Islam's Spiritual Pillars Fatimid Thought, Nasir-i Khusraw, and the Inner Meaning of Muslim Practice

The palace hall overflowed with devotees, silence falling as the sage disclosed how the cosmos speaks in symbols and ritual brims with meaning--so attest medieval accounts of the Fatimid Assemblies of Wisdom. At the height of the Shi'i century, the Fatimids taught that every act of worship and every facet of the universe is a cipher, beckoning seekers to the world beyond. Islam's Spiritual Pillars explores this legacy--a legacy that ignited a golden age of creative thought and shaped Islamic intellectual history, inspiring luminaries from Ibn al-'Arabi and Ghazali to Mulla Sadra and the Hurufis.

Central to this study is the first complete, richly annotated English translation of The Face of Religion by Nasir-i Khusraw, one of Islam's most brilliant minds. A thousand years on, his words still captivate: Persian speakers quote his poetic aphorisms, literary connoisseurs treasure his Book of Travels, and seekers of wisdom draw inspiration from his quest to unite the divine and human sciences. In his eloquent masterpiece of Fatimid ta'wil--"the science of deciphering"--he challenges the faithful to ponder Islam's pillars, from prayer to pilgrimage, declaring that "none are more ignorant than those who do something without knowing why." Complementing the translation, Shafique N. Virani provides an extensive lexicon of Fatimid terminology, an indispensable resource for scholars and students of Shi'ism, Islamic philosophy, and mysticism.

Islam's Spiritual Pillars is an odyssey--alive with a gripping narrative, penetrating insights, vivid anecdotes, and elegant translations of prose and verse. It invites lovers of world classics and seekers of wisdom to encounter voices from a millennium ago--voices that speak with startling relevance today.

Shafique N. Virani, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto, is a leading authority on Twelver and Ismaili Shi'ism, Quranic studies, and Islamic mysticism. His award-winning work--translated into more than twenty languages--has garnered international acclaim, with honors from the American Academy of Religion, the Middle East Studies Association, the Foundation for Iranian Studies, the British Society for Middle East Studies, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, UNESCO, the Farabi International Award, and the Book of the Year prize.

Acknowledgments

Part I: The Sage and His System
1. A Reader's Roadmap: How to Navigate this Book
2. Roosters, Writers, and Academics: A Note on the Text
3. Mount Nasir-i Khusraw: The Sage's Life and Legacy
4. Assemblies of Wisdom: Intellect and the Alchemy of Transformation
5. Literalism and Deciphering: Ta'wil in Muslim Thought
6. Firmly Grounded in Knowledge: Ta'wil in Shism
7. Lord of the Worlds: Harmonic Perception in the Song of the Universe
8. Mapping Eternity: From Hexaemeron to Hierocosmos
9. Between Letter and Spirit: Voltaire, Nasir-i Khusraw, and the Art of Translation

Part II: The Face of Religion (with the collaboration of Faquir M. Hunzai)

Part III: A Fatimid Lexicon
1. The Rider of Words: Using the Lexicon
2. Lexicon

Notes
Works Cited
Index of Quranic Citations
Index of Hadiths
General Index