The Banquet of the Brethren: An Ismaili Guide to Spiritual Hermeneutics

I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies The Ismaili da?i (missionary) and poet Na?ir-i Khusraw (d. after 1070) wrote Khwan al-ikhwan (The Banquet of the Brethren) when he was living in his remote mountain refuge of Yumgan in Badakhshan. This work includes a prcis of ideas found in the Kitab al-Yanabi? (al-?ikma) (The Wellsprings of Wisdom), written by the earlier da?i Abu Ya?qub al-Sijistani (d. ca. 971). Na?ir-i Khusraw recast these ideas in Persian and then expanded them into 100 chapters (or courses of a banquet). The text presents a sequence of dynamic arguments for divine unicity (taw?id), while also asserting the authority of the Prophet Muhammad, his legatee and son-in-law ?Ali b. Abi ?alib, and the subsequent Imams from the line of the Prophets descendant Isma?il b. Ja?far al-?adiq. Khwan al-ikhwan stands as a significant work in Ismaili theology and philosophy, exemplifying the central role of ta?wil (esoteric interpretation). It also reflects the learning of the age, including the conception of a geocentric cosmos, Aristotelian physics, and Neoplatonic philosophy, all of which profoundly influenced the Ismaili da?is in Iran. This new Persian critical edition is based on the only two extant manuscripts, making it a comprehensive resource. Rahim Gholami has also prepared an accompanying volume containing an annotated English translation of the Persian text.