An Important Collection of New Studies on the Shīʿa An Essay Review of Fortresses of the Intellect: Ismaili and Other Islamic Studies in Honour of Farhad Daftary by Omar Alí-de-Unzaga

Abstract

First paragraph: This huge volume of nearly six-hundred pages, published by I. B. Tauris in collaboration with The Institute of Ismaili Studies (New York & London, 2011) and edited by Omar Alí-de-Unzaga, comprises two essays about the honoree (a biography and a bibliography) and twenty studies that are published in his honor. The volume is subtitled “Ismaili and other Islamic Studies.” Though the papers do all have an Islamic, usually Shīʿī, connection, they nonetheless range very widely over different subject matters (philosophy, religious sects, poetry, history, and more), languages (Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts), time periods (early medieval period through the eighteenth century), lengths (from six to sixty pages), and approaches. Such thematic and literary diversity goes against the grain of current sensibilities, which are unforgiving of any deviation from “thematic unity.” I, for one, very much welcome a volume of this sort, where the only standards are relevance to the many fields of study of interest to the honoree and, of course, the quality of the scholarship. Indeed, it would be a great advantage to scholars, especially those who take upon themselves to publish volumes of essays, to be relieved of the need to demonstrate “thematic unity,” and to be allowed to concentrate instead on quality alone, as the editor has done for this book.

Keywords

• the Shīʿa
• Ismaili and Other Islamic Studies
• Honour of Farhad Daftary
• Omar Alí-de-Unzaga

An Important Collection of New Studies on the Shīʿa An Essay Review of Fortresses of the Intellect: Ismaili and Other Islamic Studies in Honour of Farhad Daftary by Omar Alí-de-Unzaga

Abstract

First paragraph: This huge volume of nearly six-hundred pages, published by I. B. Tauris in collaboration with The Institute of Ismaili Studies (New York & London, 2011) and edited by Omar Alí-de-Unzaga, comprises two essays about the honoree (a biography and a bibliography) and twenty studies that are published in his honor. The volume is subtitled “Ismaili and other Islamic Studies.” Though the papers do all have an Islamic, usually Shīʿī, connection, they nonetheless range very widely over different subject matters (philosophy, religious sects, poetry, history, and more), languages (Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts), time periods (early medieval period through the eighteenth century), lengths (from six to sixty pages), and approaches. Such thematic and literary diversity goes against the grain of current sensibilities, which are unforgiving of any deviation from “thematic unity.” I, for one, very much welcome a volume of this sort, where the only standards are relevance to the many fields of study of interest to the honoree and, of course, the quality of the scholarship. Indeed, it would be a great advantage to scholars, especially those who take upon themselves to publish volumes of essays, to be relieved of the need to demonstrate “thematic unity,” and to be allowed to concentrate instead on quality alone, as the editor has done for this book.

References

1. Y. Tzvi Langermann, An Important Collection of New Studies on the Shīʿa, An Essay Review of Fortresses of the Intellect: Ismaili and Other Isla-mic Studies in Honour of Farhad Daftary by Omar Alí-de-Unzaga (ed.)