أصول الاسماعيلية والفاطمية والقرمطية

by Bernard Lewis

Because of the secrecy with which the Ismailis shrouded their literature, most contemporary discussions we have of early Is’maili practice and doctrine comes from hostile Sunni outsiders. The confusion surrounding Is’mailism has produced heated debates on a number of issues, from the origin of the idea that Is’mail was the proper seventh Imam to the nature of the relationship between the Is’maili Fatamid caliphs and the Carmathian Muslims in Bahrain. In The Origins of Is’mailism, Bernard Lewis argues that Is’mail himself, along with his son and a number of companions, founded the Is’maili school of thought; that the Fatimid movement and, subsequently, the Fatimid caliphate were a direct continuation of the movement founded by Is’mail; that the Carmathians’ origins are uncertain, but may have been founded by the Is’maili, Abdallah ben Maimun; and that the Carmathian-Fatamid split was a division between radicals and moderates following the founding of the Fatamid State. Lewis argues convincingly that Is’maili thought was (and is) radically different from that of orthodox Islam — both Sunni and Twelver Shi’a. Based on a “quasi-masonic” (Lewis’ phrase) hierarchy of initiation and an elitist attitude towards the uninitiated, Is’mailism opposed the Sunnis’ relatively egalitarian ideas about access to knowledge. But Is’mailism was, paradoxically, more egalitarian in many social matters than Sunnism. It was more liberal in its treatment of women. It appealed to the artisan classes, and may have organized the first guilds of the Islamic world. In its Carmathian variety, it practiced an economic order that the orthodox confused with communism. There may be a connection between Is’maili elitism and Is’maili liberalism. After all, if the truth was properly the property of an initiate few, who cared what the unenlightened masses did? Both tendencies provoked the horrified reactions among the orthodox, who viewed the first — with some justification — as a front for a “secret doctrine” of materialism, libertinism, even atheism, and who saw the second as a threat to their established order.

Lewis’ book is not just an attempt to sketch a history of the early Is’mailis. It is a history of the perceptions the non-Is’maili had of those early Is’mailis, a historiography combined with a history. In many ways, this story of the general perception of a potentially subversive heresy is more interesting than the story of the heresy itself, if only because our knowledge of the former is more substantial. The popular paranoia towards Sevener Shi’ism should remind the reader of similar attitudes throughout Western At various times, the orthodox attempted to tar the Is’mailis with patently untrue reports of non-Islamic origins (Judaic, Zoroastrian, Manichean) and with non-Islamic secret teachings. (Lewis does not draw such comparisons — though he does mention the influence of the gnostics on Is’maili thought. His monograph is narrowly focused and concise.)

This book was originally written as a doctoral dissertation and, as such, is not the best introduction to the subject — it was not written for a popular audience, and it assumes a lot of knowledge on the part of the reader. It is also in many ways out of First issued in 1940, the preface to the edition I read — published in 1975 — makes it clear that much has been made obsolete by later discoveries (and that some errors were made in the hasty original preparation of the book). Still, it’s a fascinating study.

Genres: History, Islam

201 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Bernard Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus at Princeton University and the author of many critially acclaimed and bestselling books, including two number one New York Times bestsellers: What Went Wrong? and Crisis of Islam. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Internationally recognized as the greatest historian of the Middle East, he received fifteen honorary doctorates and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Reviews

[Mohammed Hussam · Rating 4 out of 5]

بغض النظر عن مواقف برنارد لويس السياسية، يبقى باحثاً من طراز خاص..
فسعة اطلاعهِ ومنهجيته البحثية تجعل من دراساته مصادر مهمة في التاريخ الإسلامي..

[Samy seddiq · Rating 3 out of 5]

البحث نتاج جهد يستحق التقدير لبرنارد لويس خاصة محاولته القاء الضوء عن فرقة من اكثر الفرق إثارة للجدل في التاريخ الاسلامي ( القرامطة) ةما فعلوه من تشويه للإسلام، وايضاً نشوء المذهب الاسماعيلي بعد وفاة امام الشيعة السادس جعفر الصادق وإدعاء اصحاب المذهب ان الإمامة انتقلت لإبنة البكر اسماعيل الذي توفي في حية والده علي غير المتفق عليه تاريخياً ان الإمامة انتقلت الي الامام موسي الكاظم.
ما يعيب الكتاب هو اغراقه فى المراجع والمصادر وربما سبب ذلك ان الكتاب في الأصل رسالة دكتوراه، والرسائل العلمية تخضغ لمقاييس اكاديمية في كتابتها تختلف عن طريقة عرض مادة علمية لقارئ عادي.

[Mohammed Fawzi (BookTuber) · Rating 4 out of 5]

يعيبه ذكر المصادر في أكثر من فصل و تشتيت القارئ للرسالة الخاصة به (حصل بها علي الدكتوراة من جامعة لندن عام 1940)، رسالته كانت تحت إشراف المستشرق الإنجليزي المشهور هاملتون جب.
الكتاب مفيد

[Freedom Breath · Rating 3 out of 5]

عنوان شيق للحديث عن اكثر الفرق اثار للجدل من ناحية الافكار والمعتقدات والكم الهائل من الهرطقة للأسف الكاتب اهتم بتوضيح مصادره ومراجعه الموثوقة للقارئ اكثر من اهتمامه بالسرد المفصل المتسلسل للأحداث الكتاب هو رسالة دكتوراة للكاتب لذلك الاهتمام الكبير كان في المقدمة والتركيز علي المراجع اكثر من الاهتمام بالمحتوي والتعريف بشكل مرتب اكثر بالفرق ونشأتها.

[Amal B · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب يبحث في الاصول لهذه الحركات الثلاثة مليء بالاسماء والروايات ويرجع الكاتب لمراجع مختلفة سنية و شيعيه ودرزية ،
اقتنيت الكتاب اعتقاداً مني ان اجد بعض من اسسهم العقائديه ومبادئهم لكن للاسف فقط تحوي كيف بدأت ومن هم الاشخاص المسوؤلين عن ذلك ،
ونتيجة لما قرأت ادركت ان كل تللك المذاهب او الفئات كانت نتاج اشعال فتن او مأرب مادية ، هذا والله اعلم

طبعة الكتاب يوجد فيها بعض الصفحات الناقصه 😑

[HUSSAIN R3D]

اعطونا رابط الكتاب ع الفورشير بالله

[Turki · Rating 4 out of 5]

منذ كتب لويس هذه الدراسة في ١٩٤٠م أتيح للباحثين العديد من المخطوطات المتفرقة في أنحاء العالم الإسلامي في اليمن والهند ومصر وغيرها. وإن المرء ليعجب من قدرة لويس البحثية واستخلاصاته في باكورة سيرته الأكاديمية وفي زمن كان معظم ما يستند عليه من المخطوط دون المنشور المحقق.
لا شك أني متبع هذه الدراسة بهاينتس هالم وفرهاد دفتري وقد أتيح لهما ما كان يمنّي لويس نفسه لو يقع على نصفه أو أقل.
والترجمة رائعة

[Hussain J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book

[عبد الله القصير · Rating 3 out of 5]

لا أدري هل النسخة التي قرأت ناقصة أو لا لكن الكتاب مختصر بشكل مخل وخاتمة الكتاب أيضا انتهت بشكل سريع.

[Michael Nguyen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its a very convoluted explanation about how the Ismaili movement started. The author gives contrasting and contradicting accounts from Sunni, Shia and Ismaili sources. There is ultimately no conclusion at the end, other than the name of a few important figures, but no clear understanding of the facts or history. Its more of a historiography than a history, explaining how the accounts of Sunni, Shia, and Ismaili were different from eachother, who borrowed from who, who took sources where, what may or may not have been fabricated, yadda yadda. Its quite academically dense as well, with Arabic vocabulary thrown in, so its definitely not intended for a normal reader.