Latest Additions
How human virtue can help to achieve social harmony? Read Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi's reflections on faith and ethics based upon the speech made by His Highness the Aga Khan
at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, 2006.
The first Seminar for the IIS Doctoral Scholarship recipients was held in London at The Institute of Ismaili Studies on 23 -24 October.
In 969 CE, the Fatimids expanded from North Africa into Egypt, founding the city of Cairo as their new capital
Avicenna's Allegory on the Soul is a rare Ismaili publication written in medieval Yemen. It is the first time that this publication has been translated and made available in a printed edition. As a noteworthy addition to the Ismaili Texts and Translations Series, the volume combines a critical edition of the original Arabic text with a parallel English translation and an extended introduction.
When people come to read the Qur’an, there is an interaction between what the words of the Qur’an say and what the person reading the text already thinks and believes before reading it. This lecture marks the launch of The Meaning of the Word: Lexicology and Qur’anic Exegesis (2015)
One of the most important commentaries on the symbolical ‘Poem on the Soul’ (Qasidat al-nafs), attributed to the great Persian philosopher Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037), was written by 'Ali b. Muhammad b. al-Walīd (d. 1215), a major early representative of the Tayyibi Ismaili tradition, which emerged and flourished in medieval Yemen. Avicenna’s Allegory on the Soul presents an edition of the Arabic text of Ibn al-Walid’s commentary, ‘The Useful Epistle’ (al-Risala al-mufida), alongside an English translation and extended introduction. It offers invaluable insight into esoteric Muslim thought and a deeper understanding of Ibn Sina’s substantial intellectual legacy.