Scholars studying the development of ImÄmÄ« thought are confronted with a lack of sources. Many pertinent works by ImÄmÄ« thinkers who lived in the various centers of Shīʿī learning between the lifetimes of al-Murtaá¸Ä (d. 1044) and Naṣīr al-DÄ«n al-ṬūsÄ« (d. 1274) have not come down to us. MuÊ¿tazilite thought, Avicennan notions, and the quest to return to the early doctrines of the imams constituted the principal parameters of ImÄmÄ« theological thought over those centuries.
The present study, focussing on the Ḥimṣī RÄzÄ« family, which flourished in Iran during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, showcases what can be achieved by gathering and piecing together relevant paratextual material that is preserved in manuscripts, providing insights into the scholarly profiles of its members. It is complemented by an editio princips of MishkÄt al-yaqÄ«n, and a facsimile edition of the Talkhīṣ al-maqÄá¹£id.
Hassan Ansari, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ, has published on Islamic legal and political thought and on doctrine, including L'imamat et l'occultation selon l'imamisme: Edude bibliographique et histoire des textes (Brill, 2017) and, with Nebil Husayn, Caliphate and Imamate : An Anthology of Medieval Muslim Texts on Political Theology (Cambridge, 2023).
Sabine Schmidtke, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ, has published on topics ranging from Shīʿism, intersections of Jewish and Muslim intellectual history, the Arabic Bible, and the history of "orientalism", including The Beginnings of Shiʿi Studies in Germany (American Philosophical Society, 2023).
Hamid Ataei Nazari, Ph.D. (2015), is a scholar of Islamic theology. His publications incluá¸e TÄrÄ«kh-i burhÄn-hÄ-yi ithbÄt-i wujÅ«d-i KhudÄ dar kalÄm-i ImÄmiyya: Az maktab-i BaghdÄd tÄ maktab-i Iá¹£fahÄn (Isfahan, 2023)
List of Figures
Introduction
Five Generations of the Ḥimṣī RÄzÄ« Family
âAbÅ« l-QÄsim
âTÄj al-DÄ«n MaḥmÅ«d
âAbÅ« l-QÄsim JamÄl al-DÄ«n Ê¿AlÄ« b. MaḥmÅ«d (653â713 [1255â1313])
ââal-TÄj al-RÄzÄ«â MaḥmÅ«d b. Ê¿AlÄ« b. MaḥmÅ«d (alive in 748 [1347])
âAbÅ« Manṣūr JamÄl al-DÄ«n Ê¿AlÄ« (b. 733 [1333])
Post-graduate students and scholars interested in the history of Iran during the medieval period, Islamic thought, history of Shīʿism in Iran, history of the book, manuscript studies.