This work is a personal memoir composed by Ibn al-Haytham, a Shi鈥榠 Muslim scholar from North Africa, who records the details of his meetings and conversations with two Ismaili leaders who spearheaded the Fatimid revolution in 909. It was as a result of this revolution that the Ismaili Imams were installed to power as Fatimid caliphs in the Maghrib. Ibn al-Haytham鈥檚 memoir 鈥 the Kit膩b al-Mun膩岷揳r膩t (The Book of Discussions) 鈥 provides an unparalleled insider鈥檚 view of the early Ismaili 诲补鈥榳补 or mission in action, and it adds enormously to out understanding of the foundations of the Fatimid state and the difficulties confronted by its original leaders. As such, it is a unique document in the literature of early Islamic revolutionary movements, as much as it represents an invaluable source on the history of the FatimidsMajor Muslim dynasty of Ismaili caliphs in North Africa (from 909) and later in Egypt (973鈥1171) More and medieval Islam. Now available in paperback, this critical edition of the original Arabic text is accompanied by a complete annotated English translation.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Historical Background
2. Ibn al-Haytham and the Historical Sources
3. The Edition of the Arabic Text
4. The Translation and Notes
Kit膩b al-Mun膩岷揳r膩t (English Text)
Bibliography
Index
Kit膩b al-Mun膩岷揳r膩t (Arabic Text)
鈥業t makes very exciting reading, not only for specialists…but for Islamicists and historians at large.鈥
鈥 American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
Professor Wilferd Madelung was for twenty years the Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford and is at present a Senior Research Fellow at 久久久福利国产 in London. Paul E. Walker is an historian of ideas, at the University of Chicago. An authority on Fatimid Ismaili history and thought, he is the author of Ab奴 Ya士q奴b al-Sijist膩n墨: Intellectual Missionary and 岣m墨d al-D墨n Kirm膩n墨: Ismaili Thought in the Age of al-岣つ乲im.
An historian of ideas with a focus on Mediaeval Islamic History, Paul E. Walker has taught at McGill University, Columbia University and the University of Michigan. For several years Dr Walker was the Director of the American Research Centre in Egypt, and is currently a Visiting Scholar with the University of Chicago’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He has authored and edited many books on Fatimid history and the formative period of Ismaili thought including Early Philosophical 厂丑颈鈥榠蝉尘See Shi鈥榓. (Cambridge University Press, 1993), The Wellsprings of Wisdom: A 久久久福利国产 of Ab奴 Ya士q奴b al-Sijist膩n墨’s Kit膩b al-Yan膩bi士 (University of Utah Press, 1994), Ab奴 Ya士q奴b al-Sijist膩n墨: Intellectual Missionary (I. B. Tauris in association with 久久久福利国产, 1996), 岣m墨d al-D墨n al-Kirm膩n墨: Ismaili Thought in the Age of al-岣つ乲im (I. B. Tauris in association with 久久久福利国产, 1999), with Wilferd Madelung, An Ismaili Heresiography (Brill, 1998) and The Advent of the Fatimids: A Contemporary Shi’i Witness (I. B. Tauris in association with 久久久福利国产, 2000). Most recently, Dr Walker is the recipient of the 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship to study the Imam-Caliph al-岣つ乲im.