The Ismailis in the Middle Ages : A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation
by Virani, Shafique N.
Published by : Oxford University Press (Karachi, Pakistan) Physical details: xix,301 Pages 16x24 cm | HB ISBN:9780199731411. Year: 2007| Item type | Current location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Books
|
General Stacks | 297.82209 V813I 2007 (Browse shelf) | Available | 16661 |
In the 13th century, an edict of the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan ordained that the Ismaili Muslims, who had hitherto resisted all attempts at subjugation, be utterly destroyed. This text examines the most obscure portion of this period, from the mid 13th century to the end of the 15th century.
Include Maps, Glossary, Abbreviations, Notes, Bibliography and Index.
“None of that people should be spared, not even the babe in its cradle”. With these chilling words, the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan declared his intention to destroy the Ismailis, one of the most intellectually and politically significant Muslim communities of medieval Islamdom. The massacres that followed convinced observers that this powerful voice of Shi'i Islam had been forever silenced. Little was heard of these people for centuries, until their recent and dramatic emergence from obscurity. Today they exist as a dynamic and thriving community established in over twenty-five countries. Yet the interval between what appeared to have been their total annihilation, and their modern, seemingly phoenix-like renaissance has remained shrouded in mystery. This book probes the period from the dark days when the Ismaili fortresses in Iran fell one by one before the marauding Mongol hordes, to the emergence at Anjudan of the Ismaili Imams as the spiritual center of a community scattered across much of the Muslim world. The work explores the motivations, passions, and presumptions of historical actors while contemplating the esoteric worldview that animated the Ismailis and gave them the wherewithal to persevere. It explains how three aspects of Ismaili thought were crucial to the community's survival: taqiyya (precautionary dissimulation); the Ismaili da'wa, which literally means “summons”; and the soteriological dimension of the imamate and, in particular, of the role of the Imam of one's time in leading the adept to salvation and a mystical recognition of God.
There are no comments for this item.