Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi | |
|---|---|
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Fatimid |
| Region | Islamic philosophy |
| School | Isma'ili |
| Main interests | Islamic cosmology,Islamic eschatology,daʿwa, history |
Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhı̄m al-Nisaburi oral-Naysaburi (Arabic:أحمد بن إبراهيم النيسابوري;fl. late 10th century/early 11th century) was anIsma'ili scholar fromNishapur, who entered the service of theFatimid caliphsal-Aziz Billah andal-Hakim bi-Amr Allah inCairo. His life is relatively obscure, and is known chiefly from references in his works. Among them three stand out as highly important for Fatimid and Isma'ili history: theIstitār al-imām, a historical work that offers unique information on the early history of the Isma'ili movement and the rise of the Fatimid Caliphate, theRisāla al-mūjaza, which contains an exposition on the qualities and duties of the ideal Isma'ili missionary, and theIthbāt al-imāma, an influential analysis of Isma'ili conceptions of theimamate, combiningrationalist philosophical argument with Islamic theology.
Very little is known about Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi's life, apart from what can be gleaned from his works.[1] As hisnisbah reveals, he came fromNishapur, which at the time was a major centre ofIsma'ili missionary activity (daʿwa) inKhurasan.[1] Some of the chief Isma'ili theologians of the period, men likeMuhammad al-Nasafi andAbu Yaqub al-Sijistani, and laterHamid al-Din al-Kirmani, were active thered.[2] The Isma'ilidaʿwa was largely tolerated by the localSamanid dynasty, and Nishapur at the time was experiencing an intellectual renaissance: the great philosopherAvicenna was a son of an Isma'ili convert, and the philosophical traditions of the time, emphasizingrationalism, are evident in al-Naysaburi's own works.[1][3]
Like his contemporary, Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, and the lateral-Mu'ayyad fi'l-Din al-Shirazi, al-Naysaburi left his native city and settled inCairo, the capital of the Isma'iliFatimid Caliphate, during the reign of Caliphal-Aziz Billah (r. 975–996). He remained there during the subsequent reign ofal-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996–1021), rising to what, according to the historianPaul E. Walker, appears to have been a high-ranking position in the Isma'ilidaʿwa.[4] It was during al-Hakim's reign that al-Naysaburi composed his works,[5] with topics ranging from history to theology and literature.[1]
Al-Naysaburi's three main works are theIstitār al-imām,Risāla al-mūjaza, andIthbāt al-imāma, the second of which has not survived directly, but through inclusion in a later work.[6]
His workIstitār al-imām wa tafarruq al-duʿāt fi’l-jazāʾir li-ṭalabih ("[Book on the] Concealment of the Imam and the Dispersal ofDāʿīs in Search of Him to Different ‘Islands’"), usually shortened toIstitār al-imām, is a significant historical source on the early history of the Isma'ili movement, the early schism that resulted in the flight ofAbdullah al-Mahdi Billah, from the Isma'ili headquarters atSalamiyya, and his journey toNorth Africa, where he established the Fatimid Caliphate in 909.[2][7][8] It also contains the first public version of the Fatimid dynasty's official genealogy, possibly published, as the historian Michael Brett suggests, as a reaction to the anti-FatimidBaghdad Manifesto issued by theAbbasid caliphal-Qahir in 1011.[9]
The work has been edited and published byWladimir Ivanow inBulletin of the Faculty of Arts (University of Egypt, Vol. 4, Part 2, 1936), pp. 93–107, and an English translation has been provided by the same author in hisIsmaili Tradition concerning the Rise of the Fatimids (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pp. 157–183.[10][11] The Arabic text is also published in Suhayl Zakkar'sAkhbār al-Qarāmiṭa (2nd edition, Damascus, 1982), pp. 111–132.[10][11]
His workal-Risāla al-mūjaza al-kāfiya fı̄ ādāb al-duʿāt ("Brief but Sufficient Account of the Rules of Guidance for theDāʿīs") contains the only Isma'ili treatise on the qualifications and attributes required for an Isma'ili missionary (dāʿī), and their duties and responsibilities while on mission, combining theological instruction with advice on practical matters.[12][13][14] It is an example ofadab ("appropriate behaviour, etiquette") literature.[15] Written sometime between 1013 and 1015,[16][17] it emphasizes the strict obedience owed by thedāʿī to the Caliph-Imam, and considers all other authorities illegitimate; as Michael Brett writes, his strategy aimed to "win recruits against the time when the lords of the land would be either converted or overthrown".[18]
It is quoted in full, apart from a lost introduction, by the 12th-centuryYemeniTayyibi leaderHatim ibn Ibrahim, at the end of his own treatiseTuḥfat al-qulūb,[19] and has since been transmitted among the Tayyibi community, especially theDawoodi Bohras, until the present day.[20]
A facsimile edition was published in Verena Klemm,Die Mission des fatimidischen Agenten al-Mu’ayyad fi'ddin in Siraz (Frankfurt, Peter Lang, 1989), pp. 205–277,[11][12] and a translated critical edition by Verena Klemm and Paul E. Walker asA Code of Conduct. A Treatise on the Etiquette of the Fatimid Ismaili Mission (London, 2011).
His main theological and philosophical work is theIthbāt al-imāma ("Demonstration/Proof of the Imamate"),[12][21] where he applies rationalist philosophy and thePlatonic principle of "degrees of excellence" to underpin his theological andcosmological concepts.[22] It was written in an atmosphere of deep crisis in the Isma'ilidaʿwa, created by Caliph al-Hakim's erratic changes in both doctrine and governance, and is an attempt to reaffirm, in the words of Brett, "the necessity of belief in the Imam as the source of knowledge and the authority for the law".[23] Along with the contemporary works ofAbu'l-Fawaris Ahmad ibn Ya'qub (Risāla fi’l-imāma) and al-Kirmani (al-Maṣābiḥ fī ithbāt al-imāma), and the earlierTathbīt al-imāma written by the third Fatimid caliph,al-Mansur Billah, al-Nusaybi's work provides "an extremely important representation of the Fatimid vision of the imamate".[24]
It was published by M. Ghalib, Beirut, 1984,[25] and in a critical edition with an English translation by Arzina R. Lalani, inDegrees of Excellence: A Fatimid Treatise on Leadership in Islam. An Arabic Edition and English translation of Ahmad al-Naysaburi’s Kitab Ithbat al-Imama (London, I. B. Tauris in association with theInstitute of Ismaili Studies, 2006).[11]
Other works of al-Naysaburi are theKitāb al-tawḥīd ("The Book of Unity"), a theological treatise, and theRisālā al-zāhira fī maʿrifat al-dār al-ākhīra ("The Resplendent Treatise on the Recognition of the Abode of the Hereafter"), which deals witheschatology, but its attribution to al-Naysaburi by Ivanow has been questioned by the contemporary historian Ismail Poonawala, who ascribes it to Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ya'buri al-Hamdani.[26]
