Imāmī Thought in Transition: An Archaeological Inquiry into Texts and their Transmissions

The subject of this three-volume publication is the transition of Imāmī thought and its literary legacy from the second half of the 10th century CE up until the contemporary period, using distinct, and at the same time complementary methodological approaches.

The study part, contained in the first volume, consists of a detailed analysis of the reception and transmission of the doctrinal, legal and exegetical oeuvre of al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā—arguably one of the most important Imāmī thinkers of the medieval period—within and beyond Twelver Šīʿism. Inspired by similar quests among scholars of early modern Europe, special attention is paid to the different clusters of one-volume libraries of al-Murtaḍā’s writings, the earliest witnesses of which can be traced back to the 12th and 13th centuries CE, and an archaeological inquiry, as it were, into texts and their transmission is undertaken. This is complemented by a longue durée account of Twelver Šīʿī thought from the 11th until the 20th century CE, to demonstrate the variegated approaches of Imāmīs throughout time to the acquisition of knowledge about the truth of religion. The insights that can be gained into the transmission of al-Murtaḍā’s oeuvre allow for a more refined approach when preparing a new critical edition of his works. The second volume contains editions of selected writings by al-Murtaḍā on kalām and legal theory as well as of works by some Imāmī scholars of the following generations. The third volume comprises facsimiles of selected manuscript pages that have been discussed in volumes one and two.

Table of Contents

Volume I/1

Part One: The Reception and Transmission of al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā’s Oeuvre and Thought

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

1.Monographic works

1.1 Introduction

1.2 K. al-Šāfī fī l-imāma, K. al-Muqniʿ fī l-ġayba, K. al-Intiṣār,and K. Ǧumal al-ʿilm wa-l-ʿamal

1.3 K. Tanzīh al-anbiyāʾ wa-l-aʾimma

1.4 Adab works: K. Ġurar al-fawāʾid and Takmilat al-Ġurar; Dīwān, Ṭayf al-ḫayāl, and al-Šihāb fī l-šayb wa-l-šabāb

1.5 K. al-Ḏarīʿa ilā uṣūl al-šarīʿa

1.6 K. al-Ḏaḫīra, K. al-Mulaḫḫaṣ, and al-Mūḍiḥ ʿan ǧihat iʿǧāz al-Qurʾān

1.7 al-Fuṣūl al-muḫtāra, and “al-Ḥikāyāt”

1.8 Refutations against Yaḥyā b. ʿAdī, and K. al-Inṣāf

2.Miscellanies

2.1 Transmitting al-Murtaḍā’s writings during the Safavid Period

2.2 The “al-Fāḍil al-Hindī Codex” and its reception

2.3 The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

2.4 Transcribing al-Murtaḍā’s writings during the twentieth century

3.From manuscript to print

4.Doubtful and spurious works

5.Towards a chronology of al-Murtaḍā’s writings

Volume I/2

Illustrations

Volume II

Part Two: The Development of Imāmī thought, mid ˡfth/eleventh through fourteenth/twentieth Century

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

1.Introduction

2.The Transition of Imāmī theology from the Bahšamiyya to the teachings of Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī

3.Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī

4.Reading kalām through the lenses of philosophy in the aftermath of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī

5.The development of doctrinal thought during the Safavid period

6.From the “School of Iṣfahān” to the “School of Tehran”

7.Intellectual countercurrents

Epilogue

Bibliography

Indices

1.Personal names

2.Book titles

3.Place names

4.Manuscripts Illustrations

Volume III

Editions

1.Introduction

2.The Texts

I.Fihrist kutub sayyidinā al-aǧall al-Murtaḍā ʿAlam al-Hudā ḏi l-maǧdayn Abī l-Qāsim ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn(Abū l-Ḥasan al-Buṣrawī)

II.Ǧawābāt al-Masāʾil al-Ṭarābulusiyyāt al-Ūlā (al-Murtaḍā)

III.Ṯalāt masāʾil min al-Ramliyyāt (al-Murtaḍā)

1.al-Masʾala al-ūlā fī l-ṣanʿa wa-l-ṣāniʿ

2.al-Masʾala al-ṯāniya fī l-ǧawhar wa-tasmiyatihi ǧawharan fī l-ʿadam

3.al-Masʾala al-rābiʿa fī l-insān

IV.Ǧawābāt mā saʾala ʿanhu al-Šayḫ Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik al-Tabbān (al-Murtaḍā)

V.Ǧawābāt al-Masāʾil al-Sallāriyya (al-Murtaḍā)

VI.Masāʾil mutafarriqa fī ʿilm al-kalām I (al-Murtaḍā)

1.Masʾala [fī ḏikr anwāʿ al-aʿrāḍ wa-aqsāmihā wa-funūn aḥkāmihā]

2.Masʾalat [istiḥqāq madḥ al-Bāriʾ ʿalā l-awṣāf]

3.Masʾala [fī l-dalīl ʿalā anna l-ǧism lam yakun kāʾinan bi-l-fāʿil]

4.Masʾala: [awwal al-wāǧibāt al-naẓar]

5.Masʾala: [al-tāʾ fī kalimat al-ḏāt laysa li-l-taʾnīṯ]

6.Masʾala: [kawn al-ṣifa bi-l-fāʿil]

7.Masʾala: [al-ǧawhar lā yakūn muḥdaṯan bi-l-maʿnā]

8.Masʾala [fī ibṭāl qawl inna l-šayʾ sayʾ li-nafsihi]

9.Masʾala ʿan waǧh al-munāsaba bayna l-afʿāl fī l-ʿaql wa-bayna mā huwa luṭf fīhā min al-šarʿiyyāt

10.Masʾala [fī l-dalīl ʿalā anna l-ǧawāhir mudraka]

VII.Masāʾil mutafarriqa fī ʿilm al-kalām II (al-Murtaḍā)

1.Masʾala fī l-iʿtirāḍ ʿalā man istadalla bi-dalīl al-saḥḥāra ʿalā anna al-ʿālam malaʾ wa-mā ubṭila bihi ḏālika

2.Masʾala [fī maʿnā “aʿlamukum bi-nafsihi aʿlamukum bi-rabbihi”]

3.Masʾala [fī l-ʿilm al-ḍarūrī li-l-aḥwāl al-mūǧaba ʿan al-afʿāl]

VIII.al-Ḥudūd wa-l-ḥaqāʾiq min kalām al-Sayyid al-aǧall al-Murtaḍā ʿAlam al-Hudā (attributed to Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī “Ibn Qārūra”)

IX.al-Mufīd fī l-taklīf (presumably by Abū l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Buṣrawī)

X.Maǧmūʿ min kalām al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā ʿAlam al-Hudā fī funūn min ʿilm al-uṣūl (anonymous)

XI.Masʾala fī bayān ḥaqīqat al-ḥayy al-faʿʿāl wa-ḏikr al-ḫilāf fīhi wa-l-dalāla ʿalā l-ṣaḥīḥ fī ḏālika(attributed to al-Murtaḍā)

 XII.Kitāb al-Wāfī bi-kalām al-muṯbit wa-l-nāfī (Naṣīr al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Ḥamza al-Ṭūsī al-Mašhadī)

XIII.Masʾala fī tanzīh ḏāt al-Ḫāliq ʿan al-talawwuṯ bi-waṣmat al-fanāʾ wa-l-ʿadam (anonymous)

Bibliographic Information

Title: Imāmī Thought in Transition: An Archaeological Inquiry into Texts and their Transmissions

Author: Hassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke

Publisher: UCOpress

Pub. Date: forthcoming