Muntaz[a.sup.⊂] al-akhbar fi akhbar al-d[u.sup.⊂]at al-akhyar (The History of the Ism[a.sup.⊂]ili Tayyibi d[a.sup.⊂]wa up to the D[a.sup.[contains]]udi-Sulaymani Schism).

• Author: POONAWALA, ISMAIL K.
• Position: Review

Muntaz[a.sup.[subset]] al-akhbar fi akhbar al-d[u.sup.[subset]]at al-akhyar (The History of the Ism[a.sup.[subset]]ili Tayyibi d[a.sup.[subset]]wa up to the D[a.sup.[contains]]udi-Sulaymani Schism), by Qutb al-Din Sulaymani Burhanpuri. Edited by SAMER F. TRABOULSI. Beirut: DAR AL-GHARB AL-ISLAMI. 1999. Pp. 318.

This well produced and finely printed edition of an Arabic text written by an Indian Ism[a.sup.[subset]]ili Bohra during the first half of the thirteenth/nineteenth century, marks the entry of a promising young scholar into the field of Ism[a.sup.[subset]]ili studies. It is an important contribution and an excellent addition to the growing literature on the Ism[a.sup.[subset]]ilis. Traboulsi is to be congratulated and, when he finishes his projected edition of Idris [[blank].sup.[subset]]Imad al-Din's Nuzhat al-afkar, he will have contributed substantially to our knowledge of the Must[a.sup.[subset]]li-Tayyibi d[a.sup.[subset]]wa in Yemen.

The text edited here deals with the history of Must[a.sup.[subset]]li-Tayyibi d[a.sup.[subset]]wa in Yemen after the death of the Sulayhid Queen Arwa in 532/1137, and its subsequent transfer to Gujarat, on the west coast of India, around 946/1539, ending with the D[a.sup.[contains]]udi-Sulaymani schism following the death of the twenty-sixth d[a.sup.[contains]]i D[a.sup.[contains]]ud b. [[blank].sup.[subset]]Ajabshah. One might recall that after the death of the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir in 487/1094, the Ism[a.sup.[subset]]ilis were torn asunder over the succession to the imamate. Al-Must[a.sup.[subset]]li, the youngest son of the deceased caliph, was recognized by most of the Ism[a.sup.[subset]]ilis in Egypt, many in Syria, and by the entire community in Yemen and India. The claims of Nizar, the eldest son of al-Mustansir, by contrast, were upheld by the Iranian d[a.sup.[subset]]wa under the leadership of Hasan-i Sabbah, and it later became known as the Nizari d[a.sup.[subset]]wa Again, after the death of the Fatimid caliph al-Amir in 524/1130, when his cousin [[blank].sup.[subset]]Abd al-Majid assumed the caliphate with the title al-Hafiz li-Din Allah, the Yemeni d[a.sup.[subset]]wa broke off its relations with Egypt and supported the claims made for al-Amir's infant son al-Tayyib. It thereby became known as the Tayyibi d[a.sup.[subset]wa in contradistinction to the Hafizi d[a.sup.[subset]]wa.

The text under review is an important source for the history of the Must[a.sup.[subset]]li-Tayyibi...