Fortresses of the Intellect: Ismaili and other Islamic Studies in Honour of Farhad Daftary ed. by Omar Alí-de-Unzaga (review)

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

Reviewed by: Fortresses of the Intellect: Ismaili and other Islamic Studies in Honour of Farhad Daftary ed. by Omar Alí-de-Unzaga Tatsuya Kikuchi Fortresses of the Intellect: Ismaili and other Islamic Studies in Honour of Farhad Daftary ed. Omar Alí-de-Unzaga, 2011. London & New York: I. B. Tauris, 2011, 600 pp., £25.00. isbn: 978-1-84885-626-4. This festschrift is dedicated to the achievements of Farhad Daftary, who has been leading Isma‘ili studies since 1990, when his magnum opus, The Ismā’īlis: Their History and Doctrines (Cambridge), was first published. The articles included in the volume cover various issues, but most of them are connected with the three areas in which Daftary’s scholarship has had a great impact: Isma‘ili studies, Persian studies, and the wider context of Shi‘i studies. With regard to Isma‘ili studies, this festschrift shows us not only the extent of progress made over twenty odd years since the publication of Daftary’s monumental work but also the kind of problems that still exist. I will mention one of such problems, after briefly introducing the articles which relate to Isma‘ili studies. This book contains twenty-two articles and notes, beginning with (1) Omar Alí-de-Unzaga’s ‘Introduction: A Biographical Sketch’, which covers Daftary’s life and studies, and (2) ‘Bibliography of the Works of Farhad Daftary’. The first article to focus on Isma‘ili studies is (5) wherein Wilferd Madelung and Paul E. Walker edit and translate the Arabic text attributed to ‘Abdan (d. 286/899), an important leader of the early Qarmatians. In the introduction, the authors point out that the text does not show any trace of Neoplatonism and does not include the concept of the divine Command or Word, both of which were characteristics of the Isma‘ili Persian School. Then, in (7), Abbas Hamdani maintains that a comparison of the description of Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’ with those of al-Kindi (d. 252/866), al-Farabi (d. 339/959), some theologians, and Shi‘i thinkers reveals that it was composed in the late ninth century as part of the Isma‘ili movement of the time. And, in (8), Carmela Baffioni points out the similarities in the usage of ibda‘, which means the world created from nothing by God or by the act of creation, between Rasa’il Ikhwan [End Page 361] al-Safa’ and Isma‘ili thinkers belonging to the Persian School. She also suggests the possibility that the Ikhwan al-Safa’ were close to Isma‘ilism and that their epistles contain several ideas of contemporary Isma‘ilism. Both Hamdani and Baffioni maintain that the Ikhwan al-Safa’ had close connections with the Isma‘ilis, but they differ on the dating of the composition of the Rasa’il. The former thought much of the similarity between the Ikhwan al-Safa’ and al-Kindi and their relations with the Fatimids, while the latter was interested in the affinity of the Ikhwan al-Safa’ to the Persian School. When and how they were related to the Isma‘ilis, rather than whether there was a connection between the two, might now become a controversial issue. Then, in (9), István Hajnal aims to shed light on the flexible policies of the Qarmatians in Bahrain and their underlying motivation, which has hitherto not received much attention. The transformation of Qarmatian eschatology, explained to some extent in this article, is also important in view of the possibility of its comparison with the contemporary eschatology of the Fatimids. Next, in (10), Hamid Haji reports the life of al-Ustadh Jawdhar (d. 362/973) who served the first four imam-caliphs of the Fatimids for over sixty years (also see his new book, Inside The Immaculate Portal: A History from the Fatimid Archives, London, 2012). This is followed by (11), in which Ismail K. Poonawala asserts that al-Qadi al-Nu‘man (d. 363/974), the founder of Isma‘ili jurisprudence, was considered an Imami by some Imamis themselves one century before Ibn Khallikan (d. 681/1282) wrote a report on him. Poonawala also presents al-Nu‘man’s refutation of the idea of Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276/889...