Preservation and Access to Fatimid Knowledge

[kmaherali]

The following article by Abbas Hamdani who has been affiliated with the IIS, discusses the preservation and accessibility of Fatimid heritage.

I will not go into here the literature of the Druzes and the Nizaris. There was more of tawil among the Druzes and de-emphasizing the sharia among the Nizaris. The former developed in Syria and Lebanon; the latter in Persia. The former was in Arabic; the latter in Persian.

It is the Taiyibi Daawa of Yaman that is the true inheritor of the Fatimid tradition and learning. When the Fatimid Caliphate was under attack and subversion and it was thought that the great Daawa literature would be lost, at least a part of it was salvaged by the efforts of the Fatimid Chief Dai al-Muayyad and the Yamani Dai Balagh Lamak b. Malik al-Hammadi. Main Fatimid works of the above schools were transferred from Egypt to Yaman. The Yamani Daawa not only preserved the Fatimid works but contributed its own literature in each of those fields. The most prolific and original of the Yamani dais, among many, many other dais, need be mentioned. They are Dai Ibrahim al-Hamidi, his son Dai Hatim al-Hamidi, also Dai Idris Imad al-din al-Anf. Dai Hatim was the great preserver of the Fatimid literature and culture and the patron saint of the Yamani Daawa. The Yamani Daawa had many officers under the Dai Mutlaq who were also called dais and were great contributors to literature such as the Dai al-Khattab al-Hamdani and the Dai Muhammad al-Harithi.


The purpose of this action is to make Tahir Saifuddin and his son Muhammad Burhanuddin the only points of reference for our culture, learning, literature and history.

Thanks to the transfer of the Taiyibi Daawa to India the Fatimid and Taiyibi literature was rescued from the attack of Zaydi, Sunni and Ottoman rulers and preserved in India. The Indian Dais welcomed the mashaikh, scholars from Yaman, who brought the manuscripts of this literature to India. One of the great Indian compilers of this literature was Hasan b. Nuh al-Bharuchi. Another scholar was Luqmanji b. Habibullah Rampuri who was given the title of Bab al-Ilm by the 39th Dai. His pupil Abd al-Rasul al-Majdu, also a great scholar was, however, associated with the Hibtiyya dissident movement.

One of the great Yamani scholars responsible for bringing this literature to India was al-Shaykh Ali b. Said b. Ali al-Yaaburi al-Hamdani about whose coming to India, Sayyidi Sadiq Ali, the famous poet of the Bohra community has a qasida. The 39th dai Ibrahim Wajih al-din was responsible for inviting him and patronizing other scholars. It was the 43rd dai Abd Ali Saifuddin (d. 1232/1817) who instituted a daras in Surat where this literature was avidly studied. A learned historian of the time was Qutbuddin Burhanpuri (d. 1826) who wrote his famous Muntazi al-Akhbar. Abd-i-Ali Imad al-din, b. Jiwa bhai Shahjahanpuri (d. 1271/1854) was a mentor of dais, a prolific writer and a consummate politician. Yet another scholar was Yusuf bhai Waliullah b. Abd Ali (d. 1295/1878).

The most respected scholar of the time and the one who did much to preserve Fatimid manuscripts was Muhammad Ali b. Fayd Allah b. Ibrahim b. Ali b. Said al-Yaburi al-Hamdani (d. 1315/1898).

These are but a few names. Those scholars conducted study-circles and were popular teachers. Their students would copy old manuscripts and they would correct them. These manuscripts were given to the teachers as their fees. This system created family libraries of Fatimid literature. Such were the Sayfi, the Wali, the Imadi and the Hamdani libraries. Many of the family libraries have been taken over by the last two dais by coercing the descendants of those scholars and threatening them with ex-communication. Thus the Kothar now possesses the largest collection, but is of no use to the world of scholarship for it has been removed from study. The purpose of this action is to make Tahir Saifuddin and his son Muhammad Burhanuddin the only points of reference for our culture, learning, literature and history. It is a process of throwing a curtain of ignorance over the community.

Fortunately the Hamdani family defied the Mullaji and made its collection of manuscripts available to both internal and foreign scholars thus opening up again and reviving the study of Fatimid literature and placing them at the disposal of modern research.

[tasbiha]

If anyone has knowledge of books about everyday life during the Fatimid dynasty, please post the titles.

[kmaherali]

If anyone has knowledge of books about everyday life during the Fatimid dynasty, please post the titles.

The best and the most readable work on this is: "Nasir Khusraw, the Ruby of Badakhshan: A Portrait of the Persian Poet, Traveller and Philosopher" by Alice C. Hunsberger. For more information on this book, you may want to go to:

http://www.iis.ac.uk/research/academic_ ... nopsis.htm

It contains a chapter titled: "The Splendour of Fatimid Cairo", which discusses aspects of daily life during the Fatimid period encompassing administration, security, economy, religion etc as witnessed by Nasr Khusraw during his travels. For example it is mentioned: "He remarks that the security and welfare of the people of Egypt are such that the shopkeepers do not need to lock their shops. This includes even the money changers, jewellers and drapers. When they wish to leave they only lower a net across the front of the shop, 'and no one tampers with anything'.

[tasbiha]

Thank you very much. I just ordered it at half.com.

[kmaherali]

Thank you very much. I just ordered it at half.com.

You are welcome. I am sure you will find this an enjoyable and invaluable read. It essentially discusses the life and ideas of Nasr Khusraw, a prominent Ismaili thinker and preacher. He was not born an Ismaili but converted to it and became one of the most devoted ones.

The work reflects the essential Ismaili attitude to life viz a viz, quest for the truth leading to the recognition of the Imam of the time and then obedience to His commands under all circumstances.

[kutubali]

Mr. K maherli your information is very comprehensive. i am really impressed by the details. this created further interest in me to read about the tayyabi dawaa history and the books of fatemi duat and other hudoods. could you please show me the way to have any access to these books. I shall be highly obliged.