Preface

Note on transliteration and abbreviations

Notes on the contributors

Introduction: Isma`ilis and Isma`ili studies

Farhad Daftary

PART I THE CLASSICAL PHASE

The Fatimids and the Qarmatis of Bahrayn

Wilferd Madelung

The cosmology of the pre-Fatimid Isma`iliyya

Heinz Halm

Abu Ya`qub al-Sijistani and the seven faculties of the Intellect

Wilferd Madelung

The Isma`ili oath of allegiance (`ahd) and the `sessions of wisdom' (majalis al-hikma) in Fatimid times

Heinz Halm

Al-Qadi al-Nu`man and Isma`ili jurisprudence

Ismail K. Poonawala

A critique of Paul Casanova's dating of the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa'

Abbas Hamdani

Portraits of self and others: Isma`ili perspectives on the history of religions

Azim A. Nanji

An Isma`ili version of the heresiography of the seventy-two erring sects

Paul E. Walker

PART II THE NIZARI PHASE

Hasan-i Sabbah and the origins of the Nizari Isma`ili movement

Farhad Daftary

The power struggle between the Saljuqs and the Isma`ilis of Alamut, 487-518/1094-1124: The Saljuq perspective

Carole Hillenbrand

The Isma`ilis of Quhistan and the Maliks of Nimruz or Sistan

C. Edmund Bosworth

The philosopher/vizier: Khwaja Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and the Isma`ilis

Hamid Dabashi

`Sometimes by the sword, sometimes by the dagger': The role of the Isma`ilis in Mamluk-Mongol relations in the 8th/14th century

Charles Melville

The Isma`ili ginans: Reflections on authority and authorship

Ali S. Asani

The Nuqtawi movement of Mahmud Pisikhani and his Persian cycle of mystical-materialism

Abbas Amanat

Bibliography

Index