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Abu'l-Qasim al-Bustī and his refutation of Ismā'īlism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

S. M. Stern
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Extract

This is a preliminary account of Abu'l-Qāsim al-Bustī's refutation of Ismā'īlism with what information is available about the author as a background.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 93 , Issue 1-2 , January 1961 , pp. 14 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1961

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References

page 14 note 1 I have extracted from the text two short notes concerning Ismā'īlī missionaries in Persia and used them in my article, “The early Ismā'īlī missionaries in North-West Persia and in Khurāsān and Transoxania,” BSOAS., 1960, pp. 70, 81. My thanks are due to Professor G. Levi della Vida for obtaining photographs of the MS., and the authorities of the Ambrosian Library, Milan (where the MS. is now preserved), for permission to take the photographs.

page 15 note 1 The alternative date of his death given by Brockelmann (“according to others he was killed at the age of 61 in 545/1150”) is due to a confusion.

page 15 note 2 Two volumes of a set of the Sharḥ 'Uyūn al-Masā'il, presumably divided into four volumes (vol. i, old copy, end missing, vol. iv, dated 608, a folio at the end missing) are to be found in the Mutawakkiliyya Library in Ṣan‘ā', see Fihris Kutub al-Khizāna al-Mutawakkiliyya, Ṣan‘ā', no date, p. 92, and see for microfilms Yaḥyā Nāmī, Khalīl, al-Ba'tha al-Miṣriyya li-Taṣwīr al-Makḥṭūṭāt al-'Arabiyya fī Bilād al-Yaman, Cairo, 1952, p. 38, film no. 295Google Scholar.

page 16 note 1 Abu'l-Qāsim al-Bustī: wa-min hādhihi'l-ṭabaqati Abu'l-Qāsim Ismā'īl b. Aḥmad al-Bustī akhadha 'ani'l-qāḍi wa-lahū kutubun kathīratun wa-kana jadilan ḥadhiqan yamīlu ila'l-Zaydiyya wa-ṣaḥiba qāḍiya'l-quḍāti ḥīna ḥajja wa-kāna idhā su'ila ‘an mas’ alatin aḥāla 'alayhī wa-nāzara'l-Bāqillāniyya fa-qaṭa'ahū li-anna qāḍtiya'l qudāti taraffa'a 'an mukālamatih.

page 17 note 1 There is a copy in the British Museum, MS. Or. 6266, which I have cursorily inspected, without, however, coming across the name of Abu'l-Qāsim al-Ustādh; I had no leisure for a more thorough examination of the rather lengthy and badly copied volume.

page 17 note 2 There are two copies in the British Museum, described by Rieu in his Supplement, 1212/iii and 1227/iii. Al-Jandarī no doubt refers to the following verses (fol. 93v in the first, fol. 17r in the second MS.):

There is here no reference to 'Abd al-Jabbār—but this may have been taken by al-Jandarī from some commentary on al-Ḥirāz al-Mudhahhab.

page 17 note 3 I could not identify this book.

page 17 note 4 Most likely al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh Abu'1-Fatǥ Nāṣir b. al-Ḥusayn al-Daylamī, d. after 440/1048, see Brockelmann, Suppl., i, 698 (rather than the famous, but much more early, al-Nāṣir al-Uṭrūsh, d. 304/916).

page 17 note 5 Of his Amālī, collected by the Qāḍī Shams al-Dīn Aḥmad b. 'Abd al-Salām, there are two copies in the Mutawakkiliyya Library in Ṣan'ā', see Fihris [as above, p. 15, note 2], p. 84, and see for microfilms Khalīl Yaḥyā Nāmī, al-Ba'tha [as ibid.], p. 21, films nos. 251 and 264. (I have taken al-Murshad's name and the date of his death from these publications.)

page 21 note 1 See the article quoted above, pp. 86, 88, and the comments on p. 80, note 4.

page 22 note 1 Wa-qad dhakara'l-Sījziyyu fī mawāḍi'a mā yadullu 'aiā, qidami'l-'ālami 'indahū minhā annahū dhakara fī kitābi Kasḥfi'l-Maḥjūbī anna'l-'aqla wa'l-surūra wa'l-ghamma wa'l-ghibṭata kullahā ma'an ḥaṣalat wa-'indahū anna'l-'aqla awwalu'lashyā'i wa-laysa qabla'l-awwali ma'lūmun fa-ṣra ḥusūlu hādhihi'l-ashya'i kaḥuṣūli'l-' aqli wa-hādhihi'l-ashyā, lā takūnu iliā fi'l-murakkabāti 'indahum fa-matā ja'ala ḥuṣūla'l-murakkabāti ma'a'l-'aqli ṣāra ka-anna lā tartība li-anna'lladhī awjaba'l-qawla bi-ḥudūthi hādhihi'l-ashyā'i 'indahū kawnuhā ba'da'l-'aqli wakawnu'l-' aqli sābiqan lahā wa-qad ṣarraḥa bi-fasādi hādhā fa-yajibu an lā yakūna 'indahū dalīlun yadullu 'alā ḥdathi'l-'aqli wa-lā 'aiā ḥidathi hādhihi'l-ashyā'i. Wa-qad dhakara fī hādha'l-kitābi fī mawḍ'in ākhara anna'l-ladhī ya'rifu'l-wāḥidu minnā innamā huwa'l-aitrwalu wa'l-thānī wa-annahū lā 'ilma lanā bi-mā huwa qabla'l-'aqli 'alā ayyī ivajhin awjaba'l-'aqlu li-annā lā yumkinunā an nujāwiza 'an 'ālaminā wa-la tudriku nafsunā, iliā bihā wa-huwa'l-'aqlu fa-hādhā huwa'l qawlu bi-qidami'l-'ālami aw bi-jawāzi qidamihī ma'a annahu mubaḥḥhirun fī madhhabihi laysa yadrī uṣūla mā banā 'alayhī.

page 28 note 1 Massignon, L., “Esquisse d'une bibliographic qarmaṭe,” A volume of Oriental Studies presented to E. G. Browne, p. 331Google Scholar. For references in Twelve books to Dindān see also Lewis, B., Origins of Ismā'īlism, p. 70Google Scholar.

page 29 note 1 Al-Baghdādī (al-Farq bayn al-Firaq, p. 186, makes Dindān one of the founders of Ismā'īaism, together with 'Abd Allāh b. Maymūn al-Qaddāḥ, but also mentions his missionary activities in Fārs (in the town of Tawwaz); in this respect he is in agreement with al-Bustī.

page 31 note 1 ilaykum MS.

page 32 note 2 ilayhī MS.

page 32 note 1 qawlahū MS.

page 34 note 1 sic; read akhū Muḥammadin?

page 34 note 2 (?) MS.

page 34 note 3 wa'l-muntasibīna MS.

page 35 note 1 Text corrupt, but if bracketed words are omitted, the remainder makes excellent sense.