Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introducing Ismaili Apocalypses
- 1 From ẓāhir to bāṭin: An Introduction to Fatimid Hermeneutics
- 2 Oaths, Taxes and Tithes: Organising an Imminent Utopia
- 3 Taʾwīl of an Apocalyptic Transcript I: The Book of Unveiling
- 4 Taʾwīl of an Apocalyptic Transcript II: The Book of Righteousness and True Guidance
- 5 To Temper an Imminent Eschatology: The Contributions of al-Mahdī and Qāḍī l-Nu ʿmān
- 6 A Spiritual Progression to a New Eschatological Centre: The Taʾwīl al-da ʿāʾim on the Hajj
- 7 Actualising the End: The Nizari Declaration of the Resurrection
- 8 From Movement to Text: The Haft-bāb
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Subject Index
6 - A Spiritual Progression to a New Eschatological Centre: The Taʾwīl al-da ʿāʾim on the Hajj
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 September 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introducing Ismaili Apocalypses
- 1 From ẓāhir to bāṭin: An Introduction to Fatimid Hermeneutics
- 2 Oaths, Taxes and Tithes: Organising an Imminent Utopia
- 3 Taʾwīl of an Apocalyptic Transcript I: The Book of Unveiling
- 4 Taʾwīl of an Apocalyptic Transcript II: The Book of Righteousness and True Guidance
- 5 To Temper an Imminent Eschatology: The Contributions of al-Mahdī and Qāḍī l-Nu ʿmān
- 6 A Spiritual Progression to a New Eschatological Centre: The Taʾwīl al-da ʿāʾim on the Hajj
- 7 Actualising the End: The Nizari Declaration of the Resurrection
- 8 From Movement to Text: The Haft-bāb
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Subject Index
Summary
Repeatedly throughout the Taʾwīl al-da ʿāʾim, the Masjid al-Ḥarām, the mosque surrounding the Kaʿba, is likened to the master of the age. This reorientation of the sacred centre should be seen in light of the rich history of alternate visions of the centre of Islam, including that of Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj (d. 922), Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī (d. 1394), and Saʿīd Qummī (d. 1691). The case of al-Nu ʿmān's Taʾwīl al-da ʿāʾim is no different. Here, al-Nu ʿmān writes that the true meaning of the hajj revolves around Fatimid notions of authority and sacred history.
In establishing the correspondences between different mosques and members of the daʿwa, al-Nu ʿmān writes:
The mosques in the ẓāhir, the houses in which people gather for prayer, are of different ranks and levels. The highest of them is the Masjid al-Ḥarām [the holy mosque in Mecca]. Its likeness is that of the master of the age, whether he is a prophet or an imām. The likeness of the command to perform the hajj and to travel to it from various regions of the earth is the likeness of the obligation on people towards the walī of their time, that they should come to him from every corner of the earth. The likeness of the mosque of the Prophet is the likeness of the ḥujja. People are similarly obligated to come to the mosque of the Prophet [in Medina], just as they are obligated to go to the Masjid al-Ḥarām. The likeness of the mosque of the Bayt al-Maqdis [in Jerusalem] is the likeness of his (ḥujja's) gate, the greatest of the dāʿīs and their gates; he is called the gate of gates.
Al-Nu ʿmān's taʾwīl creates a hermeneutic in which the geographical centre of Islam is understood by possessors of true knowledge to be the master of the age. Indeed, the holy city of Mecca itself is transformed here: ‘the likeness of Mecca is the likeness of the daʿwa of the master of the age; the first obligation of one who enters is the safeguarding of the portion of knowledge of truth that has come to him.’
After once again stating that the likeness of the sanctuary is the likeness of the master of the age, al-Nu ʿmān discusses the circumambulation of it.
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- An Apocalyptic History of the Early Fatimid Empire , pp. 97 - 108Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2016