The Banquet of the Brethren - (Ismaili Texts and Translations) by Rahim Gholami (Hardcover)

About the Book

A new critical edition of Nasir-i Khusraw's Khwan al-Ikhwanincluding an editorial introduction and notes.

Book Synopsis

I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies

The Ismaili da'i (missionary) and poet Nasir-i Khusraw (d. after 1070) wrote Khwan al-ikhwan (The Banquet of the Brethren) when he was living in his remote mountain refuge of Yumgan in Badakhshan. This work includes a précis of ideas found in the Kitab al-Yanabi' (al-hikma) (The Wellsprings of Wisdom), written by the earlier da'i Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani (d. ca. 971). Nasir-i Khusraw recast these ideas in Persian and then expanded them into 100 chapters (or 'courses' of a banquet). The text presents a sequence of dynamic arguments for divine unicity (tawhid), while also asserting the authority of the Prophet Muhammad, his legatee and son-in-law 'Ali b. Abi Talib, and the subsequent Imams from the line of the Prophet's descendant Isma'il b. Ja'far al-Sadiq.

Khwan al-ikhwan stands as a significant work in Ismaili theology and philosophy, exemplifying the central role of ta'wil (esoteric interpretation). It also reflects the learning of the age, including the
conception of a geocentric cosmos, Aristotelian physics, and Neoplatonic philosophy, all of which profoundly influenced the Ismaili da'is in Iran.

This new Persian critical edition is based on the only two extant manuscripts of Khwan al-ikhwan, while referring additionally to Henry Corbin's edition of al-Sijistani's Kitab al-Yanabi'. Rahim Gholami has also prepared an accompanying volume containing an annotated English translation of the Persian text.

About the Author

Rahim Gholami is Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK. He received his PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter, UK in 2021.