Between Reason and Revelation: Twin Wisdoms Reconciled (Ismaili Texts and Translations) by Khusraw, Nasir-i (2012) Hardcover

by Nasir-i Khusraw

This is the first complete English translation of the Jami al-hikmatayn, written in Persian, the final, and crowning, work of the great poet, philosopher, and Ismaili missionary Nasir-i Khusraw (1004-1077). Twin Wisdoms Reconciled was written at the request of the emir of Badakhshan 'Abu al-Ma'ali 'Ali ibn Asad' who was perplexed by the questions in a long philosophical ode written a century earlier by Abu al-Haytham Jurjani, an obscure Ismaili author. The ode consists of a series of some 90 questions on a wide range of subjects, from logic and metaphysics to medicine, cosmology, and physics, as well as esoteric Ismaili doctrine. Nasir-i Khusraw's text takes the form of a commentary on certain astutely selected lines. Twin Wisdoms Reconciled represents yet another example of the author's lifelong endeavour to transform Persian philosophical prose into a deft and nuanced instrument of expression.The work has not been as extensively studied as Nasir-i Khusraw's other major theological and philosophical treatises, all written in his final exile in Badakhshan, in part perhaps because of its textual difficulties. Twin Wisdoms Reconciled survives in a single manuscript of dubious accuracy in the Aya Sofya collection, Suleymaniyye Library, Istanbul. The present translation is based on the critical edition of the text produced by Henry Corbin and Mohammed Mo'in in 1953, but with frequent reference to the unique original manuscript.Twin Wisdoms Reconciled represents an endeavour to reconcile two apparently opposed forms of the knowledge accorded by revelation and exegesis and the knowledge gained by reason. Seeing that "the bazaar of wisdom" stands empty because of the mutual incomprehension of traditional theologians and Aristotelian philosophers, Nasir-i Khusraw stepped boldly forward to reinvigorate that desolate marketplace. His final work, written in 1070, is thus a testimony as well as an exposition of his mature thought.

Genres: Islam, Religion, Philosophy

Hardcover

First published May 8, 2012

About the author

Nasir Khusraw was born in 1004 CE, in Qubadiyan, then Greater Khorasan (near the present-day city of Balkh in Afghanistan). He was well versed in all the branches of natural science, in medicine, mathematics, astronomy and astrology, in Greek philosophy and the writings of al-Kindi, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina; and the interpretation of the Qur'an. He had studied Arabic, Turkish, Greek, the vernacular languages of India and Sind, and perhaps even Hebrew; he had visited Multan and Lahore, and the splendid Ghaznavid court under Sultan Mahmud, Firdousi's patron. Later on he chose Merv for his residence, and was the owner of a house and garden there.

Until A.H. 437 (1046 CE), he worked as financial secretary and revenue collector for the Seljuk sultan Toghrul Beg, or rather of his brother Jaghir Beg, the emir of Khorasan, who had conquered Merv in 1037. About this time, inspired by a heavenly voice in a dream, he abjured all the luxuries of life, and resolved upon a pilgrimage to the holy shrines of Mecca and Medina, hoping to find there the solution to his spiritual crisis.

read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasir_Kh...
in Persian: ناصر خسرو

Reviews

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moments of striking brilliance punctuated by endless fields of useless chaff. Khusraw has some truly great theological insights, including propounding the radical and thoroughgoing apophaticism that the Ismailis have become known for.

The best chapter in the work is, by far, "On the Proof of the Creator’s Existence with a Discussion of His Oneness, in Several Discourses."

This is a very long chapter, and is both an overview of various schools' positions on the nature of the divine, and a reductio ad absurdum of many of those takes.

Khusraw absolutely shreds literalists and anthropomrophists through grounding his theology in a Contingency Argument with a robust conception of divine simplicity. Unlike most he really thinks through the implications of divine simplicity.

And then there are the vast wastelands of utterly obsolete Aristotelian reasoning: the stars must be pure souls because they're so radiant, the sun revolves around the earth. Or, my personal favourite example, magnetism:

> a sticky (lazij) vapour (bukhār) which attracts only iron; this vapour is quite different from iron by its very nature, even though it clings to it; just so the moisture in the air stands opposed to cotton and paper and yet sticks to them both. When the vapour from the magnetic stone reaches the iron, it attaches to it. But since it stands in opposition to it, as soon as it reaches it, it turns about and retreats, dragging the iron with it. The proof that this is correct is that whenever bits of iron – what are called filings – come close to that stone, those bits of filings race towards it; the vapour is diffused until it gathers together the scattered filings. But if that stone is rubbed with crushed garlic it does not attract iron at all. Garlic is an obstructive substance; when one rubs it on something, it becomes a kind of skin or covering which holds the vapour back; just so, fishermen in winter rub crushed garlic on their heads and hands up to the forearms so that their pores are sealed and the vapour cannot escape; since the vapour stays confined (paykhasteh), it grows warm and the fishermen can withstand the cold water. Since that stone when rubbed with crushed garlic no longer attracts iron we know that the vapour, which was coming from the stone until now, when the holes were blocked by the garlic, has in fact been obstructed by the garlic and no longer attracts iron.