Umm al-kitab(Shi'i book)

For other uses, seeUmm al-Kitab (disambiguation).

TheUmm al-Kitāb(Arabic:أمّ الکتاب,lit. 'Mother of the Book') is a syncreticShi'iwork originating in theghulātmilieus of 8th-centuryKufa(Iraq). It was later transplanted to Syria by the 10th-centuryNusayris,whose final redaction of the work was preserved in aPersiantranslation produced by theNizari Isma'ilisofCentral Asia.The work only survives in Persian.It contains no notable elements ofIsma'ilidoctrine,but given the fact that Isma'ili authors starting from the 10th century were influenced by earlyghulātideas such as those found in theUmm al-Kitāb,and especially given the influence of these ideas on laterTayyibi Isma'ilism,some Isma'ilis do regard the work as one of the most important works in their tradition.

The work presents itself as a revelation of secret knowledge by the Shi'i ImamMuhammad al-Baqir(677–732) to his discipleJabir ibn Yazid al-Ju'fi(diedc. 745–750).Its doctrinal contents correspond to a large degree to what 9th/10th-centuryheresiographersascribed to variousghulātsects,with a particular resemblance to the ideas of theMukhammisa.It contains a lengthy exposition of the typicalghulātmyth of the pre-existent shadows (Arabic:aẓilla) who created the world by their fall from grace, as is also found in theKitāb al-Haft wa-l-aẓillaattributed toal-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi(died before 799).

The work must have been multicultural in language, since it includes Arabic, Persian andAramaicterms. Orthodox and heterodoxJewish,Zoroastrian,ManichaeanandMandaeanmotifs appear. The tone and style of the work hint that the authors of the work were probably of middle class origin, with some distance to other Muslim groups, like the politically activeShiitesand those advocatingasceticism.

The treatise offers an esoterichermeneuticsconcerning cosmology, the nature of man, and worship within aQur'aniccontext.

The book may be an attempt to reconciledualistic cosmologies,as found among the pre-Islamic Persians, withIslamic monotheism.Several principles of evil, such as the Persian figureAhriman,are said to be merely a later incarnation of the fallen angelAzazil,who in turn owes his existence to God.

See also

• Gnosticism
• Manichaeism
• Secret Book of John

Bibliography

Tertiary sources

• Daftary, Farhad(2015)."Omm al-ketāb".InYarshater, Ehsan(ed.).Encyclopædia Iranica.
• Halm, Heinz(2001–2012)."Ḡolāt".InYarshater, Ehsan(ed.).Encyclopædia Iranica.

Secondary sources

• Anthony, Sean W. (2011)."The Legend of ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ and the Date of Umm al-Kitāb".Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.21(1): 1–30.JSTOR23011519.
• Beinhauer-Köhler, Bärbel (2004). "Die Engelsturzmotive des Umm al-Kitāb. Untersuchungen zur Trägerschaft eines synkretistischen Werkes der häretischen Schia". In Auffarth, Christoph; Stuckenbruck, Loren (eds.).The Fall of the Angels.Themes in Biblical Narrative. Vol. 6. Leiden: Brill. pp. 161–175.doi:10.1163/9789047404330_010.ISBN978-90-04-12668-8.
• De Smet, Daniel (2020). "The Intellectual Interactions of Yemeni Ṭayyibism with the Early Shiʿi Tradition". In Mir-Kasimov, Orkhan (ed.).Intellectual Interactions in the Islamic World: The Ismaili Thread.London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 299–321.ISBN978-1-83860-485-1.
• Filippani-Ronconi, Pio(1964). "Note sulla soteriologia e sul simbolismo cosmico dell'Ummu'l-kitāb".AION.14(1): 111–134.
• Friedman, Yaron (2010).The Nuṣayrī-ʿAlawīs: An Introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria.Islamic History and Civilization. Vol. 77. Leiden: Brill.ISBN978-90-04-17892-2.
• Hämeen-Anttila, Jaakko(2001). "Ascent and Descent in Islamic Myth". In Whiting, Robert M. (ed.).Mythology and Mythologies: Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Influences. Proceedings of the Second Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project Held in Paris, France, October 4-7, 1999.Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. pp. 47–67.ISBN9789514590498.OCLC912739664.(situates theUmm al-kitābin its Mesopotamian context)
• Ivanow, Wladimir(1932). "Notes sur l'Ummu'l-kitab des Ismaëliens de l'Asie Centrale".Revue des Études Islamiques.6:419–481.
• Nasr, S. H.;Aminrazavi, Mehdi (2008).Anthology of Philosophy in Persia: Ismaili Thought in the Classical Age.I.B.Tauris.ISBN978-0-857-71042-0.
• Radtke, Bernd (1990). "Iranian and Gnostic Elements in Early Taṣawwuf. Observations concerning the Umm al-Kitāb". InGnoli, Gherardo;Panaino, Antonio (eds.).Proceedings of the first European Conference of Iranian Studies held in Turin, September 7th-11th, 1987 by the Societas Iranologica Europaea. Volume 2: Middle and New Iranian Studies.Rome: Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente. pp. 519–529.ISBN9788863230765.OCLC956121455.

Primary sources

• Filippani-Ronconi, Pio(1966).Ummu'l-kitab: Introduzione, traduzione e note di Pio Filippani-Ronconi.Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli.ISBN978-88-97278-43-6.OCLC635942972.(Italian translation)
• Halm, Heinz(1981). "Das" Buch der Schatten ". Die Mufaḍḍal-Tradition der Ġulāt und die Ursprünge des Nuṣairiertums. II. Die Stoffe".Der Islam.58(1): 15–86.doi:10.1515/islm.1981.58.1.15.(German translations of parts of the text on pp. 36 ff.)
• Halm, Heinz(1982).Die islamische Gnosis: Die Schia und die ʿAlawiten.Zürich and München: Artemis Verlag.ISBN978-3-7608-4530-2.(German translations of parts of the text on pp. 113 ff.)
• Ivanow, Wladimir(1936). "Ummu᾽l-kitāb".Der Islam.23(1–2): 1–132.doi:10.1515/islm.1936.23.1-2.1.(edition of the Persian text)
• Tijdens, E. F. (1977). "Der mythologisch-gnostische Hintergrund des Umm al-kitâb".Acta Iranica.VII:241–526.OCLC470066089.(partial German translation)