Abu Ya'qub Ishaq ibn Ahmad al-Sijistani (Template:Lang-ar) or al-Sijzi (السجزي) was a 10th-century Persian Ismaili missionary in the northern and eastern Iranian lands, and a Neo-Platonic philosopher.
Life
Al-Sijistani's life is obscure,[1] as references to him are found mostly in isolation in hostile Sunni heresiological works, while Isma'ili sources usually do not provide any details about him.[2] He was given the nickname 'cottonseed' (khayshafūj, banba-dāna) in several near-contemporary non-Isma'ili works that mention him, but the origin and significance of it are unknown.[2][3] What can be gleaned from the sources is that he was a senior missionary (da'i) in the Iranian lands of the eastern Islamic world.[2]
Nizam al-Mulk reports that a certain Ishaq succeeded Abu Hatim al-Razi as chief da'i at Rayy upon the latter's death on 934, while Ibn al-Nadim mentions a certain Abu Ya'qub ase chief da'i at Rayy in c. 932–942. This Abu Ya'qub was also in charge of the missionary movement (da'wa) in Upper Mesopotamia and Iraq, with the brothers Abu Muslim and Abu Bakr ibn hammad in Mosul and Ibn Nafis in Baghdad as his agents.[1][2] This is likely to have been the same person as al-Sijistani, as it agrees with a statement in one of al-Sijistani's works that he was in Iraq in 934.[2] Earlier opinion among scholars was that he was executed along with Muhammad al-Nasafi in 943, but this is now disproven.[4] Indeed, he was al-Nasafi's successor, both as chief da'i in Khurasan, as well as in continuing the development of al-Nasafi's theological ideas.[1][2] Other sources maintain that he was active in Sijistan (whence his nisba), both during and after al-Nasafi's tenure.[1][2]
The movement he headed was not initially affiliated with the Fatimid Caliphate, but at some point, during the caliphate of al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah (r. 953–975), he accepted the Fatimids as the legitimate imams, and many of his views were taken over by the Fatimid-sponsored da'wa.[2][1] According to Rashid al-Din Hamadani, al-Sijistani was executed by the Saffarid emir of Sijistan, Khalaf ibn Ahmad (r. 964–1003). Al-Sijistani's work Kitāb al-iftikhār was written around 971, this provides a terminus post quem for his execution. The introductions to two of his other works indicate they were written during the reign of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996–1021), but they are likely later interpolations.[1][2]
Works and teachings
His works were studied by the Ismailis and up until the contemporary period. Among his works, only Ithbat al-Nubuwat, Yanabi', and Kashf al-Mahjub have been published; the last one has survived only in a Persian version,[2] which has been translated to French by Henry Corbin.
References
Sources
- Daftary, Farhad (2007). The Ismāʿı̄lı̄s: Their History and Doctrines (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-61636-2.
- Stern, S. M. (1960). "Abū Yaʿḳūb Isḥāḳ b. Aḥmad al-Sid̲j̲zī". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 160. OCLC 495469456.
- Stern, S. M. (1960). "The Early Ismā'Īlī Missionaries in North-West Persia and in Khurāsān and Transoxania". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 23 (1). doi:10.1017/s0041977x00148992.
- Walker, Paul Ernest (1983). "ABŪ YAʿQŪB SEJESTĀNĪ". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume I/4: Abū Manṣūr Heravı̄–Adat. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 396–398. ISBN 978-0-71009-093-5.
- Walker, Paul Ernest (1993). Early Philosophical Shiism: the Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44129-3.
- Walker, Paul Ernest (1994). The Wellsprings of Wisdom: A Study of Abu Yaqub Al-Sijistani's Kitab Al-Yanabi. Univ of Utah Pr (Tx). ISBN 0-87480-421-3.