Abū Tammām and His Kitāb al-Shajara: A New Ismaili Treatise from Tenth-Century Khurasan

Author(s): Paul E. Walker

Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 114, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1994), pp. 343-
352
Published by: American Oriental Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/605078
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 ABU TAMMAM AND HIS KITABAL-SHAJARA:
A NEW ISMAILI TREATISE FROM TENTH-CENTURY KHURASAN
PAULE. WALKER
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

The Ismaili works published by Arif Tamir under the titles Kitab al-i.dah and Kitdb shajarat al-
yaqin, respectively, are both taken from or, perhaps, actually once constituted the second part of a
previously unidentified tenth-century treatise called Kitdb al-shajara by an obscure daCi from
Khurasannamed Abu Tammam. Recovery of part one of this same work now makes that clear. Abu
Tammam, who also wrote a Kitab al-burhan, was an important disciple of the famous Muhammad
al-Nasafi and was himself a major witness to the flowering of the Khurasanischool.

IN 1965 ARIF TAMIR,A SYRIANISMAILIscholar of no giants Abui Hatim al-Razi, Muhammad al-Nasafi, and
small accomplishment in terms of works written and Abui Ya'qib al-Sijistani) but, as well, a brilliant conti-
edited, published in Beirut a text called Kitab al-iddah, nuity in the scholarly traditions of this community. In his
which he claimed was the work of Abu Firas Shihab enthusiasm for Abu Firas' treatise, Tamir added to this
al-Din al-Maynaqi-a prominent authorityin the Syrian comparison later writers of even greater stature, such as
Ismaili community during the first half of the sixteenth al-Kirmani, an Ismaili writer, and Ibn Sina and Suh-
century. This new addition to the body of available rawardi, both of whom were almost certainly not Ismaili.
Ismaili materials proved to contain importantexamples The Idah was proof that the Ismailis had retained in
of sophisticated, quasi-scientific intellectual doctrines Syria a strong attachment to their intellectual heritage
and, beyond that, citations of other authors and texts long after-in fact centuries after-its classical incep-
not available elsewhere. The trouble was that this work, tion and greatest flourishing.2
however valuable, gave almost no evidence of having The Syrian group to which Abu Firas belonged did
been written in Syria, and especially not in the era of not follow the same line of imams that eventually
Abi Firis. produced the Aga Khans. Locally they are known as
Although Abi Firas'father came originally from Day- Jacfari Ismailis. Among them, apparently, a tradition of
lam, the son was born in Syria in 859/1455 and grew up preserving and copying older texts continues to exist.
in the mountain fortresses that belonged to the Ismailis Rumors of this had led W. Ivanow, perhaps the foremost
of that region, such as Masyaf and Qadmis and most of the modern scholarly pioneers in the effort to recover
particularlyMaynaqa, where he spent the greaterpart of and catalog the literature of the Ismailis, to attempt to
his life until he died, having become the chief ddCi,in obtain detailed information about this community's liter-
either 937/1530 or 947/1540-41.1 Thus, there could be ary holdings. Most intriguing was the possibility that the
little question but that a treatise by him-especially one Syrians, as users of Arabic from the beginning, might
as extensive and learned as the Idah-indicated not only have examples of the earliest works, some of which
Abi Firas' acquisition of scientific and philosophical seem to have been lost to the Tayyibi Ismailis of Yemen
knowledge that put him in the same league as the major and India, the other and generally most productive
figures from much earlier (such as the 4th/10th century source of original texts from the earliest centuries. Non-
Tayyibi, non-Syrian Ismailis, such as the Nizaris of Iran
I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the important and India have no comparable tradition of Arabic schol-
assistanceof both professorsAbbas Hamdaniand EverettRowson arship and, accordingly, did not retain examples of the
in variousaspects of this investigation.I must also thankWilferd oldest literature. Ivanow in his 1963 Ismaili Literature:
A Bibliographical Survey, however, noted the difficulty
Madelungfor correctionshe suggested to an earlierversion.
1 See Tamir's introduction and I. of gaining access to JaCfari-held materials and credits
Poonawala, Biobibliogra-
phy of Ismdaili Literature (Malibu, Calif.: Undena, 1977),
2 Tamir's
294-95. "Introduction,"section on qimat al-kitab.

343
344 Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.3 (1994)

there an unnamed "journalist of Beirut" for providing the 4th/10th century, almost certainlyin Khurasan,where
him a list of what might exist.3 its author says he is or has been. There are, in addition,
Among the titles he gives, three that have particular a number of other points of reservation, chief being the
importance in regard to the present investigation were numerous citations in it of the Mahsul, a work by some-
grouped under the name "Nakhshabi," which Ivanow one the text itself calls only al-Hakim al-Sadiq.7 These ci-
insisted has "obviously nothing to do with the ancient tations, however, cannot refer to anyone but the famous
Nakhshabi." Nakhshabi and Nasafi are the same- al-Nasafi and to his work the Mahsil-not as Tamir
Nasafi is the Arabized form of the Persian Nakhshabi.4 wanted to insist, to the imam Ahmad b. CAbdallah.8Other
The person Ivanow refers to is the famous philosophical material in the text names the famous physician Abu Bakr
author and dadl, who was martyred in 332/934 at the al-Razi (d. 313),9 and there are pieces of it that parallel
Samanid court.5 The three works in question are (no. closely the so-called Pseudo-Ammonius, an important,
795) Kitab al-mahsul, (no. 796) Kitab al-burhan, and pseudo-epigraphicaldoxographyof ancient Greek philo-
(no. 797) Kitab al-idah. The title al-Mahsul is the same sophical opinions which itself has a connection to the
as that of Muhammad al-Nasafi's highly influential, work of both Abu Hatim al-Razi (d. 322) and al-Nasafi.'0
seminal treatise, considered by many authorities to be Tamirhimself was likely uneasy with his attributionof
the first work to attempt the philosophical interpretation the Idah to Abu Firas because, in 1982, he reissued vir-
of Ismaili doctrines. tually the same material under the title Shajarat al-yaqin,
The presence also of the title al-Iddh in Ivanow's list this time stating that its authorwas the well-known Iraqi
without an attributionto Abu Firais,who is nevertheless Qarmatianda'c CAbdan(3rd/9th century). Most disturb-
representedby other titles, should have caused concern in ing about its reappearancein this form is not the highly
the case of Tamir's assertion that he was its author.This improbable attributionto CAbdanand the early Qarma-
is especially so in view of the materialin the Iddh which tians-after all, there are indications that a number of
hardly fits the sixteenth century. Most importantin this CAbdan'sfollowers wrote books in a period subsequentto
regard is its doctrine about the imamate-a doctrine that his murderin 286 and ascribed them to his authorship."I
expresses a concept of the Qdaimand his khulafadthat is The Shajara/Idah could have been such a work and thus
characteristic of the Iranian writers during the 4th/10th the anachronismof its citations of Abu Bakr al-Razi and
century but does not exist during later times.6 Taken at Muhammadal-Nasafi could be explained in this way. But
face value, the .dah could only have been composed in what is truly more serious and perplexing is why Tamir
himself failed in the second publication to admit the co-
3 Ismaili Literature (Tehran, 1963), 168-73. incidence between one text and the other. The differences
4 Thus,in almostany place one appears,the othercouldbe between them are for the most part transparent:the
substitutedwithoutindicatinga differentperson. Shajarat al-yaqln leaves out phrases, a few references to
5 On him in names that cannot have been known in the 4th/10th
generalsee the entry in Poonawala'sBiobib-
liography,40-42, as well as S. M. Stern,"TheEarlyIsmacili century are dropped, and the second version provides, on
Missionaries in North-West Persia and in Khurasan and occasion, an alternative reading. Thus, while it is quite
Transoxania," BSOAS 23 (1960): 56-90; reprinted in Studies possible thatTamir'ssources suppliedhim with two works
in Early Ismdcilism(Jerusalem-Leiden,1983), 189-233. already differing in attribution and in phrasing, com-
There is a review of his doctrines in chapter three of my Early paring the two carefully makes the publication of the
Philosophical Shiism (Cambridge, 1993).
6 These writers identify Muhammadb. IsmaCil,grandson of however enumeratedin this context as a "successor"), and 99
Jacfar al-Sadiq, as the Qd'im who is presently in occultation (citing the "second seven," i.e., those who follow the Qd'im).
and who is representedin worldly affairs by a series of khulafa' 7 Cited in the text at least ten times:
pp. 26, 52, 54, 55, 88,
("caliphs"). On this see Wilferd Madelung's "Das Imamat in 91, 112, 116, 140, and 148.
der fruhen ismailitischen Lehre,"Der Islam 37 (1961): 43-135, 8 Amongotherbits of evidencefor this,thereis a briefpas-
particularly101-14 on what he identifies as the Persian School; sage on page 117 that also appears in Kirmani's Riydd, 225,
also FarhadDaftary, The Ismdcilis: TheirHistory and Doctrines and Abu Hatim al-Razi's Islah, 32-34. Both are clearly citing
(Cambridge, 1990), 167-68 and 234-46. al-Nasafi and not an imam. For full references to these two
For some references of this type in the .ddh, see pp. 45-46, works, see notes 16 and 17 below.
124-25 (note, however, in this instance that the list of Imams 9 Pp. 54 and 55.
has been altered to conform to the modem Nizari doctrine that 10 On this connection see chapter two of my Early Philo-
drops Hasan b. CAli),132 (where Muhammadb. IsmaCilis cor- sophical Shiism, as well as material presented here below.
rectly regarded as the eighth "successor" (khalifa) of the l Ibn al-Nadim,Fihrist (Cairo, n.d.), 281; Dodge, Eng.
prophet; CAliwas not an imam but rather the wasi/asds; he is trans.,470.
 WALKER:Abu Tammamand his Kitab al-Shajara 345

Shajarat al-yaqin look more like a shoddy effort to ac- That places great value on all those citations from them
count for numerous doubts arising from the mistaken that do remain in other works, notably in Abu Hatim's
claim for Abi Firas' authorship. It might, for example, al-Islah, which is a point by point refutation of the
still have been argued that Abu Firas had reused an older Mahsul,16 in Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani's al-Riydd,
work and that the discovery of the Shajara had finally which is a critical review of the dispute about the
made that clear. Tamir, however, did not do this but Mahsul,'7 and in Abui al-Qasim al-Busti's Kashf asrar
rather, through his silence, left the matter hanging. As al-Batiniya, which, as a fairly early Zaydi denunciation
will be seen, the truthis that both claims about authorship of Ismaili thought, is one of the most knowledgeable
are almost certainly entirely false; neither CAbdannor witnesses to 4th/10th century Ismaili writings.'8 As an
Abu Firas had a hand in writing the Shajara/l.dah. The addition to these, the I.ddh,which cites and/or quotes
question of variation, however, needs to be reconsidered the Mahsal in a number of instances, offers a further
in the light of evidence about the text-its date and its critical source of information-a fact duly noted by
real author-now to be offered. Ismail Poonawala in his monumental 1977 Biobiblio-
My own interest in this work grew out of research on graphy of Ismdaili Literature.
the early Ismaili Neoplatonist philosophers. It has long In my study of the references to the Mahsul in the
been thought that al-Nasafi and his Mahsiil hold the I.dah, I was aware continually both of their importance
keys to understanding how and why Neoplatonism and of the difficulty of separating what belonged to
entered the Ismaili intellectual tradition. Written at the al-Nasafi from what might be the work of the author of
beginning of the 4th/10th century, the Mahsul seems to the Iddh itself. The exact quotations in question are not
have circulated widely both in Ismaili circles and else- clearly marked.Moreover, with the recent publication of
where. Al-Nasafi earned repute as a philosopher even an annotatedand indexed text of the Pseudo-Ammonius,
from those who would have rigorously rejected his it became relatively easy to investigate parallels with
Ismaili religious views.12 During the period of his that text as well. Ulrich Rudolph, the editor of the
greatest achievements, just prior to his martyrdom,the Pseudo-Ammonius, had already identified several pas-
Ismailis of Khurasanenjoyed an uncharacteristicera of sages in it that also appear among the later citations of
acceptance at the Samanid court. A prominent Amir, the Mahsiil, though he did not examine those in the
Husayn al-Marwazi, actively promoted their cause, Idah.19 Several, however, do occur in the Ida.h20and in
providing support and protection, and possibly a forum such a way as to suggest that, quite possibly, al-Nasafi is
for their scholarly teaching, exchanges and research.13 the common source.21
Ostensibly, all this came to an end-perhaps merely a Still, with the matter of the connection between the
hiatus-with the death, first of the Amir, and then with Shajarat al-yaqin and the Idah unresolved, the prove-
a violent reversal in the sentiment of the ruling house, nance of this materialremainedup in the air. I, therefore,
leading directly to the execution of al-Nasafi and many began to look for furtherreferences in Ismaili literature
of his followers in 332/934. For the next thirty years or to the Shajara, thinking that it was unlikely that an early
so, the outstanding Neoplatonizing figure was Abu text would have escaped the notice of the later, especially
Yacqub al-Sijistani, who seems to have been active
then mainly in Sijistan and not in Khurasan.14 16
This work has not been published: MSHamdani library.
Unlike al-Sijistini, whose books and treatises, by 17 Ed. Tamir (Beirut, 1960).
and large, found an honored niche in later Ismaili 18
MS Griffini collection, Ambrosiana, Milan, no. 41. On
libraries, those of al-Nasafi, though well regarded by al-Busti and this work, see Stern's "Abu'l-Qasim al-Busti and
some in their day, apparently were not preserved.15 his Refutation of Isma'ilism," JRAS (1961): 14-35; reprinted
in Studies, 299-320.
12 19 Die Doxographie des Pseudo-Ammonios: Ein Beitrag zur
Note, for example, how Nizam al-Mulk in his Siyasat-
nama characterizes him as "one of the philosophers of neuplatonischen Uberlieferung im Islam (Stuttgart: Franz
Khurasanand a theologian" (quoted by Stern, "Early IsmaCili Steiner, 1989).
Missionaries," 219). 20 Most notably Idah, 90-91, in relationship to Pseudo-
13 On him see Stern, Studies, 195, 217-19. Ammonius 11:6-11.
14 The most 21 Another tantalizing possibility is the citation of a work
complete account of these events is Stern's
"Early IsmaCili Missionaries," but see also my Early Philo- called simply Kitab al-Mabadi' (p. 79 of the I.dah) which
sophical Shiism, chapters one and three, which contain some might refer to the Pseudo-Ammonius whose only known title
additional information. is Fi ara' al-falasifa bi-khtildf al-aqdwil fi al-mabddi'. Thus
15 The one
exception is a short treatise called Kawn al-Mabadi' may indicate a direct connection between these
al-'alam (MSIsmaili Institute, London). passages and this enigmatic pseudo-doxology.
346 Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.3 (1994)

Tayyibi, authoritieswho were themselves, in the Yemeni tions. One important result was the realization that the
phase of their history, assiduous collectors and preserv- Idah, as one might have suspected, is closest to Abi
ers of the older tradition, which they in general, unlike Tammam, being far more accurate than the Shajarat
some other Ismailis, continued to uphold. al-yaqin, which tends to abbreviate and occasionally
The one obvious choice was a Kitab al-shajara by a only to paraphrase.
little known daci named in the sources as simply Abu With this evidence there could be no question about
Tammam.22Poonawala put him in "the first half of the Abu Tammam's authorship of the Shajara although it
sixth/twelfth century or earlier" (my emphasis). This did not, by itself, provide any direct clue as to who he
dating is based on the citation of Abi Tammam and his was or exactly when he lived. Nor did it really estab-
Shajara in a late 6th/12th century Yemeni writer's lish conclusively whether the Syrian text might yet be
Diya' al-albab,23 which in turn was carefully outlined an independent recension, perhaps a re-use by a later
in detail by al-Majdii in his 12th/18th century catalog writer such as Abu Firas.
of Ismaili literature.24Poonawala also found a refer- Confident that Tamir's Shajara must be identical or
ence for this Shajara in a non-Ismaili heresiography by nearly so with the Shajara of the other references, I in-
Abu Muhammad (Mukhtasarfi Caqadid)where the title quired with a colleague in London about the Shajara
appears as follows: Kitab shajarat al-din wa burhan that is among the Ismaili manuscripts held by the
al-yaqin.25 Whatever the value of the rest of this title, Ismaili Institute there. He reported, however, that their
which almost certainly covers two separate works copy is not the same as Tamir's text but is rather a
rather than one, it does indicate the probable source of different work. Fortunately, Prof. Hamdani, who does
Tamir's Shajarat [.. .] al-yaqin. not himself own a copy of Abu Tammam's treatise,
Once this connection was made, verification required soon located another copy that had once belonged to his
checking the quotations from Abu Tammam's work, as grandfather.He had xeroxed copies made both for him-
published in al-Majdui's Fahrasat al-kutub against self and for me. In his letter27that came with my copy,
Tamir's Shajara/lddh. Evidence for them soon became he also noted that what he was sending did not seem
apparent in the Shajara/Iddh, confirming that the ori- to be the same book as the one edited by Tamir. He
gin of Tamir's text is the Shajara of Abi Tammam.26A pointed out that there were, however, some similarities
subsequent visit to Prof. Abbas Hamdani, a leading au- in subjects discussed. He did offer the hope that, as
thority on Ismaili literature and the owner of one of the the work before us was labeled "Part One" (al-juz'
best collections of it, soon added further proof. He and al-awwal), there might still be a possibility that the
I sat together and collated the appropriatepassages of quotations in the Diya'-not found in this manuscript-
the Shajara/Idah with the quotations of it in his copy are from the missing "Second Part."He is of the opin-
of CAllb. al-Walid's Diyd3, this time not being limited ion, however, that such a "Second Part"is not known in
by the extreme brevity of al-Majdui's truncated cita- the moder Tayyibi collections. As to a date, he sug-
gested that the time of the Fatimid caliph al-MuCizz
22 would be the earliest because the text mentions the
Poonawala, Biobibliography, 132.
23 AshCariya, followers of Abi al-Hasan al-Ashcari, the
By CAlib. Muhammadb. Jacfarb. Ibrahimb. al-Walid famous theologian who died in 324/936.
al-Anf al-Qurashi(CAllb. al-Walid).See the entryin Poon-
Once all of this material was assembled in one place,
awala's Biobibliography, 156-61.
further pieces of the puzzle quickly came to light. In-
24Ismacilb. CAbdal-Rasul,knownas al-MajdiiC,
Fahrasat
deed, as Hamdani thought, the Shajara/Idah of Tamir
al-kutub wa al-rasadil, ed. by Ali Naqi Munzavi (Tehran,
more or less constitutes the second part of Abi Tam-
1966),229-37. mam's work. However, using solely the evidence pro-
25 Note thatthis title containsboth a
Shajaraanda Burhan vided by the Hamdani manuscript of part one and the
whichas will be apparentare separatetitles for two different
I.dah as published, without additional information, a
booksby AbuTammam.This informationfromtheMukhtasar
complicated picture emerges of the original Shajara,
fi al-Caqdiidappearsin Poonawala'sentryfor Abil Tammam;
I havenot seen a copy of it. though, of course, more so for the latter portion than
the first, which now has a verifiable manuscript source.
26The correspondences are as follows: Diyai Question16
At this point, it will be useful to provide a general
(al-Majdu', p. 233) = Idah, 9; DiyaD 19 (al-Majdic, 233-34) = outline of the whole text, in part to show how the vari-
I.dah,70; DiydD21 (this Questionis not foundin the published ous items in it fit together, especially those from the
text of al-MajdiCwhichhas in its place Question22) = idadh,
89-90; Diyda 22 (al-MajdiC, 234) = .dadh,143; and Diyad 25
(al-Majdic,235) = dadh,
27 and45, respectively. 27 Dated
Sept.29, 1991.
 WALKER:Abu Tammamand his Kitib al-Shajara 347

Idah, but also to indicate the wealth of information it in any case. He thought it obvious that Adam had a
offers about Ismaili thought and doctrine in the time law. For him the very concept of esoteric knowledge
and place this text represents. and the necessity of a special dacwa to control access
Abu Tammam begins by noting the distress of a to it required this position in regard to Adam.
colleague as to the meaning of a work called Kitab Abu Tammam, on the other hand, claims that,
al-raha. It is in response to this dilemma that he pro-
poses to write the Shajara, in which he sets out to Each of the seven speaker-prophets(nutaqa') had com-
cover the four (spiritual) categories of beings: namely mand and law according to his rank. As for Adam he
the angels, the jinn, the shaydtin, and humans (ins).28 had no law (sharica). That is because he commanded by
His major theme in so doing, according to his own in- means of works (al-acmdl), even while tolerating their
troduction, is the difference between the angels who are neglect. The definition of work is what may be ne-
proximate (muqarraban) and the others, and between glected whereas the definition of law (sharica) is what
the shayatin (shayttans,satans) and the abalisa (iblises, cannot be neglected. For that reason they called his era
devils). What follows through to the end of the Idah an era of work.... As for Noah he commanded by
carries out this general intention more or less in order. works but also did not tolerate their neglect and for this
There is one more mention of the Kitab al-riiha, reason the works he ordered his community to engage
much later (f. 197r) where it is ascribed simply to the in are called "laws" (shard3ic).31
Sage (al-Hakim). The Kitab al-rdha, according to this
report, confirmed the doctrine that the age of Adam was Can al-Nasafi have originally meant something like
one of deeds or works (Carnal)and not law (sharia). this? It would be difficult to verify it without the
Abu Tammam believes that the discussion in that work Mahsul itself and it may be quite significant that Abui
is sufficient and need not be repeated or developed in Tammam cites the Raha in this instance and not the
his own. This evidence makes clear that the book in Mahsul. Moreover, Abi Hatim seems to imply more or
question is not by Abi Tammam. One might conjecture, less unequivocally that al-Nasafi recognized neither
instead, that it is by al-Nasafi, whose Mahsul is cited law nor works in the era of Adam.32
once in the Hamdani manuscript (f. 175r) and once The first section of Abu Tammam's Shajara covers
again in a passage of the I.dah that is confirmed inde- the subject of angels in potentia (bi-l-quwa) and angels
pendently by the Diyad as belonging to Abu Tammam's in actu (bi-l-fiCl). This relatively short section matches
text.29 In the later passage, he is called the Excellent closely a portion of Muhammad al-Harithi's (d. 584/
Sage (al-Hakim al-Fadil, not, as in Tamir's version, 1188) Majmic al-tarbiya (a section of part two).33 This
al-.Hakim al-Sadiq), a title indicating extremely high Yemen authority was the teacher of the author of the
regard but not, I think, an imam.30 Diyad.34 In al-Harithi's work this passage is labeled min
The problem with attributing the Raha to al-Nasafi kalam Nakhshabi ("from a discourse of Nakhshabi").
is that it runs against what Abu Hatim reports as the Variations between the two manuscript versions-not
view of this author concerning the age of Adam. As is extensive in any case-could imply that both are copies
now well known, the Islah credits al-Nasafi with a doc- of a common source, Abu Tammam's being slightly al-
trine stating that Adam had no law (sharila) but that he tered from an original. The source would be the work of
was nevertheless one of the aul al-'azm-a Quranic Muhammad al-Nasafi, possibly the Mahsul. Or, it can
phrase for those who possess special religious author- mean that Abu Tammam, if he is actually its author, like
ity. Almost no one else accepted this second premise,
although a number of Ismaili scholars supported the 31 The key sentences are amma Adam fa-innahu lam yakun
first and asserted likewise that Adam had no law. What
lahu sharica wa dhdlika li-annahu amara bi-l-aCmdlwa saw-
al-Nasafi can have really meant is not exactly clear
from Abu Hatim, who is hostile to the whole approach wagha tarkahd. Fa hadd al-'amal md yajuz tarkuha wa hadd
al-sharica md Id yajuz tarkuhd. The corresponding passage of
I.dah (p. 7) is faulty. As well, it omits the reference to the
28 This
simplified outline appears most particularly in the Rdha.
later part. See Idah, 148. 32 The discussion of this issue in al-Kirmani's Riydd
29
idah, 88 (with the title wrongly given as al-Hasil wa al- (pp. 176-212), where it offers Abu Hatim's arguments, is not
mahsul). Compare Shajarat al-yaqin, 90. This is the 21st as complete and therefore as accurate as in the original.
Question in the Diya'. 33 MS Hamdani library.
30 In view of this evidence it is probably necessary to cor- 34 On him and his work, see Poonawala, Biobibliography,
rect accordingly the text of Tamir throughout. 143-50.
348 Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.3 (1994)

the well-known al-Nasafi, was himself from Nakhshab earlier heresiography, considering it one of AbuiTam-
(Nasaf). A third possibility is yet another writer named mam's sources in this section accords well with the
Nakhshabi, which category includes the two sons of the mention of him and his Lumac. Yet, all in all, because
author of the Mahsul, themselves prominent dda's of the Abu Tammam provides the full reasoning and the de-
following generation. tails that lie at the base of his arrangement of these
Next is a brief discussion of the jinn, followed by an sects, and al-Khwarazmi does not, the Shajara defi-
elaborate account of the shaydtin which runs all together nitely appears to predate the brief, unjustified material
approximately 159 folios and includes an extensive de- in the Mafdtih al-'ulum, which would be a copy of it.
scription of the seventy-two damned sects within Islam, Of course, this is not an absolutely secure standardbut
each of which owes its status to a leader who is one of the it fits other evidence, some of which will be discussed
shaydtin, meaning the scholars of the ahl al-zdhir (the later, and thus, this preliminary reckoning would show
fuqaha' al-qishriya in the author's terminology). This that Abui Tammam's Shajara must fall between the
section contains fascinating details about the beliefs and time of al-Ash'ari and al-Khwarazmi.
doctrines of each of the seventy-two sects, among them Once his account of the damned sects is complete,
the Ashcariya, as noted by Prof. Hamdani.35Al-AshCari's Abui Tammam turns to his own group and the impor-
Kitab al-lumac is cited as well. For the purposeof dating, tance of ta'wll. This leads to a section on ta'wil (Bab
this reference appears to put the Ashcariya among the al-ta'wil) followed by a section on the Abdlisa (com-
offshoots of the Kullabiya, an affinity that Ibn al-Nadim mencing with f. 183r). From folio 192r-v of the Ham-
recognized in his Fihrist, but which is hardlyone the later dani manuscript, the text begins to overlap that of
Ashcariya would admit except as a distantpoint of depar- Tamir's Shajara/lddah.The opening portion of the latter
ture. The only other item for comparabledating is a men- was originally a part of the section on the Abdlisa. This
tion of Abu al-Hasan al-Nashi'.36 Moreover, the whole concordance, however, continues into the section on
list, even with its few peculiarities, corresponds nearly humans, ending more-or-less with line 8, page 43 of
precisely with that given by al-Khwarazmiin his Mafatih the I.dah which equals f. 230 of Abu Tammam. I say
al-'ulum, a secretaries' manual written at the Samanid more-or-less because the actual close of "Part One" is
court at Bukharaabout 370.37There are one or two slight line 4 of p. 41 of the iddh.38
variations but a significant alteration between the two The overlapping of the two texts for so many pages is
lists occurs only in Khwarazmi'splacement of the Ismai- both curious and yet somewhat fortunate.It allows us an
lis among the Ghulat and in AbuiTammam'sdiscussion of opportunity to examine carefully the relationship be-
the Ithna Cashariya. For Abui Tammam the ahl al-bdtin, tween them and thereforeto draw a few tentative conclu-
i.e., the Ismailis, are the seventy-third sect-the one sions about the material in the later sections where we
saved for paradise. have no text of Abu Tammam'sown version. Were part
As some of the material for individual sects is two of his work available, we could more easily dispense
almost word-for-word that given in al-AshCari'sown with Tamir'stext altogether since it now appears full of
problems and perhaps hopeless uncertainty. However,
35 I am now in the processof
without a copy of part two, we are left to sort out the
preparinga separatestudyof value of Tamir'sIddh and to use it to obtain information
this heresiographicalmaterial.A preliminaryreportwill ap-
about Abu Tammamand his ideas. To begin this task, it
pear in Essays in Ismadili History and Thought, ed. Farhad
is helpful to look closely at the overlapping section.
Daftary(CambridgeUniv. Press,forthcoming).Note herethat There are two major points that must be stated at the
whenthis subjectcomes up againlater(Idah,76), Abu Tam-
outset. First, the dadhis surely garbled and out of or-
mamdescribesbrieflythe generalcontentof this earliersec-
der. Passages in these initial pages do not belong there;
tion and says: "In like mannerare the differencesthat exist
some are mixed up even in the matching portions.
amongthe literalistsaccordingto the explanationwe outlined
in the firstpartof this bookof ourswhendiscussingthe sects." Nonetheless, because a quotation from AbuiTammfm,
found in the Diya' (Question 16), corresponds to mate-
36 F. 77r. If this is, in fact, a mention of the younger
rial in the Iddh, p. 9, although it does not occur in Abu
al-Nashi>,who died in 976 althoughhe was active also at a
Tammam'spart one, we can be certain that the extrane-
muchearlierperiod.
37 On which see in additionto the Arabictext, the trans- ous passages even here come from part two. This does
lation of the appropriatechapter by C. E. Bosworth,
"Al-Hwarazmi on TheologyandSects, the Chapteron Kalam 38The one item fromthe Diya' (Question18), not foundin
in the Mafatih al-Culam," Bulletin d'etudes orientales 29 the I.ddh,may reflectAbu Tammam,partone, f. 233, but not
["HommageHenriLaoust"](1977):88-91. preciselyenoughto be certain.
 WALKER:Abi Tammamand his Kitab al-Shajara 349

not explain how they came to be inserted at the begin- stances to al-hayawan al-akhras. In a final example,
ning of the I.ddh.39 p. 22, 11. 16-17, the famous description of paradise as
The second point is that there is plenty of evidence "what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor entered the
that the text in these pages was altered consciously. heart of a man," has been credited to the Gospel of
One example is a reference, p. 2, 1. 8, that reads fima Luke. While it is found in the New Testament, surely
taqaddama min kutubina ("in material covered in our Abu Tammam and Abi Firas, and even CAbdanknew it
previous books") instead of wa qad dhakarna ta'wi- as the hadith qudsi that it also is.40
lahu fimd taqaddama ("and we have stated its interpre- Much more in the text of the dadhis corrupt as it
tation in what precedes [of this book itself]") as it is in stands, though some of this may be simply printing
Abu Tammam's original. The subject is a ta'wil that errors or other types of production or transition mis-
had been given in an earlier part of the book. The com- takes.41It would be good to have access to the Syrian
piler of the I.ddhapparently did not know that and so manuscripts on which either it or the Shajarat al-yaqin
altered the reading to avoid raising questions. Another were based.42Tamir neglects either to describe them or
example, p. 6, 1. 3 or thereabouts, fails to name the op- indicate their ___location.
ponents of Muhammad, CAli, and the Qa'im. The real Who was Abu Tammam and where does his Shajara
author had no hesitation (apparently) about naming the fit in the history of Ismaili literature? Fortunately, the
Iblis of Muhammad, who was CUmar,or his Shay.tan, confusion engendered by the publication of his work
who was Abu Jahl. Moreover, the Iblis of CAli was twice, falsely ascribed, first, to a sixteenth-century
Zubayr and his Shaytan was Talha. For the Qa'im, figure and then, second, to one of the ninth has now been
however, he hesitates as to naming his Iblis, though not resolved. There is, moreover, yet one more essential
his Shaytan, who was the Abbasid Caliph Abu Jacfar piece of evidence to be analyzed. Early in Tamir's
al-Mansur. A further problem is what appears to con- Shajara, the author mentions a book of his own called
stitute a systematic changing of terms. Abu Tammam al-Burhdn (p. 12). In the Idah this attribution to Abu
consistently uses the word al-baha'im or al-bahdaim Tammam is not clear at all although the book itself is
wa al-sibd' as the generic term for non-human animals. cited in the parallel passage.43Is, nevertheless, a Kitab
The Syrian text has converted this in nearly all in- al-burhdn anotherof Abu Tammam'sbooks?44Although

39 The 40 I Corinthians
followingnotes give a roughidea of the correspon- ii, 9, butsee J. Robson,"HadithKudsi,"EI2.
denceswhich,in any case, varytremendously in accuracyand 41Thereis a good illustrationof this in a passagefromAbi
exactness: Tammamat f. 21lr wherehe is talkingaboutwhatbecomesof
Idah Aba Tammam plantsthathaveseparatedfromtheirroots(andthe earth).The
pp. 1-4 f. 192r-197 originalmentionsal-adhan(oils) as well as perfumesandtasty
5-7.2 200-207 (portions) items. In the Shajara of Tamir (p. 23, 1. 5) this is al-adhhan
7.3-8 197r-199 (minds?)and,in the Ida.h(p. 21, 1. 1, althoughcorrectat p. 23,
8 (middle)-11 (middle) 1. 7), it is al-azhar (flowers). Adhhan does not fit at all, but
11.12-13 207r-209 azhdrvaguelydoes. Anotherkindof exampleoccurson p. 27
14 (1st para.) of the iddh. Al-Bukhariya(?) should read al-Najjariya as given
14.13-14.17 207r-v muchearlierin the text.
14.18-20.6 42 Such manuscriptswould also be helpful in editing part
20.7-25 209v-220 one of AbuiTammam'sShajara,the presentcopy of which
26.1-26.10 containsits own faults.
26.11-27.6 220v-222v 43It appearsall togetherat least eleven times in the Idah:
27.7-28 (middle) (not in AbuTammamat pp. 8, 35, 46, 76, 79, 119, 120, 131, 134, 141, and 145.
this point but is quoted 44It is necessaryat this pointto recallthatIvanow'slist of
in Diya') Syrianbookscontaineda Burhdnas well as theinformation that
28 (middle) 221v (some phrases) AbuMuhammad citedAbf Tammam's workin sucha wayas to
30-32.12 224-227r include both a Shajara and a Burhdn.
32.13-38.6? A Burhanby al-Sijistiniis mentionedby Tamirin his 1956
38.7-38.18 227r Khams rasdail ismdailiya,p. 17. He reportedthat it is among the
38.19-40.9 233v-end of part one SyrianIsmailimanuscriptsin Masyafand that it containsas
42 (1st para.) many as 700 pages. Oddly,however,Tamirappearslaterto
42 (2nd para.)-43.8 228-230 haveforgottenthis claimin regardto al-Sijistfini.
 350 Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.3 (1994)

book citations in either of these Syrian texts should be firms most directly concerning the references to the
treated with caution, especially, of course, in the Idah Burhan in the Shajara.
when the cited item is from a period later than the mid- A Kitab al-burhdn (or Risalat al-burhdn), moreover,
dle of the tenth century (such as Rdhat al-'aql, the did occupy a prominentplace among Ismaili books at the
Suhrawardiya,or thefalasifa al-islamiyin). In this case, time of the Fatimid Caliph al-MuCizz.Both Abi 'Isa al-
however, the Diya' al-albdb contains explicit confirma- Murshid and Qadi al-NuCman,themselves high ranking
tion of the connection between Abu Tammam and the religious authoritiesin the Fatimid state, mention it and
Kitdb al-burhdn. Twice, CAlib. al-Walid remarks on a indicate in one way or another unease over it-or at a
passage in question in which Abi Tammam refers to his minimumunease at its apparentlyforthrightdisclosure of
own work, the Burhdn, although it would appear that it baitiniknowledge. Clearly both also well knew that some
no longer existed in the Yemen by this writer's time.45 otherIsmailis regardedit differently.They acknowledged
The references to the Burhdn in the Iddh indicate (as did al-MuCizz)that its authorwas a daCiof some note.
that, unlike the Shajara, the Burhdn dealt with matters Al-Murshid's statement was first brought to light by
as they really are, namely, the pure truth unvarnished S. M. Stern who, however, found no other material to
(bdtin, haqdaiq). It and other books of its kind are dis- explain it or the context in which it appears.48I think
courses providing the very essence of truths as they are now that the matter is no longer in doubt. The para-
in themselves. "CAlddhawdt al-haqdIiq bi-aCyaniha," graph in question is a discussion of why the ultimate
is an example of this stipulation in one such citation.46 esoteric truth cannot be allowed out to those not abso-
Whereas the Shajara takes into account both the reve- lutely qualified to receive it. Al-Murshid then says,
lation (tanzil) and the esoteric interpretation(ta'wil),47
apparently the Burhdn provides the inner truths You have heard before what the Kitab al-burhan says
(haqa'iq) solely, without going into zahiri knowledge. aboutsomeonewho failed to guardthe truthproperly
Significantly, it is this point that CAlib. al-Walid con- andwhathappenedto him.49

Surely, given what we know about the Burhan of Abu

There is, among the many titles cataloged by Poonawala and Tammam, this is a reference to his work.
Al-NuCman'sreference is not quite as clear cut. In his
others, a work called Kalila wa dimna which al-Majdii says is
also known as Kitab al-burhdn. Al-Majdui?sdescription of this Majalis wa al-musdyardt,50 he describes a session held
with the caliph al-MuCizzon the subject of the meaning
work,althoughsuggestive,does not by itself seemto
particular
matchwhatwe knowof AbuTammam's of proof (burhan). Several of the assembly attemptedto
bookby the sametitle.
45 The first occurs in Question 21 in the authorof the provide a valid (to al-Mu'izz' liking) account of proof or
demonstration.At one point someone brings out a treatise
Diyads own answer.He says, "AbuTammamhas mentioned
thathe discussedthem [the 99 names]in the Shajarain that (risala) called al-Burhan. Al-NuCmanthen reportsthat,
manner within the confines of persuasion only and he claims
Al-Mu'izz looked it over and then threw it aside, say-
that he discussedthem in truth(bi-l-haqiqa)in the Book of
Proof (Kitab al-burhan)."Later the same author reports ing, "ByGod,whata disasterthatsomeonelike the au-
thorof thistreatiseis connectedto us andthathe claims
(Question 25) that, "He had promised to disclose that and its
true reality (haqiqatahu) in his Book of Proof (Kitab
to be one of ourdaCis.Thereis in this treatiseneithera
discussionof nor anythinghavingthe real sense of a
al-burhdn)." But CAlib. al-Walid also indicates in the same
section that he himself cannot verify such claims about the proofexceptin the nameusedfor its title."51
Burhan, presumably because it is no longer available.
46 P. 79. This As this work of al-NuCmanappears to date no later
phrase describes, in fact, a class of books that
in contrast to two other classes are noteworthy as having no zd- than 351/962-3, this Burhan was surely in circulation
hir elements. Note that this is what Abu Tammam considers to well before then.52
be the meaning of burhin. Mubarhana books (p. 79) are those
that reveal the haqdtiq of things without the zahir. More ex- 48 See his Studies in Early Ismaidlism, 3-29.
plicit is the statement on pp. 8-9, which no doubt originally ad- 49 Stern, Studies, 15 and 26.
joined the discussion on p. 79. Othercitations of the Burhan can 50 Ed. al-Habib Ibrahim and Muhammad
al-Faqi, Sabbih,
be added. (The books mentioned in this passage of the .dah on al-YaClawi(Tunis, 1978).
p. 79 should be compared with that of Tamir'sShajara. Al-Kir- 51 P. 144.
mani's Rahat al-caql, for example, does not belong here at all.) 52 This date was determinedby Ster on the basis of historical
47 See Idah, 148. events recordedby Qadi al-NuCmanin this work (Studies, 262).
 WALKER:Aba Tammamand his Kitab al-Shajara 351

Without an explicit connecting link, however, between Of the other possibilities-assuming that the Yemeni
Abu Tammam'sBurhan and these other references which citation of the opening section of the Shajara as being
do not indicate the name of the work's author, the iden- "min kaldm al-Nakhshabi" points to one and the same
tification of the two must remain tentative. The context work-there are the sons of al-Nasafi, who would have
is, however, both suggestive and compatible, lending both carried the nisba "Nakhshabi."The better known
support to the idea that they are the same.53Moreover, son is HasanMas'cd al-Nakhshabi,identifiedby al-Busti,
the dating of Abu Tammam'sShajara-a later work by by Nasir-i Khusraw,and by Abu Muhammad.57This last
him-based, as we saw, on internal information, points named witness is the heresiographerwho also knew of
also to the time of al-Mu'izz. Abu Tammamand his Shajara. He, however, gives Hasan
Who then was Abu Tammam?The most obvious and MasCid's kunya as Abu al-Husayn.58Moreover, a short
most tantalizing choice is the Abu Tammam al-Nisaburi treatise by Hasan al-Nakhshabi exists59 and, while it con-
of the Siwan al-hikma.54 This obscure philosophical tains materialin some ways similar to that in the Shajara,
figure was the author of a Risala fi al-hudud, but, more its terminology (such as heavy use of "al-'aql al-thdni")
to the point, Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi reported about appears at odds with the known passages from Abu Tam-
him that he attempted to combine philosophy and reli- mam. Therefore, the other son, Dihqan, about whom little
gion55 and that he was a Shiite-an affiliation that got else is known, is on the surface the more likely choice.60
him into much trouble. Because this Abu Tammam was The material from Nasir-i Khusraw's Khwan al-ikhwan is
once employed at the court of Mardawij al-Jili, he must significant in this regard, however, not only in apparently
have been active prior to 323. Later, he was present at citing two sons of al-Nasafi but for another view61 be-
the learned sessions of the Amir of Sijistan, Abu Jacfar, longing to yet another group who maintained that the soul
along with the much more famous logician, Abu Sulay- must pass through seven stages, just as the body must
man al-Sijistfni. If he was also the Ismaili author of the complete seven stages in its growth. This is exactly the
Shajara, an even later connection-following the death doctrine of Abu Tammam according to the idddh.See, for
of Muhammad al-Nasafi-to his native Khurasan example, p. 61; also pp. 29-30 and 32. The stages of soul
would probably be necessary, although Abu Tammam's are: ndmiya, hisslya, ndtiqa, C'qila, qudsiya, Calima, and
own Khurasani residence is based on only a few per- kalldma. This evidence seems to preclude Dihqfn being
sonal references that might imply that he had lived in identical with Abu Tammam.
the region rather than actually having been dwelling While much of this information yields few hard
there when he wrote the Shajara.56 facts, it does locate Abu Tammam and his work with
greater precision than previously possible. One impor-
53 This is less the case with the citation by al-Murshid than tant result is an improvement in our knowledge of what
is looming ever larger in the literature of the early
that of al-NuCmanbut even in the latter, al-MuCizz'scomment
about the book not really being about burhan, in the sense of Ismailis, namely, the Khurasan school. Al-Busti clearly
speaks of such a school, the Ahl al-Khurdsdn, and re-
proof as ordinarily conceived, would fit.
54 This connection was first made, as far as I know, by Everett ports strong disagreement between them and some
other Ismailis of the time.62 He, moreover, identifies a
Rowson in a private communication to me. On this al-Nisfburi,
see the Muntakhab siwan al-hikma, ed. D. M. Dunlop (The
57
Hague, 1979), 147; Abu Hayyanal-Tawhidi, Kitab al-imtdcwa'l- Poonawala, Biobibliography, 75 and 531; W. Madelung,
mu'anasa, ed. A. Amin and A. al-Zayn (Beirut, n.d.), 2:15-16; "Abu Yacqib al-Sijistani and Metempsychosis," Iranica
Ster, "Missionaries,"Studies, 202 and 208; and Joel Kraemer, Varia: Papers in Honor of Professor Ehsan Yarshater, Textes
Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam: Abi Sulaymanal-Sijis- et Memoires, vol. 16 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990), 132; Nasir-i
tani and His Circle (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986), 16-19 and 22-23. Khusraw, Khwan al-ikhwdn, ed. Y. el-Khachab (Cairo, 1940),
55 Note that this
problem came up also in a Fatimid context 115; and Qawim (Tehran, 1959), 135.
under al-MuCizz. See Majalis, 408-9, and Stern's discussion 58 Poonawala, Biobibliography, 531.
in Studies, 265, 284-85. Of course, Abi Tammam was only 59 Kitdb al-akwdr wa al-adwdr, MSIsmaili Institute, London.
one of several authors to combine religion and philosophy 60 See Madelung's analysis of the key passages from Nasir-i
even in the Ismaili ___domain. Khusraw's Khwdn al-ikhwdn in his "Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani
56 For example, in Abu Tammam'sstory of the talking birds, and Metempsychosis," 132 and n. 9.
he mentions someone coming to Khurasan from Iraq (Idah, 61 Khachab, 113; Qasim, 132.
56). In his account of the Mubayyida (ff. 88r-92r) he implies 62
Kashf asrdr al-Batiniya, ff. 10r-v. At this point it is worth
that he is personally acquainted with them in Khurasan. He noting an odd reference in the iidah (p. 137) to someone called
also tends to give examples of the use of Farsi as in f. 15r. the "KhurasanianSage" (al-hakim al-khurasani).
352 Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.3 (1994)

group of partisans (ashab) of al-Nasafi as continuing traditionand relies on an almost evolutionary (astrologi-
this tradition. With the loss of the Mahsul and related cal-alchemical) notion of the relationship between the
literature, however, it has heretofore been hard to trace development of the physical universe and of the human
the details of such differences.63By at last identifying soul. The physical sciences (cosmology, biology, specific
one substantial product of that school-one that, unlike propertiesof things and creatures),thus, become vital to
the Mahsul, survives-we can begin to study the indi- the explanation of and for religious principles. Philo-
vidual doctrines espoused by it. sophical Neoplatonism, although without question one
At this point we realize that al-Nasafi (and perhaps element within this outlook, is nevertheless somewhat in-
others such as the Amir al-Marwazi) constituted a cidental and almost peripheralto the scientific side. This
founding generation in Khurasan.Al-Sijistini may have must be taken simply as a preliminaryjudgment based
been a part of the early group. An importantfeature of solely on impressions of the works listed above or such
this school was continued loyalty to the thought of al- evidence for them as exists. They and most of the rest of
Nasafi and his Mahsul. The founder(s) were survived this literature must be sorted and compared carefully
and followed by, among others, Abu Tammam (al-Nisa- with Ismaili writings produced elsewhere before the
buri? al-Nakhshabi?)and Hasan Mas'ud al-Nakhshabi.64 characteristicsof the school of Khurasancan be clearly
Of the works belonging to this school, we know, then, delineated.68However, the Shajara of Abu Tammamis a
of the Mahsul, the Nusra, the Kitab al-raha, a treatise by major source for such an investigation and, however un-
Nasafi called Kawn al-'clam,65 al-Marwazi's Sulwat reliably published, its second partat the moment contains
al-arwdh,66Abu Tammam's Burhan and his Shajara,67 the only readily accessible materialof this type.
and Hasan Mas'ud's Kitib al-akwar wa al-adwar.
As a general impression of this literature,it could be
added that it leans pronouncedlytowarda quasi-scientific
Throughthe good offices of the Institute,I was ableto obtain
copies of both, which, however,turnout to be, in all likeli-
A majorquestionin view of al-Busti'stestimonyis whether hood, laterTayyibisummariesor paraphrases-onein prose,
to includeAbuYacqubal-SijistaniamongtheAhlal-Khurasdn the otherin poetry-of Abi Tammam's originalwork.
by this reckoning.Al-Busti in this same passageappearsto 68 A preliminary
checklistof characteristicsmightincludethe
describean intensequarrelwithinthe Khurasanifactionbe- following doctrines(amongothers):spontaneousgeneration;
tweenal-Nasafi'sfollowersandal-Sijistani. physicalthingstransformed into higherorderthings(e.g., iron
63One such item might includeal-Sijistani'sal-Nusra,his into gold); Adamhad no law; propheticresponsibilityunder-
defenseof al-Nasafi'sdoctrinesagainstthe challengeto them goes a progressivedevelopment;the qd'im-Muhammadb.
by AbuHatim.Thatearlyworkof al-Sijistaniis also no longer Ismiail--hasappearedin one (human)form;he is represented
extant. now by the lawdahiqand the khulafDa;the qdaimas mahdi will
64There are a few other names in the sources that may ultimatelyappearagainin his "pureidentity"(huwiyabasita);
belonghere. the saints(awliya3)thenwill be ableactuallyto "see"spiritual
65 MSIsmaili
Institute, London. beings;the universeis dividedinto bodily beings (jismanl),
66Citedand
quotedby al-Busti,Kashfasrar,f. 2r-v. Onthe heavenlybeings (jirmani), and spiritualbeings(ruihani);
after
possible of the Amiras the authorof this trea-
identification soulsdeparttheirphysicalcoverings(qawdlib)in the corporeal
tise, see my EarlyPhilosophicalShiism,chap.three. world,they wait (in barzakh)in the heavenlyworld (in the
67 In additionto theircopy of the Shajara,the Instituteof sevenlowerheavenlyspheresfor the punished,the highertwo
IsmailiStudiesin Londonowns a copy of an Urjuza(no. 162) for the saved)until the secondblast of the trumpetat which
said to be by Abu Tammam.Both were notedby Poonawala. timetheymoveto everlastingparadise(orhell).