text is arranged in paragraphs. We made the decision not to introduce a chapter-based structure due to numerous recurrences and overlapping contents. The paragraphs correspond with the English translation. Orthography has been modernised according to modern standard Arabic usage (addition of alif maqṣūra, alif madda, shadda, hamza, etc.). Recurring grammatical mistakes such as absent assimilation of verb and subject (e.g. ya/ta-prefixes of masculine and feminine verbs in their imperfect form) have been corrected without further notice, as long as at least one manuscript conveyed the correct form. If all manuscripts display the error, it has been recorded in footnotes. Difficult readings are facilitated by the addition of vocalisation. Eulogies in praise of God, the Prophet, or the imams are fully given (ta-ʿain=taʿalā; ʿain-sin: ʿalayhi al-salām). With regard to references, footnotes indicate Qurʾānic citations and ḥadīths. The reference to any particular text does not state that the author directly cited it, but rather that we were able to identify quotations using electronic means.

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The date of the Risāla al-mūjaza by Paul E.Walker Al-Naysābūrī wrote a number of treatises, of which only three have come down to us. One, the Istitār al-imām, concerns events in the early history of the Ismaili daʿwa that were long past by the author’s time.48 Unfortunately, nothing in the text provides an indication of exactly when that might have been. By contrast the other two works, his treatise on the imamate, Ithbāt al-imāma (Proof of the Imamate), and the Risāla, neither of which is dated explicitly, each contain bits of information that suggest, fairly precisely in the former case, the period during which it was composed. Near the beginning of his Ithbāt al-imāma,49 in the traditional section of benedictions for the Prophet and the imams, and al-Ḥākim in particular as the living Ismaili imam, al-Naysābūrī adds to these a telling note calling for such blessing to apply also to ‘the heir apparent, the successor to the Commander of the Believers’ (walī ʿahd al-muslimīn wa khalīfat amīr al-muʾminīn). That phrase can only refer to the cousin of al-Ḥākim, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Ilyās, who was proclaimed heir apparent in 404/1013, and the titles for which office he continued to hold until his death in 411/1021, shortly after the end of al-Ḥākim’s reign. This formula became a standard phrase added to all public documents including coins over the whole of this same period, strongly suggesting that al-Naysābūrī’s Proof of the Imamate was a treatise written while that declaration was in effect, and it therefore must date to this very period.50 . Ed. W. Ivanow in Majallat kulliyat al-ādāb of the Egyptian University 4 (1936), pp. 93–107; Eng. trans. by Ivanow in Rise of the Fatimids (London, 1942), pp. 157–183. . Ed. with Eng. trans. by Arzina Lalani as Degrees of Excellence: A Fatimid Treatise on Leadership in Islam (London, 2010). . On this event and the role of the daʿwa during the reign of al-Ḥākim in general, see P. E. Walker, ‘The Ismaili Daʿwa in the Reign of the Fatimid Caliph al-Ḥākim,’ Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 30 (1993), pp. 161– 182, and Walker, ‘ ‘In Praise of al-Ḥākim’: Greek Elements in Ismaili Writings on the Imamate’, in Emma Gannagé et al., ed. The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought: Proceedings of the Conference at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 16–27 June 2003 (special issue of Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph),

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It probably falls, moreover, in the years between 408/1017 and 411/1021, at the close of the period. Near the conclusion of al-Naysābūrī’s laudatory account of the imam’s achievements, which concludes this treatise, he hints at another, secondary motive that may have caused him to write it. Despite all his fine and glorious traits, al-Ḥākim was, as several contemporary witnesses admit, unusual in his manner of rule. To judge him and his actions by the standard of human beings, al-Naysābūrī claims, can only lead to confusion. Those who view what he does in its true light will see, al-Naysābūrī says, that his commands and prohibitions, his giving and his taking away, are to be compared with divine acts, not with those of mere humans. Yet, he continues, many fail this test; they are thus perplexed by what they see or hear reported about the imam. The measure for human actions is simply not appropriate to him. But, also, some regard him with a tendency to exaggeration and then, moving in the opposite direction, claim that he is, in fact, divine. It is necessary to avoid both these extremes, al-Naysābūrī insists. For him to confess so openly that some followers of al-Ḥākim regarded his unusual behaviour as a sign of his divinity, matches what we know about various groups that eventually coalesced into the Druze. These groups first went public with their claim about his divinity in the year 408/1017. Al-Naysābūrī was evidently cautioning against them and what he considers to be heresy. But, for him even to mention that possibility, if only to reject it, means that it was already happening at the time he wrote. The fact that this one treatise of al-Naysābūrī can be dated to the final years of al-Ḥākim’s reign suggests that the author’s status within the daʿwa was especially high during this period, which allowed him the authority to compose an extravagant defence of the imam and his rule. The Risāla in the form it has come down to us, unfortunately, contains no specific information that is quite so datable. Perhaps if its later Yemeni redactor had not seen fit to leave out the author’s introduction, that section would have named the imam under which it was written. He did not, and thus we lack the formulaic benedictions that would have inevitably preceded the portion we now have. Nevertheless there are some hints in the text, particularly phrases near the end that seem to

57 (2004), pp. 367–392. Both articles appear also in his Fatimid History and Ismaili Doctrine (Aldershot, 2008). Now also see Paul E. Walker’s Caliph of Cairo: Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, 996–1021 (Cairo and New York, 2009).

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confess to trouble and turmoil in the daʿwa, and those offer some sound evidence for a date. As he closes the treatise, al-Naysābūrī declares that, The heart of the imam is preoccupied with what … happens to his community. He becomes impatient with them …, he turns away and becomes angry.... Yet each day they increase their corruption and thus add to the chastisement in store for them. That becomes like the corruption that we are seeing at the present moment. We ask God for mercy and compassion, and that He grant us repentance …, and bring an end to actions like these, and remorse on our part for what we did earlier. Perhaps God will incline the heart of the imam to feel compassion for his servants, restore them and show mercy and that he forgive us for what we did before which required this punishment by locking the door to repentance.51

Obviously the imam is angry with his own followers who have done something ‘which required this punishment by locking the door to repentance’. The author’s tone is quite specific; he surely speaks of events that are either happening as he writes, have occurred recently, or possibly even both. That the imam might express anger and displeasure with his daʿwa and its dāʿīs could have transpired on many occasions; but, given the date already determined for al-Naysābūrī’s Ithbāt al-imāma, which indicates when its author was most active, the condition of the daʿwa and its history during the same period is most likely the time of the ‘corruption [of] … the present moment’, when ‘the door to repentance’ was locked and the adherents of the daʿwa excluded from the imam’s mercy. A condition of that kind would explain the reasons for the author’s forlorn wish for forgiveness. There are, moreover, additional details in the final paragraphs of the Risāla that appear to allude to serious issues that had arisen at the highest levels of the administration of the daʿwa, particularly in relationship to the governance of the Fatimid state as a whole. The concluding section of the work, which otherwise for the most part appears to convey rules for the comportment of the dāʿīs and the daʿwa at large and in general, begins to focus more narrowly on those few of such a lofty rank as to be directly in contact with the imam, that is, the leading dāʿīs who hold offices close to him, most certainly to include the head of the daʿwa, . §111.

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the dāʿī al-duʿāt. Note that here the imam is alternately referred as to the imam and as the ‘Commander of the Believers’ (amīr al-muʾminīn), a title normally reserved for the caliph, which must therefore mean al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh. For the present purpose the essential passages are the following: The dāʿī must see to the affairs of the daʿwa and its proper administration, thereby relieving the imam of that obligation, for the imam has appointed him to manage the daʿwa and maintain the welfare of the various regions.…52 The dāʿī is … responsible for the management of all the business of the daʿwa, its administration and that of the various provinces…. It is responsibility of the imam to provide him with knowledge and funds. Thus the dāʿī is responsible for its repair and the amelioration of all corruption, trouble, the perversion of doctrine, doubt about religion, going astray, insurrection, and rebellion that happens in the daʿwa. If he fails in that out of willfulness, or lack of effort on his part, carelessness, inattentiveness, or incapacity, he is the one who is accountable for that and for the consequences of it. When God questions the imam about things connected to the affairs of his community and his safeguarding and care for them, the imam will ask him [the dāʿī], for the imam made that his responsibility. He is the one answerable for it, and it was up to him to arrange matters in that regard. If he was unable, it was up to him to make his inability known to the imam and to beg forgiveness for that, so that he could appoint someone else to take care of it.53

**** The dāʿī ought to educate the believers properly so that they do not become, due to their neediness, a burden on the presence of the Commander of the Believers. If great harm does befall them, they may, at the proper time, in the correct manner and through the right channels, and on the measure of what they require, seek help from him. But they should not take advantage of the imam’s funds or seek more than that.… The dāʿī will urge them to be pleased and content with the actions of the imam, and with his orders, prohibitions and rulings. They will not object to any part of that but rather know that all of it is in conformity with a vast wisdom. If they do not . §103. . §104.

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comprehend that at the time, they will come to understand the wisdom in it later. Because they understand that the imam is the wisest man in his time, it is essential that they know that all he does is done wisely, even though they may not perceive exactly how it is wise. It is like that with the actions of the imam.54 The dāʿī should prepare and exhort the believers for service in an office or as an emissary if one of them is called upon to do so, either in a religious matter or one of the state, and urge them to carry out such duties in good faith, offer sound advice and sympathy, cautioning them against disloyalty, neglect, indolence, and cowardliness.55 A dāʿī should know that the kingdom is the protector of the faith; the kingdom of the imam is built on religion. If the affairs of both the religion and the daʿwa are in proper order and well maintained, the kingdom will run properly and without disorder. All of the populace will be servants of the imam, whether in his presence or in other regions; they become like his army, supporters and well-wishers, none able to betray or rebel against him. But should all the people become his adversaries, his enemies, and opponents and, if there are defects in the religion and the dāʿī is unable or is remiss in dealing with the governing of the religion and managing it, perhaps because he is himself ignorant or impious, or incompetent and unsound and untrustworthy, he will ruin the beliefs of the believers. They will apostatise and chaos will reign. They will fall into the hands of the materialist or the agnostics and libertarians. They will become sceptical of religion and sick at heart, falling into antagonism, quarrelling, fighting and treating each other treacherously, lying to one another in disloyalty and greed and usurping the rights of others, some of them against the rest. Thus harm comes to both the religion and the kingdom, the provinces fall into ruin and the people become enemies of one another. Security, decency, piety, life, honour and chivalry cease. The people revert to their animal natures, becoming like savage beasts, some attacking others. The heart of the imam is preoccupied with what then happens to his community. He becomes impatient with them and, despairing of them and of the faith and those who adhere to it, he turns away and becomes angry with them. The evil misfortune of rebellion and the wrath of the imam will hit them, his mercy having disappeared. Yet

. §108. . §109.

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A Code of Conduct each day they increase their corruption and thus add to the chastisement in store for them. That becomes like the corruption that we are seeing at the present moment.56

The conditions that have alarmed al-Naysābūrī so profoundly possess at least two features, both causing the imam to express outwardly his anger: one seems to imply the failure of the dāʿī (here surely he meant the chief dāʿī) to perform his duties successfully, and, second, the closing of the majālis al-ḥikma (Sessions of Wisdom), which were the regular weekly sessions of instruction for the Ismailis. In regard to the latter condition, we know of three occasions during the reign of al-Ḥākim when such an event took place. From the year 396 or early 397/1006, prior to cancelling the cursing of the salaf,57 which this  caliph first ordered in 395/1004–1005 and then rescinded in 397/1007, al-Ḥākim sharply rebuked his own followers. Al-Maqrīzī, the principal source for this information, does not say much.58 Although during the course of the following year, 398/1007–1008, the imam removed the head of his judiciary, who also was the chief dāʿī, the dāʿī al-duʿāt, from office, there appears to be no connection with that later event and the closing of the majālis a year or more earlier. Nevertheless, two years afterward, in the midst of a policy shift, another closure took place. Numerous edicts about religious policy were issued at the time, generally but not consistently, in favour of Sunni practices, and among them was one in 400/1009, ‘cancelling the collection by the qāḍī/dāʿī of the khums, the fiṭra, and the najwā’59 – dues customarily paid by the Ismailis. Another, at the same time, ordered the ‘cessation of the majālis al-ḥikma, which were ordinarily read to the Faithful each Thursday and Friday.’60 But some five months later, perhaps slightly less, in 401/1010–1011, yet another decree ‘restored the majālis al-ḥikma and the collection of the najwā’.61 Shortly thereafter, a new edict again stressed that no one should object to whatever . §111. . ‘Salaf ’ here refers to those companions of the Prophet who refused to accept ʿAlī’s immediate succession. . Taqī al-Dīn al-Maqrīzī, Ittiʿāẓ al-ḥunafāʾ bi-akhbār al-aʾimma al-Fāṭimiyyīn al-khulafā’, vol. 2, ed. Muḥammad Ḥilmī Muḥammad Aḥmad (Cairo, 1971), p. 68. See Walker, ‘Daʿwa’, p. 173. . Ittiʿāẓ, vol. 2, p. 82. . Ibid., p. 82. See Walker, ‘Daʿwa’, pp. 175–176. . Ittiʿāẓ, vol. 2, p. 85. Note correct reading is ‘al-najwā’.

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the imam does, nor should they delve into matters beyond their understanding. ‘The daʿwa and majālis were reinstated according to the usual pattern for them.’62 Again the role of the chief dāʿī, who would have been Mālik b. Saʿīd al-Fāriqī, is not indicated. On the contrary, this man who directed both the judiciary and the daʿwa retained the favour of al-Ḥākim for another three years. The caliph is reported to have held him in especially high regard.63 Even so, we eventually hear that ‘On the 18th of Ramaḍān, 404, those who had gathered at the palace to listen to the majlis had found that they were prevented from doing so.’64 Not long after that, al-Ḥākim did away with al-Fāriqī, perhaps because of suspicion on his part of the judge’s complicity with Sitt al-Mulk, the caliph’s sister and sometime rival.65 The closing of the majālis al-ḥikma more or less coincides with the death of the highly respected al-Fāriqī. There was also general turmoil and unease, which only added to the confusion. Now al-Ḥākim did away with his wāsiṭa-wazīr (intermediary vizier) and began, perforce, to govern by himself. That situation could not last, however, as the imam would have been overwhelmed with the demands of government. His most urgent need was to replace the chief justice, which he did by the appointment of Ibn Abi’l-ʿAwwām, who became the qāḍī al-quḍāt (Chief Judge) in either Jumādā II or Shaʿbān of 405 (i.e. December 1014 or February 1015).66 But the daʿwa remained without a dāʿī al-duʿāt for a longer period. Unlike the previous four or five appointments to the office of chief judge, which also included that of chief dāʿī, this time the two positions were dealt with separately. In fact Ibn Abi’lʿAwwām was Sunni (Ḥanafī), with no inclination or qualifications . Ittiʿāẓ, vol. 2, p. 86. Al-Maqrīzī says here that ‘five months passed between the prohibition and permission for that’. . On this man see Walker, ‘Another Family of Fatimid Chief Qadis: The al-Fāriqīs’, Journal of Druze Studies, 1 (2000), pp. 49–69, reprinted in his Fatimid History and Ismaili Doctrine, article IV. . Ittiʿāẓ, vol. 2, p. 103. . The demise of al-Fāriqī took place in Rabīʿ II 05/October 101. . Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī says he favours Shaʿbān and adds that there was no qāḍī for two or three months prior to this (Rafʿ al-iṣr ʿan quḍāt Miṣr, ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad ʿUmar [Cairo, 1998], p. 72). However, in Ibn Ḥajar’s biography of al-Fāriqī, he states that Egypt had no chief judge for three months, twenty-three days after him (p. 321). This places Ibn Abi’l-ʿAwwām’s installation about the 9th of Shaʿbān/ February 1015.

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to run the daʿwa. Eventually al-Ḥākim selected for the latter office a trusted lieutenant, Khatkīn al-Ḍayf, who was given a mandate to revive the majālis al-ḥikma and restore the daʿwa. Here we possess the valuable testimony of the Melkite historian Yaḥyā of Antioch, who, until 404/1013, had lived in Egypt. In regard to the critical event in question – that of the closing and reopening of the majālis in this period – he reports as follows: Al-Ḥākim had locked the door of the majlis, which was where he had himself received the oath of loyalty (bayʿa) from his own shīʿa and where their special wisdom (ʿulūm) was read to them. It remained locked for a period until Khatkīn the Ḍayf was given the title dāʿī al-duʿāt. Al-Ḥākim returned control of the majlis to him and henceforth it functioned in the same manner as it had previously. Subsequent to that, al-Ḥākim added al-ṣādiq al-amīn to Khatkīn’s title.67

Yaḥyā does not say how long the majlis was closed, but it cannot have been brief. Khatkīn was not selected until well after the elevation of Ibn Abi’l-ʿAwwām, probably not until the beginning of 406/1015.68 There is an important corroboration of the role that Khatkīn came to play at this juncture in the writings of the great Ismaili dāʿī Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī, who himself was in the capital of the Fatimid caliphate at approximately this time, having until then lived in Iraq. But, most significantly, al-Kirmānī elsewhere describes the situation he observed upon reaching Egypt. There he comments as follows: When as an immigrant [muhājir] I reached the Prophetic Presence, a pilgrim having come to the ʿAlid Seat, I beheld there a sky that had become dark with pervasive clouds, the people under the weight of a . Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, Taʾrīkh, ed. Ignace Kratchkovsky, Patrologia Orientalis 47 (1997), pp. 374–559, at p. 390. Note that Yaḥyā includes this information directly after his account of events in 405/1014–1015 when the office of wāsiṭa was likewise vacant and when al-Ḥākim ran the government on his own. That report states in part, ‘he continued without a wāsiṭa for a period of four months (beginning Shawwāl 405). The employees of the various bureaus began to enter themselves into his presence and to seek of him whatever they required and he would order them in each of these matters as he wished.’ . Al-Maqrīzī’s entry for 405/1014–1015 is relatively detailed yet it does not mention either the restoration of the majlis or Khatkīn’s appointment. On the question of the dates here, see Walker, ‘Daʿwa’, pp. 176–179.

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great tribulation, the observance of previous practices had been cancelled, and the faithful saints were kept from what they had earned. The practice of holding the Sessions of Wisdom [majālis al-ḥikma], which had provided them such a dividend of benefits, had been abandoned. The high among them were humbled; the low were on the rise. I observed that the saints of the Rightly Guiding daʿwa – may God spread far and wide their lights – and those most steeped in the defence of the imamate and most loyal to it had become confused by what had befallen them of such matters as to put premature grey in the temples and they were overwhelmed by the repetition of such conditions which rightly ought to destroy none but the perpetrators of hypocrisy and rebellion. They were then in the throes of causing agitation one upon the other, each person accusing his associate of deviation and violations. Evil thoughts were playing tricks on them and malicious insinuations circulated among them. Thus they could not perceive what plain smoke had covered them nor what obvious trials afflicted them. As a result some entered upon a course of extremism and ascended even to its uppermost limit. Some turned away from religion and abandoned the preservation of the faith and its bonds. A few even overturned the very pillars of their belief and what they had once accepted freely and willingly, having come to the brink of dissolution and disorder with necks outstretched to the misappropriation of the two horned devils, their ardour in searching for true belief frustrated.69

Note in particular his remark that ‘the faithful … were kept from what they had earned. The practice of holding the Sessions of Wisdom … had been abandoned.’ The situation he describes could easily be read as the backdrop to what prompted al-Naysābūrī’s soulful lament with which he closes his Risāla. Al-Kirmānī would subsequently comment favourably on Khatkīn’s efforts to rebuild the daʿwa; the work of al-Kirmānī was a key aspect of the new chief dāʿī’s plan.70 Evidently al-Naysābūrī had already composed his treatise before that had happened and thus he does not mention it or take it into account.

. al-Kirmānī, Mabāsim al-bishārāt, ed. M. Ghālib in al-Kirmānī, Majmūʿat rasāʾil (Beirut, 1403/1983), pp. 113–114. See also Walker, Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī: Ismaili Thought in the Age of al-Ḥākim (London and  New York, 1999), pp. 16–24. . See Walker, ‘Daʿwa’, 178–179.

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Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Naysābūrī al-Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fī ādāb al-duʿāt

A Brief and Concise Treatise on the Code of Conduct for the Dāʿīs

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§1: Incipit [§1] We consider it appropriate to add here what the most excellent and illustrious dāʿī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Naysābūrī presented in the treatise entitled ‘A Brief and Concise Treatise on the Code of Conduct for the Dāʿīs’, making it thus a seal to this work of ours, which is to serve as a restraint from overstepping the conditions outlined therein for those among the hierarchy who adhere to it. Following a long explanation of which we have taken the essence, the illustrious and excellent dāʿī, just mentioned, may God raise his rank, said:

§2–§12: Religious foundation and legitimation of the daʿwa and the profession of the dāʿī [§2] With respect to the ranking of religious matters, the daʿwa is at the highest level and has the most exalted and sublime position. It is what God, the Exalted, ascribed to His own self when He said: ‘His is the daʿwa of truth’1 and also when He said: ‘God issues the call (yadʿū) to the abode of Islam.’2 His words indicate the nobility of the daʿwa, instilling thereby the desire for it, inciting the believers and prompting them towards it so that they vie to obtain knowledge and attain its rank, rising upward until reaching its high station. God also names His Prophet a dāʿī as He did in His statement: ‘Verily We sent you as a witness, a bearer of good tidings, and a warner, and as a dāʿī on behalf of God and by His leave, a lamp spreading light.’3 [§3] Dāʿīs in the nations of the past were called prophets. The Prophet said that God has had 124,000 prophets, of which 313 received messages and the rest had a vision during sleep. Some were prophets to a certain town and not others, or to a certain nation and not the rest. The rank of the dāʿīs in each community was extremely high; they were honoured and greatly revered, so much so that this tradition persists even now in all nations. The Zoroastrians call them the hirbidh and the mobedan; the Jews, the māruwiyā; and the Christians, bishops, patriarchs, priests and the like. Each group obeys its dāʿī and regards as licit or illicit whatever he says is so. God, the Exalted, has confirmed this with His words: ‘They take . Qurʾān, 13: 14. . Qurʾān, 10: 25. . Qurʾān, 33: 45–46.

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their rabbis and their monks as lords rather than God.’4 The Adherents of the Literal Meaning (Ahl al-ẓāhir) exalt [similarly] their scholars and legal authorities, who are, for them, their dāʿīs. [§4] Dāʿīs to the truth – they who uphold righteousness – do not relish the vanities of this world or thirst in their hearts for political leadership. All who hunger for this world and aspire after positions of authority go astray from the true path, having lost their way. [§5] The entering of people into religion and the daʿwa out of sincere devotion to God and to the faith, will not cease until God fulfils His promise to the imams which He made when He said: ‘God promises those of you who believe and do deeds of righteousness that He shall cause them to inherit the world just as He did with those who came before, and fix for them their faith in a religion He approves for them and, in place of their fears, substitutes peace.’5 Still, some of those who enter religion deviate from this intention, and lust after leadership in this world and seek the vanities of this world in the name of religion. They make of religion a snare with which to hunt their game and are satisfied in religion with names and labels, without having wisdom or knowledge or proper comportment, supposing exalted rank is a function of mere titles and patronymics. They claim an excellence based on bribery, the expenditure of money, pretence, trickery, spells, magic and divination, taking pleasure in being called a dāʿī, although they appreciate nothing of the qualifications of that office, or want to be called a scholar in spite of not possessing a single letter of learning. They eschew the effort needed to learn sciences and letters, or to acquire virtues rightfully, preferring instead tricks, distortion, deception, deprecation, obstinacy, arrogance, bluster, and rivalry regarding the vanities of this world and prodigality, wearing robes and riding mounts heavily laden with various kinds of trappings, acquiring handsome horses and mules instead of knowledge, proper comportment, sagacity, discernment, sound opinion and reason, approved and praiseworthy excellences and fine and correct actions. They call upon the people to commend them despite the absence of fine actions, and honour them even though they have no knowledge and lack proper comportment and virtue, that they will worship them without praise from them, or recompense, or benefit, or favour, or gifts. They oppose and attempt to smear any person who points out the faults in 4. Qurʾān, 9: 31. 5. Qurʾān, 24: 55.

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their actions and the vileness of their pronouncements, thus exerting themselves in animosity to him until they have conquered, overcome and dealt with him unjustly. They refuse to relent to the point that their own inequity exceeds that of the enemy, and many of the people fall into doubt or permissiveness and excess, most thus departing from the law and the revelation and refusing to accept the inner meaning and allegorical interpretation. The enemy thus finds a means to propagate doctrine and to speak, spreading among them his proclivity for reprehensible acts, and religion approaches what the Prophet predicted when he said: ‘There will come a time when nothing of Islam remains except the name and, of religion, only its outward forms.’ The imams complained of this sort of dāʿī, of their using the name dāʿī but not saying what they [the imams] had said, nor following what they had done. Many of them become the kind of dāʿīs who lead to error, and to lies and absurdities. As God said about them: ‘We made of them imams summoning to hellfire.’6 The term dāʿī applies, in truth, to those who appeal for what is right, who are led by the sunna of God Himself and speak only the truth. Truly did God call Himself a dāʿī when He said: ‘God summons to the abode of Islam and He leads whom He will to the true and straight path.’7 [§6] God’s summons to creatures has three conditions: one is that it be in the tongue of the prophets, the legatees, the imams and the dāʿīs, on all of them be peace; the second that it concern what He created in the world and in their souls as signs and evidence that calls them to the absolute Oneness of God and to paradise (paradise is safe from extinction and the faults of this world, and from tyranny, injustice and alteration); and third that it be in accord with inspiration, grace and guidance. [§7] God addressed His Prophet as follows: ‘Summon to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fine words and argue with them using what is best.’8 This verse indicates that a daʿwa can appeal also for a cause which is not that of God but that He commanded him [the Prophet] that his appeal should be only to the way of God. He whose daʿwa is neither to the way of God, nor in accord with the sunna of His messenger and that of the imams, that person’s daʿwa is to Satan’s path and to hellfire. His dāʿīs are not to be obeyed. God ordered the Prophet in this verse to make his appeal using ‘wisdom and fine words’ and that his arguments 6. Qurʾān, 28: 41. 7. Qurʾān, 10: 25. 8. Qurʾān, 16: 125.

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should be those that are most appropriate. It will be thus understood that a person not familiar with wisdom and fine words is not suitable to be a dāʿī. He said: ‘and dispute with them using what is best’. A person not adept at disputation had better not become a dāʿī. Disputation, discussion and refutation are not done in the best manner other than by those most knowledgeable about the literal and the figurative meanings, both in the rational and the legal sense. Wisdom consists of knowledge plus deeds. ‘Fine words’ comprise exhortation through the inner meaning. That which is ‘fine’ here consists of loyal devotion to our Master, the Commander of the Believers, ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. God has said: ‘He who produces the best has ten models of it’,9 which is to say, he who believes in the authority of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib understands the ten ranks of the hierarchy, five of which are bodily and five spiritual. [§8] The verse in which God says: ‘Verily We sent you as a witness, a bearer of good tidings, and a warner; and a dāʿī on behalf of God and by His leave, a lamp spreading light’10 shows that someone who is not just and trustworthy is not to give testimony about either religion or the world, and cannot be a dāʿī. He who is not fit to spread the good news of the spiritual world and the reward and afterlife, and to summon the people by means of knowledge without revealing the inner truth except to those he has approved, examined and tested by various forms of trial, that person is not allowed to be a dāʿī. God also calls him a ‘warner’. He who does not know about the spiritual world or the punishment and in what way he should warn, caution and instill fear of the punishment; how could he be fit to be a dāʿī? The same verse also specifies that the daʿwa depends necessarily on the permission of he who holds the authority over it. He should not promote or demote one of lesser rank, offer instruction or receive it, except upon the order of the rank above and only by that person having allowed him to do so, because God stipulated that as a condition when He added, ‘by His leave.’ A person who pretends to knowledge and summons on the basis of it, but without permission, is Satan’s dāʿī. Any dāʿī who rejects an order, or is disloyal in the least matter, goes against the permit and breaks the covenant; he appeals therefore without a permit. He is a traitor, a liar and a person it is forbidden to learn from, or to give any knowledge. The verse also shows that, in whoever there is not the light of knowledge, and its radiance so that the novice can be guided by it and be enlightened with this knowledge, that person is not suitable to be a . Qurʾān, 6: 160. . Qurʾān, 33: 45–46.

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dāʿī. It indicates as well that he who does not comprehend the declaration of God’s absolute  Oneness cannot be a dāʿī because, if he associates God with another or describes the Creator with any attribute of created beings, he summons to a creature like it and not to God, the Exalted. Anyone who fails to educate the novices but rather leaves them in the darkness of ignorance is not fit for the daʿwa, for God has said: ‘O you who believe, respond to God and to the messenger if he summons you to that which gives you life.’11 This verse makes it clear that whoever has not the ability to give life to the novice through knowledge and wisdom, is not suitable to be a dāʿī. It is as God says in relating the story of Noah: ‘O my Lord, I have called to them openly and then I spoke to them and conveyed secrets to them in private.’12 That passage indicates that he summoned creation to the literal, and then to the internal, meaning secretly. Someone not fit for both the outward and the inner meaning is not fit to appeal to both of them and should not be a dāʿī. It is as God said: ‘And the messenger summons you to believe in your Lord and he has taken of you your covenant.’13 This means that the daʿwa is also to believe in God, and because of that, to accept of them an oath of covenant with God. How can one who does not acknowledge the absolute Oneness of God administer the oath? As God has said: ‘His is the daʿwa of truth’, and the truth is well balanced and straight with no crookedness in it. He who exaggerates in regard to God’s saints, and turns away from their sunna and from the path of the imams with respect to the daʿwa, that person’s appeal is not true and it is not permitted to learn from him. It is as God says: ‘We made them imams to lead by Our command and We inspired them to do righteous deeds, to maintain prayer, and pay the alms tax; they were worshippers of Us.’14 Thus does God make clear that they guide the people to the truth and summon them to the exalted God; and they do good deeds by the command of he [the imam] who over them has command. [§9] He who summons to God, to the imams, on whom be peace, must himself perform good deeds, maintain prayers, both outwardly and inwardly, and pay the alms tax, outwardly and inwardly, in compliance with the command of his superior. He will be a worshipper, and one who commands good deeds and does them. He who is not knowledgeable, nor does good deeds, does not maintain the appeal nor emanate knowledge . . . .

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Qurʾān, 8: 24. Qurʾān, 71: 8–9. Qurʾān, 57: 8. Qurʾān, 21: 73.

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upon those who deserve it among those novices he is supposed to educate, he is not fit to be a dāʿī. In the matter of false dāʿīs, God has said: ‘Truly, [those] who appeal other than to God will never create so much as a fly even if they join together for that purpose; and if the fly should rob anything from them, they could not rescue it from the fly, so feeble are the seeker and the sought.’15 This means that those who appeal to the false, or to the imams of error, are not able to create religious beings alive with knowledge even if they should all join together, and if a fly should steal anything they could not retrieve it from him. That means, if a weak novice should force open an issue against them it would not be possible for them to refute his question by means of a proof. This verse makes clear that whoever is unable to bring life out of ignorance for a novice, after allowing access to truly real knowledge and belief in the absolute Oneness of God, he is not suitable to be a dāʿī. [§10] God said: ‘Who is better in speaking than he who appeals to God, does what is righteous and says, “Most certainly I am a Muslim.”’16 This verse explains that there is no position in this world and the next, better and more glorious than that of those who summon to God, and that a condition of the daʿwa is that it comes with appropriate actions. If a person has not done righteous acts, he is not suited to be a dāʿī. If a person does not renounce the association with God of other things, and does not affirm the absolute Oneness of Him, does not understand well the declaration of that Oneness but rather continues to compare God to created beings, he cannot be a dāʿī. It is as our lord the Commander of the Believers, may the blessings of God be upon him and on the imams among his offspring, said: ‘Dāʿīs in religion distinguish between doubt and certainty’. Distinguishing between doubt and certainty is to separate truth from falsehood. It is possible that he intended it to be between the literal exterior and the inner meaning. Someone who does not know the true and certain, how can he distinguish doubt from certainty, and the truth from falsehood? The dāʿī must know the difference between truth and falsehood, so that he can distinguish one from the other, lest he judge the false to be true, and the true to be false, and have them accept this judgment from him, leading thereby to the corruption of the daʿwa. [§11] But God has said: ‘Let there come from you a community that guides to the good and commands the acceptable and prohibits the

. Qurʾān, 22: 73, ‘Truly, you who appeal ...’ . Qurʾān, 41: 33.

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reprehensible; they are the ones who succeed.’17 This verse describes the imams and makes clear that the dāʿī must follow their sunna and be an agent of good, commanding the good and prohibiting the reprehensible, and that he himself must act in accord with the good they have ordered and forbid the unacceptable they have prohibited. It is as Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq has said: ‘Be for us silent dāʿīs’, and they asked, ‘How can we make the appeal, O son of the messenger of God, if we are silent?’ He replied, ‘Act in accord with what we commanded you to do with respect to obeying God and forbid what we forbade you to do.’ It is not possible to be someone who commands the good and not do that himself. It is as God says: ‘Do you order the people to act righteously but forget to do so yourself?’18 This verse just cited explains clearly that anyone who has this characteristic is an adversary of success and aims instead for perdition. [§12] The daʿwa is a difficult matter and its qualifications are many,  including all that God has stipulated in the Qurʾān to describe a believer, as well as what the imams have specified in their books concerning the faithful. These things are required also of the dāʿī. He should have even more of these excellences, and they should be more evident in him. If they do not exist in the believer, his belief is nevertheless possible, but it is not acceptable that they do not exist in the dāʿī. It is as Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq said: ‘Our knowledge is difficult and considered so; none can bear it other than a prophet sent as messenger or the closest angel or a believer whose heart God has examined for faith’. The believer is the imam and those dāʿīs and believers who follow him, who have been examined in the daʿwa, and who uphold its stipulations. This examination is a rule that applies to all the dāʿīs, the ḥujjas, the imams, the legatees and the prophets, may there be peace on them all. It is as God said: ‘He who created death and life that He might test of you which is best in deeds’;19 and also said: ‘And when his Lord tested Abraham with words and he fulfilled them, He said “I am making you a leader (imām) of the people”’;20 and He also said: ‘Do the people think that they will be left alone in saying “We believe” and will not be tested’,21 meaning here ‘not examined’? . . . . .

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Qurʾān, 3: 104. Qurʾān, 2: 44. Qurʾān, 67: 2. Qurʾān, 2: 124. Qurʾān, 29: 1–2.

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§13–§32: The intellectual, religious and political foundations of the qualifications for the daʿwa [§13] The qualifications for the daʿwa are based on three things: on knowledge, on God-fearing piety and on governance. §14–§25: Knowledge [§14] Knowledge is divided into two parts, one of which is knowledge of the external, and the other [is knowledge] of the internal. The external has five divisions. One is the science of legal understanding and rulings on the basis of which people are sustained, and religion and the world preserved. It is the foundation of both religion and the daʿwa. The second is the science of ḥadīth, historical reports, narrative accounts, and chains of transmission from the Prophet and the imams. Through it, religion is preserved and the law upheld through the retention of these reports and narrative accounts; they are the basis for legal understanding. The third is the science of the Qurʾān, its interpretation and explanation, knowledge of the fixed and ambiguous in it, that which abrogated and what is abrogated, and the command and the prohibition. The fourth is the science of preaching, of memorials and of exemplary stories. God, the Exalted, said to His Prophet: ‘Summon to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fine exhortation.’22 Exhortation refines the hearts of the people and awakens in them a desire for the afterlife and for religion and withdrawal from this world. The fifth is the science of disputation and discussion by which to counter, in matters of faith, the heretics, deviants, the philosophers, those who uphold the eternity of the world and the various adherents of false schools of doctrine. Each type of these sciences has various excellences and they will, if possible, be mentioned at the proper place for them, God willing. [§15] The dāʿī needs all that because he is consulted for the understanding of religion. If he has not got that, how can he answer? If his understanding of the outward aspect is not good, how is he to have the ability to interpret it? How can he instruct them in religion and summon them to it? [§16] He must be acquainted with the science of the reports coming from the Prophet and of his ḥadīths, and the reports from the imams and what is related from them. He draws on these to determine the accuracy of what he says to novices, in order to have them accept it from him. He requires . Qurʾān, 16: 125.

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the science of the Qurʾān on which he testifies and answers questions about both its literal and figurative meanings. He needs knowledge of preaching, recollection and narration in order to exhort the novice. It is as God says: ‘Remind, for reminding benefits the believers’;23 and He says: ‘Remind them, for you are a person who reminds’;24 and He says also: ‘Ask the people who recall if you do not know.’25 The dāʿī requires theological disputation to refute those who oppose, to engage in debate, and to disprove the arguments of opponents with counter-arguments. As God has said: ‘Dispute with them with what is best.’26 [§17] Inner knowledge breaks down into many types. [§18] Among them is sensate knowledge, which involves comprehension of the lower hierarchy and of legal actions, their interpretation and the wisdom in it, and understanding everything that pertains to acts that can be seen or perceived by a person. [§19] A second is cognitive and imagined knowledge, which involves the knowledge of the higher hierarchy and the numbers, and the comprehension of ideal forms whose reality cannot be seen or sensed by the senses, but only apprehended in thoughts and imagination. [§20] Then there is intellected knowledge, which comprises the understanding of things as they truly are, knowledge of their causes, and their beginnings and endings. [§21] These are three stages, the first of which is like mother’s milk for the infant. It is for the novice, like sensory knowledge in the process of his instruction. The second resembles his becoming educated and associated with imagination, and the knowledge articulated to him. The third is like the attachment to him of intellect upon the acquisition of which he attains his majority, and he becomes responsible for what he does in respect to his having attained legal maturity which is not subject thereafter to change or alteration. [§22] That which is only sensed is apprehended by the five senses; that which is imagined is apprehended by thoughts; and that which is intellected is the abstract reality itself. A person who apprehends something by the senses moves up to thoughts and he thinks about it until he moves up to intel. . . .

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Qurʾān, 51: 55. Qurʾān, 88: 21. Qurʾān, 16: 43 and 21: 7. Qurʾān, 16: 125.

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lectual comprehension, by which he judges between truth and falsehood and comes to know its reality in the science of religion. They say that sensed knowledge is the science of the law; the imagined is the science of interpretation; and the intellected is the true explanation that never changes. Each one has many branches and a variety of openings for interpretation. [§23] Indeed, the interpretation of the law is a sea that never drains, nor does anyone reach its furthest limit. The science of the Qurʾān has no end. Knowledge of the higher hierarchy and the spiritual world is not attained by any but the pious person who is keenly intelligent, astute and diligent. Comprehension of the horizons and souls is a deep ocean, and it is the source from which derives the understanding of all other sciences. It is the scale and touchstone to which every other science reverts. What is in accord with it is obviously true; what conflicts with it is false and a lie. Knowledge of the absolute Oneness of God is the goal; it is the most glorious of the sciences and the most illustrious of the legal impositions. All the acts of worship and knowledge are based on it. The soul’s recognition of it is a thing imposed on the human being. By means of it, he attains an understanding of the absolute Oneness. [§24] No one attains the comprehension of these ultimate sciences until he combines in himself parts of all the rest: of physics, its causes and the wisdom in it, of geometry and numbers, and knowledge of philosophy and the roots of the various school doctrines and the differences among them. Thus when he reads a book or listens to an argument, he knows what conforms to the truth and what opposes it. [§25] The person of intelligence must reflect on that, for in these times and in this place, discord is due to the lack of being able to discern truth from falsehood. He should distinguish true from the false, and not judge of what is true that it is false, or of the false that it is true. False judgment leads people from the path of God. For that reason God said to His messenger: ‘Do not seek that of which you have no knowledge.’27 Someone might say here that he who knows all is the imam but we say that the imam does not combine it all completely but rather, most certainly, the root principles behind it. If consulted, he refers the derived problem to its fundamentals. He compares it to its root and refers it to the source of religion to ascertain if it agrees with the source of religion, and of nature, otherwise he rejects it by the force of truth and reveals its false. Qurʾān, 17: 36.

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hood. Because he might be asked in open session about something, or to speak about an issue relating to one of these sciences, it is essential that he should not be an alien among them and unaware of their discussions. §26: God-fearing piety [§26] God-fearing piety is a term combining knowledge and action in conformity with doctrine, upholding the stipulations of the Qurʾān, doing what God has commanded, prohibiting what He has forbidden; and that cannot happen without knowledge. A person without sound knowledge is not able to keep God free of association and anthropomorphism. Someone who associates a thing with God or makes comparisons of Him, and yet performs all the acts of devotion, is not pious and nobody should learn from him. God-fearing piety is the sum of all the virtues and the prohibition of all the vices. For that reason God, glorious is His name, said: ‘The most noble of you in the sight of God is the most God-fearing of you’;28 and He said: ‘The best of provisions is God-fearing piety’;29 and He said: ‘The wearing of God-fearing piety, that is best’,30 and He said: ‘Fear God, O you men of understanding’;31 and He said also: ‘Whoever fears God, He will make for him a way out.’32 §27–§31: Governance [§27] In regard to governance, it has three grades: governance of the individual, governance of the household and governance of the community. [§28] The dāʿī firstly requires governance of the individual, which means to govern his own self. Thus he provides for the welfare of his own soul, governing and controlling it, preventing it from having any of the vices and any bad habits of character, keeping it from reprehensible desire for things that are illicit, bearing itself in conformity with the virtuous, and fulfilling required duties and established regulations. He will censure himself sincerely if he behaves badly, accompanying that with condemnation, regret, reproach and repentance; and he will reward himself if . . . . .

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Qurʾān, 49: 13. Qurʾān, 2: 197. Qurʾān, 7: 26. Qurʾān, 5: 100 and 65: 10. Qurʾān, 65: 2.

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he is good with delight, praise and the urging of more fine actions, and drawing on knowledge in order to direct the novice to it so as to have him adopt his own fine character, follow his words, actions and wise lead. It is as our master Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq, may the blessings of God be upon him, said: ‘Be for us silent dāʿīs. They asked: How can we summon if we are silent? He answered: Act in accord with what actions we commanded of you and in obedience to God. Make illicit those acts of disobedience that we ordered you to prohibit.’ He who succeeds in governing his own self is fit and able to govern others. It is said: Do what is beneficial to yourself and the people will follow you. God said: ‘O you who believe, guard your own souls; the one who goes astray cannot hurt you if you are guided aright.’33 [§29] Governance of the household is the governing by a man of his own family and retainers, controlling them, teaching and educating them, instilling virtue in them and preventing vice, rewarding those who are good, punishing those who are bad. As God says: ‘O you who believe, guard yourselves and your family from the fire’;34 and the Prophet has said: ‘A man continues to have the people of his house inherit knowledge and proper comportment until he has entered them all into paradise, losing of them neither the young or the old, the servant or the protégé’. It is as God says: ‘Command your family to pray and persevere with them’;35 and He said: ‘And he used to command his family to pray and pay the alms tax and he was approved in the sight of his Lord.’36 He who succeeds in governing himself and his family is fit to have charge of governing the rest of the people in matters of faith, and he who cannot govern himself and his family is not fit to be a dāʿī. [§30] Governance of the community involves supporting the administration of the person who is their leader in matters of the welfare of this life and of their salvation, who educates them in the discipline of communal laws, keeps them from reprehensible and illicit actions, promotes the virtues, rewards those who do good and punishes those who do evil. It is he who is responsible for the well-being of their religion. A person who is not good at the governance of the individual, the family and the community is not fit for the daʿwa.

. . . .

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Qurʾān, 5: 105. Qurʾān, 66: 6. Qurʾān, 20: 132. Qurʾān, 19: 55.

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[§31] The dāʿī must educate the dāʿī below him in knowledge, test and try him and arrange his affairs; punishing and rewarding him, each according to his rank. In like manner the dāʿī educates a maʾdhūn and urges him to rise to the rank that is above him. In the same way he educates the believer and instructs him in knowledge and comportment, thereby raising him to the rank of maʾdhūn. It is like that with the novice. He instructs him and arranges his affairs in accord with the degree of his position and on the measure of his aptitude and ability. It is similar with regard to his command of the affairs of the Adherents of Literal Meaning, their governance, the good quality of social relationships with them, contention with them, disputing with them and arguing against them with what is best. [It is] likewise with the masses and the elite and with the protected peoples.37 He offers to each of them his sincere counsel, a good forecast and preservation of the welfare of all of them in truth, justice and fairness. A person lacking these three forms of governance cannot be a dāʿī. [§32] Having just summarised the general qualifications for the daʿwa, we will now explain and clarify them, and also what might happen to it if the dāʿī does not keep to the conditions we have mentioned.

§33–§111 Catalogue of the qualifications of the dāʿī [§33] We stress that all the ranks of the daʿwa are combined, as we have said, in his office which is the highest, and the rest are thus beneath it. Thus a dāʿī should possess all of the virtues that are found separately among the rest of the people. He requires, therefore, the excellences of the specialists in legal reasoning because he himself must be a jurist in both the external and internal aspects of it. He must have the virtues of a judge because he is, in fact, a judge both according to the external and the internal; he needs patience, knowledge, perseverance, soundness of opinion, skill, intelligence, integrity, fortitude and other characteristics that apply to judges. There should be in him the qualities of those who administer the government, among the virtues of which are courage, generosity, skill in management, prudence, political aptitude and cultural refinements, for he is the commander of the religion and of its adherents. He requires a combination of the probity that is essential in a witness because he is a witness for the religion and its adherents. There should also be in him the qualifications of a prayer leader since he is in reality the true and ultimate . Protected peoples are the dhimmīs, the People of the Book, mainly Christian and Jews, who are afforded the protection of Islam by Qurʾānic mandate.

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leader of prayers; he leads those behind him. He must have the qualities of the one who calls to prayer, the muʾadhdhin, because he is the one who calls to prayer, and it is for him to summon the people to prayer and to true salvation. He likewise should possess the conditions required of trustees and reliable persons because he is the trustee in charge of God’s religion and its treasury and the souls of those who follow Him. The dāʿī will have the qualifications of the warrior (mujāhid) for he is a warrior on the path of God. He must also possess the qualifications of the physicians, their solicitude, and their careful ministration to the sick, for he is the doctor of souls. He has the skills of the astronomer because he is the astronomer of religion and its realm and the geometer of minds. As God has said: ‘Then he gave a look to the stars and said, “Truly I am sick.”’38 He is required to know the order of composition and relationship of the numbers because he is the composer of logical harmonies and intellectual words. He should possess the skill of farmers and their knowledge of how to cultivate the land, the times of sowing and of watering because it is he who cultivates religion and causes its ground to flourish with truth. He explores rivers, through which flow the true water that is knowledge of the first premises and of calculations. As God has said: ‘Whoever desires to cultivate the afterlife We increase for him the amount he tills.’39 The dāʿī needs the skills of a shepherd in safeguarding the sheep, watering and caring for them, because he is in truth the shepherd of his flock. It is as Moses said: ‘With it [his staff] I beat down fodder for my sheep’;40 and the Prophet said: ‘All of you are shepherds and all of you are responsible for his flock’. Likewise, he should know the conditions of buying and of selling, and commerce in general, since he is also a merchant. As God has said: ‘Shall I indicate to you a transaction that will save you from a painful punishment: believe in God and His messenger [to the end of the verse41]’. He should combine the qualifications of those in the crafts and trades, for he provides beneficial coverings for his people, something to hide their nakedness, a washer to cleanse their garments of dirt. As God said: ‘And a garment of righteousness that is better’;42 and as God said to David: ‘Fashion well the

. Qurʾān, 37: 88–89. . Qurʾān, 42: 20. . Qurʾān, 20: 18. . This verse continues: ‘and wage war in the cause of God with your property and your souls; that is best for you if you only knew it’, Qurʾān, 61: 10–11. . Qurʾān, 7: 26.

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coats of mail, measuring carefully the links’;43 and He said: ‘Garments to protect you from the heat and coats of mail to protect you from your own violence.’44 It is also reported that the apostles of Jesus were fullers. The dāʿī ought to have the skills of seamen; it is he who is really the captain of the ship. He is the guiding pilot through the desert and the hard steppe on the dark night; it is he who guides to the straight path and to the proper way. [§34] If the qualifications we have mentioned are not truly in the dāʿī and yet he is called a dāʿī, it is a name devoid of meaning and is of no avail and no benefit. Rather it is a curse on him, an offence and crime that counts against him. It is as God has said: ‘We made of you nations and tribes that you might come to know one another.’45 It explains that these names refer to mutual understanding. Thereupon God mentions: ‘That the most noble of you in the sight of God is the most God-fearing among you’,46 lest they be deceived by these names and titles. True nobility lies in God-fearing piety and knowledge. If the conditions cited above are not connected to the name of the daʿwa, it has no nobility, honour, or respect, not among the scholars, nor those of religion, nor even with God. It is then a term of mockery, disparagement and ridicule. Many names apply to the opposite and the people know it, yet that does not make them true. It is like calling the desert a place of escape even though it is where people perish, or like calling a person stung by a scorpion ‘healthy’ (salīm), like calling a blind person ‘sighted’, like calling a black man ‘camphor’, and calling pharaoh ‘lord’. There is no benefit in doing that. The unbelieving Arabs called our Prophet a magician and a crazy man but that did no harm to him at all. Among the company of angels Iblis is called an angel even though, once he had rebelled, this name did him no good. [§35] Here now we return to the qualifications for the daʿwa and their explanation. We hold that the dāʿī must be firmly grounded in the principles of the religion to which he summons with a sincerity and certainty untainted or mixed with another purpose, loyal to the imam for whom he appeals and to the messenger who is the foundation of the religion on whom, to whom, and by whom the daʿwa is based. He is one who affirms the absolute Oneness of God. A person who does not have sound beliefs, even though he is knowledgeable and a worshipper, but who . . . .

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Qurʾān, 34: 11. Qurʾān, 16: 81. Qurʾān, 49: 13. Qurʾān, 49: 13.

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upholds the literal and the figurative hypocritically and with dissimulation, reveals his own hypocrisy. Those who follow him derive no benefit from his knowledge or his daʿwa, which therefore provides no blessing. No novice or believer is educated by his hand; no daʿwa ever functions properly under him. [§36] He should be God-fearing in his piety and that cannot happen without knowledge of both the exterior and the interior. The origin of piety is to fear God and not to associate anything with Him, nor to characterise Him with an attribute of created beings; and, out of fear of God, not to elevate any one in the hierarchy above his proper station nor to degrade any below it and to guard against all forbidden things and be wary of neglecting any of those that are obligatory and of refraining from commanding and prohibiting. [§37] A dāʿī should know the exterior and the interior, legally and intellectually. God has said: ‘Say: Are those equal, those who know and those who do not know; it is solely those who possess knowledge’;47 and He said: ‘Rather these are clear signs in the hearts of those endowed with knowledge’;48 and He said: ‘Is then he who guides to the truth more right to be followed; or is he who does not guide unless he is himself guided; how is it with you that you judge in this way?’;49 and the Prophet said: ‘There are four items which, should the mount be pressed so hard in going toward, it wears thin in exhaustion, and that would be of little account: Let the servant hope for nothing but his Lord; fear nothing except his own sins; the ignorant be not ashamed of acquiring knowledge; and the learned person, when asked something he does not know, say, “I do not know.”’ Our master the Commander of the Believers said: ‘Half of knowledge for he who does not know is to say, “God alone knows”, and if I came upon a youth belonging to our party who had not tried to acquire knowledge, I would myself see to his instruction.’ It is as God says: ‘If a group from each party were to remain aside to undertake studies in religion and to admonish their own people when they return to them perhaps they should become able to warn themselves.’50 If a dāʿī does not have this sort of knowledge, and someone questions him and opponents debate with him, they will defeat him and thus cause great . . . .

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Qurʾān, 39: 9. Qurʾān, 29: 49. Qurʾān, 10: 35. Qurʾān, 9: 122.

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harm, discord, disgrace and damage in the teaching. What happened to Jonah in being swallowed by the whale is that he had an opponent who bested him, who drew him out and caused him to fall by breaking him. His being swallowed by him was a result of the paralysis that hit him, and the advent of weakness in religion and related matters prior to that. [§38] The dāʿī must be chaste and upright. It is as God said: ‘To Him rise fine words and the righteous deed He lifts upward’;51 and He said: ‘Those who repent, those who worship, those who praise, those who journey, those who bow, those who prostrate themselves, those who command the good and prohibit the reprehensible, and those who  maintain the limits set by God and proclaim good tidings for the believers.’52 If they are those who give good tidings, those who oppose them are they that are destined to perish. [§39] He must be kind to the believers, merciful and forgiving. As God has said: ‘We sent you not but as a mercy for the world’,53 and He said also: ‘They that are merciful among them you will see them bowing and in prostration striving for the grace of God and His approval.’54 The dāʿī tries to emulate God in His mercy toward those who serve Him and the messenger and the imams in their mercy, their compassion, and their solicitude for the community in spite of the community’s rebellion and the vileness of their acts and behaviour. It is as God said: ‘If God were to punish people according to what they have done, He would not leave on the surface a living being’;55 and as God said to His Prophet: ‘Accept forgiveness; command the right; but turn away from those who are ignorant.’56 [§40] A dāʿī should be humble, not haughty with the believers. God has said: ‘That afterlife We grant to those who seek no high-handedness on this earth nor corruption; the good end is for those who fear God.’57 Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq said as well: ‘Do not become scholars who are so tyrannical as to pass your falsehoods as truths of yours’; and the Prophet said: ‘Grandeur is a cloak of God Who is great and majestic; he who attempts to wrest His cloak from Him, God breaks into little pieces.’ . . . . . . .

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Qurʾān, 35: 10. Qurʾān, 9: 112. Qurʾān, 21: 108. Qurʾān, 48: 29. Qurʾān, 35: 45. Qurʾān, 7: 199. Qurʾān, 28: 83.

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[§41] A dāʿī must be intelligent, with a perfect wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge that is not perfect intellectually is unhealthy. As God has said: ‘None understand it but the intelligent’;58 and He said: ‘It is only those with understanding who perceive’;59 and He said: ‘Eat for yourselves and pasture your flocks; surely in that there are signs for men of understanding.’60 [§42] He must be of noble lineage among his people. Nobility derives from lineage and is greatly esteemed in the eyes of the people. If his lineage is low, whoever sits with him or takes instruction from him, will hold back, and the dāʿī will humiliate himself in front of him. I have seen many of the people refrain from entering religion because of the low lineage of the dāʿī and his descent and his relationship [through his family] to infamous acts and disgraceful occupations. It is for the same reason that they chose for leadership in this world people of nobility and honour. Indeed, noble lineage has high importance in the hearts of the populace. [§43] He should be generous and not miserly. Miserliness is reprehensible and unacceptable. As God mentioned: ‘Those who are miserly and who command the people to be miserly’;61 and God has also said: ‘And those who when they spend are neither extravagant nor niggardly but between that is the right stand.’62 If the dāʿī is a miser, the novice will follow his lead, learning from him to be miserly and will thus perish. The daʿwa should spend on those who deserve it fairly, and on those who might not deserve it, something to win them over. There are times when it is right to spend an amount because, if it is not spent or is suspended and withheld, the believing families of that region will perish and great harm will result. The Prophet said: ‘God fashions the walī not otherwise than in accord with generosity’; and he said: ‘Generosity is a tree whose base is in paradise; whoever attaches to its branch is brought into paradise; miserliness is a tree whose base is in hellfire; whosoever clings to a branch of it is drawn into hellfire.’ He said as well: ‘The ignorant person who is generous is better than the knower who is miserly’; and it is said also: ‘Generosity is praised by everyone and in all communities.’ [§44] A dāʿī must be truthful in what he says. If he is not truthful, how will they accept as true what he says? How will they agree to what he . . . . .

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Qurʾān, 29: 43. Qurʾān, 39: 9 and 13: 19. Qurʾān, 20: 54. Qurʾān, 4: 37. Qurʾān, 25: 67.

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says and rely on it? As God has said: ‘Fear God and be among those who speak the truth’,63 that is, be in the company of those who speak the truth and be followers of the truthful ones who are the imams, may the peace of God be upon them. [§45] The dāʿī should be chivalrous; chivalry is an aspect of faith. If he loses his sense of chivalry, he forfeits the respect for him in the eyes of the people, and the novices and the believers will regard him with an eye of contempt. [§46] A dāʿī must have modesty; modesty is also a part of faith. Modesty precludes him from many things that dishonour the daʿwa. Modesty comprises seeing to the needs of the people, of bearing up patiently and being affable with the public. [§47] He must be sound of opinion and skilled in administration. The affairs of the daʿwa cannot be carried out by bad administration of them. If an error occurs in his administration of the daʿwa, it will corrupt it, destroy those who believe in it, and there will be no way or any means to correct it. It is said that four things gives rise to four: the intellect to leadership, sound opinion to governance, knowledge to taking the lead and clemency to veneration. [§48] A dāʿī should do what he says. Religion is the fulfilment of the covenant and the statement. If the believer sees in him a slowness in fulfilling his obligation or a breach of faith, he will do likewise, and thereby the religion will become corrupted. God has praised faithfulness. He said: ‘And Abraham who fulfils his engagements’;64 and He said about Ismail: ‘He was true to his promise and he was a messenger and a prophet.’65 [§49] He must keep secret what is secret. Religion is based on the preservation of secrets that need to be kept from those who are not worthy of them. If the secrets are lost, religion is lost. At times the divulging of a secret connected to a matter of religion has led to the destruction of a nation or the ruin of a province. [§50] A dāʿī should be forgiving and merciful to the believers, not malicious, not overly preoccupied with retribution, aggravations, disputes and contention. Novice believers will always be lacking in knowledge and subject to mistakes and erroneous intentions, which they then regret; but . Qurʾān, 9: 119. . Qurʾān, 53: 37. . Qurʾān, 19: 54.

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if they are not treated kindly and forgiven for it, they will despair of religion. God has said: ‘O My servants who have transgressed against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of God for He forgives all sins’;66 and He said to Muḥammad His Prophet: ‘Accept forgiveness; command the right; but turn away from those who are ignorant’;67 and He said also: ‘Lower your wing to those of the believers who follow you.’68 [§51] A dāʿī’s words must be sweet and fine in expression and explanation so as to captivate with his words the souls of novices, so they will not weary and try to avoid listening to what he says or tire of it. God said: ‘A similitude: a good word is like a good tree’;69 and He said: ‘Good words go up to Him’;70 and the Prophet said: ‘A portion of explanation is enchantment.’ [§52] A dāʿī ought to be patient and gentle. A variety of people come to him who have minds concerned with different needs and questions. If he is quick to anger and exasperation, the people will try to avoid him. God has said: ‘If you were harsh and hard-hearted, they would have broken away from you’,71 and He said: ‘Be patient for your patience comes from God’,72 and He said: ‘So be patient just as those of the messengers with firm resolution were patient.’73 There were none more patient than the prophets, the legatees and the imams, despite the evilness of the people of the community and their insubordination. They were patient, put up with their absurdities and looked upon those who committed sins with the eye of mercy and forbearance, in order to save them from hellfire. [§53] A dāʿī should also be a statesman. Statesmanship is the foundation of political rule, both in religion and in worldly affairs. A  person not good at governing cannot achieve perfection in political leadership. It is said that whoever seeks political leadership must suffer the pain of leadership patiently. The dāʿī needs to govern individuals in accord with confessional and legal rules, and direct souls with knowledgeable governance in order for him to implement the daʿwa fully. . . . . . . . .

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Qurʾān, 39: 53. Qurʾān, 7: 199. Qurʾān, 26: 215. Qurʾān, 14: 24. Qurʾān, 35: 10. Qurʾān, 3: 159. Qurʾān, 16: 127. Qurʾān, 46: 35.

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[§54] A dāʿī ought to possess a refinement of soul in addition to knowledge. Knowledge in the absence of refinement of the soul means that it lacks lustre, is unwelcome, its owner deficient in decorum, and his knowledge is of no benefit to him. [§55] He should have lofty aspirations, for he is responsible for great affairs in religion and in the world at large. God grants to the imams of His religion in every era, dominion over the earth by means of his dāʿīs and ḥujjas. [§56] He will have a good social disposition and manner. It is as God has said: ‘Live with them with appropriate courtesy’;74 and He said: ‘And you are held to the highest of character’;75 and Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq said: ‘Live with the people by their morals and do not call them pigs’; and he also said: ‘Endear us to the people and do not make us hateful to them.’ [§57] He will be able to take the measure of everyone by observing them and listening to their words. He thus learns about those best suited to religion and those not so, or whose purpose is religious and whose is not religious, who is able to acquire knowledge and who is unable. It is essential that he be good at choosing among them and examining the state of everyone until the position of each becomes clear to him. [§58] He should be well acquainted with the lives of the imams, the arrangement of their daʿwas so that he can follow them and their example and their traditions. [§59] It is necessary that the dāʿī should be able to travel and observe the various regions so that he be acquainted with the nature of the inhabitants of those regions, know what they desire or incline towards in each type of knowledge, so as to choose for them the right person to deal with them in debates and disputations. [§60] A dāʿī should know the rights of those who immigrate to him, what hardships and trouble they have had to endure, how they might have suffered in leaving behind their family, country and property. Likewise he ought to recognise the rights of emissaries and visitors and know what fears and troubles have befallen them on the road, and appreciate that each is an honoured person in his own country. Each set out and risked his life and funds, enduring those hardships for the sake of religion. He . Qurʾān, 4: 19. . Qurʾān, 68: 4.

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should not esteem them lightly, nor look upon them with the eye of contempt, nor think little of their attire or their adornment. He will not regard that person as if he were himself a ruler in his honours and money and the luxury of his lifestyle. He knows that the hearts of kings, princes, commanders, rulers and the believers can be won over and got the better of by kindness to their emissaries. Each sends as his ambassador someone he respects, has confidence in, and has personally chosen for traits of the man that are well known. If he is not acquainted with the person who sent the emissary, but concludes from the fine qualities in the emissary that the one who sent that person finds him excellent and is pleased with him, he infers the extent of the sender’s status from the stature of the emissary and the letters he brings. The words of the emissary will then carry more weight than the written messages. The rancour of most of the people in a region, and the princes, dāʿīs and chiefs, is often the result of scorning and belittling the good offices of their emissaries. This subject is something in which the dāʿī must take special care and delight in observing, never becoming impatient with it or slacken from handling it properly. What is expended in matters of this kind is never wasted. [§61] A dāʿī should dispatch to the various regions dāʿīs who speak the language there. God said: ‘We have not sent emissaries except those with the language so that they might present it clearly to them’,76 and that means to make the truth clear to them in their language and in information that is most accessible to their understanding. For that reason God granted each prophet a miracle of a type that, in terms of knowledge and eloquence, would appeal to his own community. Since the people of Abraham were worshippers of fire, his miracle was the cooling of the fire. Moses’ people made their case based on magic, and so his miracle involved the staff. Medicine was the claim of the people of Jesus and his miracle was to do for the blind and the lepers what they could not, and in reviving the dead. Since the pride of the Arabs lay in eloquence and bravery, the miracle of the Prophet was the Qurʾān and the sword of his legatee. Thereby God defeated them through him and cast them out. [§62] A dāʿī must be acquainted with the religious proclivities of the inhabitants of each region, their knowledge and natures, and what they might be inclined to accept and their aptitude for knowledge, so that he can overcome them in debate and disputation with them and have them come to accept knowledge from him. . Qurʾān, 14: 4.

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[§63] He ought to appreciate the value of the scholars and their position, treat them with deference and honour them, not noticing their poverty and lack of personal adornment, for they are proud and disdainful, not used to humility and being treated lightly. Criticising the scholars is difficult and is secretly annoying to them; they seize the opportunity and find fault against him in a discussion based on a mistake of language or an error or something that allows for a variety of views. They will expose his fault and strip him of his respect, for the strength of religion lies in the empowerment of the scholars. He who respects learned men respects religion itself, and he who accords them no importance holds himself in contempt. If the people believe in the power of the scholars, they will themselves all desire knowledge and will study to acquire it. The glory of knowledge will but insist on approaching God in true sincerity. [§64] Thus a dāʿī should love knowledge and those who have it. People will deduce from his love of the learned that he is one of them, and that he is himself a scholar and that he believes and considers true the knowledge that he relates, and [that] they therefore accept from him. It is essential that a dāʿī hold most of his sessions with the learned because, if he is himself a scholar, he will increase his own knowledge from them and they will also learn from him, and, if he is not, he will learn from them even so. Should he err in some aspect of knowledge, they are better to correct his mistake than his antagonists who will seize on his error and make out of it an argument against him. When his sessions are held with the learned, he takes up with them matters for deliberation and inquiry that need to be studied and have their implications set forth by bringing to bear efforts of thought and study. God said: ‘God will raise up in rank those of you who believe and have been given knowledge.’77 This message applies to the ranks of mukāsir to bāb, because all of them are dāʿīs to those below them, who are each potentially what they are themselves, and the aim is for the lower to attain the higher rank in actuality. God has said: ‘Those of His servants who truly fear God are the learned.’78 [§65] A dāʿī must also pay honour to the ascetics and the devout among the people of religion and keep their centres close by, so that the people will likewise wish to be devout, have knowledge and be themselves ascetic.

. Qurʾān, 58: 11. . Qurʾān, 35: 28.

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[§66] A dāʿī ought to stay away from those who cause corruption once he has warned and admonished them, so that, perhaps, they may repent. He should not sit with them much, nor like them; he who frequents a given group is one of their number. A man is judged by the company he keeps. God said: ‘For whoever is blind to the remembrance of the Most Merciful, to him We assign a satan as companion.’79 Casting out the people of corruption and censuring them induces the people to abstain from corruption, not to wish for it, and allows them more readily to repress and prevent it. [§67] A dāʿī must not be ambitious; the origin of every calamity is covetousness. It is related of the Commander of the Believers, ʿAlī, that he was asked, ‘What is religion?’ and he replied, ‘Piety’, whereupon came the question, ‘What is the cause of its ruin?’ and he answered, ‘Greed’. Covetousness prompts the impious dāʿī to accept bribes and illegal payments in religious matters. The primary result of that is the breaking of the oath of covenant that, in monetary matters or in religion itself, he should not be disloyal to the imam of his time. He who accepts such offers is disloyal, and he who has broken his oath has left religion and withdrawn from adherence to the daʿwa. Whoever accepts after that an oath from him or discloses anything to him is someone totally lacking blessedness because his is a family belonging to other than God, which has become worse and is debarred [from the position of dāʿī]. [§68] A dāʿī will not necessarily love leadership in this world. That could lead him to falsehood either in seeking a position of leadership by asserting his own credibility or, after he has attained it, of lying out of fear of being deprived of it. It leads him also to disparage whichever of his associates he believes is appropriate for what leadership he himself is appropriate, so that that person will not attain the position. It causes him to regard himself as more excellent than his associates; it prompts him to lie, to pursue their faults; and all of this is deceit. Deceit is the root of all reprehensible acts. Deceit results in slander and slander begets hatred, alienation, malice, contention, animosity, warfare and feuding; doing that leaves behind religion and the covenant. [§69] It is not essential that the dāʿī be voracious and much given to passion; for voracity and excessive longing lead to an affection for the body and forfeiture of the share of the soul and its faculties, prompting him to become miserly, to love riches and that leads to greed and greed leads to treachery. In that, there is a departure from religion and the covenant, and the abandoning of honour. . Qurʾān, 43: 36.

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[§70] It is not right for the dāʿī falsely to accuse the believers of a crime or to think ill of them. Thinking ill and lacking trust in the people is a base quality of the soul and one of its lapses. Mistakes of the soul beget a proclivity for contemptible acts. Those deviate from all virtue and from religion. [§71] It is not good for the dāʿī to jest too much. Jesting takes away from dignity and engenders animosity and malice in the heart. It is said that joking is the start of mischief because, if the joke is on someone who is lower, it leads to being spread around, thereby removing decorum and inducing impudence towards the butt of the joke. That ends up as animosity. If it is at the expense of someone higher, that person will harbour resentment and enmity between the two will result. [§72] A dāʿī should not be obscene in his speech or speak foolishly. For him to be false, untrue, or offensive removes his dignity and awe and reduces his status. It is said that any leader who engages in an excess of foolishness and jesting is described as having little intellect and knowledge. [§73] The dāʿī should possess gravity, an awe-inspiring manner and be pleasingly attired before his people. His character will be refined, splendid and commanding, and of an appearance such that none who look at him turns away in contempt. Comeliness and good appearance have an influence, gaining a power and standing that nothing else possesses. For that reason God said: ‘And He increased him extensively with knowledge and substance.’80 Likewise a dāʿī should chose among the novices the one whose bearing is upright, sound and free of excesses and defects, someone who displays a harmonious temperament. Harmony in temperament indicates proper comportment and conduct, a willing reception and compliance and a multitude of virtues. Just choosing those whose bearing is upright requires a person of stature, so selecting them is connected to noble character, speech and professing. Accordingly, God commanded that he choose for offerings and sacrifices the one free of defects, indicating, thereby in its inner meaning, the selection of a novice. The messenger of God forbade sacrificing an animal with a broken horn if its horn was completely gone, and those with broken teeth. He also ordered that the eyes and ears be inspected to preclude those with faults, punctures, or mutilations. He prohibited those that are lame with an obvious limp, the emaciated and mangy, and those with the front or back portion of the ear slit.81 The allegorical meaning of all . Qurʾān, 2: 247. . In Arabic: al-muqābala wa’l-mudābara. For the meaning in this context see Lane.

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this applies these faults to the novice, with respect to there being in him any defect of those we cited in his religion or moral character or habits such as to mark him with the mark of false doctrine. It is necessary that the dāʿī recognise the faults of the novice and, if he should see in him an example of such faults, that he should not accept the oath of covenant from any of those so characterised. From the dāʿī’s lack of investigation and poor discernment in distinguishing those novices who are sound and those who are deficient, this kind of corruption enters the religion. [§74] It is necessary that the dāʿī himself be safe from these attributes. He cannot correct in the behaviour of the people what he cannot correct in himself. Thus God, the Exalted, said: ‘Take care of your own soul; those who have gone astray will not harm you if you are rightly guided’,82 which is to say, the correction of your own soul is up to you. If you correct yourselves and yet the novice from whom you have accepted the covenant becomes corrupt but without perfidy on your part, that person’s error and corruption will not cause you harm. If, however, your souls are not corrected and the novice becomes corrupt because of your faults, the responsibility will be yours and you will have corrupted him.

§75–§78: Selection and education of the novices and the covenant [§75] It is essential, once having chosen a novice who has been found free of faults, that his intention in accepting the covenant is to God, the Exalted, and to His guardian, on whom be peace, exclusively, not having in mind anything other than God, no disposition, or rank, or acknowledgement, or care, or intercession. And his advancement of the novice should not be for money or fame but for the sake of religion. [§76] That he knows the objective of the novice and has investigated his purpose in entering the religion, and what caused it, is indispensable. If his goal was other than God, he should not be administered the oath of covenant. If his objective was God and religion, let the dāʿī first break him down and extirpate those notions he previously upheld, his prior beliefs having then become so thoroughly destroyed he no longer has an argument in their favour. As God said: ‘When you meet up with the unbelievers, strike them by the neck until you have forced them into defeat, then fastened a bond; (free them) either as a grace or as ransom . Qurʾān, 5: 105.

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until the war itself lays down its burden.’83 Shower him with arguments, as the sacrificial animal is not slaughtered until it has been watered. Then, when he has been broken down and wants to take the oath, the rule is to take it of him after he has fasted for three days. Both the dāʿī and the novice should be in a pure state. Each should pray two prostrations so as to be at the most pure. Next he begins with thanking God the highest and praising Him, asking for His blessing on His messengers and on the pure imams. He takes of him the oath of covenant to God, His angels, His messengers, the oath to the legatees and the pure imams and an oath to the imam of his own time, may the blessing of God be on them. He pledges to him allegiance, as is the rule for that in the book of covenant. He swears that he believes in God, and in His angels, His messengers, the pure imams from the legatee to the imam of the time, may the blessings of God be on them all, and that he will uphold the external and the internal and that he will support the imam of his time and will not forsake him; that he will not reveal any secret of the faith to a person not worthy of it or to anyone who has not sworn the oath of covenant, that he will not betray any of the brethren of believers who have joined him in swearing the oath, that he will treat as a friend those who have accepted the imams and as an enemy those who are enemies of theirs, that he will stay away from their enemies, that he will offer good counsel on behalf of God and His representative, upon whom be peace, and that, if he should go back on his oath, there will apply to him what applies to those who rescind or violate an oath, that he will appeal for the imam of their time, ascribe knowledge to him and not a letter of that to himself. [§77] Thereafter, if the covenant and pledge is sure, he begins to educate the novice with the sciences, to ground him firmly in the fundamentals in their proper order, not to overly burden him at the start and thus cause him to mix them up. It is as it is with the child; when fed too much food at the very beginning of its life, that will cause it to die. Feed it instead refined knowledge on the measure of what it can readily absorb. Impress on him at the outset an understanding of the absolute Oneness of God, faith in God, obedience to Him, faith in the messengers and obedience to them, faith in the imam and obedience to him. It is as God has said: ‘Obey God and obey the messenger and those in authority among you.’84 Next, move up to an understanding of the rest of the ranks in the hierarchy and . Qurʾān, 47: 4. . Qurʾān, 4: 59.

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their various positions, taking care that none increase or decrease in their rank. All of that should become clear and correctly set by the testimony of the horizons and souls as God has said: ‘We will show you our signs on the horizons and in their souls so that it will become clear to them that it is the truth.’85 The dāʿī should know that, if once having taken the noble oath from him, the dāʿī subsequently does not educate him and firmly fix the fundamental principles in him, that dāʿī is acting miserly with the knowledge that is due him. He himself would be like the one God spoke about when He said: ‘Those who are miserly or order others to be miserly’;86 and as He has also said: ‘And do not kill your children out of fear of poverty; We will provide for you and for them.’87 [§78] It is essential that the dāʿī not overly burden the novice with knowledge, causing him thereby to doubt and become confused, resulting in his suffering indigestion and corruption, prompting that which God spoke about in His saying: ‘And those who when they spend are neither extravagant nor niggardly but between that is the right stand.’88 The dāʿī should respond to each question according to the questioner’s ability to understand and his intellectual capacity and rank. As God has said: ‘There is nothing except that the treasuries of it are with Us and We send it down only in appropriate measure’;89 and as the Prophet said: ‘I was ordered to address the people in accord with the level of their intellects’. If the dāʿī replies to the questioner beneath his ability and his position, he will not be satisfied by it and it will be of no use. If the reply is above his status, he will not grasp it and it might do him harm. The intelligent dāʿī is he who, when he converses with the novice, discerns from the question asked the questioner’s ability and intention. Is it his or is it another’s? Not all questions need an answer because often the questioner has taken it from someone else or from a book. The dāʿī will reflect and, if the questioner has a foundation for that, he will provide an answer commensurate with what this man requires and deserves. If that person has no foundation for what he asks, the dāʿī makes the answer easy for him to understand. Thus the dāʿī needs to ascertain whether its purpose was to learn or to find fault in an argument. He is not to drive . Qurʾān, 41: 53. . Qurʾān, 4: 37. The rest of this verse reads: ‘or hide the bounties God has brought to them, we have prepared ... a humbling punishment.’ . Qurʾān, 17: 31. . Qurʾān, 25: 67. . Qurʾān, 15: 21.

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away the questioner but to respond to him in accordance with what is due to him. God has said: ‘As for the petitioner do not refuse’;90 and the Prophet said: ‘Do not refuse the petitioner even if he comes on a horse’; and he said also: ‘Do not refuse the petitioner even with half a date’. The one who was on the horse is the petitioner who is in discussion with the ḥujjas and the dāʿīs. He [the Prophet] has said: ‘Do not refuse him but respond to him in accordance with his knowledge and status.’ The half of the date is the external split open, which is then the internal. §79: Continuation: virtues of the dāʿī [§79] It is not required that the dāʿī be proud and self-important. Luqmān once said to his son: ‘Do not walk through the land insolently for God does not love those who are self-important and proud.’91 §80–§87: Religious sessions [§80] He should set aside a special time for sessions with those believers who have become accomplished so that they may have benefit of him and, in the absence of the ordinary novices, ask him questions appropriate to their advance grades and what is of concern to them particularly. It is as God has informed us in reference to a novice in the sessions of Sulaymān. It happened that an issue arose that was not suitable for the level of those novices, but was instead over their heads. So he said to the rest: “Come let us go back to our dāʿīs and to our own level in order that our belief not be corrupted by conferring about what is above our level.’ Sulaymān considered that good. So God spoke, saying: ‘One of the ants said, “O you ants, go into your dwellings, lest Sulaymān and his troops crush you without knowing it’’ ’,92 and He said: ‘Whereupon in the evening there were brought to him well bred horses swift of foot.’93 That is to say, there were brought to him ḥujjas and dāʿīs with their questions at a special time in the absence of the rest of the group. And ‘the birds with outstretched wings’94 means each of the dāʿīs, the maʾdhūns and the believers with his own cohort, without mixing the one with the other. . . . . .

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[§81] The dāʿī must observe closely those having permission [the maʾdhūns] and the believers, to see who among them is fond of learning, which one observes the law, and who in the group understands the interpretation astutely, perceptively and honestly. He ought to examine him, to test him and try him with various kinds of examinations and trials, in matters both of religion and the world, becoming thus familiar with his circumstances by a means he will not be aware of. Then, if he is found to be solidly as the dāʿī would like him to be and is thus acceptable, he should raise him to the rank of the dāʿīs. He should then have the new dāʿī begin by teaching the novices in front of him. If he does that well, the dāʿī raises him again and appoints him to a place nearby. The dāʿī will then listen and ask about news of him and how things are going. Next he raises him a degree higher than that, step by step, until he is ready to be sent out to a district or territory. Once he completes all that had been asked of him, the dāʿī adds to these tests and trials, until the exterior and interior, the secret and open, of this man become clear to him. If his excellence and desire increase and he becomes complete in every sense, that dāʿī may decide to make him his successor or his substitute because he is that believer who, once having been appointed, will not betray him; about whom our master al-Muʿizz said: ‘A believer is not a believer until a believer like himself takes over his job.’ [§82] He must not take a risk with anybody who has not been tested and has not proven himself, and for whom there is no evidence of his integrity. A dāʿī should not invest a person with authority in the daʿwa unless he has served previously and shown that he can guide and has been found acceptable to all. Only at that point should he be relied upon. If he is good for some but injurious to others, the dāʿī must not employ him since injury is more likely to become the accepted opinion than his credibility. Someone who testifies that he is acceptable possibly has not witnessed of him other than good deeds, while another person has seen the unacceptable in him. If a thousand men testify to the good deeds of a single man, and two testify to a corruption and four more on something else, the statement of those who testify to the corruption will be accepted. And the injury to the dāʿīs and to the evidence, and the injury to the judges and the trustees, is not like their testifying against him in a ḥadd case. The injury occurs through the repeated hearing and transmission and the word of trusted persons, even though they are not under the rule pertaining to being a notary witness and the causing of injury does not concern a matter that necessitates a ḥadd penalty. It has been said that

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the healthy person once restored to health is quick to break down again. How then is it with he who is broken and corrupted and about whom they testify as to his being corrupt? And he against whom two believing men testify that he is not suitable for the daʿwa, the dāʿī is not permitted to employ him in the daʿwa and thereby put to risk the souls and property of the believers. If he errs in that, it is not like treachery in monies because, in something like this, there is the destruction of the inhabitants of the provinces due to the corruption of the dāʿīs, the wickedness of their administration, the magnitude of their greed and their lack of piety and knowledge. On the measure of the risks and their difficulty, it requires investigation and special effort in choosing the dāʿī, most especially in provinces that are under the control of iniquitous sultans. [§83] A dāʿī is not allowed to make appointments to the daʿwa to fulfil some service or satisfy a claim of favour, or for affection, relationship, friendship, intercession, or concern, or for some gain, or to avoid some harm, or out of shame, modesty, or fear. All of those things lead away from religion, from justice, from security and from good will toward God and the Messenger. Most of the corruption that occurs in religion occurs because of these. It is related how the king of the Byzantines once wrote to Anushirvan:95 ‘What keeps your government in such good order that it has no defect?’ He replied: ‘I appoint only the qualified, not for attention; I punish for a crime, not out of anger; I give when it is deserved, not because of love; and I fulfil both promise and threat.’ The governance of both religion and the world is subsumed under these words, which were ultimately taken in their own time from God’s saints. It was, in his position, good advice; and it is thus necessary that a dāʿī make appointments to the daʿwa on the basis of competence, not favour. [§84] The dāʿī should not attempt to dismiss a dāʿī who is upright in the daʿwa on account of something he had done that personally angers him or because of a lack of service, but rather he will dismiss the man solely for disloyalty in religious matters. When he sees someone who is competent and religious, he employs him, even if he does not like him and even if there is between the two an estrangement, because to abandon the truth and deviate from it is unjust, tyrannical, a violation and breaking of his covenant. [§85] If a dāʿī sees in a believer or those with permission (maʾdhūns) disloyalty or mistakes or wrong intention, he ought to counsel him. If he does . Khusraw I, r. 531–579.

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not accept this counsel, what he is in the process of doing and his corruption will come back to the religion and to the daʿwa, and result in the people taking aversion. He should rebuke and admonish him. If he does not turn back, the dāʿī should make public his action, hoping to have him revert; otherwise, he should dismiss him and substitute another for him. If the defect in him does no harm to the daʿwa and concerns a fault in a matter that is between him and God, it may remain concealed. If it is something that will harm the daʿwa, it must be disclosed and made an example of, a warning to others not do anything like it so that they will continue to be able to distinguish between those who work evil and those who do good. [§86] But, if he observes goodness, trustworthiness and knowledge in some believer or maʾdhūn, he should promote him to a higher position, praise him, and begin to rely on him more. The dāʿī will raise him to the step above his so as to increase his effort, and others will see that in him and desire to do likewise. If there is no distinction between those who are good and those who are bad, and if the evil-doers have to make only the least effort, and yet enjoy greater ease and benefit, there will be no preventing corruption and no desire for the good and, in that, is the ruin of the people and the inciting of them to corruption and rebellion. [§87] A dāʿī must not get angry with anyone except for the sake of God, nor become close friends with anyone except for God. Truly God says: ‘You will not find any people who believe in God and the last day who love those who oppose God and His messenger’;96 and the Prophet said: ‘A man will assemble together [at judgment] with those he loves.’

§88–94 Household and servants of the dāʿī [§88] A dāʿī’s door should be open to the people. He ought not to be excessively secluded. Both those who agree and those who oppose him will come to see him. If they cannot reach him they become alienated and estranged, and not infrequently the end catches up with them and they die while astray. [§89] His doorkeeper ought to be a man of religion, someone reliable and trustworthy who likes the believers and honours them. When it is time for visitation, he should in good spirits allow them to enter; when it is not time, he ought to turn them away nicely and, when he can, let his . Qurʾān, 58: 22.

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master know of their having come. Occasionally he admits the children of the common folk and their wives to the house of the dāʿī. If the doorkeeper were not trustworthy, that would not be allowed. [§90] His chamberlain must likewise be intelligent, well spoken, polite, open and modest without greed. A chamberlain is the deputy of the chief. It is said that the chamberlain of a man is proof of his policy. The proper comportment of those who serve him is evidence of the good management of the leader. Nothing harms a leader more than the corruption of his retinue, than his affection for servants and acceptance of them, than his love for relatives and his approval of and favouritism towards them [especially of the dāʿī]. [§91] His clerk must be righteous, upright and a true believer because this man is privy to his secrets and those of the religion. It is impermissible for anyone other than a believer to have access to the secrets of religion. It is said that a man’s clerk is the guardian of his knowledge; it is also said that his clerk is his spokesman. The clerk of the dāʿī must not be dissolute, disloyal, or greedy, for, if he is disloyal in religious matters, his corruption will be great. It is said that whoever opposes you in religion will never agree with you in anything, and whoever is an enemy of your religion will try to corrupt both you and your religion. [§92] The servants of the dāʿī must be believers and be discrete as is befitting to both religion and the daʿwa. In his house, matters of religious knowledge come up constantly and discussions related to issues of wisdom occur regularly. No one should hear that except a believer. The children of the common folk and their women enter the house of the dāʿī. The dāʿī should trust no one who serves him in his private capacity other than upright believers. It is essential that such a person be upright and above suspicion, and that he not employ any woman other than those approved for intimacy in and among the women of his house. But it is not necessary that he be served by men who are beardless or suspect, for the Prophet said: ‘Guard the places for accusation’ and he said: ‘Whoever circulates around the fire is on the verge of falling into it.’ Since those who serve him are the point of entry for accusations, the people will surely find a way to speak about it. The matter of the daʿwa and its position are indeed difficult; it is essential that its master guard himself against all accusations. [§93] He ought not to approve of having around himself those who drink intoxicating beverages or who have done so, or someone known for depravity and corruption. Sins of these types will find their way back to the dāʿī. God said: ‘O you who believe, guard yourselves and your

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families against a fire whose fuel is the people and the stones over which are angels stern and severe obeying God.’97 We have already said that the fault of the servants will come back to the dāʿī. If he is unable to govern his own household and servants, and control them, how can he maintain the people of whole regions and countries and manage their affairs? [§94] Of necessity, in his house most of the time the conversation will concern matters of religious knowledge; those who sit with him and his private retainers are persons of religion and of knowledge. There the Qurʾān is recited, prayers said in their proper times, the good ordered and the bad forbidden. His sessions should be kept respectful and free of jesting and indecent language and obscene discussions. That kind of thing vitiates the respect for the dāʿī and for his decency and self respect, and does away with the decorum of religion. §95–§99 Governance of the congregation and the sessions [§95] A dāʿī need not be effusive with everyone or overly talkative, except in matters of wisdom and profundity, lest he lose his dignity. It is as he, upon whom be peace, says: ‘He who talks too much makes more mistakes’; and as God has said: ‘There is no good in the majority of their private discussions unless it is of those who order deeds of charity or the good’ (to the end of this verse98). [§96] The dāʿī need not be haughty for that is part of what causes the people to avoid him. Rather he should be humble. As the Prophet has said: ‘He who worships God in humility, God raises only upward’; and the Prophet said: ‘Grandeur is the cloak of God; whoever contests Him for it, He breaks him up into pieces’; and God said: ‘That abode in the hereafter We shall reserve for those who intended no high-handedness on the earth or corruption; that end is for those who are righteous.’99 [§97] He ought to be well acquainted with the positions of people and how to rank them in matters involving being addressed and replying, bringing people close and keeping them away, so that he speaks to each as . Qurʾān, 66: 6. . The rest of the verse runs as follows: ‘or conciliates among people; to whoever does that seeking the approval of God, We shall provide a great reward’, Qurʾān, 4: 114. . Qurʾān, 28: 83.

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required for those of that type, what is normal to that person, not speaking undeservedly with an excess of words and also not shortening the response for someone like him. That sort of thing will leave rancour and resentment in hearts and cause them to think that perhaps this is a mistake of his or that an offence required that. Similarly, in his seating them in sessions, he should preserve the place of those whose status requires it. The rest preserve the order of seating by the master of the session. He will acknowledge their entry, their salutation, and seat them in their places, putting them in good spirits upon entering and leaving. [§98] A dāʿī should fulfil the needs of the believer fairly, and provide justice to those who have suffered an injustice. He ought to mediate matters that require mediation; he should intercede with the ruler in regard to their worldly affairs, for worldly matters are connected with religion. If a quarrel breaks out among the believers, he will mediate between them, urging upon them what is right and appealing to them not to bring an action or to institute legal proceedings before anyone else but the dāʿī. Comportment in religious matters concerns religion and they should not take the matter up to the sultan, or to the qāḍī, because their dāʿī is closer to them. A person who has not accepted to be under his rule has gone astray. Whoever opposes him is angry with him, and all of the saints are angry at the person who is angry with him, and they will not be satisfied other than by his conciliation. He should warn them against contention over matters among them, and controversy and squabbling, and that they ought to apply the words of God: ‘And remember God’s favour to you, for you were enemies and He united your hearts so that you became, through His grace, brothers’;100 and His words: ‘The believers are surely brothers all.’101 [§99] At all times he should exhort those who attend his session by urging them to be thankful for what they have, and by recalling for them the hardships that occurred in other moments. If it happens to be a period of trouble and strife, he will console them and recommend patience, speaking of the expectation of relief and rewards to come for those who patiently endure what has happened to them. If a calamity or a loss befalls a believer, he will listen to what that person has to say and hear his complaint, expressing his own distress to him, lamenting with him, forecasting for him a good reward and recompense, and assisting him to the extent possible. If he is unable to assist him, he will offer his apologies . Qurʾān, 3: 103. . Qurʾān, 49: 10.

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and describe the situation and the time, and that the time is not favourable but that relief is near, so that the person does not go away without being cheered in heart and soul. He should not increase his despair by lack of consideration, speaking to him roughly and rebuffing him. If anyone of those who attends his sessions has a funeral or obsequies, he should see him off with last honours and satisfy what is due that man, or he should send one of his associates and those who attend his sessions to do that, if he cannot go himself. He should also urge the believers to satisfy what is due him. Similarly, if a member of his congregation is sick, he will attend to that person himself, or send to him an associate or some member of his congregation to console him. He will ask about his condition in the session, grieve for him and call for his return to good health. If a member of his congregation is absent, he will check on his family. If someone in the congregation has a wedding obligation or returns from a journey, the dāʿī will arrange to provide what is due. All of these things are what a brother requires of a brother believer, and what makes the believer happy and increases his desire for religion. It is related that the Prophet was asked, ‘What is the most virtuous act beyond prayer?’ and he replied, ‘Bringing happiness to the heart of the believer.’ By implication, this report indicates that the vile act is to bring sadness and misery to the heart of the believer. §100–§101: Emissaries, visitors, messengers [§100] When an emissary from one of the other regions or an immigrant or a visitor comes, he [the dāʿī] should look into his situation with respect to his position, make him feel at ease, and encourage and reward him. Indeed God will not lose his reward102 or block it. He should not ask, ‘What have you come for?’ and ‘Who invited you?’ [or say] ‘Coming is not up to you!’; ‘Times are hard and corrupt and the government has no money it can give you. In fact the imam is averse to a group such as this’; [or that] ‘The Commander of the Believers will be angry with you and fed up with you, and he turns his face toward others than you.’ That would merely break their hearts and weaken their resolve, crushing their hope of any good. His duty is instead to gladden their hearts, give them hope and have them anticipate the kindness of the Commander of the Believers and his good will. [§101] If he [the dāʿī] sends his own messenger to another region or town, he will select someone well qualified and trustworthy, a man of justice . This phrase alludes to Qurʾān 9: 120, 11: 115, 12: 90 and other similar verses.

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and religion. The emissary of the government will be asked about the affairs of that government. It is essential that he mentions what will be of benefit, not of harm, and that he provide ample testimony concerning that about which he is questioned. When he returns, he will report truthfully about what he has seen and heard. The dāʿī ought not to choose his associates for the sake of some gain or friendship, or [of] those who plead at his door, or [of those] he is ashamed of, or fears. Much of the corruption that occurs in the daʿwa stems from emissaries who are disloyal and dishonest, and their praising those from whom they have accepted bribes, or disparaging those who have failed to gratify their greed.

§102: Continuation: virtues of the dāʿī [§102] He should constantly speak of religion and those who adhere to it, with praise, making the benefit of it obvious, and of its miracles and proofs. Doing that will enhance religion in the eyes of the people. He will condemn those who oppose the adherents of religion whenever he speaks to them, making the faults and failures of their doctrine obvious. Whenever a dāʿī disparages the religion and those who follow it, he pushes them away, making them shun the faith rather than calling them to it. §103–§105: Administration of the daʿwa, responsibilities towards the imam [§103] The dāʿī must see to the affairs of the daʿwa and its proper administration, thereby relieving the imam of that obligation, for the imam has appointed him to manage the daʿwa and maintain the welfare of the various regions. When he manages these affairs properly, arranging them as they should be, he settles matters by the order of the imam for these matters belong solely to God and to His representative and it is not for anyone to speak ill of him. [§104] When necessary, the dāʿī should spend of the personal funds that have been granted him by the Commander of the Believers on matters connected to the benefit of the daʿwa, which are not in doubt and are of such a kind that it is not possible to take the matter to the government and make a request for it, since not to do so at the moment, would bring harm upon the daʿwa. In this respect, the dāʿī in the religious affairs of the daʿwa members is like a mother; the man casts his sperm but she preserves it, puts up with it, forms it, and prepares it until the completion

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of its gestation. Next she raises the child, preserving it from water and fire. Then she arranges for its nourishment, its care and its education. The father is responsible only to provide for her maintenance. The dāʿī is similarly responsible for the management of all the business of the daʿwa, its administration and that of the various provinces and its organisation. It is the responsibility of the imam to provide him with knowledge and funds. Thus the dāʿī is responsible for its repair and the amelioration of all corruption, trouble, the perversion of doctrine, doubt about religion, going astray, insurrection and rebellion that happens in the daʿwa. If he fails in that out of willfulness, or lack of effort on his part, carelessness, inattentiveness, or incapacity, he is the one who is accountable for that and for the consequences of it. When God questions the imam about things connected to the affairs of his community and his safeguarding and care for them, the imam will ask him [the dāʿī], for the imam made that his responsibility. He is the one answerable for it, and it was up to him to arrange matters in that regard. If he was unable, it was up to him to make his inability known to the imam and to beg forgiveness for that, so that he could appoint someone else to take care of it. The Prophet said: ‘All of you are shepherds and all of you are responsible for your flock’; and God said: ‘That He will question those who are truthful about their truth’;103 and He said: ‘So, by your Lord, We will question them all together about what they have done.’104 [§105] But it is not necessary for a dāʿī to be miserly with the funds of the imam, if he spends it for a proper cause. The imams intend these funds and possessions to promote religion, to support it and such possessions are always for the protection of the faith. For the dāʿī not to expend these funds for such good purposes in religious matters, ends up causing great harm to the daʿwa. When the dāʿī does not maintain what is required for the religion and for the daʿwa, the consequence of that is worse than for any other cause. God said: ‘O wives of the Prophet, you are not like other women’ (to the end of the verse).105 The Prophet’s women are his proofs (ḥujjas) in religion and, likewise, the proofs of the imam are his dāʿīs. God has promised that they will have a two-fold reward or [conversely] a punishment that is double. . Qurʾān, 33: 8. . Qurʾān, 15: 92–93. . Qurʾān, 33: 32. The rest of this verse is ‘If you are God-fearing, be not abject in your speech, so that he in whose heart is sickness may be lustful; but speak honourable words.’

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§106–§111: Cohesion and solidarity in the congregation; obedience, loyalty and disloyalty towards the imam, rebellion and punishment [§106] In a similar way, the dāʿī should promote unity and amicability in the hearts of the believers, bringing them into harmony with each other, prompting them to mutual aid and love, and to the cooperation of some with the others, and warn them against envy, malice, slander and hostility toward one another. Whatever one does not like having done to oneself, he should not do to a fellow believer. If an outrage by one against his brother believers comes to light, the dāʿī should restrain the offender and reprimand him. If he is not prevented from continuing, the dāʿī should make the affair well known among the believers. The dāʿī should then exclude him from the daʿwa and the sessions, and disassociate from him so that others will draw a lesson from his case. [§107] The dāʿī must constantly entreat the believers to obey the imam and love him, appeal for him, dedicating their wealth and souls to his cause, and in pleasing him and obeying him, and undertaking holy war with him if he so orders them. The dāʿī should make clear to them that God is pleased by his being pleased, and obeying Him means obeying him; their salvation lies in obeying and in pleasing him. Also he will make clear that there is no obligation of any kind on the imam. What is bestowed on the people by the imam in the way of worldly goods and knowledge, he does as a favour and a kindness, and what he holds back he does so justly. [§108] The dāʿī ought to educate the believers properly so that they do not become, due to their neediness, a burden on the presence of the Commander of the Believers. If great harm does befall them, they may, at the proper time, in the correct manner and through the right channels, and on the measure of what they require, seek help from him. But they should not take advantage of the imam’s funds or seek more than that. If they have sought something and the time is not right for fulfilling their need, doubt and sickness should not enter their hearts. It is as God relates in His words: ‘If they are given a portion, they are pleased, but, if they are given nothing, then they are angry.’106 The dāʿī will urge them to be pleased and content with the actions of the imam, and with his orders, prohibitions and rulings. They will not object to any part of that but rather know that all of it is in conformity with a vast wisdom. If they do not comprehend that at the time, they will come to understand . Qurʾān, 9: 58.

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the wisdom in it later. Because they understand that the imam is the wisest man in his time, it is essential that they know that all he does is done wisely, even though they may not perceive exactly how it is wise. It is like that with the actions of the imam. [§109] The dāʿī should prepare and exhort the believers for service in an office or as an emissary if one of them is called upon to do so, either in a religious matter or one of the state, and urge them to carry out such duties in good faith, and offer sound advice and sympathy, cautioning them against disloyalty, neglect, indolence and cowardliness. If one of them should do such things, he departs from religion and breaks his covenant, nakedness thus overtaking him along with disgrace in this world and the next, regret, reproach, and loss of welfare and material possessions. If any one of those summoned for some type of service should reveal disloyalty or deceit, the dāʿī will chastise him, punish him, and demote him from that rank in order to make an example of him. If, by contrast, he witnesses in someone trustworthiness and competence, he will praise him and raise him to a higher rank. [§110] The dāʿī ought to impress on the believers that, should any of them see someone acting disloyally to the imam, in a matter of religion or of state or governance, they must attempt to prevent that from happening if they can. If that is impossible for them, they should report the matter to the imam. What may have begun as a minor problem may end up being impossible to bring under control again. The Prophet said: ‘Religion is sound counsel’; and God said: ‘And against those who find nothing to spend there is no fault if they are true to God and His messenger, no way against those who do good, and God is All-Forgiving and Merciful.’107 [§111] A dāʿī should know that the kingdom is the protector of the faith; the kingdom of the imam is built on religion. If the affairs of both the religion and the daʿwa are in proper order and well maintained, the kingdom will run properly and without disorder. All of the populace will be servants of the imam, whether in his presence or in other regions; they become like his army, supporters and well-wishers, none able to betray or rebel against him. But should all the people become his adversaries, his enemies, and opponents and, if there are defects in the religion and the dāʿī is unable or is remiss in dealing with the governing . Qurʾān, 9: 91.

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of the religion and managing it, perhaps because he is himself ignorant or impious, or incompetent and unsound and untrustworthy, he will ruin the beliefs of the believers. They will apostatise and chaos will reign. They will fall into the hands of the materialist or the agnostics and libertarians.108 They will become sceptical of religion and sick at heart, falling into antagonism, quarrelling, fighting and treating each other treacherously, lying to one another in disloyalty and greed, and usurping the rights of others, some of them against the rest. Thus harm comes to both the religion and the kingdom, the provinces fall into ruin and the people become enemies of one another. Security, decency, piety, life, honour and chivalry cease. The people revert to their animal natures, becoming like savage beasts, some attacking others. The heart of the imam is preoccupied with what then happens to his community. He becomes impatient with them and, despairing of them and of the faith and those who adhere to it, he turns away and becomes angry with them. The evil misfortune of rebellion and  the wrath of the imam will hit them, his mercy having disappeared. Yet each day they increase their corruption and thus add to the chastisement in store for them. That becomes like the corruption that we are seeing at the present moment. We ask God for mercy and compassion, and that He grant us repentance and a return to obedience both to Him and to His representative, and bring an end to actions like these, and remorse on our part for what we did earlier, along with the rectification of intention, resolve and the return to obedience. Perhaps God will incline the heart of the imam to feel compassion for his servants, restore them and show mercy to them by having each dāʿī fulfil the stipulations of the rightly guiding daʿwa, may the peace of God be upon its masters, and that he forgive us for what we did before which required this punishment by locking the door to repentance. May he seek forgiveness for us so that God Himself forgives us. It is as God says: ‘If, when they were unjust to themselves, they had come to you so as to ask forgiveness of God, and the messenger had asked forgiveness for them, then they would have found God Most Forgiving and Merciful.’109

. In Arabic al-dahriyya and ahl al-taʿṭīl wa’l-ibāḥa. The first are, most often, those who uphold the eternity of material substance, hence Materialists; the second are those who advocate a position of agnosticism and of lawless permissiveness. The author may here refer less to an actual group, than a general category he considers characteristic of arch heretics. . Qurʾān, 4: 64.

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§112–§113: End [§112] I have thus completed what needed to be done to outline the conditions and stipulations of the various ranks in the hierarchy from the bāb to the mukāsir. They are what everyone who is appointed to provide guidance to a given group requires. Each occupies among them the position of the person higher than himself. So let those stipulations be put into effect by all who love salvation. He is among the friends of God and the people who are in obedience to Him. Do not adopt in the religion of God pride, arrogance, and preoccupation. Put himself where his ruler and master put him, and exclude from himself pride and envy. Someone who assumes that, leans toward those who claim, ‘I am better than him’. A person who refuses to accept that is one of those God had in mind when He said: ‘Over my servants you shall have no authority.’110 [§113] If I had wanted to delve more deeply into what is required of the dāʿī or the ḥujja, or those who make up the daʿwa in any section of this treatise, doing so would have unduly extended it and departed from my purpose. Instead I have abbreviated each chapter to the essential point, out of fear of unduly lengthening it. However, if I wished to abbreviate it in truth, I could have simplified it by saying that the daʿwa is built on knowledge, God-fearing piety and good management. These three terms combine in themselves all its conditions. What is sound in what I have said is due to the inspiration of God and the wonderful support of the guardian of the age for his servant. However, the faults and shortcomings that may remain in it are due to my incapacity, inability and lack of knowledge. But the truth is the goal and the good is what I aimed at, and to the extent of my knowledge and ability, I have assembled and composed it. In all of my affairs it is on God I rely. Here then ends A Brief and Concise Treatise that outlines the conditions of the rightly guiding daʿwa.

. Qurʾān, 15: 42 and 17: 65.

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Horst, Heribert. ‘Bildungs und Unterhaltungsliteratur’, in Helmut Gätje, ed., Grundriss der arabischen Philologie, vol. II: Literaturwissenschaft. Wiesbaden, . Ivanow, Wladimir. Ismaili Tradition Concerning the Rise of the Fatimids. London, . —— ‘The Organization of the Fatimid Propaganda’, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, New Series,  (), pp. –. Khūrī, Yūsuf Q. al-Makhṭūṭāt al-ʿArabiyya al-mawjūda fī maktabat al-Jāmiʿa al-Amrīkiya fī Bayrūt. Beirut, . Klemm, Verena. Die Mission des fāṭimidischen Agenten al-Muʾayyad fī d-dīn in Šīrāz. Frankfurt am Main, . —— Memoirs of a Mission: The Ismaili Scholar, Statesman and Poet al-Muʾayyad fi’l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī. London, . Lalani, Arzina. ‘Al-Naysaburi, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim’, Dictionary of Islamic Philosophers, ed. Oliver Leaman. London and New York, , vol . pp. –. Lane, Edward W. Arabic-English Lexicon. Beirut, reprint ,  vols. Leder, Stephan. ‘Aspekte arabischer und persischer Fürstenspiegel. Legitimation, Fürstenethik, politische Vernunft’, Hallesche Beiträge zur Orientwissenschaft, ed. Walter Beltz und Sebastian Günther,  (), pp. –. Poonawala, Ismail K. Biobibliography of Ismāʿīlī Literature. Malibu, CA, . al-Qadi, Wadad. ‘An Early Fāṭimid Political Document’, Studia Islamica,  (), pp. –. Salinger, Gerald. ‘A Muslim Mirror for Princes’, Muslim World,  (), pp. –. Stern, Samuel M. ‘Cairo as the Centre of the Ismāʿīlī Movement’, in his Studies in Early Ismāʿīlism. Leiden, , pp. –. Walker, Paul E. Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī: Ismaili Thought in the Age of al-Ḥākim. London, . —— Exploring an Islamic Empire: Fatimid History and its Sources. London, . —— Fatimid History and Ismaili Doctrine. Aldershot, . —— Caliph of Cairo: Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, 996–1021. Cairo and New York, . —— ‘The Ismaili Daʿwa in the Reign of the Fatimid Caliph al-Ḥākim,’ Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt  (), pp. –, reprinted in his Fatimid History and Ismaili Doctrine, article III. —— ‘Another Family of Fatimid Chief Qadis: The al-Fāriqīs,’ Journal of Druze Studies,  (), pp. –, reprinted in his Fatimid History and Ismaili Doctrine, article IV. —— ‘“In Praise of al-Ḥākim”: Greek Elements in Ismaili Writings on the Imamate’, in Emma Gannagé et al., eds., The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought: Proceedings of the Conference at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 16–27 June 2003 (special issue of Mélanges de l’Université SaintJoseph,  (): –, reprinted in his Fatimid History and Ismaili Doctrine, article IX. Wensinck, A.J. et al., eds., Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane/ al-Muʿjam al-mufahras li-alfāẓ al-ḥadīth al-nabawī. Leiden, –.

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Abbasids , 8–0 ʿAbd Allāh al-Mahdī 4 ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṭāhir 0 ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Ilyās 23 Abraham 4, 3,  adab, ādāb 2–3, –9, 3, , 8, 2, 23, 33 adab literature 8, 3 administration , 2–2, 4, 3, , 7–72 agnostics 27, 7 ʿahd see oath ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib 7, , 28, 38, 8 allegorical exegesis/interpretation 7, 8, 4, , 37, 42, 44, 9, 4 amīr al-muʾminīn see Commander of the Believers animal nature 27, 7 sacrificial 9,  anthology , –7, 9 Anushirvan  Arab, Arabic 9–0, 4, 2–22, 49, , 9, 7 ascetics 7 associate (as person) 3, 8, 70, 7 association (with God) 39, 40, 4, 0 astronomer 48 authority, of the dāʿī , , 2, 24, 3, 38, 4 authority of the imam 38,  al-ʿAzīz bi’llāh 4 bāb 3, 7, 7 bāṭin see meaning, inner

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bayʿa see oath believers 2, , 2–27, 3, 4, 43, 47, 0–, 3–4, , 9–, 3–7, 9–70, 73–7 al-Bharuchi, Ḥasan b. Nūḥ , –7 Bohra 2, , 9 bribes 3, 8, 7 Byzantine  Cairo 3–4, , 8, 3, 24 chastity 2,  chief dāʿī 2, 7, 3, 2, 28–29, 30, 3 chief qāḍī 7, 29 children 2, 7 chivalry 27, 3, 7 Commander of the Believers 23, 2, 38, 40, 0, 8, 70, 7, 73 congregation , , 8, 70, 73 corruption 2, 2–2, 28, 40, , 3, 8, 0, 2–8, 70–72, 7 covenant , 38–39, 3, 8, 0–, , 74 dāʿī al-duʿāt see also chief dāʿī qualifications of 2, 4–, 3, 42–7 David 48 daʿwa –7, –, 23–3, 3–42, 4–47, 49–0, 2–4, 8, 4-7, 7–7 business of 2, 72 management of , 2, 47, 7, 72, 7 qualifications of 2, 4– qualities of 47–48, 9

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English Index debate, disputation 38, 42–43, 0, – deceit 8, 74 destruction 3,  devotion 8, 3, 38, 4, 7 dignity 3, 9, 8 dīn ; see also daʿwa and religion disintegration , 2 disloyalty , 27, 38, 8, , 7, 7, 74, 7 doubt 2, 37, 40, 2, 72–73 Druze 4, 24, 29 education 8, 2–3, , 2, 39–40, 43, 4–47, 0, 0–2, 72–73 emissary , 27, –, 70–7, 74 enemy 37, , 7; see also opponents error 37, 40, 3, 7, 0 evil 27, 3, 4, 4, , 7 excess 37, 8–9, , 9 exclusion 2, 73, 7 faith , 27–28, 3, 3, 4, 42, 4, 3, , 7–72, 74–7 falsehood 40, 42, 44, , 8–0 family 29, 4, 2, , 8, 8, 70 al-Fāriqī, Malik b. Saʾīd 29 Fatimids –8, –3, –7, 23–2, 28–30 fault 3–37, 7–0, 2, , 8, 7, 74, 7 forgiveness 2, 2–2, , 3, 4, 72, 7 funds 2, , 7, 72–73 generosity 2, 47, 2 genre 7–9, 3 God , 4–, 22, 2–2, 3, 3–4, 48–3, –7 governance 8–, 4–, 2, 27, 29–30, 42, 4–47, 3–4, , 8, 70–7, 74 greed 27, 8, , 7, 7, 7 guide, guidance 2–4, 8, 3, 37, 39, 49, 0, 0, 4, 7–7

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ḥadd, ḥudūd see rank ḥadīth 7, 22, 42 harmony 9, 73 al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh 2, 4, 7, 0, 23, 24, 2, 28, 29, 30, 3 Ḥātim b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāmidī , 4, , 8, 20 Hellenistic traditions 9 hellfire 37, 2, 4 hierarchy –2, , , 3, 38, 43–44, 0, , 7 house, household , 4–4, –8 ḥujja 4, , 3, 72, 7 humbleness 2, 3, , 8 hypocrisy 3, 0 Ibn Abi’l-ʿAwwām 29–30 Ibn al-Muqaffaʾ 9 ʿilm see knowledge imam, imamate 2–8, , 4–, 8, 22–29, 3, 3–37, 39–42, 44, 49, , 3–, 8, , 70–7 immigrant 30, , 70 initiation 2, 2 injustice 37, 9 inner meaning see under meaning instruction –2, , 2, 4, 28, 38, 43, 0, 2 intelligence 44, 47, 2, 2, 7 intertextuality –3 Iran 3–4, 9–0 Iraq , 30 Ismail 3 Ismaili, Ismailis –9, –4, 28 Ivanow, Wladimir –3, –, 23 Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq 8, 4, 4, 4, ,  jazīra see region Jesus 49,  jesting 9, 8 Jonah  judges 7, 29, 47, 4; see also chief qāḍī

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jurist 7, 47 justice 47, , 9–70 Khatkīn al-Ḍayf 30–3 kindness , 4, , 70, 73 al-Kirmānī, Ḥamīd al-Dīn 2, 4, 9, 30–3 Kitāb al-azhār , 7–2 Kitāb daʿāʾim al-Islām 7,  Kitāb al-himma fī ādāb atbā’ al-aʾimma  Kitāb ististār al-imām wa tafarruq al-duʿāt li–ṭalabihi 3–4 Kitāb al-jihād  Kitāb tuḥfat al-qulūb wa furjat al-makrūb ,  knowledge 3, , 4–, 2, 3–3, 38–0, 2–3, –7, 9, –3, –8, 72–73, 7 cognitive knowledge , 43 sensate knowledge , 43 law 7, 37, 42, 44, 4, 4 leadership 2, 3, 2–4, 8 learning , 2, 3, 39, 4, 2, 7, 2, 4 libertarians 27, 7 lies, lying 27, 37, 8, 7 lineage 2 loyalty 4, , 3, 38, 49, 73 Luqmān 3 maʾdhūn 47, 3– majlis, majālis see sessions of wisdom manuscripts 3, , –22 al-Maqrīzī 28–30 materialists 27, 7 meaning 2, 3–4, 47, 49, 9 inner 4, 37–40, 42, 47, 0, 9, , 3, 4 outer 4, 3, 40, 0, 4 mediation 9

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mercifulness, mercy 4 of God 2, , 4, 8, 74–7 of the imam 2, 27, , 7 of the daʿi 2, , 3 messengers , 70 messenger of God 37, 39, 4, 44, 48–49, , 3, 9, , –, 74–7 Mirror of Princes 8–3 miserliness 2, 8, 2, 72 mission , 3–, 8; see also daʿwa modesty 3, , 7 Moses 4, 48,  al-Muʾayyad fī’l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī 3–4 al-Muʿizz , 4 mukāsir 3–4, 7, 7 nasīḥat al-mulūk 8–0 Naysābūr 4, 0 al-Naysābūrī, Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm 2–4, 7–8, 0–4, 9, 20, 23–2, 28, 3, 3 Neoplatonism –2, 9 nobility 3, 3, 4, 49, 2, 9, 2 North Africa 4 novice , 2–3, , 38–40, 42–43, 4–47, 0, 2–4, 9–4 oath 2, 30, 39, 8, 0–2; see also covenant obedience , 4, , 73, 7–7 obscenity 9, 8 Oneness of God 37, 39–40, 44, 49,  opponents 27, 3, 43–44, 0–, –7, 9, 7, 74; see also enemy Pand nāmak 9 patience 47, 3, 4, 9 Persia, Persian , 8–0,  philosopher, philosophy , 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 42, 44

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English Index physics 44 piety –2, 4–, 27, 42, 4, 49–0, 8, , 72, 7, 7 pledges see oath populace 27, 2, 74 prayer leader 47–48 pride , 7, 3, 7 Prophet, the 7, 4, 22–23, 28, 30, 3, 37, 42, 4, 48–2, 4, , 2–3, –8, 70, 72, 74 prophet 3, 37, 4, 3–4 punishment , 2, 38, 48, 2, 4, 72–73, 7 qāḍī 8, 28–29 al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān –7, 0–, 3 qāḍī al-quḍāt 29; see also chief qāḍī quarrels 27, 9, 7 questions, questioner 2, 40, 43, 0, 4, 8, 2–3, 7–72 Qurʾān 7, 4, 9, 2, 22, 4–4, 47, , 8 rank –2, 4, 8, 0, 2, 3–3, 38, 47, 7, 0, , 2, 4, 8, 74, 7 Rayy 0 rebellion , 2–27, 3, , , 72–73, 7 refutation 38, 40, 43 region 0–, 2, 27, 2, , , 8, 70, 7, 74 religion 4, 4, 2–27, 3, 3–38, 40, 42, 44, 4–, 7–0, 4–72, 74–7 responsibility 2, 8, –2, , 2, 43, 4, 48, , 0, 72 ruin 27, 3, 8, , 7 rulers 4, 8, 9, –2, 3, , 9, 7

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sacrifice 9 al-Ṣādiq, Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad see Jaʿfar al-Ṣadiq Salamiyya 4 salvation 4, 48, 73, 7 satan 37–38, 8 scholars 7–9, 20–2, 3, 49, , 7 secret 39, 3, 7, , 4, 7 security 27, , 7 servants , 2, 27, 4, 7, –8, 74–7 sessions of wisdom 2, , 8, 28–3, 7, 3, 8–9, 70, 73 shepherds 48, 72 Shiʿi , 7–8, 9, 4, 30 sin 0, 4, 7 siyāsa see governance skill , 47–49, 3 soul 37, 4–4, 48, 4, , 8–0, 2, , 70, 73 spiritual world –3, 38, 44 statesmanship 8, 4 stipulations , 4, 4, 7–7 subordinates 8, ,  Sulaymān 3 Sunni , 7, 28–29, 37 sunna 37, 4 Ṭāhir b. Ḥusayn 0 Ṭāhirids 0 taqwā see piety taʾwīl see allegorical exegesis Ṭayyibi 2, , , 7 teaching , 20, 4, , 4 tests and testing 24, 38, 4, 47, 4 topoi 2, 3 travel 4,  truth –2, 4, 3–40, 44, 47–48, 0, 3, , 2, ,72, 7 uprightness 2, , 9, , 7

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vices 4, 4 virtue , 2, , 3, 4–47, 9, 3, 7 voraciousness 8; see also greed

women 7, 72 world, worldliness , 3, , 3–38, 40, 42, 44, –2, 4–, 8, 4–, 9, 73–74

wisdom 2, 2–28, 30–3, 3–39, 42–44, 2, 7–8, 73–74 wives 7, 72

Yaḥyā of Antioch 30

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ẓāhir see meaning, outer

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