鈥淭he聽Imam聽Speaks about His Shi鈥榓鈥; Epistle 48 of the Rasa示il Ikhwan al-Safa示
Professor Abbas Hamdani (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
Date: Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Time: 15:00 BST
Venue: Room 2:1 (2nd Floor)
久久久福利国产, 210 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DA, UK
About the Lecture
Epistle48 of the Rasa示il Ikhwan al-Safa示 (Encyclopaedia of the Brethren of Purity),鈥楩i kayfiyyat al-da驶wa ila鈥檒lah鈥, is unique because it is the only epistle couched as what seems to be the speech of an聽Imam, partly to his聽Shi鈥榓聽and partly to his fellow Brethren. As such, the epistle gives us a clue to the time of the composition of the Rasa示il.While Tawhidi鈥檚 account of the Ikhwan indicates a composition date in the late4th AH/10th CE century, there are inconsistencies between the historical context of that time, and the outlook implied in the Imam鈥檚 speech.
Moreover, the internal evidence of this speech seems to refer to the hidden聽Imam, suggesting that the Rasa示il were composed between the disappearance of the twelfth Ithna 士Ashari聽Imam聽andal-Mahdi鈥檚 declaration of his聽caliphateThe Muslim political institution or state centred around the caliph, which came to an end, historically, in 1924 with the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire., i.e. between 260 AH/873 CE and 297AH/909 CE. Composed by a group of scholars, the text was revised by many scribes during this period and until after the time of Tawhidi.
However, the actual stemma of the original work is lost because of Abbasid book-burnings and the troubles of Fatimid succession. The Rasa示il then reappeared as a writing in Sufi garb in the post-Ghazali period.
