Fatimid History and Ismaili Doctrine

The thirteen studies in this volume explore critical problems in Fatimid history and historiography, many specifically focused on the content of doctrinal writings produced by the Ismaili supporters and agents of this caliphate who worked on behalf of the dynasty both within the empire and outside. Several concern issues in disputes that separated the various factions of Medieval Islam and served to distinguish the Ismailis from the rest, often branding the Fatimids with the charge of heterodoxy. Others deal with the consequence of Shiite rule over a largely non-Shiite populace. Yet others involve the relationship between religious ideology and the administration of government. Among the themes featured in this collection there are separate investigations of institutions of learning, of succession to the imamate, the da`wa, the judiciary, relations with the Byzantines and with the Abbasids, and works on heresiography, doctrines of time and the accusation that the Ismailis upheld the metempsychosis of the human soul. The latter topics help to situate the Ismailis, and hence the Fatimids, within the broader context of Islamic thought.

’All in all this volume offers a valuable collection showing the ways in which such a versatile scholar has contextualized both Fatimid history and Ismaili doctrine ” through family history, source analysis, and the interpretation of philosophical and theological doctrines.’ Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

Paul E. Walker is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago, USA.