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Bibliography of Ismaili Literature

Ismail K. Poonawala:. (Studies in Near Eastern Culture and Society, [Vol. 1].) xix, 533 pp. Malibu, Calif.: Undena Publications, [1977]. $40.

Students of Ismaili literature - and those too whose work touches on it only incidentally - have suffered greatly in the past on two counts: firstly in trying to assess exactly what literature exists and, secondly, in their attempts to gain access to what little had come to light, preserved as it was in the main by a community extremely protective towards its literary products. Building on the fine efforts of stalwarts like Ivanow; Fyzee and H. Hamdani, Professor Poonawala has, as far as it is possible, solved the first problem. The second is touched upon in some detail in the foreword of the book under review written by Professor Muhsin Mahdi (pp. xvii-xviii). Mahdi's statement (p. xvii) that '... the attitude of secretiveness about these works has become a quaint but ineffective remnant of an older tradition that has lost its force' is with respect a little over-optimistic in the reviewer's experience and one wonders exactly what he had in mind when he added, 'All it does is make life a bit more difficult for the serious scholar while encouraging incompetent scholars to use it as an excuse for not mentioning their sources, fabricating hypotheses without sufficient evidence, and disregarding acceptable standards in the edition of Ismaili texts....',. Serious charges indeed! In fact much is anyway bound to remain relatively inaccessible, as long as it remains in private libraries.

Poonawala's aim is to provide a comprehensive bibliography of Ismaili writings in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Gujurati. To this end he separates the book into two parts: 'authors and their works' and 'anonymous works'. The former he divides up chronologically, pre-Fatimid and Fatimid, Musta'li- Tayyibi and Nizari. Within the divisions the entry begins with the author's name - not incidentally in a sufficiently prominent type - and a biographical sketch follows. Under the heading 'sources' - this time, together with 'works', too prominently displayed--Poonawala documents this biography with extensive references from primary and other later sources. He then moves on to the author's works, listing them, in the case of a writer who engaged in more than one aspect of Ismaili literature, under such headings as history, jurisprudence, ta'wil, and haqa'iq. In part 2 the anonymous works are listed alphabetically under each historical period. The bibliographical sections of the book are preceded by a brief, though useful, introduction entitled 'historical background. Having completed his bibliography proper, the compiler introduces the following five appendices: non-Ismaili works used by Ismailis; a complete family tree of the Ismaili/Fatimid imams; a genealogical table indicating the succession of the Musta'li-Tayyibi dais and a chronological list of all the dais; tables and lists of the Nizari imams; and a final appendix concerns the Rasa il of the Ikhwan al-Safa' whose Ismaili character seems indisputable', according to Poonawala. Next follows an indispensable glossary of Ismaili technical terms (pp. 375-80). An immense bibliography of the author's sources occupies pp. 383-463 and, with great foresight he provides a chronological list of authors (pp. 467-75), as well as indexes of titles, non-Ismaili works used by Ismailis, of ginans (works of the Nizari khojas), and of authors in alphabetical order. The book ends with a few additions, works which came to Poonawala's notice after the book had gone to press. The following are a few comments on certain points made in the work: (pp. 138, 365) Huth is in fact nowhere near ta'izz in the Yemen. It lies some 70 miles north, slightly west of San'a. (p.162) The statement associating Banu Hatim ( the B. Hatim (11) of my Ayyubids and early Rasulids in the Yemen, London, 1974-8, in particular 11, 68-75, for there were two B. Hatims) specifically with Dhamarmar appears a little misleading, for the family controlled at times a great deal of territory in northern Yemen and they had of course ruled from San a since 481/1088. They were of Yam--and proud of it--and staunch Ismailis (cf. ibid., 69, genealogical table). if 'Ali b. Hanzalah, the 6th dai, were indeed held in high respect ... by the Ayyubid rulers in Sana'a', one wonders why he does not figure at all in al-Simt al-ghali 'l-thaman, etc. (the text forming Volume 1 of my Ayyubids) by Ibn Hatim, himself a member of B. Hatim (11). This work is the most detailed account of the Ayyubids in the Yemen to come to light and its author was an Ismaili. (p.172) My guess is that Sirat al-Ghuzz is in fact the history quoted above, the full title of which is... fi akhbar al-muluk min al-Ghuzz bi-l-Yaman. This conjecture can the more confidently be advanced in the knowledge that the author, Ibn Hatim was an Ismaili and the work would have been well known to Idris 'Imad al-Din.

(pp. 184, 246, 366, 368, 369, etc.) Poonawala's Taybah should read al-Tayyibah. This attractive village with its stone houses sits on top of the mountains overlooking the incredibly green and beautiful Wadi Zahr, a few miles north-west of San a. Although the local inhabitants are now Zaydis, numerous Ismaili tombs can still be found there, most dating from the eleventh/seventeenth and twelfth/eighteenth centuries. One, possibly older, is the object of an annual pilgrimage, though who its occupant is the locals do not know, nor indeed do they care. (p. 416) Since Robertson-Smith's unworthy review of Kay's Yaman is quoted, Kay's excellent reply (JRASS, 1893, 218-36) should also be included.

But this is a truly amazing book, of tremendous breadth and detail. It is difficult to believe that its research occupied only two years of the compiler's time. The user very quickly accustoms himself to the layout. Much of the material in the appendices is new and entirely supersedes the work of earlier scholars in the field. Mistakes of printing are so few and insignificant as to be to all intents and purposes non-existent. In this age of high printing costs, the book has wisely been reproduced from typescript, both in the roman and arabic scripts. this gives an entirely satisfactory, not to say even pleasing result. Professor Poonawala and all concerned in the production of the book are to be heartily congratulated on this splendid achievement. In order to make more and more Ismaili literature available to all interested scholars, he, Professor Abbas Hamdani, and other academically active members of the community in its broadest sense must keep up the good work.

G. REX SMITH