Taking advantage of contemporary sources and modern scholarship, Les isma茅liens: Histoire et traditions d’une communaut茅 musulmane, a translation of Farhad Daftary鈥檚 book A Short History of the IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Ja士far al-峁⒛乨iq (d. 765), as his successor. makes available to French speaking audiences, a survey of Ismaili history. Translated by Zarien Rajan-Badouraly, with a contextual introduction by M. A. Amirinfo-icon-Moezzi, this publication is the first major work on the history of the Ismaili community in French since the 1982 translation of Bernard Lewis鈥 The Assassins.
The Ismailis represent the second largest Shi鈥榠 Muslim community after the Ithna鈥榓sharis (TwelversSee Ithna’asharis.) and are today resident as religious minorities in more than 25 countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. Despite their long and eventful history dating back to the formative period of Islam, until recently the Ismailis were studied primarily on the basis of the accounts of their opponents and detractors, including Sunni polemicists, European travellers and Crusader chroniclers. As a result, a host of legends and misconceptions were disseminated on the teachings and practices of the Ismailis. The character and place of Ismailism in general Islamic history was further obscured by the community鈥檚 traditional practice of concealing their own writings as a precautionary measure against religious and political persecution to which they were often subjected. However, from the 1930s, the study of Ismailism began to be radically revised with the discovery of a large number of Ismaili texts preserved in private collections. Since then, modern scholarship in the field has made great strides in distinguishing fact from fiction in many aspects of Ismaili history and thought.
The publication of Les isma茅liens makes it possible for francophone audiences, in particular researchers, scholars and students, as well as interested readers to access a concise and authoritative introduction to Ismaili history and thought, based on the most up-to-date research in the field.
