Between Reason and Revelation: Twin Wisdoms Reconciled | معهد الدراسات الإسماعيلية

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This is the first English translation of the last known philosophical work of the great eleventh-century Ismaili thinker, poet, and Fatimid emissary,Nasir-i Khusraw. Appointed from Cairo by command of the Fatimid Imam-caliph al-Mustansir to serve first as a daʿi, and then as the hujjat, for the entire region of Khurasan, he maintained his allegiance to both his mission and his Imam for the rest of his life, even when threatened and driven into exile.

Written during his exile in Badakhshan in the year 1070 CE, Nasir-i Khusraw here develops a powerful presentation of both Aristotelian philosophy and Ismaili exegesis, or taʾwil, and strives to show that they are ultimately in harmony. The work is presented as a learned commentary on a long philosophical poem, written in the previous century and sent to Nasir by the amir of Badakhshan, ʿAli b. Asad, who copied the poem out in his own hand from memory and asked the poet-philosopher to explicate it.

In doing so, Nasir ranges over a huge span of topics from logic and language to the nature of the physical world, from the spheres of the highest heavens to the plants and animals of the earthly realm, and, most importantly, hidden spiritual realities: the esoteric (batin) as well as the exoteric (zahir) realms. He thus discusses the nature of God, the creation of human beings, and the mysteries concealed in the physical world, itself a reflection of a higher, transcendent realm.
Between Reason and Revelation: Twin Wisdoms Reconciled is an annotated translation of the Persian text prepared by Henry Corbin and Mohammed Muʿin based on the single surviving manuscript of the work, now in the Süleymaniye Mosque Library in Istanbul. It is a work of great philosophical and spiritual insight, which is also a pioneering attempt to tackle difficult intellectual problems in the Persian language; it is at once lucid and lyrical, precise and speculative. Nasir’s influence has been immense as both a poet and a thinker, and the Kitab-i Jamiʿ al-Hikmatayn is his crowning work.

	Illustrations	xi
	Abbreviations	xii

	Introduction	1

	Translation of Kitab-i Jamiʿ al-hikmatayn: The Book of Twin Wisdoms Reconciled


	Exordium	19
1	The Reason for the Composition of this Book; its Title	23
2	The Qasida of Ahmad b. Hasan al-Jurjani	35
3	On the Proof of the Creator’s Existence with a Discussion of His Oneness, in Several Discourses	41
	a. On the Creator’s existence	41
	b. The Doctrine of the Dialectical Theologians of the Karramites on Tawhid	51
	c. The Doctrine of the Theologians of the Muʿtazilite School on Tawhid	56
	d. The Doctrine of the Metaphysical Philosophers on Tawhid	67
4	Aristotle’s Teaching on the Four Parts of Speech	73
5	On Form, Property, Definition and Description	81
6	The Definition of ‘I’	95
7	On the Body, on the Soul, on the Intelligence	101
8	On the Seven Lights	103
9	On Eternity, Truth, Pleasure, Life as it Passes, Perfection, and Occultation	109
10	On Universal Nature	117
11	On Angel, Pari, Demon	127
12	A Commentary on ‘One’	135
13	Of Species and Genus	141
14	On Happiness and Unhappiness. And on Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow	147
15	Properties of Minerals, Animals, and Places	155
16	On Language, Discourse, Speech	167
17	On Pre-Eternity, Duration, Eternity, and Eternity without End	171
18	On the Moon’s Properties	175
19	On the Necessity of Human Education	183
20	About ibdaʿ (Origination)	189
21	On the Emergence of the Species from the Individual	205
22	On Intellect and Knowledge	215
23	On the Difference between the Perceiver and the Act of Perception	219
24	On the Creation of Heaven and Earth	223
25	On the Circle, the Chicken and the Egg	231
26	On the Whole and the Part	235
27	On Saturn, Seed of Spring	239
28	On the Houses of the Sun and the Moon	243
29	On the Influence of Auspicious and Ominous Stars on the Soul and the Body	257
30	On Spiritual Father and Mother	261
31	On Questions without Answers about the Properties of the Elements	265
32	On the Poet’s Resolve to Reply to his own Questions	271
33	That the Learned Man is Alive, the Ignorant Man Dead	275
34	Conclusion of the Book	277

	Bibliography	281
	Index	286

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