敁珗曄部

Front cover for The Book of Unveiling

  • ISBN

    978-0-7556-5386-7

  • Extent

    536

  • Height

    220mm

  • Width

    141mm

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The Kitb al-Kashf is one of the earliest Ismaili texts to have reached the present day. Transmitted by the 廜柑yyib蘋 Ismaili tradition, it is composed of six treatises, most of which, as this open access study and first English translation argues, go back to the early years of the Fatimid rule.

The importance of this work is predicated upon the unique insight it offers on the early stages of the elaboration of Ismaili doctrine. A number of parallels with Twelver Shi’i, as well as 眶堯喝梭櫻喧 and 捧喝廜ζ聆娶蘋 sources, are highlighted throughout this study, which, by contrast, allow for the identification of specifically Ismaili themes and doctrines, before and after the rise to power of the Fatimids. The Kashf is thus an essential witness to the way early Ismailism, while drawing from a pool of themes common to several Shi’i trends, nevertheless formed its own distinctive identity.

Since it was edited by Rudolf Strothmann for the first time in 1952, the Kashf has attracted the attention of several generations of scholars, but did not benefit from a full annotated translation and extensive study highlighting its structure and aims until now.

Introduction

  1. Historical and intellectual context
  2. Transmission: manuscripts, editions, and reception
  3. The problematic authorship of the Kitb al-Kashf: some remarks on the corpus attributed to Ja尪far b. Man廜贖r al-Yaman
  4. The six treatises of the Kitb al-Kashf and their contents
  5. Between chaos and order: the art of compilation and structure in the Kitb al-Kashf
    Notes on the translations and commentaries

Treatise I
Translation
Commentary

  1. The divine trust (硃鳥櫻紳硃), 滄硃梭櫻聆硃 and the covenant
  2. The 餃硃尪滄硃, an esoteric family
  3. God’s ‘order’ (amr) and its continuity
  4. The continuity of antagonism: the enemies of the Imam
  5. 紼喝莽贖域堯勳聆聆硃: from literal to metaphoric metamorphosis
  6. The Mahd蘋 and his return
    Conclusion

Treatise II
Translation
Commentary

  1. Divine transcendence
  2. The throne, the footstool and the problem of anthropomorphism
  3. The alphabetic cosmogony
    Conclusion

Treatise III
Translation
Commentary

  1. Identifying the ‘Sage’ (硃梭-廎仟域蘋鳥) and dating Treatise III
  2. The 餃硃尪滄硃: an organization and its enemies
  3. The Orphan: evolution of a concept, from ghuluww to Fatimid Ismailism
  4. Salmn, a Shi尪i figure in support of the Fatimid reform
  5. The ‘Bearer of the Sword’ and the 娶硃轍尪硃
    Conclusion

Treatise IV
Translation
Commentary

  1. Several 廎仟餃蘋喧堯 fragments
  2. A 廎仟餃蘋喧堯 on language
    Conclusion

Treatise V
Translation
Commentary

  1. The Imam and his proof, the 尪插聆紳 and the 幛櫻尨
  2. The rejection of antinomianism
  3. Organizing the 餃硃尪滄硃: instruction to the missionaries and refutation of the false Mahd蘋
    Conclusion

Treatise VI
Translation
Commentary

  1. God’s choice challenged by human caprice
  2. 尪Al蘋 and Aaron as books of God
  3. Proofs and summoners
    Conclusion

Bibliography
Index of Quranic Verses
Index of Names and Places
Index of Technical Terms

F璽r癡s Gillon is Associate Professor in Islamic Studies and Arabic at Aix-Marseille University, France. He received his PhD from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris), and specializes in the intellectual history of early Shi尪ism, with a particular focus on Fatimid Ismailism. He has published several articles on these topics, and has also co-edited with Mathieu Terrier an Anthologie de la philosophie en Islam (Paris, 2023). Previously, he was Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies. His research interests include Shi尪i history and doctrines, Ismailism, Nusayrism and Islamic Philosophy.