Intellectual Interactions in the Islamic World Whether Geographical, Intellectual Or Religious

The Institute of Ismaili Studies Shi<i Heritage Series, 6 Editorial Board: Farhad Daftary (general editor), Maria De Cillis Intellectual Interactions (managing editor), Gurdofarid Miskinzoda (managing editor), Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Hermann Landolt, Wilferd Madelung, in the Islamic World Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, Andrew Newman, Sabine Schmidtke, Paul E. Walker The Ismaili Thread Previously published titles: 1. Daftary, Farhad. A History ofShi'i Islam (2013). 2. Daftary, Farhad, and Gurdofarid Miskinzoda, eds. The Study ofShi'i Islam: History, Theology and Law (2014). 3. Mir-Kasimov, Orkhan. Words of Power: Huru.fi Teachings Between Shi'ism and Sufism in Medieval Islam (2015). 4. Asatryan, Mushegh. Controversies in Formative Shi'i Islam: The Ghulat Muslims and their Beliefs (2017). 5. De Cillis, Maria. Salvation and Destiny in Islam: The Shi'i Ismaili Per Edited by spective oflfamid al-Din al-Kirmiini (2018). Orkhan Mir-Kasimov LB.TA URIS in association with THE INSTITUTE OF ISMAIL! STUDIES LONDON. 2020 LB. TAURIS Bloomsbury Publishing Pk SO Bedford Square, London, WClB 3DP, UK The Institute of Ismaili Studies 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA In association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies Aga Khan Centre, 10 Handyside Street, London N l C 4DN www.iis.ac.uk BLOOMSBURY, LB. TAURIS and the LB. Tauris logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Pk The Institute oflsmaili Studies was established in 1977 with the object First published in Great Britain 2020 of promoting scholarship and learning on Islam, in the historical as Copyright© Islamic Publications Ltd, 2020 well as contemporary contexts, and a better understanding of its rela Front cover image: Iskandar (in the likeness of Sultan Husain Baiqara) with the seven sages, from the Khamsa ofNizami; British Library MS Or 6810, fol. 214r. tionship with other societies and faiths. Opaque watercolour. Herat, AH900/1494-SCE. (©The British Library Board) The Institute' s programmes encourage a perspective which is not Back cover image: Steel plaque from a shrine, inscribed with the shahada, confined to the theological and religious heritage of Islam, but seeks with the added phrase 'Ali wali Allah'. Iran, I !th/17th centmy. (Courtesy of the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, AKM617) to explore the relationship of religious ideas to broader dimensions The contributors have asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and of society and culture. The programmes thus encourage an Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as authors of this work. interdisciplinary approach to the materials of Islamic history and All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in thought. 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These include the intellectual and literary A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. expressions of Shi'ism in general, and Ismailism in particular. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress In the context of Islamic societies, the Institute' s programmes are informed by the full range and diversity of cultures· in which Islam is ISBN HB: 978-1-83860-485-1 PB: 978-1-83860-488-2 practised today, from the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and eISBN: 978-1-83860-487-5 ePDF: 978-1-83860-486-8 Africa to the industrialized societies of the West, thus taking into con Series: Shi'i Heritage Series sideration the variety of contexts which shape the ideals, beliefs and Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk practices of the faith. Printed and bound in Great Britain These objectives are realised through concrete programmes and To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com activities organized and implemented by various departments of the and sign up for our newsletters. Institute. The Institute also collaborates periodically, on a programme specific basis, with other institutions of learning in the United King dom and abroad. 426 Intellectual Interactions in the Islamic World whether geographical, intellectual or religious. With the demise of the Fatimids, howeyer, and the restoration of Sunni Islam as the offi cial religious denomination endorsed by the Ayyubid regime, books 17 that were Twelver Shi'i and/or Ismaili in content are understood to have been destroyed. The purge nevertheless did not prevent the sur On the Cusp of 'Islamic' and 'Hindu' Worldviews? vival of some Shi'i and even Ismaili works which resurfaced decades The Giniin Literature and the Dialectics of later in libraries such as, for example, those of Ibn Tawtls and the Self and Other Ashrafiyya. 59 For all its triumphs and upheavals, it was ultimately the cultural, Waft A. Momin· religious and economic fluidity that characterised Egypt under the (The Institute of Ismaili Studies) Fatimids that transformed that region from a cultural backwater into a centre of intellectual activity serving as a launch pad for books to boldly go where no volumes had gone before. Framing the Problem Scholars have long sought to make sense of the multi-layered charac ter of the Satpanth tradition. They have examined such aspects as the sacred vision it propounded, the contours of its rich and intricate worldview, the rituals and social practices its followers observed, the varied sources of inspiration behind its evolution, and the factors that have conditioned its growth over time. But whatever aspect they may have chosen to examine, and whatever sources they may have drawn upon in their quest, hardly any scholar has failed to bring into sharp relief the multivalent nature of its religious complexion. This complex ion is further envisaged to have been largely shaped by the ideas and practices that are now, in a different setting, readily identified with the reified categories of 'Islam' and 'Hinduism' .1 To put it differently, the • This paper is based on a section of my doctoral dissertation. I am grateful to Aziz Esmail, Wendy Doniger and Muzaffar Alam for their perceptive feedback on an ear lier incarnation of the paper appearing in the dissertation. I am also grateful to Qudsia Shah and Farouk Mitha for reading an earlier draft of the paper and providing valua ble comments. 1 This point is illustrated by the following remarks of Frano;:oise Mallison, which were made in connection with the method of preaching adopted by the agents of the Satpanth mission, as well as about the ginans, a major literary output of the tradition 59 Hirschler, Medieval Damascus, pp. 123-125. (see further on): 'The utilization of Hinduism is not limited to points of doctrine but 428 Intellectual Interactions in the Islamic World On the Cusp of 'Islamic' and 'Hindu' Worldviews? 429 tradition has now become firmly associated, both in scholarly dis being subjected to an overriding of what are held to be Islamic traces course and popular imagination, with a paradigmatic case of how by similarly regarded Hindu symbols. This has simply turned the space multiple strands of thought creatively interact and coalesce to form a into what is often dubbed a 'mini Ayodhya', evoking one of the painful kind of composite structure, defying the confines of narrowly consti chapters of Hindu-Muslim conflict in modern India.3 tuted religious identities. The direct ramifications of such an image of the multivalent charac It is this facet of the legacy of Satpanth that has drawn much public ter of Satpanth are nowhere more evident than in what has been made attention and lately caught the interest of the newspapers in India. For of the exact contours of its religious identity. With its roots going far instance, amidst the rising wave of communalism that India has expe back in history, the image has sharply divided scholarly opinion in rienced in recent times, the tradition (alongside others depicting simi recent times, producing at least two mutually incompatible view lar traits) has served as a timely reminder of the country1s primordial points. The first, and a far more entrenched one, has long envisaged ethos of tolerance and co-existence - a place where numerous faiths Satpanth as a local, Indic expression of what is known as the NizarI have flourished and lived together in harmony for centuries. In par branch of Ismaili tradition, which (as per this viewpoint) evolved on ticular, observers have turned to the case of what is known as the the Indian subcontinent over the course of many centuries through ImamshahI branch of the larger, organic Satpanth - widely regarded the work ofNizarI missionaries. By this token, the supposedly 'Hindu' as an offshoot of the Indian NizarI Ismaili tradition - to point up the symbols and ideas reflected in the literary and theological experience evils of communal politics

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