The Wellsprings of wisdom: a study of Abū Yaʻqūb al-Sijistānī's Kitāb al-Yanābīʻ : including a complete English translation with commentary and notes on the Arabic text

419 Pages·1994·1.32 MB·English

by  Paul Ernest Walker

The Wellsprings of Wisdom : A Study of
Abu Yaqub Al-Sijistani's Kitab Al-
title: Yanabiá : Including a Complete English
Translation With Commentary and Notes
On the Arabic Text
Walker, Paul Ernest.; Abåu Yaáqåub
author:
al-Sijiståanåi, Ishåaq ibn Ahmad
publisher: University of Utah Press
isbn10 | asin: 0874804213
print isbn13: 9780874804218
ebook isbn13: 9780585129822
language: English
Ismailites--Doctrines--Early works to 1800,
Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani, Ishaq ibn Ahmad,-
subject -10th cent.--Yanabiá, Ismailites--
Doctrines--History.
publication date: 1994
lcc: BP195.I8W354 1994eb
ddc: 297/.20422
Ismailites--Doctrines--Early works to 1800,
Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani, Ishaq ibn Ahmad,-
subject:
-10th cent.--Yanabiá, Ismailites--
Doctrines--History.
Page iii
THE WELLSPRINGS OF WISDOM
A Study of Abu 'qub al-Sijistani's Kitab al-Yanabi'
including a complete English translation
with commentary and notes on the Arabic text
Paul E. Walker
The University of Utah Press
Salt Lake City
Page iv
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©1994 by the University of Utah Press
All rights reserved
¥ Printed on acid-free paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walker, Paul Ernest, 1941
The Wellsprings of Wisdom: a study of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani's
Kitab al-
Yanabi' : including a complete English translation with commentary
and notes
on the Arabic text / Paul E. Walker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-87480-421-3 (alk. paper)
1. IsmailitesDoctrinesEarly works to 1800. 2. Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani,
Ishaq ibn Ahmad, 10th cent. Yanabi'. 3. IsmailitesDoctrinesHistory. I.
Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani, Ishaq ibn Ahmad, 10th cent. Yanabi'. English.
II.
Title.
BP 195.I8W354 1994
297'.20422dc20 94-
13755

Page v
To my parents,
Don and Marjorie Walker
Page vii
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Transliteration xv
Abbreviations xvi
Introduction 1
The Foundations of an Epistemology 3
Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani 11
Ismaili Literature 11
The Importance of al-Sijistani 13
His Life and Works 15
Some Critical Points in His Teachings 18
The Book of Wellsprings
Organization and Special Features 21
Background and Sources 24
Dating The Wellsprings 27
Authenticity 28
Title 29
Method and Audience 30
State of the Arabic Text 31
Translating The Wellsprings 33
Notes and Commentary 35
The Diagrams 35
The Book of Wellsprings: Translation 37
Commentary 113
Bibliography 193
Index 201
Page ix
Preface
When I first became aware of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani, I was a new
graduate student in Egypt at the Center for Arabic Studies in the
American University in Cairo. My professor, Dr. Abbas Hamdani,
urged me to write a master's thesis on this important author and to
further this project he suggested that I edit and then translate a text
called Kitab al-yanabi', for which he possessed a very good
manuscript. He lent me the work and I proceeded to examine this
possibility. It soon became apparent, however, that it had already been
edited, having been included among a set of three Ismaili texts
published by Henry Corbin a few years previously in Tehran but not
yet available in Cairo. Corbin had not only edited the textthe second
work of al-Sijistani to receive his considerable scholarly scrutinybut
had translated a portion of it into French with notes and other
commentary. Ironically, Corbin's source for his edition, though
apparently unknown to him, was the very manuscript Professor
Hamdani put before me. Such are the vagaries of Arabic sources:
Abbas's father Husayn must have allowed his friend Paul Kraus to
make a photocopy, which, subsequent to Kraus's untimely death,
found its way to Professor Corbin.
While it was thus no longer necessary to produce an edition of the
Yanabi', it did remain of critical importance in the various studies of
al-Sijistani that I began, spurred on by this initial contact. There were
several other texts, both in Professor Hamdani's library and elsewhere,
that were not so accessible and certainly not published. At that time
none of the main treatises except the Persian translation of Kashf al-
mahjub and the Yanabi' were in print. Ithbat al-nubuwa and Kitab al-
iftikhar later appeared in faulty and incomplete editions, full of textual
problems and lacunae. The investigation of al-Sijistani's