Few Islamic doctrines have provoked as much division and disagreement as those bound up with the imamate: or the office of supreme leader of the Muslim community following the Prophet's death. In the medieval period; while the caliphate still existed; rivalry among claimants to that position was especially bitter and intense; causing an instability that required resolution. In the early 5th/11th century the great Ismaili thinker Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani was mandated to compose a treatise called Lights to Illuminate the Proof of the Imamate (al-Masabih fi ithbat al-imama) in the bold hope of convincing Fakhr al-Mulk; the Shi'i wazir of the Buyids in Baghdad; to abandon the Abbasids and support instead the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim. For that purpose; he assembled an interconnected series of philosophical proofs; all pointing logically to the absolute necessity of the imamate. This work is unique; both in the precision of its argumentation and in the historical circumstances of its composition. The text appears here in a modern critical edition of the Arabic original with a complete translation; introduction and notes; and will be of immense interest to scholars and students of classical Islam.
#7869128 in Books Anthem Press 2004-10-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.20 x 1.00 x 6.10l; 1.60 #File Name: 1843311356380 pages
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