Umm al-Kitab (Ismaili book)

The Umm al-Kitab (Arabic: أمّ الکتاب, romanized: umm al-kitāb, lit. 'mother of the Book') is a major work of Ismailism from the late eighth century, from the town Kufa.^[1] They must have been multicultural in language, since it includes Arabic, Persian and Aramaeic terms and orthodox and heterodox Jewish, Zorastrian and Mandaean motifs appear. Tone and stylistic forms hint, they were probably people of middle class origin, with distance to other Muslim groups, like the politically active Shiites and advocating ascetism.^[2]

The treatise offers an esoteric hermeneutics concerning cosmology, the nature of man and worship within a Qur'anic context,^[3] in form of a discourse of the fifth Shi'i Imam Muhammad al-Baqir responding to thirty questions raised by a group of disciples.

References[]

^ Willis Barnstone, Marvin Meyer The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition Shambhala Publications 2009 ISBN 978-0-834-82414-0 page 683
^ Beinhauer-Köhler, Bärbel. "Die Engelsturzmotive des Umm al-Kitāb. Untersuchungen zur Trägerschaft eines synkretistischen Werkes der häretischen Schia." The Fall of the Angels. Brill, 2004. 161-175.
^ S. H. Nasr, Mehdi Aminrazavi Anthology of Philosophy in Persia: Ismaili Thought in the Classical Age I.B.Tauris 2008 ISBN 978-0-857-71042-0 page 16

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[1] Willis Barnstone, Marvin Meyer The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition Shambhala Publications 2009 ISBN 978-0-834-82414-0 page 683

[2] Beinhauer-Köhler, Bärbel. "Die Engelsturzmotive des Umm al-Kitāb. Untersuchungen zur Trägerschaft eines synkretistischen Werkes der häretischen Schia." The Fall of the Angels. Brill, 2004. 161-175.

[3] S. H. Nasr, Mehdi Aminrazavi Anthology of Philosophy in Persia: Ismaili Thought in the Classical Age I.B.Tauris 2008 ISBN 978-0-857-71042-0 page 16

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Umm al-Kitab (Ismaili book)

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