Salvation and Destiny in Islam: The Shii Ismaili Perspective of amd al-Dn al-Kirmn

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Medieval Islamic philosophers were occupied with questions of cosmology, predestination and salvation and human responsibility for actions. For Ismailis, the related notions of religious leadership, namely the imamate, and the eschatological role of the prophets and imams were equally central. These were also a matter of doctrinal controversy within the so-called Iranian school of Ismaili philosophical theology. Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani (d. after 411/1020) was one of the most important theologians in the Fatimid period, who rose to prominence during the reign of the imam-caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 386/996411/1021). He is renowned for blending the Neoplatonic philosophical heritage with Ismaili religious tradition. This book provides an analysis of al-Kirmanis thought and sheds new light on the many layers of allusion which characterise his writings. Through a translation and analytical commentary of the eighth chapter of al-Kirmanis Kitab al-Riyad (Book of Meadows), which is devoted to the subject of divine preordination and human redemption, Maria De Cillis shows readers first-hand his theologically distinctive interpretation of qada and qadar (divine decree and destiny). Here, al-Kirmani attempts to harmonise the views of earlier renowned Ismaili missionaries, Abu Hatim Ahmad b. Hamdan al-Razi (d. 322/934), Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Nasafi (d. 331/942) and Abu Ya'qub Ishaq b. Ahmad al-Sijistani (d. c. 361/971). De Cillis skilfully guides the reader through al-Kirmanis metaphysical and esoteric correspondences, offering new insights into Shii/Ismaili philosophical thought which will be of great interest to those in the field of Shii studies and, more broadly, to scholars of medieval philosophy.

Author Bio

Maria De Cillis is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, where she is also the Managing Editor of the Shi'i Heritage Series. She has authored Free Will and Predestination in Islamic Thought: Theoretical Compromises in the Works of Avicenna, al-Ghazali and Ibn 'Arabi (2014) and has co-edited Shi'i Esotericism: Roots and Developments (2016) as well as a writing a number of journal articles and encyclopaedia entries. She has taught medieval Islamic philosophy and speculative theology at SOAS and at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her research interests include Islamic philosophy, Sufism, Shii esotericism and Ismaili philosophy.