February 2018
The Ismaili Special Collections Unit (ISCU) organised a first of its kind symposium entitled Before the Printed Word: Texts, Scribes and Transmissions on the manuscripts housed at The Institute of Ismaili Studies.
Read an essay by Professor Wilferd Madelung on the most highly esteemed book on ethics in Persian, Akhlaq-i Nasiri , Nasirean Ethics, based on the works of Nasir al-Din
Tusi.
Recent discoveries of Fatimid artefacts, manuscripts, and archeological sites has led to a renewed scholarly insterest in exploring the history, thought and material culture of the Fatimids.
The IIS is delighted to announce the release of the first book in the World of Islam series – in print, e-book and audiobook formats.
Emerging from a period of long seclusion, the leader of the burgeoning community of Ismaili Shi'i Muslims was declared the first Fatimid Imam-caliph in the year 909. Abd Allah al- Ithna‘ashari Shi‘ism , the mahdi refers specifically to the hidden Imam. ">Mahdi founded the only sustained Shi'i dynasty (909-1171) to rule over substantial parts of the medieval Muslim world, rivalling both the Umayyads of Spain and the Abbasids. At its peak, the Fatimid Empire extended from the Atlantic shores of North Africa, across the southern Mediterranean and down both sides of the Red Sea, covering also Mecca and Medina.