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Kosmologie und Heilslehre der fruhen Ismailiya - eine Studie zur islamischen gnosis.

Heinz Halm: Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesellschaft, Wiesbaden, 1978.

Any study of the origins of the original history and philosophy of the Ismailian doctrine will be faced with difficulties of a very special nature, for the esoteric and syncretic aspects of Ismailian philosophy are extremely pronounced and result in a combination of ideas which can only be described as highly problematical. Its strong esoteric nature has led to considerable differences in descriptions of Ismailian doctrine depending on the source material used, i.e. whether this is Ismailian or non-Ismailian, although in comparisons between sources it has hitherto often proved of value to the researcher to use the Ismailian version as a point of reference or base. However, certain problems are an inherent feature of much of the Ismailian source material. Written sources, for example, are consciously vague in their formulation, particularly the historical works intended to be read by a fairly general public. These were regarded by their Ismaili authors as exoteric, or zahir, that is, intended to be read by the broad mass of followers of the doctrine not yet initiated into its inner mysteries. Indeed, intentional philosophical distortion is not uncommon among Ismaili writers.

Clearly, therefore, considerable difficulties will be encountered in studying a movement which intentionally keeps its tenets and social structure hidden not only from its opponents but also from its followers.

However, in spite of these difficulties, the subject has proved attractive to a number of modern researchers on Islam, and valuable contributions to the study of the Ismailian doctrine have been made, among others, by Massignon, Kraus, V. Ivanov and Hamdani. Certain aspects of Ismaili history have also become familiar outside research circles--mention may be made of the spectacular "assassins" or, to take an example from our own time, the Aga Khan. Nevertheless, it is still true to say that our knowledge of the Ismaili doctrine, and particularly its early history, is limited. New studies in the field are therefore always welcome, including Heinz Halm's. The majority of Ismailian sources dating from the Fatimid period or later have a distinct neo-Platonic character, which is so pronounced that it has sometimes been claimed that the Ismailian movement was from the very beginning a neo-Platonic doctrine, albeit clad in a somewhat Islamic guise. Halm, however, is of the opinion that V. Ivanov has satisfactorily demonstrated that no neo-Platonic influences are to be found in the earliest Ismailian sources, the doctrine of emanation of neo-Platonic philosophy having instead, according to Halm, repressed or hidden the original mythological conceptions current during the earliest stages of the movement. Isolated fragments of early Ismailian philosophy are still, however, discernible in its writings, and the author of the book under review has attempted to bring its earliest "strata" back into the light of day. His tools in carrying out this work are the available written sources, including not only texts from the earliest period but also the extensive literature of the Fatimid era. Halm compares the contents of these texts with some of the more familiar of the Gnostic and neo-Platonic ways of thought, and also compare the doctrines of the Ismailians and Nusairians. This "extreme Shiitic" sect still exists in Syria, and its philosophy still retains certain ancient ideas of interest in the present context. Halm begins his work with a brief historical survey of the Ismailian movement and goes on to treat individual beliefs and ideas/composite themes chapter by chapter. The question then arises whether composite themes can safely be regarded as entrenched in Ismailian doctrine, at least on a local basis, before neo-Platonism began to make itself felt, and if so, in what form. The author discusses, among other things, dogmas concerning the cycle of the seven prophets, the original couple Kuni and Qadar, the Demiurge, the legends of Adam, the Letters, the Pentads and the faste of the human soul.

Through an analysis of the various texts Halm is able to isolate and demonstrate certain composite themes forming part of the earliest Ismailian doctrines. He then goes on to ask whether these composite themes were in fact coherent constitutive elements as far back as the earliest period. Abu Isa al-Murshid's Risala, discovered by M. Stern, is the only text in which almost all composite themes remaining undistorted by neo-Platonic influences are combined in a single cosmonogy. According to Stern, this represents the original form of Ismailian cosmonogy. This, however, Halm cannot accept, although he may be said to be generally in agreement as to the form of the original doctrine. Halm is also of the opinion that early Ismailian cosmonogy is not identical with any single one of the known gnostic systems of the first few centuries after Christ but represents instead a genuine Islamic gnostic model. It is therefore impossible to point to any one model on which Ismailian cosmology is based.

Halm also discusses the question of the origins of the Ismailian movement. Ismaili sources claim that Ismailism arose in the gulat teaching, from Kufa-Hattabiya, but Halm finds in the present study that the doctrine lies outside and is independent of this tradition, for its first preacher was not from Kufa but from Huzistan. Two men from Huzistan founded the Ismailian movement in the mid-9th century AD, preaching a genuinely new doctrine of salvation, the contents of which were quite distinct from the gulat tradition of Kufa. Neither the promotion of Ali to divine status nor the transmigration of souls, which are both characteristic of the Kufa philosophy, are to be found at all among the Huzistanians. According to Halm, the Huzistanians propagated a new doctrine which they had themselves created.

It is worth mentioning here that in early Sunnite sources the Ismailian movement is regarded as an attempt by ancient, pre-Islamic religions to regain their previous status and crush Islam by adopting a new guise. Early Ismaili leaders were often portrayed as followers of Manichaeism or Zoroastrism.

Modern orientalists tended previously to see Ismailism as a national movement based on race -- the revolt of the Aryan Persians against the Semitic Islam. Later, however, orientalists such as Bernard Lewis have thought of Shiism as an expression of the "revolt of the oppressed classes". Halm's study is perhaps methodologically limited in that conclusions are drawn on the basis of textual comparisons only, meaning that we are presented with what may be described an "analysis of content". Studies totally oriented towards content are, however, clearly insufficient to illuminate and describe the origins of the history and philosophy of the Ismailian movement. Halm's achievement is to have provided a stable basis for what should come next, i.e. a functional analysis of ideas and concepts.

Jan Samuelsson.