File-786652279.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
\Tasir &Din Tusi, a renowned ShCi Muslim cholar of the thirteenth century, produccd a vide range of writings in different fields of carning under Ismaili patronage and later mder the Mongols. His work brought him ;reat acclaim and, as a result of his changing rfiliations in the course oi a brilliant scholastic :areer, he is claimed by both the Twelvcr Shi'i ~ndIsmaili traditions. Contemplation and Action is Tfisi's spiritual autobiography, in which he recounts details of his carly education, search for knowledge and evcntual conversion to thc Ismaili faith. It is also a clear and vivid elaboration of the Ismaili doctrine of tdlim, the nccd for an authoritative teacher in spiritual knowlrdgc. Translated for thc tirst time into English, it is published here with the full Persian text and an introductory essay on rusi's life, his relations with the Ismailis and ihc significance of his work. CONTEMPLATION AND ACTION The Spiritual Autobiography of a Muslim Scholar A New Edition and English Translation of Sayr wa Suluk by S. J. Badakhchani 1.B.Tauris LONDON NEW YORK in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies LONDON Published in 1998 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd The Institute of Ismaili Studies Victoria House Bloomsbury Square London WClB 4DZ The Institute of Ismaili Studies was established in 1977 with 175 Fifth Avenue the object of promoting scholarship and learning on Islam, in NewYorkNY 10010 the historical as well as contemporary contexts, and a better understanding of its relationship with other societies and faiths. in association with The Institute's programmes encourage a perspective which The Institute of Ismaili Studies is not confined to the theological and religious heritage of Is- 42-44 Grosvenor Gardens lam, but seek to explore the relationship of religious ideas to London SWlW OEB broader dimensions of society and culture. They thus encour- In the United States of America age an interdisciplinary approach to the materials of Islamic and in Canada distributed by history and thought. Particular attention is also given to issues St Martin's Press of modernity that arise as Muslims seek to relate their heritage 175 Fifth Avenue to the contemporary situation. NewYorkNY 10010 Within the Islamic tradition, the Institute's programmes seek to promote research on those areas which have, to date, re- Copright Q 1998 Islamic Publications Ltd ceived relatively little attention from scholars. These include All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book the intellectual and literary expressions of Shi'ism in general, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without per- and Ismailism in particular. mission in writing from the publisher. In the context of Islamic societies, the Institute's programmes are informed by the full range and diversity of cultures in which A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Libra~y Islam is practised today, from the Middle East, Southern and A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Central Asia and Africa to the industrialized societies of the West, thus taking into consideration the variety of contexts ISBN 1 85043 908 7 which shape the ideals, heliefs and practices of the faith. The publications of the Institute fall into several distinct Libra~yof Congress catalog card number: available categories: Tpeset in ITC New Baske~lleby Hepton Books, Oxford 1. Occasional papers or essays addressing broad themes of the Persian text typeset by HKH Design, London relationship between religion and society in the historical Printed and bound in Great Britain by WBC Ltd, Bridgend vi Contemplation and Action as well as modern contexts, with special reference to Islam, Contents but encompassing, where appropriate, other faiths and cul- tures. 2. Proceedings of conrerences or symposia. 3. Works exploring a specific theme or aspect of Islamic faith or culture, or the contribution of an individual figure or writer. 4. Translations of poetic or literary texts. 5. Editions or translations of significant texts of a primary or secondary nature. 6. Ismaili studies. This publication comes under category five. In facilitating these and other publications, the Institute's sole aim is to encourage original, interesting and mature thought, scholarship and analysis of the relevant issues. There will natu- rally be a diversity of views, ideas and interpretations, and the opinions expressed, will be those of the authors. Acknowledgements The publication of the present edition and English translation of the Sayr wa suluk has heen made possible by the support and assistance of a number of people, among them Professor Muhsin Mahdi of Harvard University who first urged me to undertake this task, and Professor Herman Landolt of McGill University who contributed to the preparation of the initial draft of the translation. In the course of finalizing the text for publication, I received invaluable help from the lateJohn Cooper when we were both graduate students at the Oriental Institute in Oxford. Subse- quently he was appointed E. G. Browne Lecturer in Persian Studies at the University of Cambridge and also taught in the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and the Humanities at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London.John Copper's schol- arship was exceptional and his willingness to share it exemplary. His death shortly before the publication of this book has re- moved from our midst a most promising scholar of Islamic Studies in general and of Shi'ism in particular. I am also much indebted to Professor Wilferd Madelung who kindly looked at the translation on more than one occasion and to Farhad Daftary for his unfailing encouragement and enthusiasm. I would further like to record my gratitude lo my colleagues at The Institute of Ismaili Studies who have facilitated this pub- lication in various ways, in particular Kutub Kassam for his editorial expertise in the English part of the work, Faquir M. Hunzai who, apart from proofreading the Persian text, made a numbcr of useful suggestions on the translation; and Alnoor Merchant of the Institutc's library. My words of thanks cannot be complete if I do not mention x Contemplation and Action the support and inspiration that I have received from my wife, Note on the Text Pari Badakhchani, without whom this work might not have materialized. Finally, while I am greatly indebted to all those I have men- tioned for making this publication possible, any errors or shortcomings in it are entirely my own responsibility. The Sayr wa-suluk was not traditionally listed in the inventory ofTnsi's writings; but on the basis of its style, content and auto- biographical evidence, contemporary bibliographers have now come to accept that it does come from the pen of Tnsi. This recognition first emerged after the publication in 1956 of an abridged version of the text, called Gufta6 az Khwilja-yi Tusi bi rawish-i Bitiniyan, by the Iranian scholar Muhammd Taqi Dinish-pazhnh. Simultaneously, to commemorate the 700th anniversary of Tnsi's death, a collection of his Persian treatises was published by Muhammad Taqi Mudarris Radawi under the title of Majmu'ayi rasa'il. This collection included the text of Sayr wa suluk which was, in fact, the complete version of the Gtftar. Mudarris Radawi's edition was based mainly on two relatively modern manuscrip& a copy at Dinishkada-yi Adahiyyit Library (Qazwini collection), with corrections and marginal notes by two eminent Iranian scholars, namely Sayyid Nasr Allih Taqawi (editor of Nisir Khusraw's Diwan), and Muhammad Qazwini (editor of Juwayni's Tirikh-i jahan-gashay); and a copy that Mudarris Radawi had prepared for himself from an earlier printed version of the text based on older manuscripts. In the notes to his edition, Mudarris Radawi also speaks of several other printed versions of the Sayr wa suluk known to him. It is very likely that all these texts, including the ones used by Mudarris Radawi, were based on one or more of the follow- ing manuscripts: (i) Majlis Library, no. 5138/61, dated 1024-io57/i615-1647, and no. 5063/2, dated 13z8/1gio, which was prepared for Nasr Allah Taqawi and collated with other manuscripts; (ii) Dinishgah Tehran, no. 107g/5, dated ... xii Contemplatzon and Actzon Note on the Text Xlll loq?/i637; (iii) Danishkada-yi Huqilq Library, text of the with a significant idea or with a cluster of related ideas are Gtftari az Khwija, no. 62/19, no date; (iv) hghar-i Mahdawi, numbered [§I to facilitate cross-reference between text, trans- no. 364/37, dated 12440/ 1824; (v) Malik Library, no. 6193/8, lation and introduction. dated 1279/1862; (vi) &tan Quds, Mashhad, ms. no. 12243/ It should be noted further that references to the Qur'inic lo, copied by Asad Allih Munajjim Dudinga HizarJaribi, dated verses cited by the author are given only in the English version 1306/1888. and follow the numbering system of Yusuf 'Ali's edition; for The present edition of the Sayr wa suluk is an improved ver- the interpretation of these verses, however, I have consulted a sion of the text, which was arrived at by collating Mudarris number of modern English translations. Radawi's edition with the Guftar, as well as other works of Tosi, in particular the Rawdayi taslim, Aghaz wa anjam, Tawalla wa tabumi and MatlGb al-mu'minin, in which some of the topics discussed in this work occur frequently, sometimes in more or less identical language. In this edition, apart from applying contemporary Persian orthographical conventions, I have corrected the typographi- cal errors and in two instances reconstructed the text as indicated between squal-e brackets. The system of transliteration adopted for Persian and Ara- bic scripts is a modified version of the one used in the new edition of the En~ncyclopaediaofIslam, except for the letters dj, k and i.