The Banquet of the Brethren An Ismaili Guide to Spiritual Hermeneutics: Part 2 An English translation of Nasiri Khusraw’s Khwan alikhwan

<p><b>I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies</b><br/><br/><b> The Ismaili missionary and poet, Nasir-i Khusraw (d. after 462), wrote <i>Khwan al-ikhwan</i> (<i>The Banquet of the Brethren</i>) when he was living in his remote mountain refuge of Yumgan in Badakhshan. </b>It is a work of philosophical theology and a reflection of the learning of the age consisting of a sequence of dynamic arguments for divine unicity (<i>tawhid</i>), the authority of the Prophet Muhammad, his legatee, 'Ali b. Abi Talib, and his descendants, the imams from the line of Isma'il b. Ja'far al-Sadiq. Originally written in Persian, <i>Khwan al-ikhwan</i> includes a precis of ideas found in a work by an earlier <i>da'i</i>, Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani (d. ca.361), the <i>Kitab al-Yanabi'</i>, which Nasir-i Khusraw recast and then extended in 100 chapters.<br/><br/> The current publication is an English translation, which is the first translation of <i>Khwan al-Ikhwan</i> in any language outside the Persian milieu. It includes an extensive introduction that discusses <i>Khwan al-ikhwan</i> in the context of both Nasir-i Khusraw’s other works and al-Sijistani’s <i>Kitab al-Yanabi'</i>, as well as the role of <i>ta'wil</i> (allegorical or esoteric interpretation) in the Ismaili understanding of the message of the Revelation. This makes the work of Nasir-i Khusraw further available to a wider audience and opens up for the reader the intellectual world of the 5th century in all its sophistication and variety.</p>