Cyclical Time and Ismaili Gnosis H b
KEGN PAUL INTERATIONAL London, Boston, Melboure d Henley sociation wi ISLAMIC PUBLICATIONS London
h Sd, Ld
Institte ofsmaili Stdes w established Decber 77 wi e of prooting schosp an ea sa, an a better nderstanng of other fat, ie and practices. Its progr es are dsied to encorage a balanced std ofslam d diversi that exists witin its dent ity he also deal onmpora siaon of Isa Word fog on ss a ar ctca to ts we-bei. Since the Institte h en ad to Mc Univeity, Mon treal, Canada It so wks in associaon with oer iversies ith the co-operaon of Mc Uversty , e nstte a Depart ent ofGradate Sties an Researc (ondon an Paris). e sees "samic exts and Contexts" is eted b tis Depaent he ews expressed in is ses are those of the respective athor s
Ce Editorial Not e 1 CYCLICAL TIME IN MZDAISM AND ISMAILISM Translated by Ralph Manheim
1 Cyclical Time inMazism The es of the od inZooastianazdaism The Absolute Time ofZeanism amatugia Ateations Time as a Peona Ahetype 2 Cyclica!Time insmailsm Absoute Time an d Limited Time in the smaili oso The Periods and Cycles of Mythohistory Resurrection as the Horizon of theTime of "Combat for the Angel"
30
2 DIVIN E EP IPHANY AND S PIRITUAL BIRTH IN ISMAILIAN GNOSIS Translated by Ralph Manheim 1 The Metamorphoses o fTheophanic Visions Ebionite and Ismailian Adamology Hierarchies and Cycles: The Fundamental Angelology of
smaiism
4 Imamoogy and Docesm 5 The Eterna Imam 6 The "Quest of the Imam"
59 59 6 4 03 30
FROM THE GNOSIS OF ANTIQUITY TO ISMAIL
GNOSIS Tra slated by Jam es
W
Morrs
Subject Idex Idex of Authors ad T tle s
95 20
d N
e thee atcles cotaed ths volue coceg the a thees of ealy Is al thought we e ogally pes eted by ofesso Cob as lectues befoe l eae d aude ce s e fst two at the aual Eaos Cofeeces ad the thd at a cofeece gve ude e auspces of e Acaadca Nazoale de Lce Roe. I eptg the hee the assstace o fe Stella C ob s gat efully ack owledged . . Le Teps Cyclue das le Mazdese et das lsaelse was delveed at the Eaos cofeece of 1951 (geeal Ma T e) ad appeaed Eransahrbuch 1 9 51thee Zuch 1952ad The Eglsh taslato by Ralph Mahe Cyclcal Te Mazdas ad Isals was fst publshed Man d Time: Papersfrm e Erans Yearbks (Bollge Sees XXX volue edted by Joseph Capbell New Yok ceto vesty ess ad Lodo Routledge & Kega aul 1957 epted by pesso of ceto vesty ess ad Routledge & Kega aul Ltd. Epphae Dve et Nassace Sptuelle das la Gosc Isaelee was delveed at the Eaos cofeece 1954 geeal thee Ma ad Tasfo ato ) ad was publshed the Eransahrbuch 1954 Zuch 1955 The Eglsh taslato by Ralph Mahe Dve Epphay ad Sptual Bth Isala Goss was fst publshed Man and Tranformaion Perom he Erano Yearboo(Boige Series
XXX volue 5 edted by Joseph Capbell New Yok ceto vesty ess ad Lodo Routledge & Kega aul 194 epted by pe ss o of c eto v esty ess ad Routledge & Kega aul Ltd.
EDITORIAL NOTE "De la Gnose Antque Ism aelienne" was e title of a lecture delivered in Rome , at e I Convegno " Vol ta" : the theme of that conference was " Ori ent and Occident in e Middle es " It was published e proceedings of that conference, Oriente e Occinte nel Medioevo, Rome, Accadem ia Nazionale dei Lincci, . T he English translati on, " From e Gnosis of Antiquity to Ismaili Gnos is ," was prepared for this volum e by Jam es W. Morris In acc ordance w it the wishes o f the Publi shers, the first two artic le s have been reprinted exactly as ey appeared in e srcinal English translations (printing errors excepted) For e third article, a f references have been completed or brought to date the (ideified transliteration system, up followi pattern by setsquare in the brackets), preceding while article,the has been slightly adapted to English usage The indices for this volume were prepared by the Institute's editorial os by en Corbin aailable in nglish anslaon vicenna d e Visiona Recital (Bollien Series, LXVI), translated by
R Trask, New York, i; reprinted Spring Books, Dallas, (paperback edition)
W
Ceative magnatin in the Su of bn abi (Bollingen Series, XCI),
translat ed by Ralph Manhei m, Princeton niversity Press , , Routledge & Kegan Paul, Spiil Bod and Celeti Eath om Mazde an to Shi'ite (Bollingen
Series, XCI 2 transl ated by N Pearson, Princeton Universit y es s, The Man ofight in rian Sum,translated by N Pearson, Shambhala
Publications Inc , Bould er and London,
clcal Tm n Mam THE AGES OF THE WOD N ZOROS MZDSM
A little manual of Mazdean doctrine written in Pahlavi and dating from e foth century of our era, contains a number of questio the answers to which everyone over the age of fifee is supposed to ow. The first questions are: "Who am I and whom do I belo? hence have I come and whither am I retuing? What is my lineag e and what i s my race ? What is my proper callin in eartly existence? Did I come om the celestial world, or oris to it in the earthly world thator Ithe began to be? Do 1 I belon to Ormazd riman? To the aels demons?" nd here are the answers: I came frm the celestial world (menok), it is not in the terrestrial world (gek) that I began to be . I was srcinally manifested in the spiritual state, my srcinal state is not the terrestrial state 2 1 P d Namak i h e B of Cs of Z tut) The o ea se is lso ed Cilk Handa i P oroeh (Selected Iuco ofthe Fist Docts ofe Faith) Its auoip em ubl aon atibutes it to the nd Moo Atpat i Mahaspanda a igh giy of e M clegy whom the Sssd II (AD 309-79) emed esblish the book deive coc te ofSh the Avest vidd had twen-one bkson A little of coels by tis autho ce to It is dcated to is Zatusht (so ed se of the hy pophet Zaathusas spiitl spoosip) But a bo of coes is aso atibuted is s who is d Mobao As II (AD 379-83) A cical e of Pand Nam has en pub lisd by H S Nybg in Hbuch de Pehlevi Vol I (Usl 1928), pp 17-30, 68-69. lso J C Taape PaaviAnd-Namak (Bbay 1 933) The ques quoted he c phe 1 . O the conast be e ms of the vebs and buan Nybeg Hbuch de Pehlevi Vol II (Uppsala and Leipg 1931), Glsa v and Heiich Jke Ube iaisch en llesschn Aion-Vosll Vorage der Biblilhek Warburg I ( 1 923), 1 33-3
I belo to Oazd ( Mazda, the Lord Wis dom ), not to Ariman (the Spirit of Evil and of Darkness); I belo the angels, not to the dem o I am the creature of Oazd, not the creature of Ahrim an I hold my lineage and my race om Gayom art (primordial Man, Antopos) My mother is Spandarmat (ngel of the Ear th), my f ather is Oazd. . . . The accomplishment of my vocation consists in this to think of Ormazd as present Existence asih), which has always existed (hame and will always exist amebaeh) To think of him as imm ortal sovereignty, as Unlimitation and Purity To think of Ahriman as pure negativity (nestih), exhausting imself in nothingness (avin as the Evil Spirit who formerly did not exist in is Creation, and who one day will cease to exist in Ohrmazd's Creation and who will collapse at the final time To consider my true as belongi to O azd and the Archangels mahraspan) These few simple but decisive formulas project the responses simultaneously on a horizon both of preexistence and of superexistence They imply thatin the of birthareand the our moment of dea, recorded so carefully our moment vital statistics, neither absolute beginning nor our absolu end They imply that time, as we commly conceive of it, as a line of indeterminate length, losi iself in e mists of the past and the future, has literally no sense, but is simply the absurd If a mode mathematical philosophy has taught us to conceive of time as a fourth dimension added the tee dimensions of space, we may say that the myth of Mazdean cosogony reveals to us something in the nature of still another dimension (a dimension?), e one wich situates a being's "elevation" of light depth of darkness The terms "elevation," or "height," and "depth" sgest the dimensions of visl space, 4 and e exigencies of language compel the myth to place the power of light and the opposin power of darkness in this sort of spati al relation to one another Yet any geometrical representation is doomed to failure, since we must conceive of a space both infini and limited For in point of fact, the primordial Light and Darkness do not occupy a space 3 es 2, 3 he sewha lao i Je, p 133 bu o have ce iisible) 4 bee sll, e is ligh h be aced o viba ely wih he vce of O bow), we migh eve e idea of a soo space: a wh he chel o ha ses oh embles a sicl mf wich, is ouie, so ues he se of is meamophoses I i lied coiide
that is situated and deed in advance; they establish a spare that is absolutely peculiar to emselves, that c only be measured in terms of lit and darkness The height or depth of light may be designated as eteal Time, and the space of light, in which awaken e creatures of light who e thoughts of this light, is eteally bo om this eernal Time. is then in recozes this depth of light on thatearth srcinates the personal existence and of ebei who hself "as beloi to Ohrmazd e chanels" But the time in which are inscribed the moment of his comi into the earthly form of existence and the moment of his l departure om it is not the eteal Time of this depth of light It is a time which srcinated in it, which is in its image, but which is necessitated and lited by the acts of a cosmic drama of which it marks e prelude and whose conclusion will also be its own Deriving om this eternal Time it returns to its srcin, 5 taking with it the beings who intervene as the cast of characters in its cycle, because in this drama each one of them "personies" aa permanent role which assigned Time Essentially "time of return," it has was the fo of a them cycle by Theanother Mazdean cosmgony tells us that time has two essential aspects the Time without shore, wiout srcin Zeani akanara, eternal Time; and limited time or "the time of l domination" (Zei dera xvatai), the iwv in the strict see, although eternal Time also tends to assume is ne Eternal Time is the paradigm, the model of limited time that was made in its image nd that is why our time iel as a dimension of earthly existence, gives an intimation of a dimension other than its own cronolgical dimensiona dimension of light which determines its fo and meani Inversely, the absence or annihilation of this dension measures the depth of darkness of one who is in this tim e Since it discloses this relati on wi the orin, e dimeion of light may be called the archetypal dimeion; as suh, it characterizes and situates a being of Light, a being of Ormazdean essence Foi a bond between tis being and eternal Time to which te limited time of his actual fo of existence carries him back, this archetypal di 5 C. H S Ny beg, Q est ons de cosogone e t de cos oog e azdee nne s, Jou I] p. 24 l 9. Note atque (Pas), CCXI 2 (Ap.Jne, 929) ["Questons," te se of te ve b gt fo te etn of ted te n to n ted T e ; ts s te sae wod wc seves to desgnate te xte gushn ofDaness wt gt C aso R C Zaene, Zvanca, III Buetn cfthe &hoo of Oent Studes (ondon), IX (93739) n text 228 on p 880 and te ong extact nt 282 on pp. 88384
mension commds a ver specic eerience of eternit, or raer the anticipation which makes possibleor w ch translates e conceptin of a cclical time that is not the Time of an eternal return, but the time of a return to an eteal srcin The concept of this dimension of light, an archetpal dimension becae it grounds ever being in another self which keeps eternall ahead of him, can provide us wi the ke to a celestal world inhabited b figures who are constituted and goveed in their bei b a law of their own, a law with its ver own logic The respses we have just read rfer to the twofold plane or ofold state of bei wch chacteries Madean ontolog, and which is designated b the two terms menok and ge We must take care not to redue the contrast the express to a Platonic schema pe and simple. We are not dealin precisel with an opposition beeen idea and matter, or between the universal and the perceptible Menok should, rather, be translated b a celestial, invisible, spiritual, but perfectl concrete state Ge 6 designates an earthl visible, material state, but of a matter wch isthat in we ielf whollow luminous, matter in relation the matter 7 For,a and actuall thisimmaterial is te peculiarl Madean conception, a transition to e state of gek means n ielf not a fall but rather fllment and plenitude The state of inrmit, of lesser being and darness represented b the present condition of the material world, results not om its material condition as such but om the fact that it is the one invaded b the demonic Contrar Powers, the arena of struggle and also the prie Here the straer to this creation is not the God of Light but the Principle of Darkness Redemption will bring the owering of the tan i pasen, the "bod to come," the cous resurreconis; it does not tend to destro the gek but to restore it to its luminous state, its archetpal dimension This dimension of liht constitutes ever being, ever phsical or moral entit of e earthl world, as the counterpart of a celestial (or menok) realit with which it forms a pair this menok is its spiritual entit, its archetpe, its " ange l" It is b establishing this dimeion that the Madea n metaphsical imagination attests its characteristic aptitude for cong hpostases, for making the features of a celestial Person ine tough all realit This representative norm is so fundamental that Time iel in O ese \ ccs Nybeg Joual iaie . 3 pp 31-36.Vicar e d Je Mesce (Fiboug Swie Sd-umanik V V . "" . 3
6
either of i aspects, will be apprehended as a person wi definite traits. It is precisely in this personal gise that we mean to consider it, and let us now, for a few moments, reect on this point. Logic, if it is not to be discomfite must confo to the requirements of this norm, for the character istic of such hypostase s i s to exist both in them srlves and in what they accomplish. What results is not a confion of the planes of bei, but a communicability of names, that sometimes creates difficulties for our thinkingand the worst solution to these diiculties would be to degrade ese figures into simple allegories. All our eor must be direc ted toward safe grdi and justifying the pl ay of " tran sparitions" which are made possible in this new dimension of depth in light precisely here and not oeise or elsewhere. It will become clear to us that if time can be apprehended as a person, it is because, far om being our familiar, abstract notion, it is an archetypal Personthat is to say, this t ime configres and prefiges the fo tha t a lumino us being must take or regainand because, as time of trial and of combat, it is the mediator of this memorphosis. Thus is established a homology between the time of action of each personal being and the Time of the total cycle; between fulled personal bei and the " P ers on" of eternal Tim e . ce these premises have been established, it would seem that by giving our attention to this " per son of ti m e " and the v ari ations of its feature s as manifested to m ental vi sion, we m ay also dist inguish, bene ath the v ari ants of the cosmogonic schema, the anthropological differentials characterizing pure Mazdai sm on the one hand a nd the dram aturgy that has been designated as Zeanism on the other, because of the central role played by Zervan variants). in it (and because its schema in turn discloses important Let us roughly outline the ideal schematization of the possible conceptions. For the pure dualist vision, that of Zoroastrian Mazdaism, the precosmic dram a in which the cycl e of our " ae on" srcinated is provoked by the attack and invasion of a Contrary Power, exterior and alien to Ohrmazd, God of Light. Ahriman, Spirit of Evil, of negation and darkness, rises up a bottom le ss abyss of undiscl ose d origin, existing prior to all cause . For the Zeanist vision, the drama takes place within the very person of Zean, eternal Time or absolute Time, as the supreme goead which by ielf gives rise both t the principle of light and to the antagonist. Here, it seems to me, we have a much more serious differential than that between two
AND
AL
different teological interpretations of an identcal situation 8 Neverteless, e standpoint of pure Madaism, attempt at reduction was conceivable such an attempt results in a schema that might be designated as Madeanied Zeanism or as Zervanied Madaism The schema o f integral Zervanism und ergoes in turn certain dramatur gical changes the idea of a me diation appears in t he peon of the ngel Mithras , who, according to the Zoroastrian eolog of our9 times, shows certain points of resemblance t the changel Michael Finall, the unit that gives se t te o Contraries is situated no loer at the level of the sureme goead but at te level of an emanated aelic hpostasis: is hpossis will assume the role of a Saved Savior, a kind of chael Michael who has had t gain his own victor over hsel and the periods of cclical time must mark this victor in the person of all his followe This is e fo that the dma and the role of the angel of humanit will assume in Ism aili Gnosis
In the mthohistor of pureover Madaism, punctuatedthebages three great acts which extend twelve cclical millenatime andisconstitute of the world The first of these acts is the primordial Creation undahhn) encompassi e prelude of the first three millennia, during which e Creation is established in its meno subtle and celestial, state In the ensui period om the fourth to the sih mi llenium, the Creation is transferred to the ge or earthl, state. Then comes the second act the catastrophe. The Negator, whose menace had risen up om the abss at the ver outset of the spiritual Creation, succee in entering and ravaging material creation This second act constitutes the period of the "mixture" me 8 A stensen tend s twad a ed ct on of t s sot n r sous les ssides (2n d edn op en age n 9) p 5 n ; p 3 7 C Nybe g Qe stons II pp 8 82; and Die Religionen s alien Ir Geman t by H H Scaede (Lepzg 938) pp 38 (Zean sm as te cosmo gonc doctne of te Me d an m ag befoe te y be came Zooastans) J Bdez and F mont I es es hellnis (Pas 938) Vo pp. 63s. E Benvenste he Persi Religion coing to the Chief e exts (Pas 929) c. (Zeansm as te doctne of te Mag ecoded by Ptac); monts agments to te conty es Mes hellenist Vol I pp 6566 and Vol II p 72 n. e not conclsve See also Benvenste pp 7 7 97 Z evan n So gdan B dd sm and n Mancaesm; ee we may note te qeston of te stoca exstence of a Zevante cc does not ase fo we ave set ot to consde ony te pe p osop ca scematza ton of cetan concept s and te penomenoogca connecton wt te mode of exstence tat tey ndcate 9 J J Mod St Mcae o f te stans an d Mt a of te Z ooastans n Anth logical Prs Pat (B omba y 9 ) pp 73 90; beo w nn 5 an d 55 and Pa t 2 p n 7
cishn), which we are still eeriencing 1 0 It end wi the act of al "separation" (vicarishn), uered in b the Saosant or Saviors bo om
the race of Zarathusta in the coue of the three last millena, and b the "transfiguration" of the wod rashokar In the dean book of Genesis, the Bundahishn, we read as follows: It hath been revealed that during the unlimited Time, Ohrmad was in the heights, with omniscience goodness and surrounded b light adoed This light is te place andand abode of Ohrmad Some call it the infinite Light roshnih) This omniscience and this goodness are t he garment of Oh rmad Some call it the Religi Den) The Time of the garment is infinite, for the goodness and religion of Ormad have existed as long as Ohrmad himself the still exist and the wil l a lwas exi st " 12 Here the unlimited Time is neither a principle superior to Ohrmad nor is it his creation it is an aspect of his illimitable ness it eresses his ver being, which is also expressed and the ini in which he resides Howev er, b a plhisaomniscience of transpariti ons,bwhich, as we light have said, are possible onl in this dimension of thought, ultimatel put us in the presence of time as a plasticall defined ge From eteal Time and in te image of eteal Time, Ohrmad created the limited Time he required frustte the challee of Ahriman he was said to have created it "in the form of a outh of fiee luminous, clearee of tall stature, ll of a vigor resulting om a perfect endowment and not a brutal and violent nature" 13 If in this visi of a outh we seem to disce a Madean f of e puer aete motif, we nee d onl recall tha t e age of fien connotes the aspect which o texts give to the "resuscitated ones," 14 in order to realie that the "Person of Time" merel exemplifies the ideal dimension of a bei of Light But more an this: if we give heed to he equivalences that e sub O the lea the aon ofthe actal wol c Ace Hystaspe, i Bi d Cot, es Mages hellenises, V II, p 364 11 C Nybeg, Queso, I, 210-11; G Mes apocalitticopersanoAyatkar i Z (Re, 19 39 118-2 0 12 Quesns, I , 206-7 f a what t sla e Mess Za p. 85 3 e te of the Zatspa, c 1 Za, Zvaca, II, pp. 576 A V W. Jackso Zoroasian Sdies (ew Yok, 1928 114-15 d Jke Ische Qule 127-28 13 Nybg, Quso, I , p. 231. 14 Ayatk i Zpik ch. 17 16 10
sttutd f t doato of Zva w s pcv e tsc fo of psoal xpc t xpctato poctd a vso wos fgus p st taspatos of o aot. T txt ctd a bov a s taugt us tat Rlgo Den), as oscc ad goodss ft T s t gat of Oazd wc suouds ad cofgs s bg. Ot txts tac us tat wat as always b s t voc of Oazd t Lgt ad tat o ts tal vbato of t Lgt t lgo of Oazd 6 vbats Ts tal wc s tactyp CatvofLogos of Oazdtally. s also dsgatd as tVoc clstal (men t Zooas ta pay foula pa xcllc t foula kow fo ts fst wo as t huva w But ts clstal actyp s also sad to b Den, t tal Rlgo. A lat sa taslato ssly gvs to Auva t a of Zva. 7 Tus t s a uvalc a cpocal taspato btw tal T t clstal actyp of catv pay ad t tal Rlgo. T substtuto of Den fo t clstal actyp of Auva suggs tat Den s pcsly t uttg of t tal ttac wc a goudd t lodc ts wc stat t odalty of ac b. But t pstato of tal Rlgo wc s also Oscc ad Good ss as pfd a ypostass scs t ot us towad a wol body of spculatos coc Wsdo o t dv Sopa. Actually Den (R lgo) dos ot dsgat a spl sttutoal abstacto. T fgu of Daa (Avs fo of t alav wod n) s t pcpl of a wol stctly Mazda sopology. Its xt coplxty aks a coplt 5 bi ch 2 vse 2 6 C the whoe of Chpt X X of the Ys Ech of the ws coig is pryer esigtestis smboic of the nas the Aves He to hve este befe thes Creo pryer yiso cocve s of hypossis veritbe LSopi t Zrthstrs Gathas or pss (c Ys L ppe s c hposses; it my be s tht to recite them is itery to "recite ge ") J. S Trporev The Holy Word ofthe Religion ofZarathusa and the Holy Immortals(Bomby 947); J. J. Mo The Religious Ceremonies and Customs ofe Parsees (2 e Bby 937) pp 20 0 ; Nyberg Die Religionen, 26869; J. Herte Die Awestischen Heschas undSiegeeuer (Lg 93 ) p 58 forttey o to thories ree bot the o 7 C E B N Dhbhr The PersianRivayats ofHooar Frama (Bomby 932) p 438 the ite Psi te i wich Zrths sks O: "ht ws it tht rey este w e w becme eistet?" Asw " hv (hvr) we both este " A gs s "Z is ce Ahvr 8 W Boset Die Religion des Judenms im spaellenstischen Zeitalter (3r e Tbi 926) pp 37 3448 520 3 ( ec to ce bck to this qso esewhe) M ge of Menoke rat (e Bk of Cees
xposio difcult; lik all t cofiguatios of t Mazda "imagiatio " it dsigats bot a alic ypostasis wi psoal tai ts ad its opati coutpat i atly big: it is t visioay soul t oga of t l igious visio of wisdom 9 i sot tat attibut of t atly (getik) uma bi wic abls im to b coupld wit is clstial (menok) ality Lt us simply compa two visios DaaSopia is t gamt ad tal Tim of Omazd But s is also t fmii gl wo appas a dat to t Mazda soul tat as battld faifully ps tig lf it as t clstial Sl t ligtSlf of tat soul Tus t soul icatd o at cogizs its clstial pat o pareos, as a g toug wic tal Tim is discibl Tis compaiso gats us a bif glimps of t dimsio of big psupposd by t pstatio of tim i its Sopiaic aspct Coctatig o t oigi wic is also t dictio of tu t imagiatio ca fac t com bat. "Aima os fom is dpts" says t Bdai 20 "ad aivd at t foti w t sta of Ligts (stari roshnan) is situatd" His vious ad atful atu ad is bloodtistiss lap foad but pcivi "a spld ad a ascdacy supio to is ow" falls back io is dakss to poduc is CoutCatio t multitud of is dmos ddicatd t wok of dstuctio Omazd i is gtlss caactistic of a big of Ligt (omisc it but ot all powful) poposs pac to t Atagoist. But is it i is pow to covt im ito a big of Ligt? Aima plis wit a bitt callg "I will is up I will ug ty catio to fall fom t ad bc amod of m" Omazd ows tat it i s ot i Aim a' s pow bguil all is catu s But also ows tat to duc t Cotay ow of Aim a impotc will d tim t limitd tim wic cats i t imag of tal Tim; ad fo t sgl sgss a piod of i millia His Advsay accpts fo is owld is of t kid tat ca oly "tad" ad is tus uabl to fos t issu of t cosmic dama wos t gat acts w av ust mtiod Wisdom), Nyberg, "Questions," I, ch 8 . 9899 For the eqvence of Den and Sia Mnic haeism, c "Questions, " I I , . 8 C also Juner, "Iranische Quell en," . 6 the end of his n 0; R Reitzenstein ranische ErlWgsmys ieri (Bon 9) . 0 9 C Nyberg, Die Religionen 0 0 Cf Bundahishn, I, in Nyber g, "Ques tions, " I, . 089
d stll aot gados psod t yt suggs tat t cycl of t t ao s fo Oazd t stut of s vctoy ov t Atagost. Takg up Aas callg Oazd cts upo a vso of t futu wc Aa cts but wc vtlss ov wls ts vso bolds t dstucto of s d os t cog of t Rsucto ad of t utu ody (tan i pasen). T 2 Oazd ss t har staza t soudg catato satts t spac tvg btw t ad Aa falls postat to tf botto of Dakss w as fo t lla ( fout ad sxt dug wc Oazd add by t Acagls tasfs s Cato fo tmenk to t gek stat) . ut w av s t at t c lstal ac typ of t sacd huvar staza s a psofcato of Oazds T ad tal Wsdo. Tus t s t dato of Aas dfat. T s psod v als t atc atu of t ad ts atc atu wll gv t a pvlgd posto f t uvlg of t wold of t ac typs. T s oly o s wapo t atc wapo t vbato gloo Lgt wc DaaSopa t wsdo of Oazd s tally bodd. T fact tat t sac d staza of a tal ltugy wt t bg of Oazd s t pso of t stut of t u of t dos also dfs t sstally ltugcal caact of ts t. o d to d t wok of Cato ad t wok of Rdpto costtut a cosc ltugy. It s clbatg t clstal ltugy (menk yashn) tat Oazd ad s Acagls stabls all cato ad otably awak t avats (at oc t clstal pototyps ad t tutlay agls of to t dvdualty ad dfftatd cocousss of t dug Sl Ad t s by t ul t at clbato of t fv ltugs o f t chthemern tat lastwc Saosyat accoplsof t Rsucto 23 T oftotal t of ttcycl by twll coopato all t luous bgs all t avats co g to t ad of O azd ust su t dfat of A a ad t subugato of s dosts t s a ltugcal t. O f cous t factos o f ts t (yas ots days ous) a tu ltugcal ots oologous to t cycl oft ao bcaus ty tslvs w fst catd t clstal (men stat. W av t 1 Ibd 1 22 I . p . 23 l . . (at the hou o the etenal cel estal no on ) 2 1 l . 2o ( om the Ahuv was ceate the cel estal ea) . See also unke pp. 1 35 -3 on tme an ceaton as an epphan o Ohmaz. 23 Z ch 17 ve ses 14 1 5 .
clstial Ya, th fiv clstial sctios of Day, tc That is why th duatio of th illia caot b valuatd th ifo ti of ou caldas; it is a ligical ti, that is to say, a cotiuity of litugical ots 24 d it is bcaus this is a lituical ti, ad bcaus such a ti is i ssc cyclical, that th ti of ou ycl is actually cocivd i th iag of tal Ti. It is th piphay of tal Ti: th catd od as a tpoal succssio piphaizs th tal od which hiachizs all c lstial bigs th Caid back to itslatios tasc dt thacht poal latio xplis ultipl ogaic boigi, clstial typs; Catio i islf, as a piphay of th menok i th ge placs th od of succssio i liitd ti 5 That is why th od of fstivals, th ti cycl of th litugic cial, will b a iag, a ptitio of th cosogoy s gat sol fstivals (Gahbar) cospod t th sx gat piods o catios distibutd aog th six s achagls (Ohazd is addd to th as a svth, ust as th ya closs th totality of ths fstivals ad with th fos a hptad) 2 d hcfo, sic ach of th factios of ti has its clstial achtyp ad sic th litugical sucssio of ths ots ly xplifis th latios btw ths clstal hypostass, thi vy oclatu will val a couicability of as i cofoi with th o of Mazda otolgy' Each of t tlv oths of th ya is ad af a sup chagl {mahrasp th "Iotal Saits" ) o a o of th agls azata, "vabl"); ad so likwis ach of th thity days of th oth. Fially, ach of th caoical hou s is also tustd to th cl stial b o agl who is its achtyp, ad taks his a; 27 ad i its clstial 24 On hi onp Eliad Tile hisloire or espl religions Mia Pa 14 ppohirophani 33435 h ol poibl horion or an udrding o h adion dng h apparan o oroar ar bor Plao 25 Junkr "Iranih Qulln" p. 13 5 o h n in n. 3 1 on h rlaon bn and i anr "urania " I p 3 1 or quoaon Nair- horaw H orbin and M. Mo'in esia/Hiain iblio hqu Iraninn 3 hran and Pari 1 53 p 1 1 "urani a " I p 5 and d Mn a ShnGanik Vicar pp 25 5 1 iid oogo ni i h dion and oundaon o raon i b raborbd ino i No ha h world diappar: "o n h onar i rain bu gd and h n o w old r ord o ndn a whih w i r a" p. 251 The Religio Ceremonies pp. 412 2 Nbg "Quon" I pp 2235 Modi 2 "Qu on" I p 22 undahihn d oh I d h I I I on h nubr o "hir" Amahns "rhang" c Dhalla n 44 bow pp 35 On h anoni hour "Quon" I p 23 l dawn lal no l un .
(menok) tity ach of ths fractios of ti is apprhdd as a rso
It is this rso who givs t ots of arthly ti thir disi as liturgical ots: o ay say that th vt of this day is this rso th ssc of this day is to b th day of this or that al ar who it is ad (. g. th day of Ohrazd of th oth of Farvard) . This rlati o to th agl is th archtypal disio which givs t ach fractio of liitd ti its disio of hight or dpth i Light its diio of tral Ti by has this cpltd sa tokhisthat thofclstial of ab hua bigFially of Lightit iswho cycl arthlypartr ti ay aifstd to hi as a aglic For bat whos a (Daa D) w hav discd tal Ti Wh th al says to th soul: I thy Daa it is tataout to sayig: I a thi Etrity thi tral Ti To b sur ths otios prst difficultis for hr thought oprats ot with cocpts or abstract sigs but with cocrt prsoal figurs; tir iprativ prsc fills th idividual who to cotplat th ustrct th i hislf Th without cofi of thir prsos thir rciprocal sc ust copos a sil whol Ti is ot abstract asur of th succssio of days but a clstial i which a cratur projcts his ow totality aticipats his ow tity rics hislf i his ow archtypal disio For although Ti rvals islf i two aspcts o of which is a iag of th othr it also rvals th disparity th gap btw th clstial rso ad th arthly prso which strivs or rathr fails t o b its i ag . I vi w of al l tis it i s sst ial to coidr how th variabl rlatios btw pur Mazdais ad Zrvais ad th possibl variatios withi Zrvais ilf i rgard to th rlativ dgradatioow prso of ti abl projcts prpodrac his prso ito thofpth rso of ti to atic ipatthhisbig ow who trity TE TE TE ER
W hav charactriz d ths v ariats as Z aizd Mazdais ad Mazdaizd Zrvais Both schas prst a kid of attpt at a rductio of itgral Zrvais which ais th absolut prpodrac of Zrva uliitd T i ovr th two pricipl s which as a sup rior tity prga t Jacson Zorstran Stes, 9; Mo The Re o eremones, . 9; F von Erasche Alrskde 3 vols. ) Vol II .
wt bot of t t gats. ut Zooasta Mazdas could ot copos gad to t ppodac of Oazd ov Aa ad t absolut togty. I t pu Mazda vso Zva t ltd xpsss t vy o of Oazds bg wc s also xpssd by s WsdoDaa. s oscc ad s ft Lgt. ut f t fg of Za s ovd o Oazds bg ad gv pcdc ov t a fst cosuc wll b tat t pcula do wc w otd Ad t bs c atd by s Lgt bco acctuatd Oazd sl t scod cosuc wllwll b tat t two atagostc p cpls wll b duc d to t sa fo lvl wt gad to Z a. Wl ts scod couc ca oly t wt absolut cto o t pat of pu Mazdas t fst dd ot ak a ducto of o sca t t ot cocvabl ad paps v favod suc a ducto. Wat w ay call Zazd Mazdas s attstd pcpally by a Zvat tpolato t fst capt of t udas t subodato of Oazd s attuatd tat s t s akd abov all by t oto tat Oazd bca sovg oly toug t Cato cocvd as a act of s tougt. 29 Ts act of s tougt fst poducs Cato t clstal stat ad t xts a kd of dalctc costat ov t dal wold of t gatg Spt by copll t to afst l o t vy outst Oazd bods ovt stlssss ad stuggl ad t Mazda tosopy dows wt a vso wc would b copatbl w t a atoalst t ology of t pu act. As fo Mazdazd Zvas t clgs wtout stato to t p podac of Za but lk pu Mazdas lgats t pow of A a to a out abyss. It acctuats t abovtod tats t pso of Oazd. Ts sca s attstd pcpally by two txts. I 28 . h pnraing ani b whih Nbrg ovrd h po o Zani oolog inrpolad ino h. I o h undahihn in "Quion" II pp. 3 212 li. 3. Philoophi hiaion hr ipo a in "Quion" I p. diinion bwn Z i M ad ingring h n and onp o Zan who i ubordinad o Ohrd i ar and Mdanid Zi wih ub ordina Ohr a d o Z an bu unli ingral Zrvan i ainain h riori o h nagoni. h pri and oqun o h viion hav h broad ipliaion . On h word zuan or zean "Quion" I I p. 2; Nbrg ie Regionen pp. 3 8088; . H . ra The Foundaons ofe ranian Religions oba 192 pp. 12429 29 "Qu ion " I p. 212 li. 1 131 raion o liid i d o h i o o Doinaion an inrun. 3 Ibid. li. 1224; II p. 40 13
th Book of Clstial Wisdom Zrva appars as a sovri of ialiabl sovrigty: actd by rima's CoutrCratio h is xmpt old a pai ad dath ad it is wi his approval that Ormazd forms his ow Light this Cratio th Archagls ad th clstial Wisdom Ad i this book th figur of DstiyFatum ss tough th g of Za 3 2 A short azda tratis i rsia a polmic agaist th doctors of
'Olamaye slam }, is Islam its titl:to of still mor f thof author(whc msl f sms ss th Z ait doctri Iprcis th rligio
Zarathustra h writs it is rvald that wit t xcptio of Tim all th rst is cratur whil Tim islf is th Crator 3 4 It first producd Fir ad Watr; wh thy wr joid Omazd bc am xistt It is otworthy that th tral birth of th prsoal big of Omazd rsults hr om th cojuctio of thos two lmts which i Hrmticism ar th symbol par xcll c o f th alchmic al oprati o tak as th gratio of divi makid 5 Ohrmazd wholly lumious pur ad fragrat' prcivs his rdoutabl Advrsary i th dpths of th abyss H is rilld with surpris ad alarm H podrs how st i motio fors which may dfat him d h crats th tim of lo duratio 3 6 amoutig O s c W. eig and E. K, Grns r Iranischen Phologie (Ss bg 1 895-1 904), Vol. I I pp. 1 0 7-8 ; on of wos of the tle s Neg Queso I pp. 242- 46; c pincipally the te p. 198 Plascl y spea Ze eempt old age imed in eated Time as a youth embles the cient of Days oy vey emoly 32 Nybg Queo I I p. 54 33 e ae two Pean ec Dhabha Riv ats, Je anische Qulen pp. 1 34 In ee with Je Iaische Quelle p. 143, li. 33- 34, we mt cect the 31
folte (c es p. 450, t the eon 8 1 , li. 8)Ceaon : Thee Rivayats, is no o we may cits Cea ce it w notd made by pis lf (d not becae it not yet mae e Ceaon). The cmic dcs of ose who have en called the Helleed Magi (Osns etc) ae aleady paally o But litle coidaon to have given the alcc docine imied Zooian ohodo. It is hel f eple that if the mian sme med wi the Fie it d not c its linosity whe antoist it w (so that pe d i Fie cd not be e substce of Hell) Oms ceates (Wat and Fie f e) canot soy o an othe de Menasce Sand-Guman icar, p. 36. Bs of e same essce fps d e coley but not so Light d Daess w ae cona cty tis is catal. C so Het el Diwesischen Herrschas undSiegeeuer, ind s v Gewser 36 As we mt ead Dhabha Rivayats, p. 451. J e Iaische Quelle pp. 143-, fotately ea the ect opposite d hema beces intelli gie.
tlv illnnia, which is anifsd te clstial Sphr, constllatd by twlv sig of th zodiac 37 So f th draa has rsultd t clash btn th owr of Light (aidd by Zrvan or subordinatd to hi) and a Contrary owr which is wholly xtal, as in pur Mazdais But now this clash is concivd as a draa within th supr dity hislf, bcaus in th person of Zrvan this supr goad contains both th lvation of Light and th dpth of Darknss This thn is th vision of intgral Zrvis Its scha has bn transittd to us by Christian sourcs, notably by th Arnian writr Eik It nd not surpris us that polical considrations hav displld vry trac of grat ythical inspiration and introducd a crtain l nt of ridiculous Bfor anything xistd, th havns or th arth or any crationth gi ar ad to say in ths txtsZrvan xistd And o th outst th na of Zrvan hol a tofold aning that of Dstiny akhsh) with which w ar alrady failiar, and that othr aning, no lss fraught with cosuncs, or that Lightfor (arr), th kyston Mazdan thosophy. ofIt clstial is furthrGlory rlatd on illniu Zrvanof prford sacrifics in ordr that a son ight b born to hi, a son who
Dhabh, iya p. 45 1 . Menoke Xt in "Quesons," I, p 1 (to last para graphs) p. 214 (lst four lines). I disregard the queson as to which of the two ges, nine or twelv mill is of Zeanite rather than Mazde orin. Conc the c created by the recoged Aanian nature (inMenoke Xra of the "s even" planets (thus including the d the moo though they bong to Ohrmazds inial Creaon), Nyberg, "Queso ns, " I I , pp. 62- 65 , and the sketch on Iranian ology ven by de Menasc e, ShkGnik Vicar pp . 4 5 - 4 9 . The usua l type of explanaon with which too many students content ems elves (degradaon o f god s a result of
the polical circstces attendant on rarked encounr to stanker religio) rey misses the essen point, as Hans Jonas in beteen Gnosis Geist (Gotngen, 193 4), Vol I, pp . 2 9-3 1 As f the elve sig of the zodiac coided s telve gens (Pahlavi shba on the side of Ohrmazd (d the sv planets as sven genes on the side o f Ahman), i t shod b e noted that in the Is m aili Nasir-e Khosraw e seven Enunciatory Prophets, respecvey inauguran each of the seven peods of a cle, are so "gene rals " commissione d by the prime Intellience (i atain p 121) 38 C the texts in Nyberg, Q uesons, I I , pp 7 1 6 Bidz and Cumont, es Mages Heenises Vol. II, pp. the text of the Nestorian mok Iohannan bar Penkaye, ed. de Mensce, "Autour d'un texte syriaque inedit la ron des Mages," Bulletin of The School ofOrien SiesIX (1 937-39). 5 37 -6 1 . C also Junker, pp. 1 4243This myt h has been cled puer ile mythology, a o ss an d primive myth. hatever may be the responsibii of Eik d the other Chris wrirs, one thing is certain: it is impossibe see why spirituizaon must necessy se in at the d of a g "evol uon, " d why an " evoluon " might not equally wl bng about the derada n of a so-called "primiv e" spirituali.
t
would b cld Ohazd ad who would b t Crator of th Havs ad th arth But a doubt aros i Zrva's id is this solitary liturgy ot i vai? Is it ctiv? Would Ohazd, th child of his thought ad his dsir, rally b bor? Ad th, f this thought d this doubt, two bigs wr cocivd: o was Ohazd, child of his liturgical act, th othr Ahria, th child of th Shadow, of th Darkss of his doubt But at fst Za w oly that thy wr two ad vowd that h would bstow th sacrdotal upo wit th firt to appar This vow was kowkigdo to Ohrazd; th loyalty ad siplici of a big of Light, h ifd Ahria, who by himsl with his rtardd kowldg, would hav kow othig No soor did h la this tha h fod a way of bi bo praturly, as it wr, ad appard bfo his fathr (who was also his othr). 39 Zrva askd hi Who art thou? I a thy so Ad th agd Zrva rplid: My so is fragrat ad luious, thou art dark ad foulsllig Ad ow Ohazd, bo i du ti, prstd himslf luious ad fragrat to Zrva, who ralizd at c that this was his so, for who h had prfod lg litgical rits H wishd to iv st hi with th royal pristhood a d gav h hi s blssi But Aia itd ad ridd Z of his vow I ordr ot to brak th vow, Zrva rsolvd o a coprois: " fals, alfict o, will b giv a rig of yars, ad Ohazd will b sovri ovr th 40 Ar , yars, Ohazd will rig, ad all that h dsirs to do, that h will do Thus th doiat th of Zrvais iposs a thsis which would b itolr abl t o pur Zoroastria Mazdais : th pri ogitur o f Ahria Still or srious, Ahri a is th pric of ti s world ad his ri is lgitiat, sic Za, to avoid brakig his vow, was hslf coplld to cofr th kigship upo hi Ohazd is sovri, to b sur, but h dos ot rig; h will ri oly at th d of this ao at th d of th , yars. Th cycl of th illa is ot v iposd by Ohazd hislf as i th Mazda draaturgy. It is dcidd upo by Za as a 39 The Bundahishn lso deces that Omd "acquired the posion of fath and m other of Crea on" (" Quesons , " I, p 22 1). Another opini, howev, atibu tes to Oazd and Aiman a celesal mother named Xvhg ( aeconate diminu ve, sii roghly "she who is wholly beaul"), a ind of Irani V rania, as Nyberg says: "Quesons," II, p. 83. 40 Conc this slaon, the important nt in Nb "Qustins" II
n 1 1
copos bcaus to lat t Sadow t Dakss dd by s doubt t ag to lt slf ltd t ou ao t t of ou wol s t ptac of Za t tal. T dalctc of Ys ad o tus toducd to t godad bgs fo a cosogoy copaabl to tat wc Scll st out to dvlop spculatvly s sktc o t s of t Wold 4 lkws t cotadcto of Ys ad o toducd to tty lf satts tty ad sts to a ss o ao plac tat of a t sgl o. tty solvs t.of42 tts It s ts cotadcto succsso of t Ags of t wold ogats. T cycl of Aa wll b followd by a w ao tat of Oazd. S laly t Is ala tosopy t s t to pass t Lgt ad Dakss of t Agl wo s t dg of ou cosos wc wll otvat t altato of cycls of ppay ad oc cultato 43 T scatologcal soluto of t pst ao t s tu s sla Zas ad pu Mazdas t s t lato of t ow of Dakss. ut ft T dtacd fo Oazd ad sg abov o twc ozo of all t catus of Ift Lgt s sttcs also a wol w actypal zo ow togt wt ts out asuably. W av alady tod t Mazda cocpt of t avats avashi, faaka uer) clstal actyps of t catus of Lgt 44 actg as t tutlay agls of atly catus. Oazd vald to s popt tat wtout t ad ad suppot would b uabl to dfd s Cato agast Aas assault. 45 ow t psod of a pxsttal coc s at t oot of t wol Mazda atopology ad assudly povds t clast otv fo t ag of ts f actypal 41 Schelli, The As of e Worl tr. de W. Bol man, jr. York, 1942). In ths work the religion of the Mgi is ref ed to (pp . 1 02, 1 59, 1 73). 4 2 Ibid. , p . 1 37 . I t must be noted th at .Md aspi res not to a n w beg but to a res toraon of l things , a return to the srcin sta te, But we so nd below in the myth deeloped by Dion), ed up with the reion of the Magi, eplicit mon of the idea of indeite succession of cycles ( below Ismlism the succe son o f the cycles tending toward the n restor aon, th e Grand Resu ec on). 4 3 With this dice, that the t cycle is a cycle of Light, not a cycle o f Arimanian dominaon. Even though D knes s he has i ts srcin in a being of Light, this b is no longer the supreme go dhead. below, pp. 2o, d P 2. 4 4 a summary account in M. N. Dhalla, Histo ofZorotrianism Yor 1938), pp. 343 37578 45 Ibid., p. 238, and Yasht, XIII, 12, 13, 28, 76 etc. H. W. Bley, Zorotrian Problems in e Nin-Cen Boo (Ofor 1943), p. 1 43 .
(c
ntiti s as o s who hav chosn 40 In th ologu of illnia bloing to priod of Mixtur, Oazd confrond th Fravtis of huan bings wi a choic, which is at th srcin of thir desny, that is to say, thir Ti, thir Aon ithr thy ight dwll in havn, saf th ravags of Ahrian, or thy ight dscnd and b incarnatd in atrial bodis in ordr to cobat Arian in t arthly world 47 T Fravartis lct join battl on arth. And now a kind of duplication occurs In ndcas th to incarnatd Fravarti is idntifid wisinc th soul; but thiscondisoul dosthnot possss an archtypal dinsion, its clstial tion was to be an archtyp It is in point of fact only th prson and arthly part of a ol, of a sygy, copltd by a clstial rson, anothr sl' which is its Dstiny, th nlSoul, th clstial Sl wich cos to t it aftr dath on th road to th Cinvat Bridg, wich is accordingly rfrrd to in th txts as th Soul on th road, 4 and wich calls ilf Dana A whol chivalric thic hangs o this concption 49 To los this archtypal litrally for cason'toshav a angl, it is which to di c as athn soul no can didiion to casis to answr c lstial partnr, lor answr f its arly soul Orazd i s not allpowrful god iposing a Law, iposing trials and surings wich on subits without undrstanding H is on whos copanions shar is cobat, whos fri thy assu, and who thy do not btray In th Zrvanit thics th Fravartis ar no longr rly t knigts of Orazd but ar is ri brs, thos in who h ndurs aliction 60 bcaus hr Ohrazd asss th faturs of th activ and uffri G forshadowi th priordial Man of Manichais But byond this thr is a surprising faturto which philosopcal rction, which ought to draw its consuncs, ss to hav dvotd littl attntion Th Mazdan ontolo of th clstial archtyps accords 46 C othe etmolies Bailey pp 107 47 Te of the Bis Bailey p 108; and Queso I, 23637 48 Dhabha Rivayats, p 5 (Saddar Bundehesh, ch X ve 9; ravan-e rah C Bailey p 115 den = van i ras. I have me say of tis c s late. 49 Eio d's says c on the Avestan idea of e ael the Zoi ii is ated into a of of civaly. Inction a a vida angelica (Bs es 1941), p in. 50 "akih dit " e jt ks of Nybe Ques I I pp 80, 81. O md's ceates (d e s is ue of is coteceates) e is membes they stand in a nd of uni mystica th w has fed b the esnce of O ch is inacessible to 18
to ach of th a Favati: th Achagls (Ata Spata) th Als (Yazata Izad) hav ach thi Favati Mo ipotat still Ohazd hslf has hisFavati But this Agl of Ohazd caot th b lik Al of Yahwh who stads bfo His Fac ad aifsts Hi to His catus Rath it is th Agl who gos ahad of hi bcaus h vals hi to slf ad aifsts to i th oizo th tal advt of uliitd Zva Thus th achtyps hav i tu i gls ad Oazd hsl who cocivd as coscio ad activ ituitio ows also has his ow achtypal Achalbut this xtaodiay poctig th achtyps ito a w achtypal disio is itlligibl oly if this disio ops up a distance ad a disttio wii tity il Th Ohazd's bi ust ot b a iutabl ad iobil xistc th pu act of th atioal thodicis but ust b poctd ito th di sio of a ta l futu His Agl stads i th sa latio to Ohazd as Daa (th ao) to th hua bi (th icaat Favati) whoschatologically spakigattais to his al oly to b daw with hi ito a w hight as though a w achtypal Achal fov pcdd thi syzygy Ohazd ad all th bigs of th clstial ivs a daw ito th ascdig ovt of liitlss titis towad hoizos ad towad cativ acts of thought blogig to uivss still ifoulabl H w ay spak of a Goi c styl of cosolog y I this ss th Zait hoizo that of absolut Ti without sho without oigi ad without d would tuly b i kpig wit t Mazda uivs of thos achtypal Achagls who f f big xd ultiply byod slvs always sdig out aoth gl ahad of thslvs Still th ais sothig i th scha of itgal Zvais that caot b ducd to th ds of ucopoisi Mazdais I th Z 51 On t Favas of the chels c Yasht XI I I 82- 84 Venia XI X 4 648 , Zaatha is ened to ioke the Fava of a Ma Yasht XII I 80) nftely Dhalls acle ua Mazs Favashi (Fava) Indo-Iranian Ses in Hr ofDarab Sanjana (Lo 1925) pp. 1 1 5- 1 6, s not go to e botom of the eson. Hee we e apoac n tp scte. The Paee eoloi J. J. Moi fe to a of Catheine Emmich mkes an li what he cls Chist's Favac Dte Pers (Bombay 1914), 7: geloly pp. 1 5758 O the ot hnd we ow the elaos e ancient Chch bteen l Cistos d the chal Michael C Hans Sodbg (Usal 1949) pp. 778 (c lso n. 9 above and bow La des2 Cathares n. 5Religion 5, and Pat p 4 1 , n. 47) . 19
vat daatugy t as a abguty capabl of coposg tat podgo t a abguty capabl of bglg t ca atd avats to a btayal tat dpv of t do of Lgt. o Aa s t lgtat pc of ts wold oov altoug s a ow of Dakss ts Dakss s a aspct of t su p godad lf. To ts wold s assudly to sv t ow of Dakss but s t ot also to s t goad wc lf gav bt to ts Dakss ad ad of s t t t of ts wat of ts ucato of b l d suc dd ss t b t sct of t octual cult wc accodg to lutac cta Mag dvotd to A a. Tus t ot to suout adcal duals ds by stablsg t Daks s as t o of t Da y wat was t Day of t Agl s vtd to t Day of A a. I od tat t of Rsucto ay s upo t gt of ts fal day od tat t day wc wll b t gato of ts gato ay gow t Zvat sca ust udgo cta daatugcal altatos. lk Zazd Mazdas o Mazdazd tal ay bbt psdtdualty a aspct of ts sstalZas da t da of aZas uty datg of Lgt ad Dakss but o codto tat ts uty sall cas to b at t lvl of t sup goad ad gss t a otologcally subsut ak. DI NS
ufotuatly w ca spak of ts daatugcal cas oly by to t dg wc ty ppa us fo t pods ad cycls of T t Isal ytostoy. altatos of t Zvat daatugy a attstd by Gk ad Islac soucs. I s ttysxt oato Do of usa as tasttd t fao yt of t caot of t Mag wc ss to av co o a psal t blog to Ma g c lbatg t yst s of Mtas ad wc gt b copad to t fao vso of zkl. T caot s assd to fo cags pfy t lts cocatd to t fo gods wc ty spctv ly pst. O of t s dowd w wgs ad s of a bauty ad spldo supassg t appat aal atu of ts yt t s t soul of t vsbl gud ad t s fov ovt toug all t po tat foll o upo aot ucasgly toug out t tts. I t w ay coz Oazd as t soul of Za
(as wll b Macas), ad aga Za s xpssly dtfd w tal Wsdo I to t astosg Maga t to wc w sall f blow, lutac toducs a w aog dramas peona e Mtas t dato. H a w Zvat ttad s psupposd: Zva, Oazd, Aa, Mtas 5 It s pcsly ts da of a dato tat s paszd t accout of Zvas gv by Saasta ( ctuy), stabl sa stoa o f lgos. It s ts a wc adc ally alts t sc a of tgal Zas ad puts a d to all abguty ts atopology ad tcs Dakss ad Lgt do ot cofot ac ot o t vy g a ducbl duals, but a bo fo t sa bg, wo ks T "tpoalz" slfa tly Zvat da Yt ts bg, t supo ad datg uty wc t cotas ogat, s o lo t absolut ogal godad Zva s o of t bs of Lgt, gatst ao t als; tus t s a s, a gsso of lvl at wc dualtya d wt t cyclc t busts fot T obj ct of Zva's doubt s xpssd o tapyscal ts ta Ezk's yt : " aps ts u vs s otg, " o ta t wods of tos wo Saast calls t Gayotas (f Gayoat, t podal Atopos): "If I ad a advsay, wat would b lk?" H w 52 C N yberg "Qu esti ons " II pp 1- (reclling Phae 44D the wied chaots of Ze d the gods the race of the s ouls) Bidez d Cumont Les Mas heenses, Vol I pp 1 d Vol II pp 14 F. Cumo Textes et monents gures rela a my sr es de ra (Bssels 1 Vol II pp 4 another exemplicion of the myth of the chriot applied to the Angel Sraosh in Ysna LVI The ciot isofthe theorn Mi has ispired sion of Ezeie l which of the Jewi shcompisons mysti cism with of thetheMcelebrated erabah c Bousset De Relgon des Judents,pp 355-5 Reitzenstein s ransche Erlo sgsmyster, pp 4 53 De sde et Osrde, 44 Cf B enveniste The Persan Regon, ch 4 (above n especily pp Nyberg De Reonen, pp 32 On th e Zeani te tetrads see "Questions" II pp 1 54 Shahrastni Ktab al-ml (lithographed Teheran 1 AH) pp 11314 I do not believe that we shod go too in denying the historical reality of this sect (R Reitz enst ein and H Schaeder Stuen zu an ken Synesm a ran d Grech enand (Leipzig 1 pp 33 Te the sect of the Gayomtins is atte ste d oly by Shastani but notg proves to us that he did not possess data wich are no longer our sposal Though s eo systemizion is ieed disceble his exegesis is itself a historical fact Among the Gayomartians the Angel Ze alabir (Ze the Gre) of Shahrastams Zeanites does not appear is Ohrmazd elf (Yz d) who by his doubt engenders s Antgon ist The mediing role of the gels is slar ong the Zeanites nd the Gayomtians (note
hav th fasciat of th void, ad thought of th Othr, a ought which as such drs that O r, so ulash a co bat hav which will d for illia It is, th, th als as a whol who hr th fctio of Mithras or of Archagl Michal, ad thir diatig rol prits to rcoiz also thir faturs i thos of th l Mtatro, wo doiats so grat a part of th ystical litratur of th Jws 55 I th accout of Shahrastai, th agls dcr f Aia a tiat oftsv th worldtowillrtur b giv hi, 66 but d illia, of whichdurig h willwhich b coplld it toovr toLight W shall s at i th Isaili scha of ythohistory th al cospodig to th gl Zrva ot oly is th diator who givs ris to Light ad Darkss as wll as thir rspctiv cycls, but also is th diator of th victory ovr Darkss, th diator of his ow victory ovr hislf. To this victory all his copaios, ad i his iag, ust cotribut, his copaio whos archtyp h is; this thy ust do by udrtakig i turs a co bat puctuat d by hpt ads of i llia I cocludig his accout of Fravartis' th alicchoic diatio, rcalls th fudl pisod of th ad ofShahrastai thir dsct to arth Hr t cobat of th Archal Michal has its paralll ot i th ida of a "fall of th agls" (vr, i Mazda trs, ca a al, a fereshta, b " v il "), but i a vo lutary dsc t, a vo lutary ruciatio of th Abod of Light, i favor of th prilous cobat o arth d a siilar aglological stctur will b forulatd i th Isaili athropology TE ER RETE
Th pisod of Fravartis to arth usliitd bo t cosuc addsct sigal of of a' th sshi of tal Tiisito ti Vry opportuly Shahrastai tios this at th d of his accout of odifid Zais Ad I bliv that it is by coctratig our atttio that among the atter the motif of the desce of the ravais appears ex plicitly) Cf H Odeberg, Enoch or e Hebrew Boo k ofEnoch (Cdge, 12 pp. 131-33 (cf. abve, n. n. 1 ). It is not so much the historic devions that e to be sout her e; there l never be a decisive s olution. To explre the meg of an arche type 's recuence is in itself a sucie d sisi tas. 6 I do not beieve that the ge of seven llea (instea of ine or tweve) is due to a copyist's error. It is no accident that this ge acords precisely with the Ismai schema and the astlogic coes poences o f the Great Cycle .
upo ts otf tat w tu sall bst b abl t ga a tato of ow tal T ca b appdd as a clstal so ad wat xpc of t ts tofold aspct s ssd ts psoalzato. Lt by call cta of ou tal fds vy catu s co posd of s atly pat ad of s clstal coutpat s actyp o agl. c toug vy alty t s possbl to dsc a psotat s as
in
to gasp days ts alty ts clstal pso. asT factos of ad t (ots os) ayoslvs b vsualzd psos (als acagls wos as ty ba ad wo a t even. Ts lato to t al costtuts pcsly t actypal dso t s ts lato tat aks t possbl to appd t as a coplt Wol ad tby to appd t as sos. Ts o appls a frtiri to t avat caatd as a atly ua soul wos clstal cout pat s t Soul of Lgt o l wc t couts o t way to t Cvat dg wc spaats t two uvss. Tus t vsualzato ot oly of all alty as a pso but also of tat pso as tascdt ad clstal dpds sstally o t actypal dso costtutd by t l ato wt t agl a w d so of Lgt wc dt s t t stuctu of t Mazda otology. Lt us kp d ts fudatal o skg to foll t ca of latos tat cofots . ot oly do t factos of t appa as clstal sostat s to say as tal dvduatosbut absolut T lf tal T appas ultpl psoal gus Za tal T s a sovg s WsdoDaa Zva s Dsty Za s Lgt ad Gloy as w la t yt codd by zk. Moov t Gk uvalts of ts otos tdaly to fxtat t play of taspatos upo t vso of a Iaa dtat fgu of t gaths aimntat s to say upo a fg wc vy cas bcos t tutlay agl o clstal paredrs. T taspato co spods to tat wc Zva gvs us a tato of Daa ad Daa of t clstal Sl d t s pcsly ts sstt ad pcs taspato wc sould abl us to ask wt so op of a asw wat od of xstc ad xpc s psupposd by t appato (t poo) of tal T as a psoal fgu tdg to bco pareds fxatd t fo of t agl clstal ad as suc t actyp t gud ad twc dstysoftl f? T s fo of angel-pares
also sfs a totalty tat s cosuatd oly by t coucto of 2
t atly pso ad of t clstal wc s ts supo xstc. tl t c aatd avat s od upo tu w t Agl wo cos to t o t oad to t Cvat dgup t s ot t atly soul s lackg t lags bd lfat s bd t totalty of bg. I sot w a ld to ts coclo vsualzato of tal T as of a pso dtfyg slf wt t actypal so of vy atly dvdual ss ltally tat copsato ltd atly t t Oazd od lusAa o s Catot sot t t tat w ouslvs a to (fo atly catus t pu ad spl)ts t s retarded ei. Tat s wy t Agls aucato a dat a ty Daaw w abl to pcv t uvalt of I a t tty. At ts pot lt us cosoldat ou gal statts ad llustat t by xapls. T a uous txts tat gt lgt us. ut I sall b bf cod t ts as uc as possbl. I. A fst ss of xapls tds to sow t ppay of tal T as sstall y ult fotat s to say t sows t uous : ot oly dos ts odalty povd a foudato fo ts ppas t also aks possbl t xgtc tasto ladg t bg o t ypostass as suc to t b ts fucto. It s taks to ts ultfoty tat tal T ca stac afst lf as a actypal gu fo ts pcsly s wat assus ts psc tat stac T da of a uty wc s t u ty of ac b of a Wol ad also tat of t totalty ay also b vd cocto w t acaglcal ptad Mazdas ad t alst Cstaty as wl 59 Ts da aks possbl a sultaty of dv uty ad dv plualt y wc avods t sp l st dla btw oots ad poly 57 he tem s that o eoncelle. 58 C etzensten D Iranhe Erlsungsmysleupp. 17 5 9 On the ogns o ths Ianan metho o enumeaton (whch alwas conses the totalt as a new unt ae to the nume o memes composng t) etzensten Insche Erlsungsmyseum,pp. 154 an e g "Questons " II pp . 54 h s s no mean s a nave log c . the ema ks o unke "ansch e Que llen " pp. 16061 C also the hstan nscpton at Mletus whee each o the seven achangel aeons s als the Whole (essmann n etzensten p. 175 n . ; . hst as aurga cherubm; an . aove n. 5 the m th o the ch aot) . Also see etzensten "ne uhchstlche Sch von en eele uchten es chstlchen eens" n esch fur de neuleslamenlche Wssensch (Gessen) X 1914
in wch Cist is at the se me the 67-68, 82).
2
of the sev els a e of them (pp.
thism. This might b a occasio to dfi th old tm of "kathothisi" as th hiophatic catgoy of "vy istac" This mas that giv th g i whi th taspaitios of t ao td to bc th mod of xistc of th soul fo which tal Tim is piphaid as a fig that is its achtypal dimsio culmiats ith i th void of its ow isolatio o i a ifomly amabl divi psc, but i a igoo ad iplacabl idividuatio of that divi Th psc piphais of th ao assum is aspct of a tal idiv iduatio which is always a totality W might cociv a pdtmid umb of uch piphais, but a is multiplid i tu Th a, fo xampl, th clstial achtyps o psoal gus of th divisios of th Mazd ya, typifyig psoal cativ pows W fi xampls of a simila mtal icoogaphy i th Gostic, Nosayi, ad Ismaili caldas; 6 i Maichaism; ad fially, w hav th twlv maids, Vis, o "Majstis" th "twlv gloious m aids of Z" a mysty which i th twlv hous of Light las th soul fom ath to pfct Light But i additio Tim islf as a tal totality is piphaizd i idividuatd figus, whos play of cipocal taspaitios a fixatd i a g which may abl us d th mod of xistc fo which tal Tim aoucs islf i this m 62 Zva is tal Wisdom: Zva is Dstiy akhsh) as a lctd ad impatd fiali, ladg back to islf (psoal dstiy o fiality which is somthig oth tha what is populaly calld fatalism) I his capacity of Dstiy ad psoal Dstiy, Zv also appas as a (Avsta arenah) is say, as th clstial Light of Gloy, th " of vi 60 Betty Hemann Ind d Weern Phlosohy a u n Contrs (London 937) pp 37 And ts s not a pobem peca to nda 6 R Retzensten Pomdres (Lepzg 90) p 270 and o stdy Rte sabeen et exegese smaeenne J pp . 235 62 E. Wadscmdt and W Lentz De ellung Jesu nt Mchus (Ben 926) p 27 Retzensten Irsche osungssteum pp 559; de Mena sce p 255 On te tee geatest peods of coc Tme epesented n tee ges fomng a nty we may compae (fo te acetype) Gayomat Zaatsta Saosyant (Retzen sten pp 99 22); Ne Enoc Metaton (Odebeg 3 noch p 2); pmoda Man Acange Mcae and st (Sodebeg a Relgon s Cathes p 78). n te sma teosopy te seven mams of te seven peods of a cyce eppanze te essence of a nqe and etena mam ( n Mancaesm Adam Set Enoc Bdda Zooaste Jess and Man)
t wc s paly t pop ty of t clstal Y azata s. Ts Gloy
was vsbly afstd as a bus ad a fo alos oud t a of t pcs of dyasts coscatd po t ou coologs t stll tas ts vsblty t slzd bus wc accopas t fo t g of t azda Saosyat to Wst pstatos of Cst to t ast fgus of uddas ad odsattvas. ut t s ot oly t oyal ad sacdotal casa t s t pow wc costtuts ad kts togtttsoul xstc of a bg of Lgt. tsbody. s 64 c ts Gloy sfs lf sofa as t xsts bfoIt fo f ts Lgt of Gloy fg of tal T s patd to vy b of Lgt as ts vy soul w sall b tfd callg t t Dsty ad tty of tat bg. It sould b tod tat ts altatg doatos wc w glps t gu of Zva t yt codd by zk w gv pcs Gk uvalts ad t fact tat ts Lgt of Gloy wc s also Dsty was pstd by t t Tx s of t ga tst potac . o t sa cotxt t fg (fat dsty) was dtfd wt t fgu wc doats t tc ozo Agaos aimo wo appas sulousl as a tc dvty ad as t psoal good dao t t clstal paredros o pattat s to say t lpg tutlay agla gatutous g obtad by pay 66 I watv ss w cosd t w pcv a fgu w casgly pcs ta ts . O t o ad Daa s Zv a ad s s also t gl t clstal actyp co to t t soul. I t Cous her mecum Sopa s t ao s s t o of topostat s to say 3 r, Fundatns, pp. 120-23 Spiegel, Ensche Alterthumsunde, Vl. II, pp. 4244 er tel, De Awesthen Hehas- und Segeeue pp . i , xi., 1 2, 7. 4 C. eitestei Scheer, Studen, p. 230 , . 2 pp. 17, 32 1 p. 320 (Ir i xanah erew shen. 5 umt, extes et mnument Vl. I, pp. 284-85 ie umt, Les Mages hel lense Vl . I, pp . 8 Vl. II , pp . 52, . 5 87 8 2, . 2 erg, "uesti s, " I I , p . 71 , c h . 5, pp . - 7. I t h e hli script , xa (glr ) is r epresete the Armic iegrm gdeh (rtue, luck): r, Fundatn pp . 1 2 1 , 1 28 i t re ppe rs i I smi l ism uer the Ari c fjd( ersi bakt i Au 'u Sejestm Mawn, XII, elw, rt 2, p. 3, . 27) chrcteriig the gel ietiie with riel, wh wul crresp tplgicll t Zer. C. eitestei, Das Insche Erlsungyerum, pp . 1 2-3 (ls p. 1 1 , . I mand p. 1 8, . 8 Agthel, gel ict r rej i cig ) Crpus hermecum, D . ck tr. A.-. estugiere (ris, 145-54 4 ls.), text estlishe A. Vl. I, retise X, 2 2-23 , . 78.
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of the reenerated mystes, f se s iven birth to his immoral body, • But in addition, e assance of immortality is bound up wi the attainment of the imon paredros, the celestial ael or partner At e same time, Zean is Personal Destiny; x? is gaos Daimon, who is a divine fiure as suh and also a imon paredros, the persol anel of each soul Now it is by is fiure of the daimon paredros that we may ally understand of bei of aorsoul for whichoftime is epiphanied the as acharacteristic person. If allmode the trans paritions hierophanies eternal Tme nd to be fixated in this person, it is because the soul for which it is th modalied has taken coniance of its archetypal dimension and knows at the totality of its bein can be llled only in conjunction wit its celestial But at the same me we perceive the "transitive" way in which a odhead, without ceasin to be in itself a hypostasis, can exist totally in ea ch of its indiv iduations ; this is e case with the fiures of the Madean eloloy, such as the agathos daimon, which is also a daimon pareds ec
To this structure corresponds exactly that of the soul which exemplifies it, the bein whose archetype this odhead is So it is that the same nam e wi desinate the aelic hypostasis in ielf and its presence in its earthly counterpart considered as a part or potency of it and reveali precisely its dual structure, its reference to the anel or celestial archetype In Ma duism, for example, aar aaha and daena (n) are celestial entities and human potencies or faculties as well; more precisely they are that part of human beins wh ich enables them to be coupled with t hese c elestial entities Similarly in Hermeticism the No is at once a o, the faculty of intuitive knowlede in man, and his tutelary anel (as gathos Daimon) 9 He we do not have two inconsistent theories, but the dimension of an anthropoloy which is already an aneloloy: "the man without No" mea the man deprived of that faculty of knowlede and precisely the "man without an anel," in short somethin which is no loer a human bei But, on the other hand, to attain to the angelos pareos is to ain immortality, 71 to become aeon; and similly the meetn wi Daena "on 67 b X 3; V X 2 C n 2 V p 268 et zenst en Pomandre p 44; Ische rsungssteum,p 44 June n sce ue en p 64. 68 etzensten Pomdrs, pp 153; 156 n. 2; 365 6 Cous heetcum V p 34 n 7 3 n p 3 70 b X 24 n p 3 (btt) 7 C b e n 6 8
27
e road" to e Cinvat Bride siies e of limited time eternal Time; the attainment of Destiny iself and the plenitude of the Liht of Glory or arena Thus it is only by anticipation that the soul can now be ranted a vision of its eternal Time in the form of its AnelArchepe; and this prevision, by showin the soul what it is not yet but has still to be, reveals to it its own bein as "retarded eternity . " In cseq uence, an ticipation is the vital law of an existence whic by thus understandin iel must tend toward its superexistence on pain of bein eteal retarded over aainst ielf This anticipation is manifested in rites and injunctions, in the enchtments of a mental iconoaphy or of ecstatic visios The sym olism of the sti has rihtly been interpreted in this see The s is the sacd cord, woven of lamb's wool, wch the Zoroastrians wear as a dle and which is venerated as their distinctive reliious si The cord is passed ree times around the waist, and knotted four times, twice in front and ice behind. The symbolic siificance traditionally attached ese fo makesofit the possible to identify them asisa added Zeanite tetrad to towhich, as inknots te myth "chariot of the Mai," a fih member which fastens toether and totalies the tetrad; but here pre cisely Zervan or Wisdm, the invisible auriga of the chariot, is represented by the very person of the Madean believer In this sese the symbolism of the kosti approaches the symbolism of the robe in wch the stes was clad the stola olympiaca of which Apuleius speaks, or the heavenly robe constellated wi the sins of the odiac, mentioned in the mysteries of Mithras, which was such that when the ses donned it he in person bec am e the od passin trou the cstellaons 4 It is lkewise as injunction to abolish the delay, to convert retarded eternity into anticipated eternity that we may understand the solemn announcement of the Nous to Hermes: "If you do not make yourself like 72 C. Jner "rnisce een" pp. 1 n 1 n Mi Relgus Cemne pp . 1 78 7 t sl l s e n te tt te tir nt itsel reers t te scrsnct Zr strin trilg " tugt g wr g cti n " prje cte sp ti ll s ring te tree ees p rise : um uvsht eo 14 LV 1. 73 Retzenstn, Irische Eosgsmys/erp. 167. 74 Ibd , pp. 168, 2 39 . so th e mf of the heavenly gre brocaded on th e robe doed by e mystes n Junker, " Iransche Quellen," p. 1 62: e kosti mes e Zoroasan beever a sbol or exempcon of e aeon, Anthropos, one rebo, a son of God e the "All n All, composed of l the powers" Co hermetic ol 2.
unto God you an not undestand Go fo te like is intelliible only to te like. Make youself ow until you coespond eatness witout measue by a leap tat will ee you om all body; aise youself above all tim e become aeon (b ecome etenity) ; ten will you undestand Go d. 75 Tee is finally a mental iconoapy tat anticipates te supeme ieopany. Hee te pepetual ecuence of one and te same fie wose soul takes delit in foeseei te encounte mit well fo te basis of a compaative study. It is eminently in Madaism tat we encounte te appaition of Daena at te entance to te Cinv at Bide unde t e aspect of a eavenly Maiden wose beauty supasses all imaination. 76 But te same vision occus in Manicaeism and in as well. We find its equiva lent in te Buddism of te Pue Land. 79 d te Lituy of Mitas con tains an ecstatic anticipation of tis escatoloicai vision wen te mystes, avin become aeon sees te ates open befoe im and te wold of te o and te anels becomes visible to im; wen is soul beside ielf wi oy comes fe to fe wit te od of littein pesence te od of te olden in te diadem. owe of is yout clad in a obe of splendo cownedinlets wit a olden Ismaili osis will caacteie tis attainment of tanscendence as a passae fom te anel in potenia " to te anel in ac. " Hee we sall d te sicance of anelolo not only fo a cein fom of mystical eeience but also fo an entie antopoloy fo a pilosopy of te peson and te pesonality. But pecisely tis pilosopy is bound up wit a cosmolo in wic cyclic time as its oiin in a retar a passing beyon a eleation te past. Tis oiin is te dama tat befell one of te anels of te pleoma wo will ee play te ole of te el Zevan in te scema of Saastani; and te entie antopocosmic damatuy 75 Corpus hermecum, XI, 20. 7 6 Hox I I , 1- 15 s ht, XX II , 1- 1 5) Ve i , XIX, 8- 1 04 Meno II , 1 23- 3 ( . el w, rt 2, p. 57, . 102). 77 C. ur "eci t 'i iti ti , " EJ pp. 183-84. 78 'Alkrim ili, i . A. Nichls, Sudes n Islamc sc (mrige, 1 21 ), p. 1 1 7 . Suhr w ri 's hm t e rect Nture i ur "& it 'i it iti , " p. 160. 7 r the mti the e sce t Ami (Amith), . . Mimt, "L'Ic g rp hi e e 'escete ' A mi,' i Eudes drenalsme pulis he the Musee uimet i memr me Lissier ( ris, 1 32), Vl. I , pp. - 1 2 . nsche 80 uker, "Irische uelle," pp . 23 8-40 . . S. Mep. ,152Aeitestei, Mhrac Rual (L Beres,Eosungyseum, 107), pp. 32,
63.
will be carried toward its final act by e to ent of a "retarde d etern ity " Tis will be e eme of our next discussion
yclcal me n Ismalsm SOL ME
LIMID IN E ISMIL MOLO
It was in te course of te tent and elevent cenies of our era (fourt and fiftsystem centuries ar te Ismailiofteosopy took fo in great atic works cieHegira) y undertat te te inuce several great I ranian tinkers e of tese tinkers Abu Hatim Rai wose work like so many oters still eiss only in manuscript was a Fatimid dignitary (da'i) in te Dailam (region to te soutwest of te Caspian Sea) He was a contemporary of te celebrated Moammad ibn Zakarlya Rai (te aes of te Latin writers of te Middle Ages d ca 922 a pysician and alcemist suspected of cryptoManicaeism wose pilosopical work as today been in lare part lot 2 As teir name indicates bot men ave a bond wit ages (te city mentioned in te book of Tobit te Raga of te Avesta today Rayy several kilometers sout of Teeran) It is fortunate for pilosy tat tese o eminent conmporaries sould ave met and known eac oter and tat moreover since Zakariya Rai was (even postumously) te object of Ismaili attacks 3 tese two fine minds sould ave clased in controversies wic were no less intense for all teir courtesy. In one of is books Abu Hatim Rai le us a record of one of tese discussions 4 His adversary set is name to a cool in wic e restore or peraps actually fodedan ideal Sabae pilosopy Tis comolo asserted teTime existence of we vesall eteal principles: solely Demiurge Matter re6 Here Space and be conceed wit Soul te passae garding te eternity of Time 6 1 Abu Ya'qub Sejesti, Mo'ayad Sira, Hamiaddin Kean, Nasir-e Khosraw, e. On u Ham W Ivanow, A ui to Ismaili Literare (Loo 1933), p 32, vin; Sdies in Early Persian Ismaili(Leide 1948), p 37 d passim; S Pines, Beiage zur iamischenAtomenlee (Berlin, 1 936), pp O Mohammad ibn Zariya Pines, pp 35, 69, and passim. The remai of his pilosicl wk have colleted by Pa Kraus,Ris era philosophicaaente ae ern I (Cro, 1939). 3 Notably on e part of Nair-e Kraw. 4 In Kita A 'l l-Noboat (Ivanow, uide n. 19). Kraus, "Ritel 65 R seen. Opera" p. 304; Pines, Beiage p. 53. 2
Te bout ope wi a loyal callenge: You ave said ten tat te ve principles are eteal (qam) and alone eteal? Well ten, time is constituted by te motion of te Speres, te passage of days and nigts, te number of years and monts; are all tese coernal wit time, or are tey produced in time?Te dfender seeks to draw te assailant into a terrain were is weapons will be ineffectl True, meaured by te movement of te Heavens, all te tings e as just named are produed in time But so venture arguingtoesayis tat merely upoldin te tesis of Aristotle Woinwill it as never been disproved? Moammad ben Zakarlya Raibut at tis point let us give im back is old name of aes to simplify matters and distinguis im is omonymRaes, ten, wo will end by invoking Plato, begins by stating is own tesis in simple terms: "For my part, I prfess tis: Time implies an absolute Time Zaman mutla and a limid time Zaman mahsur) Absolute Time is eternal Duration mud dahr); tis is te time tat is eternally in movement and never alts Limited time is tat wic exis troug te movements of te celestial speres, te course of te sun and te eavenly bodies Hut Abu Hatim ass skeptic ally wat substanti al reality one can represent under te concept of tis absolute Time It is not so simple; is adversary asks m to compare te time of tis world wic is moving toward exaustion and completion, wi te absolute Time tat can neiter be completed nor destroyed Wat interests us ere is neiter te details nor te development of te discussion but essentially te statement of Raes' esis Here we ave no wi debate te question of a istorical filiation runni frm te pilosopemes of Madaism ose of Ismailism, nor to determine te "inuences." 7 But we may say tis muc in its teinology, Raes' distinction between an absolute Time d a limited time presents a direct d lateral correspondnce wit te o fundamental aspects of time in te dean cosmogony 8 Te relation seems to ave been suggested as early as te e cent metho of is is a obl wic in any ce canot be eluated py stac d analycl gi by a istism lited esseally cal tpe of elaon wch reads ca io tis. With regard to e eme come of data a the riss of the irreparle gaps o es, c e.g G H. Sa, Les Mouvements religieux iraniens Heme et Ile'me siccle de I'Hegire(Paris, 1938. 8 Zaman = i akandrak a Zaman i kandrakand Zam i deranvatai have lecte. 7
eleventh century by Ibn Hazm, the celebrated Anlusian Arabic writer, in his critical history of religions.9 On the other hand, as the historian Biri 10 in so f remarked, the doctrine of Rhazes boowed om Neolatonism as it distinguished between (i) the Time Z with which number is conceed and which coesponds to the definition of Aristotle; (2) Duration ud), analogous t the distance that distends the life of the soul (for the soul which is not attached as such to the movement and number of the Heavens is that which numbers this number) ; 1 1 and finally (3), the aeon dr), the time of the eternal intelligible world. Actually, the last two aspects tend to f into one, and in this respect the entire distinction of Rhazes' doctrine might be attributed to his master Iranshahri, an Iranian philosopher who lived in the ninth century and who seems to have been a highly srcinal thinker, but whose work is own to us only fr a few quotat ions . Ir anshahri regard ed the term s " tim e , " " durati on, " and " ete rnity " as one and the sam e thing considered under to aspects: unmeasured Time (independent of the movements of the Heavens and even of the soul, since it refers to a plane of the intelligible universe at is superior to th e soul) and T im e m easured by the movement of e heavens. Thus, since eternal Duration and Time are only to aspects of the tne essence, the distinction made by hazes beteen absolute Time and limited time would corresond to that between searated $ time and u nseparated Ti m e : in the te inolo of Proclus. 2 Now the Ismaili theosophy of mythohistory presupposes precisely the represention of an eternal Timewhose eternity, however, erupts in cycles of successive times who rotation carries them back to their srcin. What, then, we cannot e wondering at this point, was the reason for the per 9 itab al-sal aro, 1 3, ol. I, p. 35.
1 0 C. lrui 's text i ies , pp . 40-5 2 . 1 1 Ii . , p . 50, . 3 the iterp ret tis Simplicius Alex e r Aphr isis. sir-e Khsrw, Jam ' ikmti e. ri Mi, ch. , pp. 117-20, §§ 1 14 -1 5 ch. 17 elw). 12 C. ies, pp. 5 1 -5 4 1 , . 2 85, . 4. he prlem ls ttrcte th e tt et i the phil spher s t he Swi peri, Mir m S r Shiri. ls rclus, he, Elements f hel, e. E. . s (Oxr, 133), p. 228 wv Zeii us hpstsis) E. Zeller, De hlsphe der Gechen (3r e., eipig, 1 03- 22), V l. I l l , r t 2, p. 707 (Im li chus ) . he pwerl pers lit rsh hri is iicte the triti ccr ig t w hich he re j ecte ll religis crete e his w. the wrs smpth p rise with whi ch si r- e Kh srw reers t him suggest tht this persl psiti ws t withut its it t Ismilism?
sistent attacks on Rhazes ? Essentially he was attacked as t he " Sabae an philosopher," the negator of Prophecy; not that Ismailism upheld the prophetology of ocial and orthodox Islam, but its entire technique of interior or spiritual exegesis (ta'wi presupposes the text transmitted by the Prophets ati. Similarly, the coespondence between celestial hierarchy and earthly hierarchy presupposes that the "mediators" of salvation are not merely the spiritual angels of ideal Sabaeanism. 1 3 Even when Rhazes sets out considerations, to describe absolut , the Ism under theofsess of polemi cal seemse Ttoime suppose thatailihethinker, is still speaking the time of sensuous things, of the time that "is nothing other than the changing states of that which is body ' 1 4 And there will be all the more indignation when Rhazes, positing Time as one of the five eternal principles, seems to make a thing, a substance, of it. 15 But once polemical ardors have abated, the motif of the twofold aspect of Time as a single essence will reappear with imperious necessity. 1 6 This will be the cse with the great Iranian Ismaili philosopher, Nasire Khosraw (eleventh century). In a closely reasoned chapter of a work which is a synthesis of Greek and Ismaili philosophy, 17 Nasir compares the notions of eteity (dahr) and of time (z},8 and sets forth this proposition: "Time is eteity measured by the movements ofthe heavens, whose name is day, night, month, year. Ete rnity is Tim e not me asured, having neither beginning nor en d. " " It is the Tim e of Duration with out end, absolu te Duratio n. " 19 The cause of this eternal Duration is the rst divine Emanation, the first primordial Intelligence o r Archange l : eternity is in th e horizon (o r in the sphere) of this Intel li gence. The cae of time is the Soul of the World; but the Soul is ielf in th e horizon of th e Archangel; it is no t in time , f tim e i s in the horizo n of the Soul as ofitsthe instrument, the duration of the living who is "the shadow Soul," whileaseternity is the duration of the mortal living immortal that is to say, of the Intelligence and of the Soul 0 3 our "Rituel sabeen," pp. 95 4 Nsir-e Khosraw does this in Kita Zal-Mosarin, ed. Kavii (Berlin, n.d.), p. iii. 5 Ibid ., pp . 3 Ibid. p. On h ipo ran o Nir- how d . 4 .. .. who orgized the Ismaili communi of Badakhshan, the reon at e east d of the Iranian world, W. Ivanow's recent study, Nir-i usr Ismailism (The Ismaili Socie, sies B, V Lden d Bombay, 948) 7 This is the work cited above, n. wich is a synesis of eek and Ism aili philos ophy. 8 Ibid., p. 8 li. 6 7 § 09 d Za pp. 7 8 364 65 9 Ibid., p. 8 li. 8 0 Ibid., p. 3 § 09 p . 7 § 4 c p . 88 § 9
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Y S SS In dec laring, " The Intelligence is one with eteal T im e , " Nasire Khosraw is also slating the secret of the speculative Ismaili cosmology: the eternal birth of the pleroma om the Ibda (eternal Existentiation), foed of archangelical hypostases srcinating in the first among them. This world is not of immutability and immobility presenting a simple contrast to the perishability of sensuous things; there are Events in Heaven, archetypal Events preceding the Creation of things, and these Events are the very
genesis of being. This ontological mystery is circumscribed by Nasir in three wor azaL azaliya azali) the nuances of which we should have some difcul in translating if e author, even though writing in Persian, did not relate them to Arabic paradigms. Thus we have an eteallybeing (aza as nomen agens (present participle fa'il) an eternal actuation of being (azaliya as nomen verbi (noun of action, an eteally being madetobe (azali) as nomen patiens (past participle, mau. 1 The text is maelously abstruse, but it discloses the followi: by being eternally, the eteallybeing (aza actuates precisely its own beingthathasbecome,its being which has eternally beenthat is to say, which is eteally madetobe by its own act of being. We m ust bear in mind that in te s of Ismaili philosophy the eternallybeing constitutes the supreme godhead, absolutely unnowable and unpredicable 2 But what this godhead is eternally in actuating its being, in revealing it, is the first archangelical hypostasis (al-mob 'al-wa Z its eteal Personification, its very Ipseity, the Only e forever being revealed. This Archangel is the eus deteinatus (al-ah) to such a point that all the predicates which the exoteric religio would foc on the supreme godhead should actually be applied to this divine Epiphany within the first Intelligence (ql awwal). Here Nasir explicitly calls our attention to an ontological aspect wi which the "speculative grammar" of our Middle Ages was very much conceed and which was designated as the signcao passiva. Here it is the aspect which action assumes in its end, in that wherein it is accomplished (nomen palientis), at the very point where action in bei lled is no longer distinguished from passio, since passio is its outcome (as, for example, writing and the thing written, scpo and scpm). As Nasir said: "The signcao passiva of the nomen patientis (mauli-e maul) consists in the 2 bid ch pp 8 89 §§ 9 93 mch more precise than Za p 95 2 2 Texte who b aaind b h bodn o hogh R. Sohann oss deranno smaiten (Gottingen 93) p 55 23 Jami al-Hikmatainp 88 . 9
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very action of te agent, wic is accomplised in im . " In tis sense te rcangel of te primordial teopany coidered as te end in wic is accomplised te ontomorposis of te eternal Bei appears as eternal Action or divine Energy and as eteal, divine Passion (or divine "paetis m ") As eteally m adetobe, te Arcangel is te eternal, divine Past Since by tis very token e is in is person Actionmadetobe, tis active aect of is eteal bei summo to bei, actuates te ocession of arcangelical entities tat follow im; and te same duality of actio and sio is repeated at every degree, producing te eteal birt of a new Arcangel In teir very nature tese premi ses are difult to understand But witout tem it is impossible to grasp te inciple of te Ismaili cosmic dramaturgy, to understand wy te consequence of te error of te anel wic will take te role of te ngel Zervan (in te scema of Sarastani) will be described as a "retard"te reession of a rank (tat of te el) wic lets itself be spasse put beind (ta'ho taallo Actually if tis is true, te eteal Existentiation bda) of te primordial Arcanel, wic is at te srcin of te pleroma, is not only eternal actuation of bei but also eternally to come, eternal advent Te eteal Past is eteally actuated; it does not become a past, it is not thrt into te past, it does not si into a past tat is more and more past, as we say tat te past siks into time But ten te intoxication tat will seie te ngel in te illusion tat e imself is te actuation of is beingprecisely tis intoxication will remove im frm eternal actuation, om te eteal advent of being. His doubt stops im to imself, trusts im into te past, and by tis fall into te past is own rank is sassed (ere again space is born frm time) 24 At tis mom ent " temporal (or li mited) Tim e " is bo, a tim e in wic tere is a remoteness, a past tat is no longer eternal, a past tat is no longer Neverteless, te Ismaili vision contains a repentance, a conversion already accomplised by e Angel; and troug tis conversion te temporal time srcinating in is fault as also shed bac Tat is wy tis Time as te form of a cyc le; it is not a re ctiline ar tim e indefinitely ac cumu lating a past and leading nowere, but a time leadi back to te srcin Tere is redemption frm te past: te anelic rank is surpassed, it falls into e n visual space is only one aspect of spae perhaps a symbol of true space just as the time of our cronologies is only aspect or a symbol of Time; there is no op poion bn i d Erni hr ar onl o ap o i a uh d Awves
past and ten again becomes future To lead back te srcin tis is te exact meaning of te word wic designates esoteric spiritual exegesis ('wil), te central operation of Ismaili tougt of wic te alcemical operation is only a special case 25 Tus cyclical Time leading back to te srcin becomes itself an exegesis te total exegesis of mankind te arcetype of all exegesis Tis generation of Time and tis redemption by Time may be viewed fferently according to te diversity of our NeoIsmailism sources Iranian of te Fatimid period Iranian sources of Persian of sources te Alamut tadition rabian Fatimid sources or Yemenite sources in te Fatimid tradition 26 In any event tese scemata put forward a representation of Time as an instrent makin it possible to overcome a retard a beingpassedby. But according to te greater or lesser amplitude seen in te arcangelical pleroma te generation of Time occs peacefully as it were under te presse of a sense of ontological imperfectionr else it occurs troug a catastrope usering in a dramaturgy analogous to tat of te Madean coology Te rst scema is drawn frm Iranian soces particularly Nasire Kosraw He describes te procession of te ve primordial arcgelical ypostases te st two of wic are te Intelligence and te Soul (Na)27 Tis eternal motion wic moves te being of te st Intelligence or Arcangel is an eternal movement of adotion of te Principle wic eternally actuates it toward being. From tis eternal movement of adoration from tis cosmic liturgy te Soul of te World eternally takes its birt 28 Tis Soul is a second Arcangel wic is like te first in tat it is EJ 25 Cisour " L etoLie du the Gloeux ibn H ayy 26 It not study possible scs periodsdeofJ abir Ismilism herean, in" detail. For oriention cf. L . M assignon's ticle " Karmate s" in the Encyclopec de sm W Ivanow, "Isma'iliya" (ibi, Supplemen, d the introduction to Gde Strothma, pp. 1 8. The s oces t o which I have been constraine d to limit myself here are essen tially: f Fatimid Ismlism, Nsire Khosraw (Per) c above, n 16; f the pos tFatimid Yemenite (Arabic) trad ition, Sayyid-na Idris 'I madaddin, 19 Yemenite dai (d 872462, c the de LV, p 62); for the Persian tradition ofAamut, the Rawt'tTaslm (Persian) attributed to Nasiraddin Tusi (d 672/274) 27 The tee others being J Persian ba. above, Pt 1 , p. 26 , n. 6 5) , Fath, d Khal, ideed with the Arhaels Gabriel, Michae l, and Seriel, according to Abu Ya'qub Sejestani, Kb a n (The Boo ofBalances, un published M S) , ch. 12. 8 C Nse s, x o S o w' es text ed. and tr. into E nlish by W. Ivanow (Th e Ismaili Society, se es B , V I, L eiden, 1 949) , p. 42 (pp . 13, 14 in the pagination ofthe Persi text ).
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perfect (in potentia) but unlike it in that it is imperfect (in actu), since its bei procees the principle only through the intermeiary of the st changel. Just as this Soul is the aoration of the primorial chael, so the Cosmos is in turn the aoration of the Soulwi this ifference, that the Soul c annot com plete its work, c annot m ake goo the margin of imperfection an incompleteness that comes to it solely om Time. That is why it starts the movement of the Cosmos; it tens towar its perfection soulsbut which appear allom to epoch in this worl, through not only the the great Prophets in general the epoch mem ers o f the esoteric Church, up to the comi of the Qa'im, the Resurrector.3 0 Here then the cycle of Time is measure by the Soul's eor to make goo its own ontological imperfection. 1 other schema evelops the procession of ten archangelical hypostases With one of them, the thir, a crisis occurs which shakes the celestial pleroma. This is the rama in Heaven, which is the srcin of the rama on arth; the earthly persons exempli the eteal dramats personae through the perios of an inefinite succession of cycles. This is the ramaturgy that we shall coier here. CYES ISY 1 . e ama in heaen. We have alreay stresse the iea that in eternal Time the eteal ivine Past is eteally actuate an oes not fall into the past as a time which " is no longer. " Thus the proces sion of archangelical hypostases, which are the events of this past eteally in the present, is manifeste to us as the harmony of a perfect hierarchy; there is no retar, E EIDS
no surpassing one byofthethisother IfPresence such a surpassing oe s occur, it will bring about a ofrupture eteal in the present; there will be a sort of fraction of pure ether that has become impermeable to the Light. it is always through the iea of surpassing an obfuscation, of Ibid pp 0, 1, 66 of the trsation the e ch 4 of the Khwan a/-hwan (abe of the Brothers) of Nsire Khosraw ed Y aKhachab (Khashshab) (, 140), pp 1, on the coc itrgy of the versa Inteigence or primordia chae 0 Ibid p 4. 1 Described notaby a vominos wor by id Kean! Rahat a/-q conse crated to the coespondences between the hierchies of the ceesti and earthy verses beow n 6. Idris Imadaddin (c above n
6), Zahr a/-Ma ani (npbished M S) ch 4 .
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ession d opacity tat our Imaili eosopists describe te catastrope tat fell one of e els of te pleroma of e Tus te temporal dimesion expressed as retard (we ave just spoken of "retarded eternity") introduces into te pure Ligt an alien dimesion wic is translat ed as opacity and so alters a relation tat could be measured and spatialied only in te dimension of pure Ligt For a beng of Ligt tis temporal dimension is a falling om sel and tat is wy it is 33 deedenjoins as te upon radicalman Evilan unremitting Here lies tee socetooftear te self entire Ismaili wic away etic fr tis eaviness wi in every surpassed excellence (mafdu finds a reason f striving toward a iger excellence (afda, and wic tus om step to sep accomplises in te mytical ierarcy a repetition of resurrections (qiyamat) wereby te mystic rises unremittingly above self. But ow did te rupture take place? In contemplating ielf te prime Intelligence recoies te mystery of its being; te act of eternallybeing wic actuates it constitutes it eteally in being; tis is te act of wic it is te signcatio passva, te mal, and wic in ielf as someting eteally madetobe it is not 34 Tis recognition is its eteal adoration (its tawhid), wic actuates te Ae l wo issus om it and wo i s te Soul of te World; it is te cosmic liturgy wic is eteally celebraed by te Arcang 5 and in wic beis of every form ave teir source Te mystery of it s being according te Yemenite t eologian Idris 'I ma daddin (fien century) is like te ligt (ere peecio prima) wic in penetrating te absolu tely limp id eter makes it L igt (sicao passiva) and tus constitute s it in i o wn perfection of Ligt (peeco secunda) And tat is wy te prime Intelligence is at te same time te veil and 36 sm a'zam) of te eteallyBeing teAtsupreme once actName and passion at once te Veil tat conceals and te Name tat names and reveals at once adori (in respect to te Principle tat actuates it) and adored (by tose to wom it reveals te Principle) te 33 Ibid 34 Here one mu st bear in mind th e diecc o f the m moned above 21 23. e ime Intgce is the M of the of the Moi Now the Mobi ( m of e ma) is oly e pssive spect, the sicatio si of the acve (ete stenaon). 35 above, n. 2. 36 The prime is e brought os (m morb) e sacrosnct (mo nel, the Lotus of the Limit, etc. Idrls, r cs 6, 7 Sothmann, Te III, 4-6.
38
prime Intelligence is constituted in its being by a simultaneity which conditions both its transparency and the potency by virtue of which all the beings of Light, e archangclical hypostases, emanate its bei. The second of these hypostases (called Enclosure of the Sacrosanct, Paradise of the Refge, Universal Soul3 7) stands in the same relation to the prime Intelligence as the prime Intelligence to the Principle; in it is repeated the se simultaneity of obedience and prerogative. It is the first to hear the appeal of the prim e Intelligenc e 3 8 (the and this is the very word da'wa which denotes the esoteric mission of the Ismaili Church on earth), an appeal summoning all e other Intelligences to celebrate the same litrgy as ielf. This appeal has been heard by innumerable worlds ('awalim) of aels, foi ten great divisions, each of which is peopled with inumerable angels and has an angelprince at its head. 3 9 Yet this obedience implied an exception, a transgression against it, and this was the prologe of the cosmic dramaturgy. From the dyad of the first and second Archangel, Intelligence and Soul of the World, issues a third Archangel, 40 who is called Adam uhani, the spiritual Adam; this is the Ael of mankind, demige of o world. He appears as a hypostasis of AraboPersian Neoplatonism, but also shows certain traits of the Manichaean and Gnostic Anthropos. Still more precisely, his role coespon to that of the el Zean. Let us recall this Angel's doubt as set for in Shahras tani: "If the entire univers e were nothing . . . " (Ibn Hazm speas of an excess of melancholy, a prostration). 4 1 But what universe could have been nothing? Zervan was an el of the pleroma existing before the physical universe. And Ismaili Gnosis states exactly what it was that the ngel's eor placed in doubt: the eternal ontological anteriority of e to Archangels who mediate between the Principle and the third Archangel.
37 Zahr, ch. 7. I t is b y is adoraon miled with eeal r oi that e t (Sabi ves eistce the follo ngel al, who is then ay the t Emanaon (bi 'ath), since the is not oa'i but moba'. e thi of the second ngel consis in recogniing his ontological rank in the , his i (sicatio passi)wi regard to the t ngel. Thus we have the srcinal dyad or sygy, the pair Sabiq-Tali. 38 Ibid.,'ch. 8. 39 He I cnot deelop the interesng compaso that might be awn wi the angelological schemata of Enoch, ed. Odeberg. also G. Scholem, Major Trens in Jewish Mysticism (3rd edn. , New Yor, 1954), pp . 6 40 nd second Emanaon (-i'a al-tn. On this angel's relaon to the Gabrie in the pilosophy of Suhrawardi, our "Recit d'iniaon," 4 1 Ish. Not s o much a sin of " pride" attack o f melcholy in foeness d solitude.
t
39
Is he not their equal? Does he not even precede them? Is he not rst and alone, srcinating in msel Hence his refusal to recognize their precedence, to hear the appeal, to testify to the Oneness (tawhid Thus the third Angel stops at mself he remains motionless in wch gives rise to a g ap, a distance betwee n mse lf and th e world of eternal Existentiation from which he cuts mself o There comes to be a "Time wch passes" and creates a remoteness The transgression becomes a re gression: tseternal is the Past rupture (zal of theineternal FutureWhen the whichmself eternally actuates the the Present. Angel tears ee om this stupor, he sees mself "retarded," surpassed (ta'aor taallo, fallen behind mself From trd he has become tenth. To the Time of s stupor that he must redeem corresponds the emanation of the seven other Intelligences wch are called the seven Cherubim or the seven Divine Words. Similarly seven periods will punctuate each of the cycles of cosmic Ti me . Be cause ts drama o f the Angel f orms the p rologue in H eave n of the drama of mankind whose Angel he is, writers have been pleased to nd in s d eed th e archety pe of Adam ' s trans gression (s parad ise was the world of the bda' the tree which he was not to touch was the rank of the Archangel preceding him, who is the mediator of s being, etc.). Moreover, as we have said, the retard, as a temporal dimension, introduces an opacity in the dimension of pure Light. Here, as in the Angel Zervan, the Imagina tion of the Angel who goes astray manifests s Darkness, s Ahriman, his Iblis. But here precisely we perceive the difference of which we have spoken I f this Ibl is- Satan is bo rn w ithin th e ange lic b eing as Ahriman taking birth in Zervan, a no less decisive change occurs in the Zervanite dramaturgy. Externalized as Ahriman outside of Zervan, Iblis is not invested with any legitimacy whatsoever No ambiguity remains He is expelled from the Angel and becomes as radically alien from m as Ahriman to Ohrmazd More precisely, the Angel, freeing mself fr his stupor, tears Iblis out of msel like an Archangel Michael achieving his own victory over imsel 42
C Ils, Zahr ch 9, a the of Sad-na Hn ibn 'li, gh Y
' (. 66 H.. 68 no L p 60) Bn L n sma nte peta ton of t e Fa of Ada m Buletn of the &hool of Oental Studes X (937 3 9) 702 t sod aso b e ecaed tat t s da ma n e aven de ves om o soces of Fatmd o Westen sma tadton (te od daa 3 Stotmann te X ahr c. 3 44 Lews sma ntepetaton ds 45 Lews p 703 nx ds ulu c 9.
Iblis is urled to eart and is form subsists as te purely Demonic. Tus te bei of te tird Ael is te mediator, te medium troug wic Darkness is bo, but trough wic it is also vanquished At te same time e is te Angelprince of an entire iverse of Aels wo are foed in is image (suwahum 'an surah; tey follow is destiny and e is responsible f tem He as tus immobilied tem by is own stupor; it is teir entire universe tat is suasse tat is retarded Tus te Angel's movement of conversion is accompanied by te appeal ('wa wic e finally transm its to te m m t e prime Intelligen ce (ap peal to te esoteric whi, and wic is also a calling to accomplis in tems elve s, in teir beig wic is in is image, tis conversi on and victory of their Angel. Some hear the appeal, oters persi st in negation and denia l Te former, wo ow a striking resemblance to te Madean Fravartis, are te celestial arcetypes of te eartly eralds and proclaimers of te mystical da'wat; tey are te posterity of te spiritual Adam Te oters are e posterity of Iblis, e implacable adversaries, demons wit uman faces, wo appear om cycle cycle until te form of IblisAriman is 46 extinguised Te profod metapysical idea tat tis temporal distance or dimension engenders space is ere applied to te generation of the Cosmos. As our Yemenite teologian points out, te retard brougt upon te Aels temselves by te fault of teir Arcangel places tem in a situation were a treefold mental movement lends teir being a tidimensionality adapted to an existence in e dense and opaque world of material nature Not only because e is compassionate and meriful, 47 but also because e imself sue in tese is Gnostic mem ers,systems) teir Arcanel bein te wickedels rconwo of are certain creates for (far temom a cosmos wic is te instrument of teir pification and te scene of te combat wic is at once teirs and is. 6 Lws p 70 3; rs Z cs 9 r; Strtnn te X 38 7 C te ntr e f te A rcnge Mce n Enc 0 9 n he Boo of noc tr . res (Oxfr 92) p 73; n noc e Oeberg ntr p 98 n (Me tt rn) C be Prt nn 9 5 55 8 Z c TO Te e tt n n trg ter exstence n s etr pses s fe Anges re te te n pce f te Anges btten tt ter exstence s eqy btte for te nge -be ng s t cpter f yst c ex perence t wc we re pnnng t ete cprte sty C eg. te cse f Jnn er g c te f te sc f Jcb B e e c 5 "V Stret M ces n es Drcens" n ne ue roung und Anwesung der dren Pncpen
te exact number but only te vastness of te perspective" It merely registers te veiled memory of nameless upeavals and crimes wic preceded te istory of present mankind No arcive records tem but teir trace as been found in every epoc by te activity of te metapysical Imaginationfrom te ecstatic books of Enoc down to Fran von Baader Te postulates of te Ismaili teosopy migt ere be amplified in te lit of a comparative researc 67 First of all tey present a decisive contrast to te ideais regarded of "primitive acceptedofbyproess our uman Present mankind not man" as a summit but assciences descended om a superior makind oug a catastrope of wose mystery we c gain only a distant intimation It does not issue m te gloom of savagery from a void and an absence of umanity; te most ancient monuments bear witness not to a babbling nor even to a aw but rater to a twiligt 68 Wen te speculative Imagination encounters te proposition of vulgar exoteric eolo "tat tere was a time wen te world did not exist" it is fitting declares Nasiraddin Tusi (Iranian teolgian of te tirteent century) to remind tese teologians tat tey ave remained on a plane of fictitious representation tat in te sense in wic tey take te words time d world "tere never was a time wen tis world did not exist" 59 Or rater tis proposition is intelliible only if we ave in mind te universe constituted by , worlds tat is say sucessive ycles eac of wic is actually one world Tese worlds result not om a istorical causality but om a omology between cycles exemplifyi te same arcetypes In sort tere was a race of um an beings superior to ours wo were te educators of o race; tis race beloed te Adam of te Bible and Koran Far om aving been te first man on eart Adam was one of te 6 last survivors of e cycle of Epipany eceding our cycle of Occupation Te idea of tis exegesis from one cycle to anoter ispires all Ismaili exegesis of te Kora n At te approac of te cycle of Occu ltation te fo 56 ibid, (pp. 443 of the Aric text) 57 above, n 47 58 Sche, Essa into French by S Jankelevitch (Paris, 946), pp 35 5 9 Twt p 4 8 o f the text and pp 6 5 nd 67 o f the anslaon It shod b e noted that we lso d this ge of 8,000 wo in 3 Enoch 4 7. o Hans Bieten hard, ie himm/ische Welt im Urchristen Sen (bing, 95), pp 360 Ibid, pp. 65, 666 7 6 One might well pli s clicl concepon o f histoy which the idea o f interclical hmolo conasts shply with evoluonist concepon of recine "progress." One cannot help thinking of Spengler's ideas
44
of Iblis is liberated and is manifested by grave symptoms wic disturb te state of aony and inocence caracteriing te angelical mkind of te ending cycle Tese disturbances oblige te digniaries to restore te discipline of e arcanum at te tresold of a world and a mankind wic te direct vision of te celestial figes would only incite to destructive y. But tose wo ad been te "Angels" of te cycle of Unveilingtat is say tose initiated into te Gnosis of Resurrection wate iyat) cannot bear te prospect renouncing te state and innocence of direct intuition of allof trut; tey cannot deferoftofreedom te demands of te new esotericim Teir orror at te stictures of a religio Law gives way owever in e course of a dialogue full of prescience and sadness In te literal Koran text te dialogue takes place between God and is Angels; te Ismaili tawil transposes it by one octave ere it is te last Im am of te cycle wo gravely declares to is e artly angels " I know wa t you do not know" (Koran ). One of tem te yog Adam is invested as Proc laim er of te new religio Law 63 Now begins a drama wic must be understood as an imitation and exemplification of te drama in Heaven It consis of two episodes: te revolt of Iblis and te vengeance of Ibl is av ing as corollary wat may be called " te error of e ie rop ant " te beginni of te new cycle te form of Iblis was incarnated in one of te dignitaries named Harit ibn Murra one of tose wose oce it ad been initiate te eartly angels of te cycle of Unveiling in te Gnosis of Resurrection His refusal to recoie te new religio Law is implacable is e to begin te arduous pilgrimage of te degrees of initiation all over again? Was e not created of fire wereas te y oung Adam r estri cted to te science of symbols is made only of clay? Wy ten sould e and te oter eartly angels bow down before Adam? Wen te el tears is Iblis om witin im and urls it to eart all e biguity tat is still possible in Zeanism as ceased: Harit incarnates an IblisAiman in te pure state te No witout te Yes te contrary power o f te Adversar y Te temptation to wic Iblis incarnated as Harit ibn Murra subjects 6 is Zr ch 1 ad Nasir Tusi Tara ch 16 p. 49 ofthe text Here e vsios of the two grea saii adios are i ae. 63 Kora 35 e fer of A o Hoa d s a mosta ad eir saii descda Soa Tte 6 64 They o wed d c r is wh o w oe of te g eii (Kor 8 4 8) the order t o wrs Ad i Vi ta Adae Eva e uoted i Wih Lue Micl (Gotge 898) p 9 65 Twt pp 68 6 9
c
Adam, and rou wic e takes is vengeance, consists in persuading Adam tat since e perfect science of Resurrectin was revealed by te last Imam (Qa'im) of te preceding cycle to wic ey bot belonged, and since te bssl men of tat cycle owed teir state of inocence and eedom to tis osis, te men of te new cycle sould not be deprived of it 66 In is inexperience, te young Adam le imself be convinced and commits te suprem e " error of te ie ropant" e reveals te secret me wo are unfit to befell receiveteit,Ael betrays te symbols to te fin unworty. Andexemplinow te drama wi of Mankind in eaven its eartly fication,67 d ere it is sared by two persons Now Iblis represents only te ngel's pas wic te el by is victory as cut om self and wic Time, fm cycle to cycle, carries toward its annulment And Adam, aving approaced te forbidden treetat is to say, te Gnosis of Resuection (te divulgi of wic was reserved for te last Imam) "escaped t oug e wideo pen door of Merc y " L ike te Ael readmitted to te pleroma, Adam by is repentance returns wit is posterity to te "paradise in potentia" tat is, te dawa te esoteric Ismaili Curc on eart Its members are te "Aels in potenti " like te incarnated Fravartis of Madaism , caying on te battle aainst te demons wi um an faces, wo are te posterity of IblisAiman And just as te repentance of te Angel, te spiritual Adam, was te eternal Eve, is noslgia and return to Padise, so, Nasir Tusi declares, Eve, wife of te eartly Adam, is te spiritual and secret meaning of te positive religion (its batin), for se ad owledge of te esoteric laws and idden meanings (te tawil) 6 Tus it is troug te mystery of AdamEvetwo beings in one, te text of te religio law and te esoteric exegesis 66 C our "Ritue sabeen, " pp. 20ff. 6 C Idr is, Zhr, ch. 13; the tice of Les Buen of the School of Orental Stues (n 2 above), pp. 02-3; Tawwat, p. 0 . The t exts o f the Yemenite tra dition reate Adam's eor and repentance to those of the Ange; the prohibitions en joined upon Ad are comped to the situation of the third Ange; the tree he w not to approach was the ooogic r of the Tal, the secod Ae whofollows the but who stands in the reation of Saq (of who precedes to the third, etc 68 And on these ideas of "paradise n potenta" and "nges n potenta" rest the entire Ismaii nthropoogy and ethic (c Zahr, ch. 12; Jam' aHkmatan, ch. 13; Tasawwt, pp. 59 -60, 9 3-9 ) . C b ew nd o "Ritue sa be en, " pp. 1 99-200, 23. 69 Taswat, p. 0. C the J' al-Hkmatn of N sir-e Khosraw (ch. 19 , § 226, p. 209): the w, the repository of the e sotec see of the symbos, i s rgrded s the spiritu mother of the ad ept, wie the Prophet, procmer of the etter, is is father.
46
tat tscends it te Propet and te Imam te oclaimer and te Silent One tat te fruit of te positiv e reliion an d te final Resurrection (qiyama, can spri fort It is wor noti tat Ismaili esoricism ere confs its supreme symbol as te conjction of te masculine and te feminine wic was also te great symbol of Hermeticism Te consummation of tis mystery will mark te completion of te Grand Cycle wen te last Imam will oclaim and accomplis te Grand Resurrection Allcpose te adepts distributed troug all teof ranks te Imamesoteric ierarcy te mystical Body te Temple Ligt of tis Resurrector 70 It is te orion of Resurrection wic f eac adept gives its meaning to te Time of com bat; ere too "te istory of te universe is tat of te kingdom of te Sp irits " 7 ESUECTN S TE N TE ME "CT E NGEL"
It is evident tat tis conception of te Imam as lord of Resurrection ummit of te eternal Imamate in wic culminates te Ismaili vision of te aeon is far above te political ideolo of a final successor wo will be a legitimate descendt of te Alids Tis political ideolgy was e by te Gnostic ida of te Imam as Antropos or as te Perfect Cild (al walad altamm) wo engenders imself in te secret of te cycles of te aeon and wo in is escalogical Epipany is expected to be te ultimate "exegete" of mankind a member of te true posterity of Am 73 0 C Strota, Texte, , 1 ; V, 3 ; , man, ch. , § 1 1, p. 1 21 . 1 Sche, Essas, p. 215.
Tasawwat, pp 14-54;
Jam' a/
2 eminenty With the atransfoation of thesvation, concept of thesmam, Peian reiin of person ten a gion of Resmism surction.bec the ms interestin remars of W. vanow on the spe ct of docetic Christoogy ssed by the te f te e eppy ww, p L s e, n 100 ). e re a vast e of inq ope. Unfortunatey what o miht c the "secret of Aamut" sti eudes usthat is to say, we do not ow the reons why August 8, 1 164, w chosen the date for the Grand Resuection, for the advent of
d pp LXV d LXXX, LXXV, d LXXX, d
Kam Pr, p. xx xv . nd perhaps there is a hees s paradox, i f not a desperao cas, in ocaiming the ding of the esoteric meng: in so becom exoteric, it not in tu necessite a nw ta'w/? The ger of this reesso ad nn seems to have been sceed by the commentator on Avicea's mystica tae eited " ayy ibn Y aqzan " (c the transation foo o study, Avcenne et /e Rec t v sonre (Teher and Paris, 154). a human beins (for m 3 This posterity, it shoud be reced, does not incude aso embraces th e post erity of bis) , bu t ony those "whose Ange" by associi
7
wic e will lead back (tawi to te celes arcetype in wic it oriinated Just as te universal primordial Adam is te f eartly manifestation of te spiritual Adam or Ael of mankind exemplied in te partial Adam of eac cycle so te Imam Resurrector blossom of te eternal Imamate will be its parousia, as te ultimate primordial eartly substitute for te Ael to wom e leads back mong te spiritual Adam te primordial eartly Adam and te Resurrector (aim), tere is te same relation Gayomart Zaratustra Saosyant to ce wo willasbeamong aratra rediviv Similarlyand eacte of te Imam's mifestions te Imam of eac period is oly te manifestation of a unique and eternal 7 Im am wo in te person of te last among tem will consumm ate te totality of te Aeon or Grand Cycle By proecting itself on te ori of te Imam Resurrector te exectation now commands a pocess of resurrection wic sakes te entire esoteric sodality by a movement tat is communicated from deee to degree eac adept must "resuscitate" (or "suscitate") an adept like self tat is by rising frm deee to degree cae anoter at every step to rise to is own former rk 75 Te mystical Body te Temple ofLigt alnur) of te Imamate is tus constituted by e totality of adepts; each one reecs it in self ust as te pupil of te eye can contain te igest mountain. 76 And precisely tis comparison gives an idea of te eerience of ete rnity tat is oe ed te a dep t to reect te w ole of te Te mple of te Imamate is to become in is own person an exemplication of te aeon; it is for eac adept to attain to is own eternal persontat is to say to angelicity in actu; it is by a series of resurrections (qiyama, to induce in imself te oweri of te Grand Resurrection (coesponding to te final Trsfiguration wic in Madean Pelevi is called Frashokar Restakhiz) Tis etic of resurrection wic we ave already referred (as an etic of struggle against a retar d against a beingsurpassed) sows us e ac adept supporting te responsibility of te wole Temple of te Imamate By sef with the repentance of the third e the time of the dra in eaven, c nects them archetypally with s battle against the posterity of Iblis 4 ur p LI d p 18; Strtnn ee II, 5; be n 50 ee e might compe the sequences Gayomt, Zarathustra, Saoshya atht redvv . Spiritual Ad (the thd Ael), earthly Ad (vers nd partial), the Imam 'm (the "Perfect Child, " herld, or "Angel " of Re surrection) . Nuel, Enoch, M et atron. Cf. so below, n 101 and above, Part 1 n 3 T I 1 ; VIII ; XIII I Strthmann, I 1
48
virtue of this responsibility the adept does not merely live in a fragment of measurable and measured Time. He is himself the total Time of his own measure, and that is why the entire combat constituting the essence of cyclical T im e is caie d on in the cycle of his own life. Since th is T ime is a retard, the gap between the fall and the reconquest of angelic rank is the Time of the combat for the ngel. This expression (which results from our situation and reverses the famo image of the "combat with the Angel") is to beofunderstood in a third twofold see. It ishasa combat the person the ngel mankind (the el who become tenth), for the ofngel does not carry on alone the combat which is to lead to the final reabsorption ofblisAhriman, whose fo reappears throughout the cycles of Occultation. But, since they have assumed his repentance and his nostalgia, his fellows, made in his image, become responsible in their own person for the combat that they wage hi It is their own Iblis that they must hurl into the abyss, and in so doing they battle for the el who is in them in potenti To reect in oneself the Temple of the eteal Imamate is to anticipate the consummation of the aeon; it is here "to become aeon," to produce in one the mutation of cyclical or measured Time, and for each adept this consis in assum i in his person an increasin g exemplif ication o f the Ange l' s being. This implies that what occurs in and by the person of each adept also affe the being of the Ael who is their archetype and who fin his exemplication in them. Thus we are confronted with situations which reect one another. The eerience of Time lived as a totality here presents a character similar to that which we analyzed at the end of Part 1 ; here speculative foundation and spiritual experience meet. The Figures shine through one another and exemplify one another. The tenth Ael shines through the person of the Unfortnely cot ere scuss at any lengt te igly srcin aspect wic te ide a of tis c o at of and for te Angel ssue s te Tasawwat ihad-e ruhani aqni haq/qi) were it is related to te triple autointellection y wic according to te scea of Acenna eac q/ or Ael y nderstding is o ei confs existence on tree tings: anoter Ael a Heaven and te So wic is te over of tis Heaven. C. 14 good d el) ope wit a ef rec ollection of Zoroastri dis w ic is rej ecte d it goes witout saying ut reirodu ced a few pge s ter o were te priordial nscience (Jah/-e awwa is opposed to te priordi ntelli gence {q/-e awwa d a sustance exausting itself notingness is opposed to a t rue susta nc e tese ei te soce r e specti vely of evil d go od creatu res . vicarishn) t acts Te sli wat separates te titeses (c te Mdean
upon te priordial ntelligence d te true sustance like te elixir of alcey; upon teir opposites it as no eect.
9
primordial Adam troug tat of eac partial Adam and finally troug te person of te Imam Resurrector and similarly te Imam Resurrector is already manfested and announced te person of every Imam of every period. One and te same arcetypal Figure te eteal Imam recurs in multiple exemplificatio just as all te adepts ave teir celetial arcetype in te nge ls wo followed te t ent Ael in is repenta nce Tis exemplification gives tem teir arcetypal dimensi and constitutes tem as te cast of caracters in a cyclical drama wose prologue was played in Heaven and wose antagonists meet again in every period in every genetion Te special and caracteristic nature of te situation is sown in tis process of exemplcaio wic constitutes te individual person and raises im to te dimeion of an arcetypal Person Essentially te perception of all reality becomes te perception or visualiation of a concrete person Tis situation creates te scema of a fundamental aelology wic is essentially te mode of selfunderstanding of existence wic undergoes wat we may now call an angelomohosis is to say te passage om "anelicity in potentia" to "angelicity in actu, " wic is te positive culmination of te Ismaili antropology On te oter and tis exemplificaton wic personifies all reality in a concrete person presupposes bot coincidence and distance identity d diffence and f tis reason te totality must also be present in te "every instance" Tis recurrence is te foundation of te homolo between te total cycle of te aeon and te cycle of resurrections wic in e life of te adept constitutes is ascesion m one esoteric degree to anoter In te Ismaili teosopy te ida ofbetween exemplication of arcetypal persons and te idea(dawate of a omology te cycles e te religion of Resurrection qiyama as an angelomorposis. i rchepal Persons How is exemplification possible? It is to Nasiraddin Tusi tat we e te elemen of a ief and profound analysis It seems postulate tat te aspect of action wic we state in te infinitive or te aspect of e event wic we denote by abstract noun are by no mes e true aspect of teir reality and tat in te last analysis tey rfer back to te person of te agent wo enacts te action or te event as te true reality of bot For all mental or ideal reality every concept (ma n a) in te 8 o stdy, e v e d Goex, pp . 616 9 C. Ritel sabee
world of te universal as its counterpart in te world of te individual a concrete person (shakhse ayni)outside of wic tis ideal or mental reality remains virtuality and pure abstraction 80 Everyting takes place as toug te estion "Wo is it?" we substituted for te question "Wat is it?" as toug to name te person were to dee its essence; and it is to tis person and not to te abstract universal concept tat te tawil or internal exegesis leads back 8 We gain is impression by juxtaposing propositions suc as tese : "Paradise is a person (or a uman being) " 82 "Every tougt every word every action is a person " And finally : " Every true tougt every true wor every good action has an Angel" 84 Aound tese propositions Nasir Tusi develops an analysis wic may well be called penomenological To be in Paradise or come into tis worl designates above all diert modes of bei and understanding 85 It means eiter to exist in true Reality aqiqa, on te contrary to "come into tis world" at is say to pass into e ple of an existence wic relation to tat oer is merely a metaporic existence (majaz) Measured time too is only a metapor for absolute Time Tus coming into tis world as meani only wit a view to leading tat wic is metaporic back to true being and te external (exoteric zahi back to te internal (esoteric ban), by means of an exegesis (tawi wic is also an exod from existence Here ten we ave a mode of understanding (mos intelligen wic a mode of beg (mod essendi) is exessed Even wile e is materially present in tis world tere is a mode of bei in Paradise; 86 but it goes witout saying tat tis mo ofbeing, Paradise can be realied can exist "in te true sense" only in a person wo precisely 80 8 8 8 86
81 C Rte sabee, p. 0. aura, p. 6 (p. 46 of te P esa t ext) . aura, pp. 960 ad Rt e sabee, pp. 414 84 Ibd awwura, p . 60. Ibd, p 9 1 (p. 6 o f t e text ) Ths woe pas sage s o f te gea tes t mpot ace . Sc s te me a g of te peso o f te tat wc s te) st mom " (wc coes pods esc atoogcay to te vat Bdge of Mazdasm); awwu pp 66 446 of te t ext) T e m a wose ead s a sed tow ad te eavey pepey moht eve w e s f et ae t e eaty cete Atog ea to to te ge e as ot yet aved at te Wod of absote eedom compaed to te ama e as aeady attaed to t Te peso wo exempes ts acetype of te stat way s te peso wo ves te wod beyod as tog ts be yod wee aeady s peset exstece ad wo caes a te aspects of ts peset exstece bac to sometg qe Ts s te tea metamoposs te state of tawl bne taw, ad c dsceg cdty accompsed by te secet of te pecsey s te Ages ereshta mo de of exstece cotast to tat o f te j o demo dv. C bd, pp 64 4 of te text), 818 8 of te text).
is tis Para dise tat is to say wo always personies tis mo de of being
It is clear tat because personication corresponds to an arcetype it is ere te exact opposite of allegory Fundamentally we may say tat since te reality of te act of te event is tus reduced to te person wo enacts it and understood as tat person's mode of existence every ve is mentally conjugated in te middle voice (eg. te of te penomenolgy wic sows ie te phainomenon) else weactuated nd a circuit similarupon tattewic te Arcangel's eteally bei of tougt azal seis veryinact
of eternally bei (aza, wic by eternally actuating is being (azaliya becomes peonied in te rcangel 8 Here action tougt or word ave teir term in te agent: tey are reected and personified in im by maing im to be wat tey are Tey are is modes of being; tey are in "every instance" this person In tis ligt te person in wom is own action is incaated is te signcalio pasva of is actiontat is to say e is wat is action makes him b e But tat implies tat tis person is an agent only in a superficial and metaporic see More active tan te person imself is te tougt tat is tougt troug im te word tat is spoken by m (and personified in im) And tis tougt of is tougt is precisely wat Nasir Tusi calls te Ael of tis tout (or of tis word or action) 88 Tis el endws te soul wit te aptitude for tinking it and risi by it; e is te Arcetype te finali witout wic a cae wod never be a cause. He is te "destiny" of tat soul Te subjective case becomes an instrumental Te act of tinking is simultaneously a beingtougt (cogiior) by te ngel 89 87 s s te ec cct ( above at
sec ) te omoogca
otaon te acon as for a le wose efsto te agenttat in d s to sayofsw done esents d concded agent e intention of te mdde voce eads one consde n te of acon e mocaon of te agents mode of beng event t eads one scov te anscendent sbect wc s ee te ne e bem of te inteec agensand te intelec tiens n aboesan Neoonsm mgt be consded n ts coecon We s et to t esewe 88 Tut 60 ( 44 o f te text last a ) " Evey e togt ev t wd ev good acon as a st {ani)entytat s to say te e eresht wo dows te so n ts ogessve se wt te abty to s ey tog te sccessve degees of fecon d e ts ogn soce en ts so becomes a mc nge ereslita k)and te es of ts togt seec and acon becme nteg as of t setg te mnt on t 89 n tnkng ts ogt e son wo ts t s ogt by te nge o on e conay by a demo fo te atenave cn ony be t e eson w tot e bd
t
t
t
52
causing te soul t he what he himself is. The ethic is posite d not in term s of va lues but in te s of the Angel's m odes of being. The propos itions stated above (every thought is a person . . . every true thought has an Ael) describe a hermeneutic circle which es the schema of angelolo with the process of angelomohosis, and it is in this fion that the possibility of exemplication resides. The soul perfos its action and understands it only beginni with the act which actuates itself.demon, It can decidi become aitsmagnificent ngel accursed eschatology through ereshta-ye karim)orthean soul the very thing that it exemplies. For its action is then its own fo, which it sends out in advance of ielf as its herald, and which is in the image of the ngelr of the demonwho comes to meet it aer death, announcing: "I am thyself." The burgeoning and growth in the soul of the aelical or demoniacal virtuality is the measure of its ascent (mi ra, or of its fall into the abyss. In the first case, as o author says: "Its thought becomes an Ael issuing om the srcinal world; its word becomes a irit issui from that Angel; its action becomes a bo issui om this spiri t. " 91 . e homolo of e cles ofResurrecon (iyama.At the end of this ascension, the adept h as completed the T im e of his " com bat for the Angel . " T h e increasing exemplif ication o f the angel ical fo which i s potent ially in the soul leads the soul back to its srcin. It is the elimination of its own blis: as such, the individual existence of the adept fos a cycle homologous to the Grand Cycle by which the tenth Ael progressively annuls the fo of b lis which he tore out of himself at the tim e of the " dram a in heav en. " These are to aspects of one and the same combat, the combat which the heavenly ngel and the virtual or earthly ngels cay on together. Beteen the two there prevails the same homology as beteen all the degrees of being through whichby v irtue of the Gre at Return, the tawil that is the To be made th e "pson of the Angel, " or the "person of S alman," t become the "Salm of the miocosm ," etc. our "Rituel sabeen, " pp . 242. , d "Le Lvre du Glorieux," § 6. Twut, p . 2 of the text) . Moreov, his "hom ogei with dine Reality implies that is ima ) is conjoined with the light of the relion of the True Absolute (a 'wat-e h and that through the engy of the Angel (ruhi)of this relion, ngel erh is appointed to grd ov his thought, in which he pre ses forev the oament of the divine truth. " Ibid . And m an's gelomorphosis is coelav e to anropom orphosis of th e celes universe , since the gloed human fo is its fo of light and that of the oth bs of Light. also S oann, Texte, ; Jami' -Hiatain, last paragraph of ch. ; Idris, Zahr, ch. 1 and above, n. 86.
3
cycle of combat for e el the past is abolished and m etamorphose d into the future of Resuection {iyamat). In a stiing vision Nasir Tusi describes the contiguity of all the series of be ings, e ach com munic ating by its high est degree with the lowest degree of the series imm ediate ly above it. Thus the worlds of minerals, pl ants, and animals, the world of man, and the world of the el are graduated. nd always the higher deee resembles Paradise for the degree below it. The same trueopen of thehisphase of athesile b eing.is The which antoinfant cannotis yet eyess in sunlight like condition his Hell inin relation the condition in which he can face the light, and the latter condition is then like his Paradise. But it is his Hell in relation to the condition in which he can walk and talk. Hell, again, is the condition in which the adult cannot yet attain to owledge of the spiritual world through that of his own spirit and in which he is unable to experience the meaning of the adage: "He who knows himself (nafsahu,his anima), ows his L ord. " When he attains to it, this state becomes his Paradise 92 In this vision of an incessant risi om Hells, we e an alchemy ofResuection operating om cle to cycle. It oers a series of unfoldis, of divestments and revestments, to which one must coent on pain of falling backward, beneath onesel Here we may also speak of a "continual exaltation" 93 a cosmology " in Gothic style ," or of a pursuit of " retar de d eternit y ' Just as their Frav artis stain the gods emselves (including Ohrmazd and his rchangels) in this state of ascension, and just as the Fravartis incarnated on earth must there propagate this eor toward superexistence, so likewise, in the Ismaili schem atization of the world, 94 the sum of the degrees of the esoteric hierarch y appears to the adept as a cycle of resurrecon each one of which must be transcended, as a succession of Paradises which must be surmounted on pain of falli back into a Hel l. Each rank or spirit al degree is a resuection (qiyama whereby the adept becomes conjoined wi new immaterial fos which appear on his horizon. 95 nd just as each of the periods of our cycle is concluded by an Imam 9 2 Twurat, pp . 58- 59 (43 of e text, bottom). 93 above, Part 1 , d of sec . 2 . S chelling, The Ages of e Worl. Bolman, p. 149. Rudolf Otto, ]sticism t Wes� . B. L. Bcey and R. Payne (e Yor, 1 932), pp . 1 94 One shod so rem b the cons tantly ed homology among the meso co os am-e Din, the iniac co smos) , the world o f nature , and the cees world . 95 Sothmann, Tte, IX , 5; Idah 1 1 and Ism 2-3 ; Idris, Zahr, quoted in Ivow, The Rise ofe Fatimis(Bombay, 1942), (54-55 of the rabic text).
Qal'im, so likewise each of e adepts occupying an esoteric rank is a Qa'im, a Resuect or, in respect to e ad ept of the nex lower rank : by a simu ltaneity of action and of passion he must "resuscitate" the followi (tali) adept to the rank which he himself had hitherto occupied, while he himself must "be resuscitated" to the next higher rank. The movement of perpetual elevation is propagated the summit to the base of the mystical hierarc hy. Finally, j ust as the seven periods of a cycle are clos ed by a Grand (iyamat-e-iyama, Resuection the el Qa'im all parose excellence, the "Perfect Child" who leads back instituted (ta wil) by to the in the cycle who have belonged to his posteritythat is, who have boe his image and fought his battleso, likewise, at the end of the cycle of his individual life, at the seventh deee of his ascension, the adept fin himlf on the treshold of the perfect angelicity resh of the tenth Intelligence 96 This is the dawn of his Grand Resuection. Thus his own initiate's life reproduces the whole cycle or aeon whose totality the Imam Resurrector will complete in his person when limited time reverts to absolute Time. By this homology the adept also anticipates his eternity.
In the end the vision embraces all the universes and draws the physical universe of material bodies toward Resuection. 97 When the highest degree of potency which consolidates the mineral iverse is conjoined wi the first deee of vegetal potency, the resurrection of mineral nature occs. In a simi lar way, p lants and an im als are resuecte d in the next higher order. nd finally the angelical potency is the Resurrection of the human potency carried to its highest perfection. Just as the vital soul is like a bo in relation to the imaginative soul; so the latter in turn is like a body in relation to the thinking human soul; and the latter, finally, is like a body in relation to the aql). angel (the angelic these souls is existentiated in the fo Intelligence, immediately above it,When this iseach the ofcorporal resuection ashre jas addni . 8 96 The decade is completed by three supior esotic ranks coesponding respecvely to the third Ae, to e Tali, and the Saiq aand ql, second d rst Angels), the primordial pr om which issued the third el (ecome tenth aer his eor) and the Se Cherubim Aes, or Words, of the ploma of the lba' . Hid Kmani, a bove, n. 3 1 . 97 Twu pp . 93- 94 (64-65 of the Persi text) . 98 The text of the Twurat one of the docines wich Shahrastani attributes Empedocles (Kita al-milal,lith. , Teheran, 1 2 A. H . , p. 165, li. 1 1), ough here body, is replaced by qishr, shel, rind, also ga ent. On this point P. D pointed to the inship in lauge d concepon between this docine and that o f the Zohar Le Systeme u mone . . e Platon Copeic (Paris, 1917), Vol. V, pp. 121-22.
t
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At the end of our study we perceive a common typology in the horizons of Resuection set for in e Mazadean and Ismaili visions. neither vision is Resuection an event that simply occs one iine day. In Ismailism it is accomplished in the person of all those who are "resuscitated" up t its triumphant foldi in the person of the last Imam, the parousia of the tenth Angel. It is the work of each one of the adepts; its time is brought about by the involution o f the tim e of each indiv idual . Sim ilarly in Mazdaism inthetheir Fravartis incarnated on earth to fight the final combat of Ohrmazd begin own person and action the event of the Transfiguration. This is the sentiment expressed in the often repeated Zoroastrian prayer: " May we b e those who bring about th e Transfiguration of the world. " 99 In both doctrines we find a chivalrous ethic inspired by the feeli that evil and sufferi are not inicted by a divine being who consents to them while rem aining aloof om them . Thi s sufferi is in the divine be ing him since it is in his creatures; and by rejecting and combating it, all his followers make a rampart of their souls for him_ In both cases, the great moments of the cosmic drama are announced and "dated" in the homologous per iod s of the cycles by the apparition of figures whic h are conceive d Na si r Tusi spes of a kind o f perpetal chy, a foaon and unfol o f the spirital Body. Here we c oly menon in pssi the ne texts in wich S chelling spes of the "g ability of matter to be ised gn to spirit properes" ges ofthe Worl p . 1 73) . "Thus man does not pass into the world of spirits with oly his spirit in the resicted sse of the word, but so with that wich in his body Rectio ws ims wi what ws spirital in this body" (sais, tr., pp. 357-58). essenti it is the task of so guide its cooreal ses to their pfecon. Thus the so resuscitates trough the body, just as the body rescitates through the soul. In e d, s Nsir Tusi says, the spirit and the coore be one, d it is precisely becae of this that "the nge c become visible a death" (below, n. 1 02) . 99 Yasna, XXX, 9. 1 The Psi word Janmar wich recurs equy in Siite Su, is best ans lated by " spirit knight. " It coespo nds to the piety d passi onate devoon wich the idea o f the Ima m, of the eteal I mam, i nspires in the Friend of God eose d on earth to the implacable conadicon of men. Betwe the two branches of sm lism , and e more so betwe th and Duodecim Shiism, there are , to be sure, nuces d chaes wich profouny mo the spirital physiognomy. A proto-Ismlian ease such as the Omm -Kit (The Moth o f the Boo abods in precise Michae riiscces d features boowed om the apocryph books of the B ible. On the other hand, s we have pointed out above (n. 72), the concept d the ge ofe Imam led a recuence ofe problems encountered in Christ ology. Indeed, the posio om Ariism the eology of St. Athasius rec in specave Imology. C R. Soann, Die Zwor-Schi'a (Lpg, 1926), pp . 7, 155 1 1 .
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as the recurrence of one an the same eteal Fiure. 101 Finally, in both azaism an Ismailism we have the same enouement of the iniviual eschatology: the facetoface encounter beteen the human I an the celestial I, becae the soul finally sees its "self." The episoe of the femine angel Daena in azaism has its exact counterpart in asirain Tusi's angel of the am iable an beautiful form, who becomes the companion o f the soul for all the eternities. 102 It is the visi on of the I knowi ielf an fini itself in a transcenent I (a paredros, which is both the same an ifferent, as in one same essence without consion of persons, since a ialoue at once confirms the authenticity of the vision. ut this celestial imeion of the Soul of the Perfect One is conme an visualize only after the cycle of his resurrections has been complete (after Time has cease to "retar" over against ternity); in both octrines it completes the cycle of the Return, the combat "for the angel." To the triple question of the little azean catechism cite at the begiing of this stuy correspons a situation which, as I have sai, asir
Tusi analyzes with the sure han of the phenomenologist. Here is its conclusion: "To come into this worl" an into the time of this worl shoul not be conse with corporeal presence in the worl of existence: it is abov e all a moe o f unerstaning this existence . To come into this worl as we sai a moment ago, can have no sicance other than to convert its metaphoric reality (majaz into its True Reality qiq. 3 Our author makes it clear that there can be beings who, although they have in appearance come into this worl, since they are ere, have in fact never come into it. 1 Inverselyan here the analysis becomes most strikingthere are men whom we can visually isce to have le this worl. They are ea, they are no longer there. We say: "They have eparte." o, 101 Twura� p . 1 38 (94 of the text). G. essna, Magi a Beeme (Rome, 1934), pp. 5; t s curous to note that th e -ma'i al-ali the Qa'm, Texte, IV, 3) s a lter parlel to the erus Legatus of the chaean sotol ogy. n. 74, above. 102 Tura� p. 94 (65 of the text) . n. 98 above and 76-80 of art 1 . so the mofofth e celes houris n Nasr us , (lth. , eheran, 1320A.H.), p . 24. here are abndant explcao o f the archetype; the mof of the robe n Thomae, etc. 103 Twurat, pp . 91 -92 (63 of the text). It s to accomplsh (d deo) the m ea morphoss of the ta'wi/ above, n. 86, and Nasr-e hosraw, Jami' al-Hiatain,
c
ch. 1 4, pp . 16 3, 1 be on the Earth ofomoow, whch t s sd be llumned by the Lght of ts Lord, wheres today ths Earth sl holds us shrouded n Nght) . 104 Twurat, p. 9 1 .
7
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M Z M
M
M
actually ey have never left this world and they will never leave it. For t leave this world it does not to die. One can die and remain in it f 105 ever. One must be livi to leave it. Or rather, to be living is just this. Can we distinguish in the winter, as Nasire Khosraw says, between a living a dead tree?InBoth, it is true, are does materially there.becae But inits one thetree sapand flows secretly. the other the sap not ow, roots are de ad. When the spri com esthat is, the Im am of Resu ectio n only the first will be covered with flowers and savorous frui at his cal. 1 It is no indulgence in a mere literary reminiscence if the image of the Iranian philosopher sgests this thought of Balzac: "Resuection is accomplished by the wind of heaven that sweeps the worl. The Angel caied by the wind does not say : Arise ye dead ! He says : Le t the living arise ! " 07 105 Ibid, p 92 (63 the text, e ) . 106 In Sx Chters, e. Ivaw, . 85-86 10 In (Paris, 1902), p 151
of the transation
Dii pipy piri ir i Iii Gi ThMamoho oThohan on In the Acts of Pet er, a book bel onging to ose socalled " apo crypha l" collections which were particularly esteemed and meditated upon in Gnostic and Manichaean circles, we read a narrative that provides exemplary illustration of theophanic vision. Before a gathering of people the apostle Peter refers to the scene of the Transfiguration that he had witnessed on Mount Tabor. And essentially all he can say is this: alem eum vi qualem capere poi ("I saw him in such a fo as I was able to take in"). Now in this gathering there e, severalThe widows, and incredulity of heart. apostleaicted speaks attoonce themwith in aphysical tone of blindness urgency: "Perceive in your mind that which ye see not with your eyes." The assemblage begins to pray, and thereupon the hall is filled with a resplendent light; it does not resemble the light of day, but is ineffable, invisible light such as no man can describe. And this radiant "invisible light" shines into the eyes of these wom e who alone are standing i n the m idst of the prostrate assemblage. Aeard, when they are asked what they have seen, some have seen an old man, others a youth, still others a little child who lightly touched their eyes and made them open. Each one has seen in a different fo, appropriate to the capacity of her being; each one may say: alem eum vidi qualem capere potui. 1 The occuence of perceptions possessi, like this one, a personal character is at tes ted by a numb er of other passa ge s in thes e " apo cryphal " Acts. In the Acts of John, in the narrative of the calling of the Apostles, when John and his brother James return in their boat aer a night spent on the 1 A ofPeter xxxxi; tr. M. Jes, e Apocphal New estament 950 ), 321 22
59
ea, bot of e beold o te ore a bei wo beco to te. But teir viio dier: oe a ee a little cild, te oter a pleaat ad coely a of oble beari erap we all fid te ey to tee viio, te bai of teir reality ad teir variatio, i a fe trii pae of tee ae ct of o. te evei of Good Friday te el rito, wile te ultitude below, i eruale, iaie tat it i crucifyi i, cae te apotle o to o up te out of live ad ito te rotto illied by i preece; ad tere te ael reveal t o te yte ry of te " ro of Lit. " Ti cro i called oe tie ord, o etie id , oeti e e u ad oetie rit, oetie oor, oetie ay, oetie So, Fater, Spirit, oetie Life, ad oeti e T rut. It ep arate te ti o i tat ae fro te ti below tat become te t i of birt ad of de at, ad at te ae tie, bei oe, trea for ito all ti . " Ti i ot te cro of wood wic tou wilt ee we tou o et dow e c e: eiter a I e tat i o te cro, wo ow tou eet ot, but oly earet i voice. I wa recoed to be tat wic I a ot, ot bei wat I wa uto ayo ter. . . . Tou earet tat I uered, yet I did ot uer; tat I uered ot, y et did I uer; . . . ad i a wor wat tey ay of e, tat befell e ot. But wat tey ay ot, tat did I uffer. "3 Ti brief quotatio o te ublie dicoure will ce for o purpoe . Ti y tery of te ro of L it, wic wa oe of te favorite tee of aicaea piety, recur eplicitly i Siite Iailia Goi. Te tet we ave j ut cited o te ocall ed " apo crypal " Scripture lie ay oter o te ae oce ive u te rit toality ad ay ee ere a a prelude. If we reect o te cee recorded i te ct of eter, we all coe to coclio tat will ee a preie. e are deali wit vi io, teopaic vi io. Tere i actual perceptio of a obj ect, of a cocrete pero: te fie ad te feature are arply defied; ti pero preet all te "appearace" of a euo object, ad yet it i ot ive to te perceptio of te ee ora. Ti perceptio i eetial ly a eet o te soul, tai place i te oul ad o te oul. uc it reality i eetially iiiuate for ad wit eac oul; wat te oul really e e, it i i eac cae aloe i eei . Te field of it vi io, it or izo, i i every cae defied by te capacity, te dieio of it ow bei: C Acts of oh 88- 8 ames, . 2 5 1 . 3 Acts of oh 7- 1 02 ames, . 2 54- 56.
6
Talem eum ii ualem caee oi Te commuity of viio wi be etab-
led ot by referece to a eteal object a evidece iformly ad fly ive to all but by reao of a dimeio of bei tat i commo to ti or tat roup or family of oul Ti adequatio of viio to te dimeio ad capacity of te oul i wic it tae place i te foudatio of wat we m ay call te metamooses oteoaic isios e d a ditict formulatio of tee metamorpoe rie were peai eciely of te Trauratio e e declare tat te Saviour eited oly ietwowa forme e i wic wa commoly ee te oterot wic traedbut tat i additio "e appeared to eac oe accordi a eac ma wa wo rty" (se etiam uicuiue aaeb at secuum uoueat ius Ti tatemet i i eepi wit te coceptio of te metamorpoe of te Loo o doubt derived om ilo ad frequet i te wor of rie accordi wic te Saviour appear me a a ma ad to te ael a a ael. 5 It fi i wit te viio of te tep of te Temple i wic te Saviour i by reao of i umaity te firt ad lowet tep ad by reao of i aelic ature te uppermot tep domiati all te oter o tat all te tep are te Saviour 6 I Imailia Goi we d a imilar imae te Temple of Lit of te Imam wo i cotituted by all te deree of te eoteric ierarcy to eac ofwic te divie Epipay i maifeted i te meaure of it capacity e ca dwell oly o a f eetial elemet wic ave already bee oted i te variou cool of Goi ad wic reappear i ti a yet littleow ad carcely tudied form Siite Imailia Goi mo 4 non l du fo in eo fuerunt una quidem seundum qu omnes eu m videbt qulemrebat cundumcundum qu trguus coi pulis in monte dii n Commentia d eti altera unicuique quoderat e dignu in Mat thum qoted wt efeence to aae texts n Jose Babe Christos Angel (Teoanea Bonn 1941 9 n 49 C bd 9091 (on t e cea ton of t e Tones and Donatons and on te teoanes as oo of te Savos angeoooss): ! In o 1. oae te aae texts of Melto of Sa ds a nd enaeus (b d 94 as well a s the veses of the oet oodan fo who tee s only one sole God ognated by hself who s at the sae te F ate Son and Hoy St God of te etena gt wo "in mitiva a qualis t a nulo videtu tsguru sicut vul oendere se Pbet se visibilem gelisjafo eom" (bd n 46 and asty te text of Po coentng on Gen 1 1 a t e God wo at sow n sef to te e in the le (nstead o GodPo somniis 9 (bd 9 o Avicenna d the siona Recit (New Yo and London 1960 1 6 Commenta i n Ionem XIX 6 qoted n Ba be 9 n 45.
6
tese te one element tat determines all e rest is at once postulated and annoced by te very nature of event suc as Jon's secret colloquy wi Chrt mpabilis on te Mount of Olives In brief, it is te attitude tat as been designated by te term Docetism, a conception wic ielf admits of numerous variants tat are sources of no less numerous misunderstandings. Wat is of capital importance f our purposes is tis not only is te Cristo lo prfessed by te Ko ran exessly Doc etic (c 4 ), 7 but moreover teitsdoctrine of te conceived Imam, tein Imamology peculiar to Siite Gnosis is, in broad outlines, Docetic terms We know, moreover, tat Maayana Buddism also conceived its Buddology after a Docetic fasion 8 Te conception wi wic Docetism contrasts is tat of te ypostatic union, tat is to say, te oicial dma of te Incarnation as it was nally formulated by te Councils In setting ielf up against tis dogma of te Incarnation, te Docetic conception consequently opposes te idea of a divine Incarnation occurring like a "material" fact wic enters into te ocess of istory and becomes its center and wic may be invoked as an external and objective datum We sould probably gain a good deal by taking te term not in its too current acceptation of "simulacrum" or "pantasm" but in its etymological sese of "apparitional" reality, tat is to say, as an "appearance" or rater as a "real apparition" corresponding in every case to te fait, te mod of being, one migt say te "a priori subjectivity" tat is its foundation. Just tis is te source of te metamorposes of teopanic visions. It is implicit in te Docetic conception tat te teopany is in every case proportionate to te teopanic dimension of te soul, tat is, its aptitude for being sown a divine Figure (suc qualem capere potu Te dominant intuition is tat is tesoulmeaning of te te is not te witness of an external event but te medium in which te event takes place In our days, too, penomenology declares tat owledge des not bear upon Being, but it is Bei, aware of itself. In tis see te Docetists may be regarded as te st penomenologists. 9 But te term
Kn rfences are giv acc to te te of e add in Iran te nbe of te vses te Co eon d accors witte e eon e anator as oted and added ref s The Meing of the Glorious Koran an eatory aaon by aade ica (Ld 9) IV 9 Coen on sse te Acts of on aeay uoted (n 3 above) wc states e ytery of te Css of Lig C G o oees tat te ac 7
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S
is ambiguously broad Docetism is not a set doctrine but a tendency 0 Tus it can be reconciled wi formulations wic literally contradict one anoter it can go and in and wi a com plete affirmation of uman real ity because wat it perceives is at e se time not tis reality; or it canand prefers tovolatilie tis reality (tus goin om Nestorianism to extreme Monopystism); or lastly and better still it can conceive of te reality of a body intermediate beteen te sensible and te intelligible Docetism equally well accept or reject te virgin birt of te Saviour; it can also conceive of e Viin Moter as aving been an e sent in advance of te el wo was to "appear" to men as er son teir Savio. 2 of the Ac of Jo is m sube the cde and cent Docec concon ( at least the intepe that is ify iv of it), nely, that Cst ed y e of a body, wch oy appeaance. Fa this, the Ac of Jo eed the mae of a cique of cociness. "The istoicl c e e eno b they eve no m than is ielliible the of e o man. Yet ev f the w of ivine see the act of is a mystey, a mbol that esses a pallel pycic evt the behold. the le of Plato it is an evt wi occ a 'sacelesal place,' i.e ., a aspects 'motn ' cave' whe a cossms. ofli is Itseteesses up, its ma i that it has many and my e sms owable nae of the 'Lo' the supaodine pesonali d _ and since it is a q teity, a wle ivided into fo pats, it is the clssic sb of the C the e of seon 3 bow, the Ismaili intepetaon of the smb of the oss d of the frw of the Islamic ofesi of .] Undsto tis see, the Dem of the Ac of John appes me a clen of the istic eve a devu aon of it. It is not sisi that the c ople shd have iled to appeciat its stlety, thogh it s pla en a ychoc point of view. ""Ta foaon mism in the Mass,"Psycholo andReligion: West and Et (CWJ, 11; 1958 p. 283 10 ERE IV, 832 11 Acco Alles, e sciple of Mci Cist d not have the sma of a body, but neith id he have the subsnce of a " eal" body as the Gosl aches. Rathe, dsce the ig io, he ve f a body of sideal and nae (Af v Hak, qud Babel, p. 305 n 502 12 a t of the Gol Acco to the Heews, quoted in James, p.8 ; accd i to Psudo-Cl (of Jalem) iegaon veed that a mo had is ssi a Gl to e Hebws, wich it w sid that a' heavly Powe, Michal, ws sent haven ea we is Pe called My boe Cist f seven mon in he womb. Ae a inteogaon the o mok's ws, of cose, be O tis ccep of Ma as a celesal sent f f to give th to anothe l (Chist), c Hans Sodbe, La Religion des Cathes (Usala, 1949 pp. 18 3 2 0 3; Hei-Chles Puech and ne Vallt, eds., Le Traite cone les Bogomiles de Cosos lepree (Pis, 194 pp. v the pal sviv of is mf e cles o of Fama. Cpe the Pilomiaites, Colli, a o of wen w ce to aba Thace d c eeves e Theologie pestesses und of (3d "goddss"J. Realeyopadie edprotestanche Kirche e, 1896 J.-19Heg, 13 X, 649 nd XII, 315
6
These diverse tendencies can be distinguished in the Islamic fos of Goi. What we perceive a t once is t hat al l Christology of this type move s against a background of angelolo. This is the deteining force in the "ngel Christology" or "Christoangelology" Engelchstologic,a thorough eosition of which by a historian of doas recently provoked some neousness among certain theologia 1 3 To tell the truth, such neousness is quite comprehensible when we coider that theanthropology Cristological of the Church goes hand in hand with a certain thatdogma is shaken to its foundations by an " ngel Christology ' Her e we have an idea whose consequences are far graver even than Origen's "a man to men, an ngel to the els"e idea, namely, that the divine anthropomorphosis as such, the theophany, occurs at the angelic level. On the one hand we have a simple "messenger" carrying divine orders: in his very person the ngel is "annunciation," that is to say, revelation of the divine mystery, since all theophany is in essence an aelophany. 1 4 Coelatively we have an exaltation of humanity in the sense that human nature ceases to be a "nature" as such and bec ome s a wholly transitory state : man is calle by right of his origin and if he consents, to an angelomorphosis (such is the doctrine also professed in the Shepherd ofHeas, his acceptance of which precisely regulates his aptitude f theophanic visions. ll these features are sharpened and accentuated in Isma ili an Gnosis . Th ey presuppose the thesis that the hum an fo perceptib le to the senses cannot be the fo of a divine Incaatio n uluL tajassu at the very least it must undergo a transmutation by the internal organ of the soul in order to be perceived at the theophanic level, that is to say, as a mazha an epiphanic Fo (in the manner of a mior in which the image is suspended). It goes without sayi that this epiphanic relation, 13 We e he of Marn Weer's importt work, Die Entsteng des christ Ucken Doas (B d Lpg, 1 941), d the polic rsed by We Micelis, Zur Engelchrstologie Urchristenm(Bsel, 1942), wch provoked "retaons" that we f alays b coninci. a rst reply by Wer, "Crist ngel" Schweersche Theologische Umschau (June, 1943), pp. 62 (contaii, o other things, a cson bete Barbel's bk cited ave d that of Miceis). Weer's work s jt republished (s , 1 954), too late f to me e of it here; we eect, hev, to re to it at a later date, f it is of the uost sicce f the relaQips we are eang here. 1 4C in Dysi d Procl, the esis no l of of the els s the interpreters of the vine "silce," oci d reveal i the Unity wich they iss . C d oqs, Univers dionysien (Pis, !954), P 135-
64
like te metamorposes wic it makes possible and evokes, cannot be conceived or defned in terms of a ypostatic union If n we extend tis law of essce wic comman te uccession of visions given to one and te same soul, just as it commds te variety of visions given simultaneously t several souls (as in te narrative of te Acs of Peter) , if we extend it not in te d esion of our linear time but accord i to te cue of a cyclical time carrying back te past to its srcin, we obtain a cle of teopanies metamorposes to tis te we concept add te of notion of deees of dignityandor teir aptitude correlative toIf ese metamorposes wic te law of an identical rytm orders in simul tanei (to constitut e a my stical T emp le o f Li gt) and in succession (to con stitute a Cycle of Epipanies), we possess te essential ideas by wic to penetrate te eart of Siite Gnosis and, most particularly, of Ismailian Goi Ismailian Gnosisand tis is one of its cief points of interestpresents bot an actual extension (in istory) d a virtual extension (for purposes of meditation r psycological analysis) of a Cristianity tat ad lon returned to te paradise of te arcetypes Not only Gnostic Cristianity but eminently te Cristianity tat is designad as JudaeoCristianity or Ebionisma Cristianity fundamentally ostile and alien to Paulinism, recging e primacy d presence not of Peter but of James, biop of Jerusalem We must not forget tat Epipanius, writing at te end of te fot century (), describes it as still existing at tat time in soutern Syria, only a little more tan two centuries befe te birt of Islam 5 In general te istorians ad eologians wo ave dealt wi te Cristianity of te Ebionites ave sgested and developed at greater or lesser lengt te idea tat it was exended or amplied in Islam 6 wat tey ad in mind was essentially te conception of te propetic missio te Islamic propetology as suc Here I cannot enter into details, but it is my belief tat, if tere are common traits, it is not so mu in te general propetology of Islam as in te doctrine of te Imamte Imamolo peculiar to Islamic esoteris, to Siism, and most particularly to Ismailian Siism. Peraps tis esis m igt be illustrated on te basis of te idea of te " True Prop et" r ofr Iv, e AleedFounder smailm p 86
inp Os e Probleme litteraire el histrique roman pseudo 1 93) , p. 26 cmentin (s Theologie und Geschichte des Juden H J 42 ctenms 949)d pp 337-
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in Ebionism and of the Ebionite doctrine in regard to Adam, the essential feates of which recur in the Ismailism Adamology. This Adamology is ielf the coequence of an anthropology which goes hand in hand wi a fundamental angelology; its keystone is an Imamology which reveals an inherent " Angel Chri stol ogy" and Docetism . We find, then, at the height of the Ismailian meditations the idea of a vision whose metamorphoses are correlative with the mode of "consociation" with the eternal Imam, coequently a perfect illustration of the foula unicuique secundum quod gnus est. Her e we recall H arnack' s proposed definition of Is lam as " a transformation on Arab soil of a Jewish religion that had ielf been transfoed by Gnostic Judaeo Christian ity . " 1 8 Like all such formulas, this one somewhat misses the mark and moreover has the drawback of embodying the type of causal reduction peculiar t historism (the concrete spiritual/ of " tran sformation" ielf cannot be causally deduced). Nevertheless it has the merit of invoking not Ebionism pure and simple but Gnostic Ebionism, specifically the Elkesaism which has been called a preManichaean Manichaeism 19 And indeed we never cese to obsee the importance of Manichaean ideas in the owth of Islamic Gnosis, for the Koranic revelation did not by ielf institute a Gnostic religion but was, in fact, meditated and interpreted as the exoteric (zahir aspect of a Gnosisf the Gnosis that conces us here. The characteristic theologoumenon of Ebionite Christianity coists in the idea of t he True Pro phet and in a unique my th of Adam . For the Ebionites, the support of Revelation is the True Prophet or the Prophet of Truth and not a God incarnate, a Godman. "Running through the ages since the beginning of the world, he hastens toward the place of his repose" Nam et ipse Verus Propheta ab initio mundi per saeculum cuens fesnat ad iem. Consequently the 17 Here we cannot e b ey describe the historic circumstces of the bgeoning of Siism at the very begs of Islam, or the spiritual movaons that led to the fo aon of S epian Ismailian Siism and of the Duodecim Sii which for the last four d a hlf cturies hs be the ocil reigion of Iran; f Iranian Ismilism, . ur Elude pliminaire pur le "Liv reunissan les deux sagess" de -e (BI , 3� Teheran and Paris , 1 953); see so W. Ivanow, " I sma 'iliya, " El, Supplemet, Brief Suey f he Evluin f Iaili ( m e i e, 1952). Some of the probls eated in the present study are broached o essay "Cyclic Time Mazda ism and Ismail ism , " see above, pp . 1 -5 8. Al rck, gmengehiche, II p . 537 (ute i Scheps, Thelgie, p . 334.
\
1 C. Scheps, Thelgie, p. 332. 2 0 Recgniins 22 Scheps, Thelgi pp
question wic te Jews asked te Ebionites was weter Jes was te True Propet foretold by Moses, e wo is Chriss aete? Tis is all tat separated te Jews te Ebionites Te True Propet begins ab initio creaturae wi te propetic dignity conferred upon Adam Te first man was te first epipanic Form of te Te Propet, that is to say, of Christus aeteus; e possessed / e was AdamCristos 22 Tis pology in ielf puts us at te antipodes Pauline typology Tisdown, impressi inteied bys a tenet tat turnsoftete Biblical narrative upside namelyistat of Adam' impeccability For te True Propet, aving witin im te breat of te divine nature W 8} cannot sin: e is To say tat Adam sined is say tat te divine Spirit sinned in im and by im 23 Similarly te Ismailian teosopy will speak us of a primordial, universal Adam (A dam wl ku t, 'v 8pCOS) initially invested with te Imamate and, as suc, "immunied" ma'sum agait all impurity, all sin, as w ere all te Most P ure Im am s aer im And just as te Ebion ites qualified Am as Anima generalis receptacle or treasure of souls, of all his souls, so te Ismailian Adam and after im all e Imams sustain a Templ e of L igt built out of all te souls of t eir adepts 24 Now it is tis AdamCristos wo is revealed troug a sucession of epipanic forms, te " ebdom ad of te mystery " : Enoc, Noa , Abraam, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jesus. Tese are te Seven Pillars of te World, te Seven Columns of te House of Wisdom, te Seven Pastors, and (wit Adam msel the eigt Chs among the men mentioned by the Propet Mica, tat is to say, te epipanic forms of AdamCristos for men 26 "Si ipse Jes ) e ppheta que Moyses pdi xit) qui est Chrius teus" Recog 2 nitiones 3 (qoted o Scoes Theologie 87 22 Scoes Thlogie 0 0- 0 n vew of te e sec tve oen ed by ts seca tv e Adaoogy tendng to exess te goos nty of te oetc Reveatoy Pnce n stoy we ay obseve wt Hanac tat te dea of cassca aoogetcs s st God o an?gves way to an entey deent denton of s essence Chstus rsenvicius Chsti, qoted n Scoes . 08 n. ). 23 bd. 00 0 2 03 2 4 bd. Anima geneis a s t e dvne T easue House of t e souls sould be consed net e wt t e co ectvty of te sols no wt te ogca nvesa ; aong te atasts te Stus Ad o Ani o wc descend omnes im (Sodebeg 57) te Ange st wo s caed Anima (86) te dstncton beeen Spiritus o Anima rinclis and te Spitus cti as tteay sts ( 7)
25Scoes
Theogie
046
(Mca 5 n S.
J 67
Manichaeism professes a similar succession but includes ges outside Semitic prophecy: Adam, Seth, Noah, Jesus, Buddha, Zoroaster, Mani. f the Koran, it also has a succession of prophets, but the number of those it eressly names is very different om the number mentioned in the Traditions. 6 The idea of an exact periodicity is foulated only in Ismailian Gnosis with its Cycle of seven periods, the last Prophet of which will be the last Imam, the Qa'im al-Qiyamat or Resurrector, coespondi to him in whom theusTrue Prophet at lastnature his "repose. precisely this Figure enables to point outfinds the true of the" And coespondence. We know that Ebionism distinguished beteen the case of Moses and Abraham, to whom the True Prophet appeared, and that of Adam and Jesus, in whom the True Prophet was present and who in their person were the very foundation of the theophany. 27 The prophet Muhammad may be likened t those to whom theophanic visions were given but whose person itself may not be called theophanic, whereas this epithet applies to the person of the Im am . T hat is why we hav e said that i t is no t Isla m ic prophetology in general but Shiite Imamology in particular which prolongs and amplies the Ebionite Christolo as the summit of prophetology. In this same connectio the idea of theophanic maa persons and of their succession must be preseed in its srcinal form. It would be quite incoect to conceive of this succession as a series of reincaations, as a metensomatosis. The are neither reincarnations of the True Prophet nor simple receptacles of the Spirit, t whom the True Prophet appeared. 8 The guiding idea is the idea of P2 a recapitulation or, more exactly, integration or reintegration into the whole. Just as all the Prophets since Adam are "recapitulated" in Christ, so all the Imams, all the partial Qa'im, are recapitulated or integrated in the 6 . ibid. p. . Hr i a b wll o rl rn ap o Ilai propholog: h diinion ad bwn h nabi h prahr h divin iion and h mursal h Envo who bo h ladr o a popl. h Bihar al-Anwar Enlo pdia o Shii radiion oun 14,000 nabi inlu a gra nub r o ibli gur bu an non-ibli gur wll o who onl 1 hav h qui o Envo o Avicenna p. 1, n. . Shop Theologie pp. 106, and Aus ehristlicher Zeit: Re onsgeschicht liche UntersuchWgen ubingn 10), p. . 8 Shop Theoloe pp. 1068. Ibid. p. 104, n. 6, in whih h auhor pr h bli ha Ndr wn oo in rgng hi onpion a il Doi hriolog on igh wll ro idr inon.a oun wha b n. u d abov on abov g h h ru quion ing oaing Doi dha rlad
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last among em (whose majma' is the Temple of all their Temples of Light). It is then as a progressive integration that one must conceive the growth of en epiphanic Fige whose unity and totality imply a number of theophanies without confion of persons. Further, if the last Imam, still t come, is called the Perfect Child (al-walad al-tamm, he is so named in respect to the el of the pleroma, who is here the homologue of Chrstus aeteus. But "adoptionism" does not mean here that the Adopted One is exalted, or purely metamorphosed, into the celestial who adopted him ; he isand thatsimply person' s ultim ate, concluding Fo . person If he draws toward him in an ascending movement the entire pleroma of his souls, the adepts of the sodality down through the centuries, if he is enthroned as the substitute and successor of the Ael, it is because the ngel himself consequently rises into the celestial pleroma and om Cycle to Cycle continues to draw all those who foll him to ever higher abodes. Such are the consequences of a mighty dramaturgy to which we shall have occasion to return. Everything happens as though all the consequences of the rejection of the hypostatic union were preserved, down to the distinction of to persons: Christos elos and Jesus the prophet. And indeed Ismailism distinguishes a threefold notion of the Anthropos: there is the celestial, or spiritual, Adam Adam ruhani, the ngel coespondi to Christos Aelos; there is the srcinal, universal Am Adam al-awwal al-kull at the beginni of the Cycle of Cycles; and finally, there are the partial Adams Adam al-juz'i at the begining of each Cycle, our n for example: the Adam mentioned exoterically by the Bible and the Koran. Ultimately, then, the decisive interest is concentrated upon the person and the gre of Aelos Christos and his coespondences: in Ismailian Gnosis, the celestial Anthropos, the spiritual Adam; in Avicennism, Tenth Angel,text. identified with the Holy Spirit and the Archangel Gabriel the of the Koranic The pattern of Ebionite Christology as contrasted with the ocial Christology of th e Church is well own 3 0 Adoptianist like that of the Shepherd ofHeas, this Christology coi ders Je sus as hav ing first been a m an among men. It loos on the scene of the Baptism as the Epiphany: a supernatural light descended from heaven, illumining and trafiguring the place (as in the narrative of the Acts of Peter), and the words of the Holy Spirit were heard: "Thou art my beloved son, today I have eendered thee" (words 0 Ibid. pp. , 8.
69
which e echoed by those of Jesus recorded the Gospel Accordi t the Hebrews: y moer the Holy Spirit seized me by the hair and caied me up to Mount Tabor"). 3 1 The consequences of this Christology are incommensurable: what interest now has the earthly genealo of Jesus? Only Aelos Christos preexists, and all that need be meditated upon is his eteal birth in the pleroma. For beyond any doubt we find here a trace of the early hesitation to distingish between Aelos Christos, the So and the Holy Spirit,identification the repercussions of which may Spirit be found all Islamic eology ( the beteen the Holy andinGabriel the Archael, who Christian Gnosis was also GabrielChristos). But we now that this recognition of Christos as an ngel (who confers not his essence or his "person," but his name and his quality upon Jesus) was bound up, amo the Ebionites, as may be seen in I Enoch,3 2 with the idea of the Son of Man as srcinally a celestial Archangel and of Christos as one of the rchangels, at once prince of all the other ngels and celestial archetyp e of mankind 33 And we also d Christos as an Ar changel among the Seven, or identified with the Archangel Michael (as in Hermas or among the Cathar ists ), and this identification becom es all the more comprehe ible 1 C James, pp. . (Here we have before us a third Judaeo-Chrisan gospel, the Theo/ogie, p. 1. "Egyptian" Gospel according to the Hebrews. C Schoeps, I Enoch 4: 1 and text of Tertullian quoted in S choeps, Theo/ogie, pp. 1 : "(Ebion) ... non ei/ium constiitJesum . . . ut ita in io ange/umisse eica� emmoum in Zharia. Yet the dice is more profod than the author (alludi to the polemic moned above, n. 1 supposes, d the anis should be cared rther. It does not ount to the se thing wheer an Ael acted in Jesus or whether Jesus was Ange. Not Jesus is in queson, but Chstos Aelos and no one else. The ion of the Christos and of Jesus remais, then, to b e co sided; he the us ambo is assuredly not equivent to a hypostac union; perhaps the old habits of thought that have decided oerise do not at once provide us with the necessary categories in wich to apprehend this mode of bng inli. It is ndenlly the probl of the mode of m an' s relaon wi his Angel, a problem wich d ds pre cisely to be reconsided s sn as the pattern of an Ael Christology is put forwd (that of Heas, the G noscs , eodots, e tc. ) . is so the probl sed in pilo sophic tes by Avicnism, whe the gure of the acve Intelligence as Gabriel Holy Spirit dominates the eory of owledge and of svaon by nowledge; it is und this spect that we must alye the reasons for the flure of Lan Avicenism, whose posion in reaon to orodox Scholscism was simil to that of nge Christology in relaon to the o Christology; s on this ess queson (not hitherto considered) our Avicenna and the anysis outlined below of the noon of mr, or "epiphanic fo." C Schoeps, Theo/ogie, p . 1 (quoted Epiphanius: and Homilies Recoitions 1 4 in wich d, deiberng ith his Aels on is decisio instte s " princ es " for l creatres! ange/is ange/ princem . . . hominibus hominem, qui st Chriss).
viw of te contrast stated in one of te Clementine wrings beeen
te Demon prince of te world and te cangel Cist wo will rule over te world to come In all tese variants el Cistology develops a soteriology tat contrasts no less strongly wi te ortodox soteriology. te passage m te Acts of Jon regarding te mystery of te Cross of Ligt as solemnly
told usalnowood soteriology attaces to te deatas ofa m Jesus on te crss materi If e as been entoned essianic Lord it ismade not of because is deat eeced a redemption; it is because te community was waiting f e Epipany of te Son of Man for ngelos Cristos te \ te re turn of im wo dispens es te Knowledge tat delivers and wo will tereby establis a supraterrestrial kingdom a kingdom of gels 5 It is not by sedding is blood tat e saved te world (Christus impatibilis does not die); e is te Saviour because e as kindled for mankind te torc of perfect Knowlee 6 Te Clementine Homilies never speak of te Passion redemption is effected by te Knowledge of te Trut Jesus te propet of te Trut is essentially an Illuminator not a Redeemer in te Pauline sense Te traditional objecti 37if Crist were an immortal nel e could not ave become a rue man and ave suered and died as a Savioalways elicits te same reply wy sould it ave been necessary? nd indeed tis i s a wolly Pauline objection nd alou it is true tat certain evangelical texts as well as te Apocrypa and cerin Manicaean notions are known to Islamic teolgy and Ismailian Gnosis tere is no doubt tat like Moammed mself tey ow notng of St. Paul 34 Ibid hri n oh Sn rhl b pp 1 Ob ha h rhngli hpad o l rprn an arhp ha w no aordin revival o h ul oh Sn hgl arng in Ial in in nur d pradi a andr d Ruia Eil M Art religie r le Conce e Trente Pari 132 pp 35 Shop Theologie p 3 h quoaon o Sioull in ibid p i n n 3 3 hi i on o h quon id b dolph kr in iporan arl "hri l? S d o Earl hri D o " in Zeilschrr ie neuteseliche Wissensci XXXII 133 255-5 arl' poin o dur i obaon b Rndl Hi h Englih ologi: h Slaoi laon o Johu i rul no ol ha a oll o Testimonia quod b Joph h old do o known da ha a b rgdd a our o ol anriolog og ha in h i onn dignad l pril in hbu Epi o i Hbrw pruppo l wihh i poli aak and whih i ad in h Testonia lo r p .
We ave suested above tat an Cristology goes and d wit an el ropology; te entire Adology is affecd and te Ismailian vision concentrates on tis teme Te dramaturgy embraces te events tat befell te angelic celestial Adam and te terrestrial Adam or rater Te traditional idntification among te pilosopers beeen Gabriel te Holy Spiri t and te activ e Intell igence wic among te Israqiyun is te el of umanity and in Ismailism is m hani or te Spiritual Adam is only Spirit a commentary on te Koranic textsCristolo wer te identification GaielHoly ielf exemplies a Gnostic in wic elos Cristos asse s more particula rly te featur es of GabrielCristos Here I sall briey set fort a f points: ey will see as an introduction to te dramaturgy tat as its soce in tis angel arcetype of mankinda dramaturgy in wic our own istory today is simply a pase te crucible of te metamorposes wic must eiter lead umanity back to its celestial and angelical srcn or consummate its demoniacal fall Te identification of Cristos wit te Arcangel Gabriel is te dominant trait of an entire Gnostic Cristology If we consider at te same time te 38 m other coeces, cier that med in n 22 above 39 On Gariel-Cistos see Barbel, pp 225-62 In the Epila Aposlolorm(p 23 Cist tells tk f of the rchl bel in order to e Virn hnce the ia that it is the L� wch "gives ielf f in the Virgin" (p 240), and we have a dole e the o hand beeen the and the Holy Spirit, on oer teen the S-Hy Spit the l Gaiel, as is sed by this pse the Pseud-mbre: ides ergo Spirim Sancm, es m vene
Vnem e n e omns }m oessse
n 282) It is tes of tis nd pacarly ose c the ls of the Holy Sit) that d ystemacally rested if we are to interpret in pth the asla of the Gaiel to e Holy Spit in Islic eology he iea that the coon is acclished by d with the ia of the Gabriel ris eg , theup idea parcars that by the that vce raw of the rchl the Mystery lofphiolocl the L� peneates elna: the Vir r, raer, that evoice of the rhl is ilf a hpostis of e Ls (p 248) or that concepon d not last mon sed sm per tem ipsis t aqae per calem sise (ibi) m Gnoscs (B 8 of the Cisan Silne Oracles), Gabriel acts "as God" (p 254) the el Griel is e very of ao Sabath e Foe that sikes the dmo, Ciss (c secon 5 bel, Salmn the Pure, terresial tc of Gabriel, as wl as the Veil,ha the lie ct of the Ahl-e Hq, wich sl in Ira esses a that is ely re oh of recent c, the Shah-Nama-yeA-e Hq or "Royal Book of e Gnoscs," in e prologue of w the Gaiel asses e role of protoktistos In the Pistis Shia in the of e rch descen with the telve Savios of the reasures of Light, he jets into their mothers' w 256), an ime that we have ciSiism t rb in co e twelve Imams in the s of Duodecimn
72
primitive identficati between e Holy Spirit and te S of G (te "maificent Anel" of te epherd ofees, we sall understand te contention tat it is te Holy Spirit itself tat is sent to Mary tat inspires er wi its own breat and "takes body" in er wi a reality wic is not tat of a material body but of a subtle celestial body. o ipso, tis equation (GabrielCistosHoly Spirit) tat is disceible in el Cistology becomes an aspect of wat as been called " Spirit Cristo logy " (Geisteschris toloie majority of te are inaagreementTe on great tis point (an entire book tafsir ougt(Koran to be devcommentaries) oted to tis pneum
tology) Te ve ry detail s of te m ental vi sions recur bot in Cristian Gnosis and in certain of our tai4 for exple te role attributed to te cangel's oice, wic is represented as bei itself te ypostasis of te Logos Hence te ne symbol of a virgin conception "by te ear" wic means byfai, ex autu, and suggests tat te reference is to a eolgical dogma and not to a pysiological problem In oter words te miracle of te v irginal concep tion is not te m ain point (as in te context of te dogm a of te Incarnation); rater it becomes a necessary correlate as soon as te vision is concentrated on te cental problem wic is to elucidate te superior constitution of te celestial Aeon united wit te man Jesus and te manner of teir union Correlatively certain tafsi amplifyg te Koranic verses on te annunciation disclose a relation beeen Gabriel and Jesus wic wou ld be eressed in Made an term s as a rel ation between 40 e equao s the Koran, btween the el be a the Holy St uh -Qu a the cespoe the Avice p) btwe i a the Cristos of Cstology, is s of enre stdy that d rere a methoc anysis of the tafss K commties We he to une ch a stdy, f it wd have the greatest cces f derstan of the eals eir soes) be a "posy of e Spirit, " as coeived a body of speclave oht dv Islmic wl, that "plosophy of e absolute Spirit," a secaon of sevel ies of ilopcl specao wch Occi rived the ine teenth ceny O Gabel as Hy Spirit, c o others, Mla Falah Ti 110 AH), I 2 : 81 III 9 : 1 a, - 1 A.H.) 16 : 10), 86 , hl- - hja sri) ed Heat ehera 1331 A H ) , I, 5863 H in c n 39) Gabel acts "like God" Mla Fathlah, Tair ad 4 : 169, mos e ess that mkes theRah cosubjet of the vbqa-ha: the Srit, that is to say, Gaiel, o jected the W, Jesus, into Maryam) Here we the sme cceo Crisan os: the vce of the rch hptais, the e of co clete dce of psicl laws ee hos!), the idea of the psic, sit bo, etc ibid, ad 2 : 254 4 : 1 69 5 : 1 09 1 9 : 1 71 9 t It gs th out sa at to appreciate the Desm of taf sirs o st be e rema made ove n 9).
te Fravarti te tutelary angel te celest cetype and te terrestial ou 4 Gabriel te el of te Annunciation and te Revelations is te nel of te teopanies tat were given to te propet Moammed Te Koran verses (5 : 8 929) preserve te meo of te fit grandiose visions we te Propet emerging from is tent contemplated te majesty of te el wose outspread wis covered te wole orion. In certain traditio invoked by te even recalled by contast te commentators memory of tetese resalumpous s ered angelopanies by Moses on Mount Sinai wen e asked to be favored wi a direct visi and e Lord swered "Tou salt not see me" (an tarani Momed also exresses te fervent desire see te ngel in is real fo Aloug warned e insists. Te vision is not refused im but e is rown into a swoon by te beauty and majesty of te ngel in is superan fo of Glory; encefort a terrestrial uman Form will be te epipic re (mazhar of te el. 42 nd marking te contrast wit te amatic episode experienced by Moses a tradition esblises te angelic "numinoum" in a see tat is peraps paradoxical if we compare it wi e c ent acceptation of te term Here it is f being a remend f it is in is form of Majesty wic nevereless causes te Propet to sw at te el reveals to im te imperatives and proibitions of te Law 43 4 1 In aeeme with the typ e of Gnostic who distingshs betwe en Je sus the m and the ceestia Christ d who oos on the earthy phenen s a hiden imge of t ier wld but does not absolutely exclude ia of a "corporeal" birth, cf. Barbel, p. 257, n. 316 (text of Cl Schidt); cf. M, pp. 26364 is the ngel Gabriel who saves Jesus m death (Mulla Fathullah 4 1 56 the Do cetic verse par exclence o f the Koran; the situation of the coesponds here to t he situa tion presupposed by the colloquy on the Mount of Olives the Acts of John; d the application of this same verse ce to be extended to Imamoogy, c section 4 below) . H ere we only aive, by a dier path, t the thesis o f Rudof Otto, Rech Gottes und nshnsohn (Mnc 1 934), p 146 he ngm of God d the Son of tr. F. V. Filson d Bertram Lee-Woolf [Lo 138] p 182) sho the Mden idea of the Fravarti to be n exact gon of the reions between Enoch d the ceestil Man, between Jesus and the ropos The present essay sw er on that the rei on between the Im-pos an d Sam (the Gnostic Te B eliever) emboes a situation l to that of Enoch when it w rvld o hi h Son o Man i se 42 Mun Fa pp. 432-33 ad 53 : 3-5 p. 474 8 9 on h wo ap or "forms," of te gel, c Mla Fathull, 35 1; with this compe Abu' -Futuh Razi, Tafsr(the oldest Site tafsr Persi), loc, with certn viants of the narrative insisting on the ge's fee of cmpon d tendeess. 3 Mabod pp 30·2
7
Moammed owever as only e vision of te ngel Here as we ave pointed out te distinction wic te propetology of e Ebionites makes beeen te cases of Adam and Jesus on e one and and Moses and Abr aam on te oter will d a parallel in te transition propetolgy to Imamology A Koranic verse (33 : 33 yat althir ric in exegetic virtualities constitutes one of te Scriptural foundations of Siism I am referring to te scene in wic te Propet aving spread out is mantle over te members of sis ouseand(Fatima soninlaw; te to cild Im am Hasan Husaynis) daugter; asks God to immis unie tem against all impurity (tai Tese are te Five "Companions of te Mantle" (ab al-Ka� eartly epipanies of e Five Preeternal Persons of te divine Mystery (aas azaliyun wose teopanies succeed one anoter on different planes of being and fm period t period 44 Tereupon te el Gabriel makes imself visible, proclaiming: "I am te sixt of you ve" (a sasukum, wic means te distinct personal unity tat is also teir totality; ten e reveals te verse 45 Te vastness of eological meaning found in tis scene by Siite meditation may be measured by te fact tat te tair attributed to Imam Hasan 'Askari te eleven Imam of te Duodecim Siites expressly establises a pological relation between te Koranic verses evoking te Annunciation and te conjction of te Holy Spirit wit Jesus, and tis scene in wic Gabriel e Holy Spirit joins te five ypostases of te srcinal Imamate It is precisely ere tat Siism inaugurates te transition om ngel Cristlogy to Imamolo 46 Finally te el Gabriel acieves is eartly typification is teopanic person (mazhar in te person of Salman te Persian or Salman te Pure as te companion wo initiates te Propet into is vocation and te of of Salman will indicate to us te ultimate and prfound 47 siification personal experience tat Imamology can conin 44 On the m etorphose s of their theophanies (on the plane of the divine Throne on the plane of the Five Archngels on the pl e o f their e arthly typications) c paicularly Umm aKtab (proto-Ismail i treati se in Persian) ed W Ivanow Qstio 3 and 5 45 C Mus Fathah II 33 : 33 Muhsen Fayz, p . 363 Muhad Baqr-e Majisi har aAnar I pp 39 180-9. 4 raibud o h h Ia Han ' ih hran pp 0 d pp 1855 (f Gabel d Slman) 4 See pticul ly L uis M signon " L a Mubaha la " Annre co/e des Hautes Ees Sectn Scences rees 144 pp 1 in whih i i iion o Slmn s ethly homologue of Gabriel el of the unciation to mae the
75
It is tis el of Revelation us el of Knowledge of all knowledge tat te Avicennan pilosopers "led back" by way of eir own peculiar ta'wil, te representation of te active Intelligence Aq N 7 wic tey took om Aristotle and wic Avicenna idnties wit te tent Cerub of te t celestial ierarcy It is tis active Intelligence tat is worsiped as Madonna Intelligena in te meditation of te Fedeli 'amore 8 ong te Israqiyun it is te ngel of umanity (rabbfeatures alnaw'-e te of teand umamplify an cre te aturesrcinal tesecelestial variantsarcetype merely dee of insani one andAll te same Figure: Angel Holy Spirit Gabriel Cristos Sopia In Ismailian Gnosis to be sure tis Figure as its omologu in te tent ngel of te pleroma wo is te celestial Adam but ere someting more enters in: tis tent rank is not srcinally is He must regain is orinal rank wit te elp of all mankind wic isss om im and e must draw all tis mankind of is upward in is ascent. Here we ave a dramaturgy of precoic srcin made explicit by te pases of Adamolo. It is tis Adamolo tat e must ave in mind in order to conceive te Cycle of Divine Epipanies wic is also te Cycle of te soul's metamorposes
n an malan aml It as been obseed more tan once tat te Ebionite Adamolgy is caracteried by a doctrine wic is coidered unique in Cristian Jewis or Gnostic literature: te doctrine wic absolves Adam of all sin and ais stpeed Chrisns recgize, in the eophny of the ive Mohammens sitg hoed in beath the Mantle, a w maifes of the Divine Spit "which 25 (nuayri lit) rct Mohmed), ing the theophnic sin in wich the Messih is "aer" ( hh h h ksp" pp. Smn), nd is Moer (ama = Mm) rciz beneath the Me We mi menon in psi that this wod ld a the idem s Christos, Gabriel, Maam, rather than Chss, Gel, Michal (accor the uly acepted hothesis) the "perpetal presence" of Sm Christ do Mohmmed, c our study "Le Livre du Gloe Jabir ibn Hayyan," XVIII (Jg estschri 950), 05; secon 5 below on Sm chepe of the pect Gnosc, " Sm o f the microcosm ." 8 C o Avicenn, p 26 To complete e m enl imge of Gaie-Sophia-Holy Spirit, we may obse in p that in Easte Chrisan ichy, wich aonally rresen e ree pss of e Trini by three Angels, the Ael seated on the g (ie , to the le of the Cen A) scloses m disctly fie fees (eg , in the o icon o f Rublev) [C Rublev's "Old Testament Trini" (c 020), in G H Hamilto The Achitece OfRui (Peicn History of 95), pi 8 p 8ED] 6
is impeccability 49 Not only was Adam created in te image of God t e was called Cristos because God ad ointed im wit te Holy Spirit; te Spirit of te godead dwel t in im an d e possessed te H oly Spirit of propecy so tat if e ad not d om inated all te temptations of evil te Holy Spirit would ave ad to sin wiin im But in tis case it becomes all te more urgent to ask wat ten is te catastrope tat as changed mans srcinal celestial state and brougt im sickness and old age violence and Temotif answer willasbete provided by aangelom, completely srcinal of tedeat? famous known descens te fall exegesis of te angels a dramatic episode cceived not as a second fallas would appear te letter o f te Biblica l narrativ ebut as a fa ll pure and sim ple of m ankind Down to te eigt generation (tat is according to te cronology of te Septuagint down to te fortiet year of Jared fater of Enoc or to te end of te rst millennium) man ad lived in Paradise Ten came te drama of te revolt and descent of te Aels upon Mount Hermon te memory of wic attaces ciey to I Enoc 7 But tis drama ielf may be interpreted in at least tree dierent ways e interpretation involves eavenly Aels wo led by two of teir princes descend om Heaven wi te intention of uniting wit te daugters of men Tis interpretation suggests a certain malicious pleasure a triumpant jealousy toward te Angel wo as at last fallen fm is superiority to man Tis Satanic depreciation is attenuated by anoter interpretation of te episode tat given in 2 Enoc te Slavonic Enoc te ngels descend to te eart drawn not by uman seductions but by indignation over te ingratitude of men wom tey plan to bring back to dignity and justic e; but in tei r overgene rous boldness tey m erely succumb to impossible taskas Finally tere ison a tird foenly of interpretation tat ofa nd tete Ebio nites wic no bearing e eav Angels : e autors actors of te dram a are rigteous men te cildren of Set as opposed to te posterity of Cain; up tat time te cildren of Se ad been leading te life of te els and f tis reason are call ed te sons of God " 6 49 Ss ucrilicer Zei, pp. 7-10. 50 Ibid. , pp 0- 3 The aces of is exes m be llow do t o the adions of Islamic Iran, whe we nd the chil of Se, a pee of pious nosc fgn e, ged togeer on Mount Hon and id wi e s of Enoch, the Ws, hen with e ntediluvian dae ks, nd lastly with he rst dynas of Irani myosto, foded y the mordial M, Gayomt he text of J ani's Tbqt-i Niiin Sven S Han, Gyomtpps 953), pp 15-56
It is is last interpretation thai foreshadows e trails of e Ismailian Adamol o, in which we encounter a conception of Adam 's fault s radic ally dierent om the traditional exegesis of the Biblical narrative as is the Ebionite conception. In regard to the episode coesponding to the Mount Heon episode, is conception results in an interpretation involving not heavenly but earthly Angels, that is to say, the "Angels in potentia " that are those human beings who coespond to the chilen of Seth. The drama t consist ielf will be seenal-kash the passage om a Cycle Epiphany or Unveiling to ainCycle of Occultation But this (wr (dawrof al-satr. cyclical m etam orphosis (coesponding to the Ebi onite idea o f the c om pletion of the first mi llenium ) doe s not imply th e respoi bility of Adam (that is, of the episodic Adam who is the only one known through the exoteric letter of the Bible and the Koran). It has f earlier caes. Far earlier, we have said. On the perspective opened up to us by the continuous presence of the True ProphetHoly Spirit and ideal Anthropos throgh the me tam orphoses of his theophanie s, Ism ailism superimposes the perspective of a drama in heaven, the outcome of which is already decided but whose coequences will carry through the successive Cycles. The hero of this drama is not the "historic" Adam, he who is mentioned exoterically in the Bible and the Koran, but the el of the pleroma, the spiritual Am or celestial Anthropos. In the hierarchy of the ten archaelical hyposses he srcinally occupied the third rank, that in which he was directly awakened into bei by the srcinal dyad of the First and Second Intelligences, and . What was his fault? In the Ismailian conception it ws a retard in his own accomplishment of the Attestation or Unification of the Unity (tawhid, which constitutes the intimate being of
the First Intelligence, the primordial Archangel who is the primordial Epiphany of the divine Mystery. Thus we can only gain an intimation of the meaning of this fault in the light of this initial tawhi which orders the entire structure of the pleroma as a hierarchy of divine Epiphanies. We shall have more to say of it below. 52 But the decisive aspect of this dramaturgy is that its outcome is already decide preoccurred. Shaking himself from his stupor, om the vertigo that had immobilized him and eendered this e c ev a of Epipy d e i a c of o s ritel," pp. 01. 52 C. sectio 3 below, d for a more detaied an aysis e our stud y " Cyia Time , "
PP 74
above, "The ama heaven."
"retard over eternity," which is gradually absorbed by the cycle of the Times, the gel tears out himself his Iblis, his "demon." those of his pleroma who refed t follow him in his resuection constitute throughout the Cycles the posterity of Iblis. ll those who have followed him cay on with his help the combat which finally, after innumerable Cycles, will destroy the progeny of Shadow and Negation. For far om being the evil archon of other Gnostic systems, the Ael whose "retard" sent him back from of theour third rank of assi the on, pleroma creative demiurge wortoldthe onlytenth out of comp only becom in orderestothe he lp his follers in their combat. And thus, at the end of a very slow cosmic alchemy, a being of maelous beauty and stature burst forth among beings who were still prehuman. This being makes his appearance in a region of the Earth where the best climatic and astronomical conditions are fullle namely on the island of Ceylon; here he appears simultaneously with twentyseven oer persons who resemble himthe total number of twentyeight bei related to the number of the lunar stations. But this being is again not our "historical" Adam, who, like many of the Ams t initiate Cycles, ws only a "partial" and episodic Adam. He is the srcinal and universal Adam (Adam al-awwal al-ll, a term recalli the Anima generalis and whose Greek equivalent would be For actually this srcinal Adam, like the celestial Adam, el prince of a pleroma, is a receptacle of souls; and it is precisely as such that he became the "First Imam," that is to say, was invested wi the primordial Imamate. From the outset we have an essential reduplication, reecting a fo of conscioness that wishes t avoid any sgestion of an incaation. The celestial Anthropos, the ngel, cannot be conceived mazha as "incarnated" on earth: the initial Adam who represents him is his his epiphanic Form. Our texts tell us that he ws his ael's first thought (awwal h, the end of his owledge (akhir 'ilmihi, the substance of his action: he was the project that concentrated (maah the radiation of his 5 m ese twty-sev pss the primoral early snes lie the ad the other heavly es (e Brothers of Pity desite s e i S shs ta/ia) lie e red yaqu id the oer ecio stones. He ws them the Sabiq (e Precsor), jt s the First Intelligence is theSabiq of the spiritl world; ws the qessee � of physical creao, e sec Nyat (term, limit) , jt s the wld of the da is the Nihayat. First of the recepcles repositories (maqama of the Imamate, w the Im of the Ims, their precor in pity and icce; Iis "Imad Zr aiMa ani (publ. MS), XI I, pp. 7275
7
Lights; he is also his supreme Veil abuhu -aam, he through whom he shines (tajalla bihi 'inda zuhurih. Eachof these tes is carefully weighed: They show how with the primordial Adam, srcinal repository of the Imamate, Imamolo exemplifies an epiphanic relation, similar to that m aintaine d in ngel Christology and prec luding any idea of hypo static union such as would be required by an Incarnation. Here I can mentio n only ve ry briey the characterolo gy of this prim ordial Am fige at the wn of mythohistory. Just against as the Adam of the whose Ebionites is appears so he too is immunized all im purity, all sin (ma'sum, exact equivalent of the Greek term). nd he will transmit this prerogative to all the Imams from Cycle to Cycle. The first repository of the Imamate, he institutes on earth the hierarchy of the esoteric sodality aer the example of the celestial hierarchy. His Cycle was a cycle of Epiphany, of contemplative beatitude, of total spiritual eedom, in which man, even in his physical features, enjoyed a paradisiacal state. At the end of this cycle, set at fiy thousand years, he was "transferred" with all his followers who made up his Temple of Light, that is to say, he "emigrated" by means of a beatific death into the zone of the tenth Ael whose rank he took, while the tenth Ael rose one deee higher toward his srcinal rank. Thus the primordial Adam, in inaugurating the Imamate, is also the first Imam to accomplish the work which om then on will be the work of each final Imam in a Cycle, and particularly of the final Qa'im or Resuector who, followi his example, will lead all his adepts back to their Ael, so that the esoteric Church is drawn onward om Cycle to Cycle in a continuous ascending movement toward higher realms of the Pleroma. 54 This cycle of Epiphany was followed by a cycle of Occultation, and so on; the alternation continues at a dizzy pace down to the Resurrection of Resuections (Qiyamat al-Qiyama. Certain calculations of our Ismailian theosophers go so far as to evaluate the Grand Cycle awr a'zam at three hundred sixty thousand times three hundred sixty thousand years. 66 Each 54 C dris. f te initi cycle inaug uring te ytoistor y o f our world ws a cycle of Epipany it is ecae te dra He aven ad ended in te victory of te ngel; tus tis cycle ws truly wat te Broters of Purity call in teir ritual te Mong S, te festiv of te springtie of te worlds. 55 Te Persi an o ok of attriute d to Nasiraddin Tus i spe s in tis see of eigteen tous and worlds: it is iposs ile to say tat tere was a tie wen te world d not exist any ore tan tat A ws te rst an of te rst
8
cycle of Epiphany marks a new triumph. But the passage om a cle of Epiphany to a cycle of Occultion marks a fall which is the repercussion of a drama enacted in the Pleroma, and opens a new phase of the combat necessary to absorb its consequences. It goes without saying that the only case of which our theosophers can speak at length is the cycle of Unveiling, immediately precedi ours, including the vicissitudes which deteined the transition to our actual cycle. It is in this see that the Biblical narrative Creation is not the story catastrophes. of a beginni ut actually deals them, wi a stateofofthe affairs followi terrible Theb cycle preceding during which mankind lived in a paradisiacal state, here corresponds t the millennium which among the Ebionites preceded the drama on Mount Hermon. All our authors agree in their allusions to the catastrophes which aicted the last three millennia of the cycle of Epiphany precedi ours. The high spiritual sciences were reduced to silence; abdicating their angelical condition, men tued away from that "religion of resurrection" (din-e Qiyama which is the religion of the Holy Imams. These last foresee the necessi of reestablishin g the disciplin e of the arcanum ; since m ankind has becom e unworthy of the divulgation of the mysteries, a new religio Law (shari'at must be instituted, whose ta'wil will liberate only those who pass through a new birth. This radical change is the fall that is designated as the "expulsion om Paradise . " 6 Henceforth there will be only the "Paradise in tentia " constituted by the esoteric sodality, the Ismailian 'wat. It is in this context that our Gnostics consider two episodes of preAdamic "history" recorded in the Koran. The first ( : ): "And when the world unless te eing te aword world restricted exclusively to te am-ha world of te present cycle wic isofoly peod in te isges of te world -e idea coesponding to tat of te Zeilter in Scelling); eac cae of peod (dawr) sigies te coing of a world. C The "R datut-Tlim" commonly caed Tawwurat ed. and W vanow (Te saili Society Series A 4 Boay and L eiden 9 5 0) XV pp . 48 49 of te Pers ian tex t. 56 Our autors ready alyze tis e xplsion Paradise in penoenologic tes a cge of conscioness: in upsetting te gelic state in wic tey ad een living en radically peert te perception and direct conteplation of te essences wic gave te te pure knowlege of gnosis trsfori te into a knowlege of aterial tings adjusted to aterial tings and see to doinate te. Tis gave rise to te practical sciences (aritetic sueying astrology etc.). Te Adversies (te posterity of lis) eld prisoner in te world of te Moters (te Eleents) during te Cycle of Epipany are liered: tey ultiply coupting eings and tings. Tus te divine Epipany (z) is weakened d efce dris pp. 7879; c Tasawwurat XV pp. 4849 of te Pers i text.
Ld sad unto e Angels: N I about to place a khala (vceroy) the earth, they sad: Wlt ou place theren one who wll do harm eren and shed blood?" 7 He who speas n ths verse s not, as the lteralsts suppose, the supreme God, the "AllPowerful" Accord to the Ismalan hermeneutcs, t s the last Imam of the Cycle before our own who speas to hs "Angels," that s, to hs dgntares, to the purest members of hs Temple of Lght He reples to them wth grave melancholy, foresee the downfall whch asp re she "was Surely nowofthathet whch ow not " Ths to Imam washumanty named Hunayd; theIfather youngyou Adam, o "hstorcal" Adam, who was then enthroned on an Earth menaced by Darness In the second epsode ( :), 8 nown also our Chrstan Apocrypha, the "Angels" are ordered to bow down to the youthful Imam, whose enthronement wll transform hm nto the frst Prophet of our Cycle But our Ismalan theologans are unanmous n repeatng that the order was addressed to the "terrestral Angels," that s, the members of the'esoterc sodal, to the of thentuton pleromaof Thus Ebonsmandanddetely Ismalsmnotaee evencelestal n therels profound Adamolo d angelology; the Ismalan feel for the herarchy of the worlds would have been outraged by the degradaton of the Ael nvolved n the lteral nterpretaton of the boo of Enoch We gan an dea of the grave mplcatons of such an nterpretaton f we consder the somewhat chldle satsfacton of certan Church Fathers who declared that by the ceon of Chrst mannd had been rased above the ngels, and ths to punsh them for havng refed to worshp Adam! 59 Moreover, only Ibls and hs followers refed The malco joy of the pous doctors would ultmately lead to a beeen aelology d demonology, a coon aganst whch o Ismalans, t goes wthout sayng, are " mm ed " Th s Ibls s actually the manfestaton, at the begnnng of our Cycle , of the spr tual Ibls alrea dy conquered by the sprtual 57 Pichal, p 27 (Sura 2 0) Ibid, p 263 59 F th e egesis of these two episodes, cf Idris, pp 79 ; Twat X VI pp 46-51 of the Pe i tex t The esode of prostration befor Ad not the Isailian detail, reling it y to the ethly els) occ o Apocrypha c "Vita Adae et Evae," ps, t, R H Chrles, The Aporpha and Pseudepha of the
Old Testament n Engsh (Oxfo 1 9 13), II , p 1 37, and the Gospel of Btholmew I 52 in J p 1
82
Adam, the el demuge of our cosmos and our humanty "At that tme" he bore the name of Harth Murra; ths s a dgntary belongng, le Adam hsel to the end of the prevous Cycle of Unvelng In hs passonate resal he s conscous of hmself as a "terresal angel," ntated and ntatn others nto the oss of Resurrecton; he nows that hs nature s of r, whle the nature of Adam, apponted t teach men a relgos Law whose truth s hdden beneath symbols, s of cl By way of vengeance, he maes ts suggeston to Adam : "Indee d, thou hast been gven precedence over the Aels who have been commanded to bow down to thee and over whom thou hast been nsttuted as an ntator to ntate them nto the names of all bengs. Thou art stll wantng only n the owlee of one thng ; f thou new est t, tou wouldst be one of those hgher els who have not been ordered to bow down, becae they are beyond thne obedence" Then Adam cred out: "What then s ths nowlee that God has hdden om me, although he new that I need t and cannot do wthout t ? " And the Adversary explane d: " It s the nowledge of the Resecton ilm aliyama d of the last thngs, and the nowlee of how e sprtual Forms, dvested of ther materal envelopes, rse up e to the world of t ernty. " 60 Ibls then attempted to str Adam's compasson and generosty why wtold m the mannd of hs own Cycle what had consttuted the glry and aelcal condton of those of the precedng Cycle? And the yon Adam yelded. He commtted the error, the great error, of dvulgng the secret that should not have been revealed n hs Cycle, so surrenderng to the unworty what must be rese ed for "thos e who now " But o authors nsst that hs error was nether the frut of obdurate prde nor a negaton, nor a challenge to ose whose superorty to hmself he new Adam cedd rather to a noslga (isya for the pphany (izhar of those hgher celestal Powers, a nostalga bot for Resurrecton and f the celestal Paradse, 6 1 as though all human bens shared n ths nostalga, whereas among most of them the menton of t provoes only demonacal sarcasm Here an the Ismalan ntuton s close to that of the bonte Chrs 60 I dris pp 8 1 -82; c Taswat p 50 of the Persi text 6 1 Idris p 8 3 T hat is why aer Adams ult his e Eve represent s the hidden and sauty meai of the positive igion Twt p 50) j ust the nostalgia of the tenth A e is s "e te Eve " the "bride of the spi ritu A reted to s paradise" (Idris ch
8
tians: Am is not responsible for the fall, tt is t say, for the "expulsion om the earthly Paradise ' We have what f anterior caes necessitated this " expuls ion . " Adam's eor was t hat by an exces s of generosi he anticipated, we may even say usurpedhe, a mere initial Prophetthe task reserved for the last Imam of his Cycle, the Resurrector (Qa'im. Up until then, up to the end of our Cycle, the knowlege of the Resuection may be divulged only in symbols and always proportionally to the adept's deee his of dignity and capacity. That is why Am surpassed his "proper limit," hadd 6po�.n And here we encounter a te highly characteristic of the Ismailian lexicon plural hud and expressi a very complex notion. An analysis of this term will bring us close to the secret of Ismailian hierarchism, the principle which dominates the structure of the esoteric sodality, wideni the eld of theophanic vision as the adepts pass from degree t degree. Simultaneousl y, the sam e law of proession i mposes the rhythm of the Cycl es of Prophecy and, with each of these Cycle s, the succe ssion of Im am s which is its necessary complement, since the Imam is the repository of the esoteric meaning of the Revelation, that is to say, of saving Gnosis. Thus both the foundation and the meaning of Imamology may be disclosed t us and disclose to in turn a metamorphosis of "Ael Christology."
j
Herrches nd ycles: he Fundmentl Angelolo of smlsm
In the principle by which the Ismailians deduced the degrees of Bei and of revelation of Being in beings, we may apprehend a tofold axiom. the one hand, he who ows himself ( the soul, and the sel anima, knows his Lord man 'arafa nafsahufaqad 'arafa rabbahu. o is this Lord? Each of the deees of the esoteric sodality, whose coespondence recurs in the different planes of bei, in the aelic pleroma as well as in the astronomical cosmos, is designated as a ha the literal see a limit, a term , a definition. The word coespond s to the Greek � or better still, one might render it literally by "that which limits or defines" the eld of vision, hence the horizon Each of the archangelical degrees is a ha (the lower hudu those of the terrestrial world, coespond to the upper hudu those of the celestial world). The word is often conveniently trans 62 Is,
. 8
8586
lated as "dgntary," although s term n fact connotes an da extrnsc ts etymology. The hadd defnes f each deee the horon of ts consconess, the mode of owlege proportonate to the mode of be reald by e adept The noon of had or "lmt," mples correlavely at of mahdu or "lmted" Each lower hadd s the mahdu the "lmted," of the hadd mmedately above t, whch s ts "horon." For every "lmt, ow oneself s to ow the e lmt, the horof whch t s mah hadd en, te Lord self next hgher that stheto "lmted," say, the ee f ts ownThemahdu the of s, that whch t lmts, that whose horon t s But at the same tme each hgher hadd s the mah the lm ted, of the that s hgher than elf. For each mahdu to accede to the owledge of te (e, of ts had s, en, smultaneously to rse toward e nowlege of the ha whch s the Lord both of haddmah63
At each degree the mode of coconess rses wth the new mode of beng Each hadd s bound to ts mahd by a companonshp of ntatorybrotherhood; t must draw t along, l t to ts ran, n order to rase self to a hgher ha or ran. The heavens of the esoterc Church are m ade n the mage of the astronomcal heavens, each encased n the next; here les the secret of that perpetual ascendng movement whch draws the entre herocosmos of the nt ate om base to sum mt Of course we are not sp ea of emprcal percepton At each deee the horizon, or lmt, des for the adept the measure of hs be and of hs percepton; hs owledge of hself, le hs owlee of hs Lord, rses om horon to horon, om el ngel, that s to say, memorphoss to metamorphoss It s the law of essence measur ts own eld of theophanc vso the same law expressed n the Acts of Pete r by the atte stat on : Taem eum idi qualem
capere potui
Up to what lmt, t mght be ased, wll tese ascensons and metamorphoses contnue? Here we encoter a second axom ofsmalan Gnoss: The sreme gohead s unowable, naccessble, neable, redcable "that to whch the boldest thought cannot attan " 64 The queston s then transformed nto ths other queston: at what or lm t, at what horon, does the godhead rse from ts abyss of absolute ncognoscblty? Or n other 3 Ibid h XIX p 2 1 1 4
RudoSroann Gnsis-te der smiitenongn taaj nu kawa
143 p 5 5 (mn
words, what is the limit at which it is personifie revealed as a person, eternally hypostatized, so that a definite personal relation of devotion and love toward it becomes possible? In Ismailian tes, this ha this absolutely srcinal limit, is the primordial divine Epiphany, and as such the initial angelophany. Its mystery is that of an eternal liturgy, accomplishi in preeternity the Unification of the Unique (tawhid that is reproduced in the Islamic profession of faith, the "shahat": a Ilaha illa'l-ah ( Non eus nisi eus. It is to be feared that no translation into our langages can express the relation beteen to distinct phases disclosed by the Arabic sentencethese two phases to which Ismailian speculative meditation has applied the entire eort of its penetration, because in them it perceives the mystery which at once accomplishes the bei of the First Archangel and is accomplished in his being as divine pseity. First comes the absolute negation a Ilaha: the divine, unnowable abyss leaves no possibility of apprehending a divine person and of giving him predicates. This negative universal proposition is followed by a particular affirmative excepon (marked by ilia nisi, except), or an absolute airmation followi from no logical premise. Beteen the to passes the fine line that the true Gnostic must follow without faltering: between the ta 'til, or agnosticism which "evacuates" the godhead om the world, and the tashbih, which "assimilates" it to an already given fo. For him, the ideal realm whence bgeo eternally the dyad or syzy of the First and Second Intelligences, overhangs this tofold abyss. The negative phase of the tawhid is that the godhead cannot take fo (be theomorphosed) without limiting ielf, that is, without an autonegation. The First Intelligence, as divine primordial Epiphany, constitutes the divine pseity ilf, 65 the " theom orphosi s" ; but eo ipse it also lim its it. It is the hadd or limit (the supreme had, because in it the godhead becomes its own mahdu its own limitatum, and can know ielf in this archangelic pseity only as a selfnegation: Ia Ilaha ( non eus. And by this negation the Angel, worshipi his own Mystery, simultaneously refes f himself that 65 On the ia that the vine Ipseity cosis in the owlege wich the First In telligence as of the igiator M a that tis owlege, wich is its piph y, is negavity (a negaon eclug the Mubdi ipseies a noipses), Yaqub Sejesti, Kitab alYanabi yanbu II (publ. MS): the pe Ipseity of the iginator" huwati Mubdii mahda). Hence there is no ine Ipsty (alah) to be soght beyo Sabiq who is the rcel of the highest rk (-M -muq.
86
dvnty of whch he s precsely the lmt. But the negaton s followed drectly by the armaton that absolves elf eteally om ths negatvty: nisi Deus (and yet is God) Now ths affrmaton whch rses le a challee s e CallngntoBen of the second Intellgence the unversal Soul; the be of ths Soul concludes the lturgy of the prmordal i attestng the dvnty of the soul whch pecedes t (Sabi, whch s ts Thus lmt the ts horon horon to whch the peonal ofgodhead rases elf "orgns" etheseen n terms of phenomenology the aelc conscousness; ths phenomenology taes the form of a lturgy by whch the dvne Epphany s eteally accomplshed. The consequence s that all the affrmatons conceng the personal dvnty (Alah of the Kora) are taen n Ismalan Gnoss as referrng to the Most Holy chanel (alMalak almuqaas who is ths dvne Epphany that s to say the Deus teinates; t s to hm alone that "dvnty" (ilahiya can be 66 mputed as a predcate Ths dyadc relaton consttuted by the two st Intellgences and expressed n the two phases of the shahat wll be repeated om degree to deee of the esoterc herarchy. Intellgence and Soul are called Sabiq and ali (Precedent and Successor); and each hadd wll be the Sabiq of ts mah whch s ts ali In the successon of ese dyads s eressed a nd ofathenothesm whose "each nstance" K s dened by each horon or ha (here we have a nd of transcendental motvaton of the unicuique secundum quod dignus est The meanng and scope of the drama naugurated n the Pleroma by the reonsblty of the thrd ngel the sprtual Am (Ad han, are ten to be consdered n the lght of dsntegraton of theof tawhi on by hsour stupor hs retard tvty on the level hs ownbrought beng Inversely authors nsst n on negathe 66 C o, IX, i, p 80 of the text (Ia yaqa 'u'l-ilahiyat ilia 'd'/ Mubda'-i 'wa ibid p 80, lis 12-13, e sae ey deriv e name of () the rt wlh, conve ida of bei sicken stupor or saess, fe sass ike a aveler e deser or a cild separated is moer) Doubtless there is he a pathec presenment prr to the divine Mystery, the ia presy that the vine Ipseity is esseized negavity, in the st ( sass) of the First h, who reces is inality to atain the ipsty of the gad wich he beces by re it the pssge w Ibn H Cairo, I, p ,), r the of Magi, spes of the vergo of saess in the solid ( that iads the goad, Z Ohrmazd, or in terms, the hird l who has become enth (c oof "Cyclical im e, "Ismailian pp 39 -40) , a saess wich "corpo realizes " cpeal wld non-light
87
words attrbuted to t e Prophe t "He who pronounces the shahadat n ts purty and truth has entered nto Paradse" In ths sense Abu Ya'qub Sejestan, for example, calls the shahat the Key to Parase He beleves that the fo words that compose t typfy the two prncples, or Sources (l, of the angelcal hudud of the upper world (desgnated as Sabiq and Tali, Calamus and Tablet, S and Moon) and the two had or " lm ts , " whch are the earthly coespondences of the prncple of As the hud of the herocosmosthe and theandImam (Naq ad The Intellgence s te kProphet to all sprtual corporeal exstence; the second Intellgence, or Soul, s the key to the composton and the "symphony" of bes The Prophet atiq, Enuncator) s the key to the utterances eressng the perfectons of the Intellence and the composto of the Soul. Hs Wi, or sprtual her, foundaton of the ta'wil (etymologcally the exegesis whch "causes to return" to the orgn), s the ey to "that to whch return" a ala ilhi the meanngs of ese Utterances and the exstents that have emanated from the Intellgence And furthermore, an ecumencal feel that seems qute approprate n an esoterc leads hm to proclam that the four branches of the Chrstan Cross have the same meanng and the same symbolcal scce as e fo terms compos the shahat On the other hand, all ose who cl to exoterc and lteral understandngthat s to say, all those who reject Ismalan Gnoss and ts Imamology reman n the negatve phase of the tawhid? " Through fear or gnorance of angelolo the smple monothesm whch arms the predcates of the Deus deteinat, profess them to be vald as attrbute s o f te suprem e godhead, s ndeed, whether co nscoly not, a dgused thesm All these dvne Names 71 refer not to the "orgnatn" 67 Idris ch. I V p. 10 68 For ll these consideratio the shahdt d the alysis reproduced here cf. particully u Ya'qub Sejesti Kb a/Yanab ' (The Boo of the ii Soces) nbu' 30-32; see lso the ne chapter 54 of Nsire Khusraw Kwan awan (The Table of the Brothers) ed Y alKhashshab (Cro 140), pp 137-3, on e cosc turgy of the First chgel 69 Sejestai the whole of nbu' taq a/sab wa'/shahadat (On the Concordance [ the symbol] o f the Cross and of the shhada . 70 Idris p. 10 71 Ibi d The Prophets of our Cycle precen g the peod of Mohaed gae God diine Nme s wich eiled im ccessiely beneath their Veils Go to be sure, is existent where s Names exist in so fr there is Wisdo he is the Wise in so as there is Power he is the Powerl Howeer the dine Names refer nt to the Prin
88
Prncple (mub, whch s unnowable, but. to e hudud that s to say, the "horons" to whch the theophanes rse. The Frst of all (Sabi s both the supreme Vel and the supreme Name of the godhead, and ths name s none other than la Iaha illa'lah (ths s why, symbolcally, n the Mi'raj Namah commented on by Avcenna, the Prophet sees the words Ia Ila illa'lah n letters of e on the forehead of the Archael, on the dadem of lght enclosng hs har) It s, then, through owlee of e sprtual at s, ofofthe hypostases ares theophanesthat the worshp the changelcal unque Worshped One whch (ma'bu accomplshed; t s by nowlee of ther correspondences, the terrestral hu that owledge s ganed of these sprtual hu Hence the mportance of te fundamental aelolo that determnes the successon and correspondnce of ese herarches, whch ther closest Chrstan analogy n the wor of Donys us the Areopagte, ough Donysus cannot be sad to have carred the parallelsm beteen celetal and earthly herarches as far as, for example, Hamdaddn Kerman (eleventh century) As n Avcesm, there are, n all, ten hgher hudu that s to say, archangelcal Intellgences; ther exstence ows om the frst amo them, each beng the mmedate cae of the one next follow (as a torch ndles another torch) 4 Ths decad s dvded nto o dstnct groups, the Three d the Seven, a tad and a hepta The prmordal dyad gves rse to the thrd Intellgence, the sprtual el Adam, protaonst of the drama n Heaven. Whereas the vertgo of hs stupor mmobles the accomplshment of hs tawhi seven Cherubm desgnated as the Sev Dvne Words, ciple to the Origintor but to the Archgelic hypostases wich are the "horizons" hud of the Pleroathe or degreesinto wich theortheophanies (c othe pro Eno The HebrewriseBook fEnoh cession of vine Names hypostes ed nd tr. Ho Odebe (Cambdge 1928), Part I I pp . 123, 160ff. See ourAvenna, p. 172. 73 E ach Intelligence comprises a multitude of cele stial els composing its own pleroma; the structure accords with the hierrchy of the Ten Chebic Intelligences that dom inate the system of Acenna (chis sat a/'k (Epistle on the els) ibid. p 6 2 ) In studying the parallel one should coeqntly remember that the entire Acen pleroma has been made to coespd with the Dionysian hierchies (ibid. pp. 112-13) However the charactestic feature of the Ismlian aelology remins the eli b etween ce les d te es tri iercie s veried point f point; these cospondences both grd d express what we might s a parallel to Enge/hrsto/oe cl Enge/anropo/oge so close is the connction s in Christology) between one's idea of the ngel d on's ide a of man
74 C Idris I pp 2 1 wich quotes length the Kb ahat a/q/ of H mld add Keani (pse cospondg to pp. 1348 in the edition of K. Husayn).
8
com e i nto being 75 Th es e seven Cherubim mark the idea distance which the Ange, the ceesa Anthropos, who by his "retarded eternity" has be come the tenth in the Peroma, must reconquer for his foowers and with their he pthat is to s ay, wit h the hep of the an ge sous , t oda y those among humankind who foow him in his gorious conversion against Ibis B ut they m ark aso the deg rees of the h igher aid tai which heps him to attain this victory Just as the spiritua Adam, the Ange of our man kind, received aid and of compassion their heptad, so this heptad wi command the rhythm the cyces from of Prophecy and Imamoogy The same rhyt hm of thre e and seven det ermi nes " verti ca y" the s tructure of the esoteric sodaitythat is, the organization of the degrees into which the companions in one and the same combat, the members of one and the same spiritua chivary aanmard, are drawn upand aso determines in time the order of succession of the cyces of Savation Hamidaddin Kermani schematizes as foows the correspondences deter mined by the repetition of the same rhythmic aw : 1 . The rst of the three higher degrees invoves the prophetic mission {rala. The Envoy {rasul inaugurates a new reigious period; he is the Enunciator ati of a new L aw sharia which he receives from a ceesa Ange as tail, "reveation," dictated from a reveaed text; he enunciates the etter of this text in exoteric {zahir form as positive reigion It is his mission to estabish the rues of the practica, active cutwe shoud say the " rei gion of wo rk s " iadat thaks to which the sous open up to their rst birth as sous and receive their peectio pra. Just as the First Inteigence governs the uppermost Heaven alak alaak which his thought srcinates, so the Natiq presides over the uppermost Heaven which embraces a the other Heavens or "horizons" reigious cosmos (hierocosmos, a/am alD.
udu of the esot eric
The spiritua successor of the Prophet, the Wasi or "diadochos" is aso designated as Asas, "foundation," that is to say, founda tion of the I ma mat e His proper function a s repos itory of the spiritua secret of the positive reigi on is the ta il, the esoteric exegesis which "carries back" the exoteric {zahir to its hidden interior atin meaning It is his mission to estabish the esoteric spiritua cut {iadat atinat ilmiya where by the sous are mo de d in the image of the eterna F orm s ; for the adep ts
75 76 Sotmann, C Iris, pp XIII, i d Keai, pp 34 c the recapitatory tabe beow
this is the second, o spiita, b. His ank coesponds to that of the second nteigence, who govens the Heaven of the Fixed Stas 3 Next comes the mam (the Asas is actay the st mam, bt as He assmes athoity "fondation" he emains distinct fom the seies) ove the commnity, essentiay in the esoteic and spiita senseand actay, in exceptiona cases, in the exoteic and tempoa sense n the cose of the Cyce he mst pepetate the baance and indispensabe con z atin, the necessay tansmtation of itea nection facts intobetween symbos, which and conditions the spiita bith of the adepts His ank is simia to that of the Thid nteigence, and hee ies the secet of mamoogy: the mam is the Pefect Man, the epiphanic {mhar Fom of the ceestia Ange Anthopos st as the thid Ange, having become Te nth by h is " et ad ," mst as Saved Savio ead his own peoma back to its oigina ank, so the ast mam, the Resecto a im in whom is ec apit ate d the entie ine of the m ams , e ads thei Te mpe of Light back to the eam of the Ang e, of which h e is the diadochos The thee ges of this tiadsometimes paced in coespondence with which the theophanic designations of Seaphie, Michae, and Gabie, 77 Thi s contrasts with Duode cian Shii s where 'All ib n Abi- Talib , foundation of the Iaate, is designated as the rst Ia and causes a discrepancy throughout the series (for exaple, the sixth Ia, Ja'far Sadiq, so iportant for Duodecian Shiis, will appear here as the fih Ia; also n. 85 below). Thus to consider the "founda tion" of the series as a unit distinct o the whole and added to its coponent parts typifies a ethod of calculation that is ecifically Iranian but well nown elsewhere (. the six Aahraspands of whih Ohrazd is the seventh! By analogy, as we have seen above, th e Angel Gab ri el say s to the Personages of the M antl e : I a th e sixth of you ve). 78 The hoology bet we en th e ce le stial function s of th e thre e first Inte ll ig en ces a nd the sacral functions of the three highest degrees of the religious coos resides in the fact that in both cases the first function produces the srcinal archetypal Fors, the second creates the concrete Fors, and the third coposes the and orders the; each gives rise to the Heaven that it governs, Heaven of the physical cosos or "H eaven " of the ini tiato ry religious cos os . "H e is t he reat or, th e Sha per ou t of naught, the Fa shioner. His are the os t beautif ul N a es " (59 : 2; Pi cth all , p . 57 7). While literalist exegesis naively relates this Koran verse to the supree God (thus coitting the error of thbih), our theosophers editate on it as enunciating the functions and prerogatives of the supree archangelical Triad, the "ost beautiful Naes" referring to these Intelligences (c Kerani, p. 136). To the correspond on earth the three supree ha now in the order of priority between the there will be variants which abstruse discussions represent sybolically by the letters 'AIN, SI N, MIM (on which t he entire con cept and destiny of the I aate depend . section 5 bel ow) . I t is t hi s sae t ri ad which in Nasir- e Khusra w (but within a pentadic and not Gabriel; decadic schee) to the theophanic Michael, . our corresponds Etude pliminaire, pp. 91 designations of Seraphiel,
91
further emphasizes the parallel beteen the Imam and GabrielChristosHoly Spirit are followed by the heptad of deees coidered as a homolo to the Seven Cherubim intermediate beteen the third and tenth rank of the Angel, just as the teestrial hudud are intermediate between the Imam om whom emanates their spiritual quality and the Resuector for whose assumption they prepare the way. . The Ba or "Threshold" of the Imam. The capital importance of his role follows om theprincipally features in affinionce with Angel Christology, in which the lateImamology Ismailism reveals that hasitsbecome more a personal religion of mystical salvation; here, assimilated to the followng deee , that of the H or "Proof, " it becom es the epiphani c Fo of the Im am , the si of his Inv isibil ity. This em inent rank of me diator, on which rests the articulation of the visible with the invisible, is expressed in his function as fasl-al-khitab, a technical term which in Arabic grammar designates the moment of the "entrance into matter," articulated according to the exordium. 5 . The Hat or "Proo of the Imam, whose responsibility is great. We ow the prin ciple of Balance mizan, particularly essential in the alchemy of Jabir ibn Hayyan, in so far as it permits the universal application of the law of coespondences. It is incumbent on the Huatto see that proper use is m ade of it, that is, to see that th e operat ions o f the ta'wil ("to reveal the occult, to occultate the apparent") confo to the equilibrium, the coespondence of beings (muwanat al-khal in this sense he must decide h between the authenti c aq and the inauthentic atil. 6. The to preceding degrees ( and 5) fo a transition or mediation beteen the upper triad (13) and the group of the last ve ranks (610) headed by the a'ial-Balagh {'i: liter ally, " he who calls, i nvites " ; da'wa the term designating the Ismailian sodality, siies literally "call, vocation"). To the a'i al-Balagh falls essentially the task of preachi (we shall see below in section 6 that this does not consist of seo in public places); the great Nasire Khusraw was invested with this fction for Khurasan. He must provide the adept who has been admitted to initiation and has received the teaching of the first hudud with all the proofs and arguments regarding the higher hudud (that is to say, the secrets of angelology) and ma'd individual eschatology, the posthumous development of the human being. 79 o sdy "Le Livre Glie," pp. 758. 92
. Below come two " dgntar e s" who have the same ttle bu t moded by an adjectve Frst the a'i mutlaq who has ll "unrestrcted" authoraton The level of ntatory owledge correspondng to ts degree s expressed n hs tas: to iitiate nto e hgher hudu that s to say nto angelolo; to ntate n the ta'wil that s to say n esoterc exegess; to ntate n the sprtual cult 'ibadat 'ilmiya 8 Below hm s the a'i mahsu or a'i wth lmted "restrcted" hudu th at s nto the authorty He must ntate secrets of the herarchy of the the adept sect nto e lower 9 . The Ma'u akbar lterally the " hgher maste r" ; t s he who receves the neophyte's oath and concludes the pact of ntaton wth hm Lastly the Ma' mahsu lterally the "lmted master" wth "restrcted" authoraton. Hs functon s to attract the souls capable of "respondng to the Appeal" mtib of the esoterc Church Though restrcted hs functon s extremely delcate; t cssts n provong a bre 80 w socal and relgos conformsm n asn dsturbng questons n obseng ther eect on the ndvdual selected etc 81 The correspondences between the terrestral and celestal herarches are summed up n the follow table: 82 80 Soha p. 5 o h rabi in whih h word mt i oiad wih r h iir. 1 Ju h nh Inign ark h ow i o h arhg po bow wih bgin h word o physs and hang d ju no oh Inllig a i hr do o abo i in h hirarh i on bg o nd ou ino o o h Enrgi o wih ru l h orporal bir o iil h d o h ori hirarh hr an no lowr dgr bow i hr i ol h pron wod oning o h ignoran and o liri br ik h nh ng h nh dd u ua h piriua birh ha a blo in hi wld o who rpond o h ppal mtjb)b drawing o o h pl o h Spiriu ul (Byt - Idri p. 21 d pp. 13-3 h n orrpnd o h a inllign o ni idnd w ha ai wi h rhal ril Hol Spiri. I i hr h ll nhropo h piriual or h hr, h ng o ankind d h rol o SadSaiour hoologo o abrihrio i hoolo do no appar u in h rl uur o h hiarhi. u bar in ind ha h nh l srcinad in h hird d u rg i i i wha ra holog bw and h Ia h dra nad in Han bn h hird d h nh rk dn and rn bo ibl b hoolo in h rlaon bn h Ia and h Q ha i a in h i ha o a pod o proph h ha
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Particular attention must be paid to the homologous relations that recur at every degree of this vertical structure. As we have already indicated, every dyad or pair of degrees within the hierarchy exemplifies a relation analogous to that between the rst and second Intelligences forming the srcinal dyad. Every "precedent" (sabi stands to his "successor" (tal in the same relation as the Nous, or Intelligence, to the Soul; each is the Sabiq of his ali. It follows that each "preceding" (sabi hadd is the Imam for him who follows; in other words, it is the horizon of his "theophanic vision," progressively proportional to the metamorphosis of his being and to the new mode of nowledge attained each instance; each horizon 94
DIVINE EPIPHANY
SPIRITUAL BIRTH
realizes the inviaon of the relation with the godhead, which is the ftion of gelolo and which, as we shall see, is experienced as the relation of a "one to a one" (wahid li-wahi (c section 6 below). Already we gain an intimation of how, at all the stages of the theophanies, the concept of the Imam can be analyzed as a symbol of the Self in so far as each of these degrees defines the relation that was eressed in the qualem capere potui of the Ac of Peter. This qualem is amplied om individuation to individuation with the ascent of deees that mark the spiritual career of the adept, the Cycle of his Resurrections: the attainment of eh higher degree , or " horizon, " is ind eed called a qiyamat, a "re surrection ' This is the esoteric meaning meditated upon in the saying attributed to the Prophet: 83 "He who dies, his resuection is already risen." Now if we consider this same rhythmic law no loer in the vertical structure of the esoteric hierarchy but as it operates in the unfolding of time, we shall see a periodization which ows none of the difficulties with which historians in theirwe attempts to establish chronology of the nor Holy Imams. Butstruggle here precisely are dealing neitherthe with positive history with a cronology of material facts; here we can have only the temporalization of time, which is ielf a hierophany, becae it is the order of succession in which the sacral perso appear to the visions of the soul. Each cycle of Prophecy will be in its turn inaugurated by three Figures homologous to the three first archangelical Intelligences of the pleroma; they are followed throughout the Cycle by a heptad of Imams, or several heptads of Imams (homologo to the Seven Cherubim), who find their completiontheir "recapitulation"in an eighth, who is Tenth among the Figures taken as a whole, namely the Qa'im, or Resurrector 84 The esoteric repr es entation of the cycle of the Islamic religion established by the Prophet Muhammad will yield the schema shown on page 96. This schema makes quite clear the homolo noted above according to which the Imam is mazhar, the "epiphanic person" of the third Ael. Just as the re are th e Seven Cherubim b etween the third rank to which the s piritual 83 the idea of these "resueconal " m etorphoses s set forh by Nsiraddin . In Idris, p. 222 we also nd a schema of Tusi in our "Cyclical Time," pp. twelve deees resulng the addion at the botom of the ladder of the mu'min mBo or beie) of the of (the neophyte, he "who responds to bigh musjib the App(the eal "). representd the world " spiritual bi rths "; the scha of coespond ces indicated above is not aect by this mocaon. 4 C Idris, p. 2 and Keani, p. 1.
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ngel Adam must remount and the tenth rank to which he has descended, so similarly a heptad of Imams measures the folding of the Cycle om the third rank, which is that of the rst Imam, to the tenth, which is that of the Qaim, the Imam Resurrector who closes the Cycle. From one term to another, without confion of persons, extends the unity of an Epiphany whose co mple tion will be the ll divulgati on of the tawil, that is, the resurrection of the souls whom the last Imam will lead triumphantly to the pleroma of the Ael, whose diadochos or khala he in turn will become in order that the Angel may raise himself one more deee toward his srcinal rank. It is in this anticipation that the visions of Imamology culminate. 86 Such is the oneofofOccultation the cycles of Prophecy. The sum of the cycles composing ourschem presenta of cycle (dawr al-satrhas again a sevenfold rhythm. There are seven successive cycles, each inaugurated by a Prophet: Adam (the "partial Adam"), whose asi-Imam was Seth; Noah, whose Imam was Shem; Abraham, whose Imam was Ishmael; Moses, whose Imam was Aaron; Jesus, wh ose Im am was " Sham un al Safa, " under which name we read "Simon bar Kepha," but under which our Ismailians, guided 8
Acc t th cmptan f th dcimn Siits, th mam Hasan ibn is acty th sc mam; n th scpncy that th th hptad ( dad) abv wh th st mam dan is ctd spaaty, c n 77 96
by e Gnostc tradtons that had come down them, also read other names, amo wh we may note partcularly Mary of Magdala ° Lastly, Muhammad, whose Wasimam was 'All bn AblTalb Under each one of ese cycles o authors' ecumensm leads them to comprse allusvely one of the great relgous os of mannd (respectvely, Sabaeans, Brahmans, Zoroastrans, Jews, Cstans, Musulmans) These sx perods represent the hexaemeron, the sx days of the creaton of the relgous cosmos or hercosmos As for the seven day, t wll be precsely the day of the Qa'im, the al Imam (who occupes tenth poston the cycle outlned abov e) Just as each of th e partal cycles, when a relgon has exha usted ts sprtu al potental tes , s closed by a qat a resurrecton that mars the passage frm one Revelaon anoer, so the totalty of the Cycles wll be closed by the Grand Resurrecton (Qiyamat alQiya ths wll be the completon of a world, the dawn of a cycle of Epphany (dawr alKash whch wll ucceed ours Here o observaton s come to m nd : ths advent of the Qa'im the Imam who wll even have the power to abrogate the sha'a s a belef common all the Shtes (Duodecman and Ismalan). To Sunnte orthodox Islam bi-My al-Majdaniya Idrs, p. 100 Ts asferce bees dstable f we cder e ret role played My Me cer earler Gsc tex, sc te Piti Shia cer var (Kali Pir p 67 of te text) I of te od of A s cled Mk S, e, Set; tat of No s clled Malk Ya; tat of Aba Mk alS (oter e f Isa; bd., p 49), etc. Eac Naq as s "awak eer" (muqim) te lt I of te pe of Eppay w cles te rgo le s o. A, as we ave w "awakeed" ad eroed s v faer, te I Hay last I of e cle of Eppay wc pre muqim Is or oEoc, preset w cycle ofoOcco. aors d No ad aoally as s t Lec Hees; S ofw Abras muqim A w tat of Moses; a tat of es. Here we te ky to esotec eges of te a Marya, H� rceves te uh (St) a (ot XII, 12, p. 117 of e te). A eal stdy o to be voted to s cocep wc invet femnine es eet of te H w "ates" te Propet My f es, aja for Ma Faa for (c beow, 115) Fally, Talb, 'll's , w Mad's muqim (Is, p 26) Here g we ave oqt cao of te prorty ofte Iaate ov ecy (nubua t s te faer of teWai fo ) of te Iaate a rosty of te esotec ta'wil wo etres te Prpet Ecatr of e exoterc Law(hari'a 87 Kali P pp. 64-65 of te text. Copre te e capter deved to ts exaero by Nasr-e Ksraw, Jami ' al-Hiatain ed H Corb ad M Mo' (BI 3a; Pars, 953), bk of Tera te "two d sdo," pp 81sec 64, d Ede prelinaire to ts 88 Irs, c. X X, p. 230 86 "Sh'un al-Safa al-mu'ab
t represents ouage for n one way or another t oends aganst e dogma accordng to whch Muhammad s e "seal of the Prophets" d a good many phlosophers and mystcs have been ncludd n ths reprobaton 89 Our second remar conces the whole of the trple schema that we have consdered The systemataton and rhythm are so strct that Isma lan m edtaton m ght provde a system of coordnates on the one hand for the Ebonte Epphanes of the True Prophet "rung ough the centures" to hs place rest and the other hand f ladder of sprtual memorphoses by ofwhch eachonntate' s capacty fthe theophanc vson s eancedup to e summt whch s the Imam of hs tme Oy here the True Prophet has not yet attaned hs place of rest as he had n the person of Jesus for Ebonte Chrstanty and of Mohammed for Islamc prophetology. nd ths dfference ths openng of the schema toward the future s precsely Imamology Here the Seven Imams or the heptads of Imams are the Sev Pllars of the House of Wsdom For the fnal "repose" wll be more than a Prophet Natiq; t wll be an Imam and the Imam s a Samit a Slent One: he does not proclam a new Law; rather he lberates by dsclosg the symbols 90 But the Imam as mazha that s to say as epphanc Fgure exemples a mode of presence analogous to that of the elos Chrstos n Jesus nd t s precsely ths that led us to say that the fulllme of Ebonte prophetology s to be souht not n orthodox Islamc prophetology but n Shte Imamology. It s ndeed n the person of the last Imam that the dea of the S the "recaptulaton" the "reunon nto a whole" s realed Th s s expressed n numerous symbols It s sad for example that th e Qa'im the am and goal of all the hudu the degrees or "horons" s the Grand Cycle alwr alazam of whch the Imam s are the perods or partal Suh w h o Suhrawdi h ar o "a philo oph" (sh o judg i ial lppo whih h w ondnd o dah a h o 38 1 11 o n h g o h onp o h Ia orh h prologu o i bai work Hia Ihq On h "abou Sil On " (he mu who i a h h "abou Spkr" mutl wutXXV p 1 o h Pin h abi S i our ud " ir du loriu" whr h o do o h Faid uphold h priori o h Ntq or h Jabir ibn Haan in gr n wih h undlng nd o Ili wih ahi i l owg in h Ira I i o au pro p o o h t or h Ntq pp 5 nd ona uppor o hi ha h pirial poin o w h oi o h ol a a rgr symbl ionpoli On h d ha iuph i boh word andFaid iln ibid ppb rgdd
98
cycles, just as each Imam s hmself a cycle n relaton to hs ud each each "companon" or member of e ntatory sodalty, s hself a "perod" of the Imamate; n other words, he hmself is his own tme, 91 posted and deed by the elevaton of hs horon It s also sad that the Qa'im s the "coalescence" (majma , the cous myscum of all the hudud; each of the Imams has hs own cous sticu hs Temple of Lght, and all are gathered together and ntegrated n the Sublme T emple of the Resurrector 92 In ths sense, as seal of the Imamate, the Qa'im s termed "the secd breat of the Trumpet of Resurrecton," the frst breat havng been emtted by the frst Imam, foundaton and org of the Imamate 93 Ths st breath was the blow of the Sprt R) nto the letter of the postve legalst relon (shari'at, the Callg (da'wat of the souls Relgon n sprt and truth, made possble by the ta'wil, the esoterc exegess of the Sprt to whch the Imam s the Key The last Imam announces the consummaton of the postve relgons he s the full Epphany of what had been alluded to n the letter of the Revelatons uttered by the prophets, namely, a "return" to who the was purethsprtual thece"Perfect e ntal sense pro je ctHeofsthe lestal AChld" dam, Ael (al-walad altamm of our mnd, just as he wll be the nal fulllment of hs demges 94 9 1 C Idris , ch. X I X, p. 223, d XX , p. 226: at eve epoch there is a ique invidual ard wito whom the hanity, the reali of the Antropos the absolu sse (insaniy 'a'lmutl . The Imams of the posteri of the Wi are, each his turn, the absolute Anopos (alsan almutl,the Amic the e see (Adi mThe clos an adept is to the Imamis is not a material proity ( ism) but a promity of th and gnos (qurb dinihi wa 'ilmil cos he is to the l reity of the Anopos; sec 4 below, on the Imamate at divi of the Imam, and compe amo the Broers of Puri the noon which cros the nthropology that we are here setng forth, namely, e insan mlaki {homo angelic)in a'il (Cro, 1928), IV, p. 280. 92 Idris, p. 226. 93 Regarding e two breaths o fthe Tr pet of Resurrecon, the s (Gnosc scol of Duodciman Sism) e sis in our "T ee celeste et cos de sucon d'apres quelques adions iraniennes," pp. 181 94 Idris , p 230; in a way, the desiaon w m (S othmann, p 1 54, lines I4 d p 176, es 5) recalls the "y outh " Enoc-M etaon 3 Enoch) Here, last of the diurges (air sana'i s ge points the relaon ccved by Isma ism betwe the celesal Anopos d the teesal Anthropos who his cpleon the Pfect or Qa'im There is nth cion nor idca on, but runcon: at the advent ofthe Pfect Cild, the ngel, Ad ani who in the Pleroma selfthe Qa'im inpoteia relaon to the er dgrees, becomes
t
through this "ngelom orphosis theenre Perfect Cilmystic e Qa'im 'im in sfeed Qim to the Pleroma " the co of is succeeds him in his rgen over the sublunar wo while the Anel, celes
Ths fulllment mars what Hamdaddn Kerman also calls the "rejuncton" or "conjuncton of the two extremes," namely, of the orgnal chaelcal dyad and of that Perfect Chld for whose advent the seven Cycles thans to the eos of the sprtual el Adamare a preparaton Thus the total Cycle closes the celestal el Adambac to whom the nal Imam, hs "Perfect Chld," hs terrestral Epphany, leads hs followe rses one step closer to hs ntal ran and to the archaelcal dyad n da' i remars, 95the entre edce of Iswhch orgnated Yemente malanhe Gnoss rests onAsthea dea of ths rejuncton It s reecd n e most sumptuous symbolc descrptons of Paradse, wth ts Seven Gates, ts castles of lght, ts nnumerable loy halls, each conn elve assembles, ts gardens and ts streams of nng water, ts ngels and ts hours The 'wil taes all these symbols n a treefold sense esctologcally they refe to the coalescence of all the souls of lght that have realed ther "second perfecton," that s, ther Aelc state 96 The Sublme Temple s the celeal Cty the Most Pure Imams are sad to Archetype of mnd, ses his tenth to the next igher rank (the ninth, ghth, etc.), dri ong e enre Pleroma his scding movent nd so s mog all the "gels" of mnkind to s sct toward the "lotus of e limit" ( ibid., pp. 6 d 113). 95 The "secon blast of the umpe t, " the iumph of osis reveed in ac the appearnce of the sos eme liberated the fetters of iniato pedgy this is the cocon itial)of the Energies of the First Umit -niyat ) which is the dyad of the First and Second Intelligce above, Saphiel d Michae), wi the Second Limit, wch is the compeon of the Anopos (the Qaim the Perfect Child), and this last depenng on the comple of the sv Cycles the wk of those who we commissied d assisted mu a) by the d Tenth) Intelligence (Gabri, Adm Ruhani). This conjcon is the nw d nl Creaon, wich cntains and gaers togeer all the sos that have be cled into being t he beging to t he end o f th e An r)tho se w ho, having achieved osis, e able, by separang emslves their mortal envelope, to resuscitate in the cr myticof the etern Im am; c I dris , p 30, and Ke, p. 367 . Sayidna Ham b. Ibrahim b . Husa w right in say that Ke rmani's wle boo beng to end, rests on this chapter ! 96 The descripo of Padise gree that all the Aels in ac are gaered the Temple of Ught of the So of all the worlds, wich i s the S econd Intelligence; this is the Paradise in the Paradise of the Hav "by the lots o f the uos t bod a, ni to wich is the Gd of Abo de" (53 4- 5; ckth, p 548); () that all the sos wich have aced thr second perfecon, i.e, the Ac state, colesce to f the T ple o f Light of the Qaim the Resuector; (3) that the "Paradise in tentia" annatlqa is fo by the dawat the Ismailian sodlity, in wich each adept aeves through the tail his spirital birth, the mt of his "an gelici in teia " Idris, . XX, pp. 34-36 (cin length th e Yemete dai
(c
>
Ibrahimthe b. tawil Hus ayn deteines Hi di, d. this 537/topolgy 6) . Here is impossible for us to discuss at length that of it Padise.
100
have bult m tme mmemoral "out of ter souls by er souls" the celestal Cty whose visio smaragdina wll rse at the end of the mysterous Nght the Nght of Destny aylat alQadr ce lebrated n three Koran verses (97 3) for whch the Ismalan Gnostcs have a specal predlectona Nght whch "s better than a thousand months" a Nght n whch "the els and the Sprt descend. . . That nght s a peac e whch endures untl the rsng of the dawn. " Ths Nght s sad to be th e typfcaton of (mawlata Fama daughter of the Prophet "our sovere Fatma" mother of te lne of Holy Im am s who endowed wth attrbut es smlar to ose of the Vn Mother gave brth to te successon of Epphanes of celestal bes " unt l the rsng of the dawn " that s to say un tl the advent of the Perfect Chld who wll lead mannd bac to ts celestal archepe 97 The person of Fatma s ndeed the bass of a whole Shte sopholo But here the motf t aes on an unsuspecte d scope It s not w thout surprse and emoton that we dscover how Ismalan medtaton the Nght of Destny explctly utles an essental motf of preIslamc Gnoss namely the mystery of te Cross of Lght set forth n the abovected passage frm the Acts of John We have already heard one of our Ismalan eosophsts u Ya'qub Sejestan declare that the fo branches of the Chrstan Cross have the same symbolc content as the four words composng the Islamc shah Ths same wrter m edtatng on these same symbol s mentons a sacred tradton conceng the Nght of Destny. 98 "In ths Nght" says the tradton "the L ght pours forth and spreads over Ear th Before ths Lght the stone walls trees all materal thngs bow down and pray Jesus aounced to hs people that the Resu rrector would hav e the power to brng 97 C Idr is, ch. XV I, p. 127, nd ch. XX , p. 227; S thma, X I I , 7 , p. 1 14 . The " desc ent f the Angels " in this Night wich i Fama is the Epiphany f the Imams se line she ves birth, f thse Im ams upn whm it is incumbent t safegud the pure spiritual menis, t acvate the symbls wich inspire life t the psive lin hia. The "Spirit" is the inspiran d the celesl assist ce wich descend m each and the Subme Achaeica Inteigences t jin em the Mst Pure Imams un the cing f the dawn, ie, the pusia f the Resuectr. T hus the Night f Des ny , at the d f which mand ds its re dempn and apthesis, is nt simply e f the last nights in the m n f R azan; it is the whle f prest Cye f Occultan. nd the Nie f Lights it alAar lin)that illumines this Night is Fam a, the Viin-Mth Fati Ba)f the Hly Imams; c ur "Rituel Sabeen," pp. 236
t
t
98 Kita Ybi nbu 3 1 mnalib limiat a (On the Meng f the Crss fr the Relin f Jesus) . IOI
out the sprtual meanng of all thngs," even of a relgon n whch there had been no dea of ths exegess of the Sprt; smlarly, t s possble to say that all the hud are gathered together n the nert wood of the Cross Yes, n ths Nght of Destny, whose mystcal ight has power to ansge all thngs, t s gven the Qa'im, the Resurrector, to metamohose ths nert wood, to transfge the apparent, exoterc evdence of the cxon Then t becomes a prodgous S for the totalty of the hudu the companons of the esoterc sodalty om Cycle Cycle down to the consmaton of our Aeon" 1 These lnes dsclose a perfectly conscous Gnostc asserton, whch bears wtness to the extraordnary contnuty of Gnoss The gathern of all the udu dsceble n the transfurng lght, s a vson sm lar to that of the Acts of John We are enttled say that the symbol of the Cross, as understood by our Ismalan, is and can only be the mystery of the Cross of Lght of Gnostc Chrstanty, the Chrstanty whch the ngel Chrstos revealed John n the secret colloq the Mount of Olves. And f we were to spea here of a "speculatve Good Frday," t would be n a sse totally alen o theologcal and phlosophcal habts, those habts whch are stll at wor n the thnng of Hegel Th s s a n aspect o f Ism alan Gnoss that ha s gone entrely un notced to now and conceng whch there s assuredly a good deal to be learned We shall agan encounter ths mystery of the Cross of Lght n the very heart o f Im amolog y, pre csely at the po nt where the unon of the dvne and the human n the Imam wll, n ts own ecal way, elcate the true mean of Docetc Chrtology Here precsely s the soce of the feel of the Imam' s prorty Prophet, n a prorty generally acceptedof nAlut Duodecman Shsm over and the accentuated the refoed Ismalsm We can already measure ts mportance by the correspondence between e pars Naqmam and Frst IntellenceSoul, symbolcally desgnated also as Sun and Moon; thus the Imam corresponds to the femnne prncple; and he s also called th e "spr tual m other" of the adept. 1 0 1 Thus the afma 99 He e no dobt we ave a n eco of te Gose of St Jo n ( : 2 6) : T e ofote wc s te Hoy Gos t sa teac yo a tn gs 00 Fo a s an anon yo s gossa to add s n te a gn o f te ansc t t s te hudud wc te tail dscoves a nd dentes n tes e tees and stone wa s t at beg n to ay n ts Ngt; a ae gateed togete and tansged n te oss of Lgt C n 23 beow 0 C Nase Ksa w Ji alin secton 3 29899
tion of his priority ree a slow transfoation of consciousness wich is at the heart of the adept's spiritual birth and of the cycle of his soul's metamorphoses.
mmolo nd Docetsm Any study of the different fos taken by Christology presupposes, as we have sai an inquiry into the anthropology that goes hand in hand with it. Any attem pt to discover how Shiite Im am ology in general, and Isma ilian Imamology in particular, reproduces certain traits of Ael Christology must begin with an inquiry into the relations beteen anthropolo and aelology. And the very nature of the question leads us to accord to aelology, not the minor siificance attributed to it by a schema of the world in which the Angel is all in all only a kind of metaphysical luxury, but the primary signicance ascribed to it in a world where it assumes a tofold theophanic and soteriologicalfunction. The Ismailian indications are precise; they carry us back to certain traits common to all varieties of which put uswhich in theispresence of aanphase antropoangelology, isGnosis, t say,traits an anthropology itself only of angelology. Inthat oer words, there are no Angels separate both from Matter and from the Souls destined by nature to animate a material organic body. Both are suhstantiae separatae: there are Aels who have remained in the pleroma, and there are Aels who have fallen to the earth, els in ac, and els in po tena. Or this cleavage may refer to a single being, an unus ambo: the the Spirit or Aelos (Spiritus Sanctus or Paracletus in the Manichaean sense), 102 is the person or Angel who has remained in Heaven, the "celestial twin," while the soul is his companion who has fallen to the Earth, to whose help he comes and with whom he will be reunited if he issues victorious from the contest. But f a Gnostic the idea, confoi to Aristotelian anthropology, of a soul made by nature to animate a material body can only c onstitute an oee against the Creation of L ight. Coe lative ly, the soul is not the unconfigurable entity generally assumed by a philosophical dualism for which the incorporeal is reduced to an abstraction or concept. If emologically the soul (anima has as its function to animate, if it is a complete substance independent of the organic material body which temporarily hol it, it is becae this soul has le in the world of Light its 1 H. S e ligion des Caares 19), pp. 13 174,
"real body," e celetial body of a pure, tll "immaterial" matter, or te "armet of lit" wic it mut do oce aai 03 I ort our auor, aire uraw for eample, coceive te uma lotte "orizo" tat we call by ti amea a traitory tatu at we call "ma" i oly a otyet a el a demo . 1 1 owad ere aai we all ecouter te premie ooed to te idea of a Icaratio realizi a ypotatic uioow i ti potetial aelici uma bei itermediary a ael orofeletea bei beifuied? i womTe elicity cai ioly oebeway or aoter already preet d tee bei are te ot ure Imam Two ora vere tat ave bee meditated cojoitly ow oe of te bae om wic Imamoloy aroe Here we all follow Idri 'Imadaddi a Yemeie ' of te fife cetury, wo i tu refer to a'far alaur ' for Yeme i te middle of te tet cetury of our era 05 Te Imailia eeei of tee vere already dicloe te priority of te Imam Te baic idea i ti 06 te ropet a Evoy i euted wit te miio of proclaimi te eoteric apect of te evelatio; lie toe believi oul to wic e addree imelf, e are i e coditio of a aelicity . But ti potetiality ca ower oly trou e reve latio of te eoteric ee ; ti reve latio i te coditio of te ecod Cf Sdebeg, pp 1358, Anima as corp spiritlepp 243., 2 1 ; Ats f hmas (mtif fthe " be ") inJ ames, pp . 4 - 1 5 , d Han s Leise gg, La Gnose Fenh t J. Glld (Pais , 9 5 ), pp . 9; Avicenna pp 57., d "ee eleste," pp 1 104 C ntaby Nasi-e Kh saw, h. X I , and tde pre minairepp 120-22 105 Cf Idis, h X I I I , p 8 4, it i a pass e the Ta'wil al-Zat f Ja 'fa ibn Mans 103
1 0 J st the aveny bdies the visible o. specit) ts itee betweeand n the invisibe Angels andhehmas (Nasi-eaeKhsaw, s thediate Pphets Ims ae intemediies between the nges in actu f the Pema and the eathy nges, Aels in potena wh, aptive in mateia bdies, an eive edge f the aeia wd maut) y thgh an inteediay d gaday (Idis, p 83) t between the Pphets d the divine Myste, the hu spiita ngels, stand inteediies Hene the name f "Messenge" rasu whih may l t bth( " Allah hseth the gels messees, d [s ] m manind" [2 7 74 ]; Gabie is the Rul Karim th e Nbe M ess e e) Simy i Manihaeism, Mani is designed reshg roshn messee f ight, and this epithet is ent bth ng the Khamdin d the A-e Haqq his des nt mean, hweve, that the Pee te reshg has tw ffent mes, that it desiates a ti athe th a nate Atay the Pesin reshtag is eqive t ad (Avest Yazata " adabe , " st An is e qivent t Spirit spiital being) d the qality f nun messe e, pespp ses peisey the naure f the (elestia te estia) nge as pa exel ene, the thephan i tin; f n 14 abve 104
birt ad te wo proper to te Ia, ater of te ta' il Te ropet' ipeccability i ot total; eve iuized aait "i," e ca coit a error Ti wa te cae wit da, a we ave e ot te daoriial Ia, but e "partial" da of our ycle; it wa te cae wi oe ad eveuaad Te idea of te "ipeccable" i applied i te ll ad proper ee to te Ia, wo are te eartly typificatio, te epipaic Fiure of te el of te iet deree, oe wo are called e "bearer of te Troe" Fro a ora vere 9 wic tae literally would ii oly a ypotei, our eee ave cotituted a fact, ivi it te followi ee if ever God et a el a eeer, e auredly aued eartly, ua for; ece oly ti diuie wa viible to te e of e, wo ateed ay: e i oly a a lie ourelve 108 Suc preci ely wa te ca e of te Holy Ia But ti i ot all I te ae cotet our autor refer to te vere wic eplic itly tate t e oc etic rito loy of te ora Sice ti vere i iroudi ediately trapoe d e cae of e Holy Ia we ave ere a eplicit of Iaoloy i ocetic ritoloy Te,vere i quetio i te vibrat reply to te cotetio tat rit wa really crucified: " Tey lew i ot or crucie but it a ppeared o uto te, ad lo ! oe wo diare e cocei it are i doub t ereof; e y ave o owlee ereof ave puruit of a cojecture Tey lew i ot for certa. " 109 Te aociatio of te to vere i ieely iificat. te oe ad te diuie, te issimulatio (talbis wic issimulates te 107 Mhamma's
(Is ch XIV
o ha a cm o h Imama o
mtarr(ua ha b Imamno whs oy mw' (posoy o msf hs sncon Tawwa� uconhb y W Ianow p. H soo oy a ha h ha hus c o a spa pow ha bos o h Qa'im, h Rsuco whos pcuso w h Imam How k ha of A s fa w no a ba "sn" no a o H pn comm hs hu o a ach s pac h hh poson of h 'im h "snh Naq. H w ha a spccy Sh ocus whch wo c fo hoough suy; w sha s s cca mpoanc 10 h xgss o f h s who c onacg h gna a mo s h cn npaon an ansaon wch n w of h mma conx ak as n unaz hypoh ss Twat XV p 44 of h x 109 Is p 4 hs s a ky s fo ou scson xns compson of s sir wo b n o (cf o o hs Ma F ahuah Tafsir 3 4 an 4 15 Muhsn Fayz pp. 2 an 1 1 9) . On h ncaons (asng h conbuon of hghy a p-Ismc socs pns h nuanc o h
v loc (bbiha lam)
105
spiritual els who came down to Ear f the salvation of men; on the other hand the shbi the mental act which f our theosophers is the great sin of the literal ist theologi ans, the assimilaon of this ssimulation to what it dissimulates (coesponding to the assimilation of the attributes to the divine essence, which is a deviation om the line that passes between hbih and ta'til. But the talbis, the dissimulation, is a trap only for ose who commit the ashbi the assimilation. 110 Here the conditions of the phenomenon are lucidly set forth, and that is why we said a fe pages back that our Docetists desee to be regarded as the first phenomenologists. To anyone who might argue: "Are we not then deali wi appearances?" they have the ready answer: this appearance must beco me apparition; and this it will never do if precisely we assimilate it to the reality it veils, if we do not make it ansparent short, if instead of thinking in tes of uu " or epipha, we think in terms of uluL " or incaation. Here we may set forth the contrast in a very fe words: on the one hand Ael Christology, which coincides with Imamology; on the other hand the ideal of Incarnation, invoki a Christolo of hypostatic union. Indeed, the differential is constant. What we have agreed to call "Docetism" constitutes a mode of perception, a fundamental intuition, which for oriental spirituality in general has the value of a " cate gor y" (its rec ences m ay be ascertained in Christianity as well as Islam or Buddhism). It coesponds to a mode of bei so fundamental that we find its whole "style" in the Iranian Sufis, those edeli d'amore. Th e Be auty that is the object of their adoration is not exterior to the human Form in which it is epiphanized (since it is her e that it shows itsel, and yet it is extrinsic to it, f it is other than this Figure which can show it only in veiling it, just as the First Arch-
angel is at the same time the supreme Name and the supreme Veiljt as the mior is the "place" where the Image shows ielf but is not its substrate . Ruzbehan Baql i, the great twelfce ntury my stic o f Shiraz, deve loped the psychological analysis of this epiphanic see of love in great detail and with infinite delicacy. 111 It is disclosed in the attitudes common to the Shiite devotion to the Holy Imams and to the adoration of Beauty among the edeli d'amore: in every case those who se de votion takes a person as its object and support are cocious of addressing emselves to a person i, p. 8 he asmin of e in nTeher s Psian 958)bk 0
06
F of Love;
8
who anscends the emprcal ndvdualty that s subject emprcal condtons; what they perceve n ths person s rather an eternal ndvdualty Ths presupposes the convcton (allow of vaable degrees of conscousness) that what consttutes the mazhar, the epphanc Form as such, s an event that taes place n the soul, whch s ts scee and organ, and whose mode of percepton s entrely dffent om that of sensble or lgcal evdences that may be apprehended by everyone ndfferently; otherwse, ts percepton would belong to every m ale And precsely because the soul s the "place" of metamorphoses, the pluralty of Epphanes by no means nvolves the dea of "rencarnatons" (tanak, eressly rejected by our Ismalan thners); on the other hand, statements whch an "ncarnatonst" would regard as contadctory can coexst The Koran verse relatve to the person of the Prophet s extended to al l the I m am s " Th ou see st them loo tow ard thee , but ey see thee not" ( : 11 2 All regard the same beng, but do not see the same beng It s not even necessary to deny the realty of the caal body n order to a that the percepton of ths beng s n every case qualem capere potui 3 And ths s not all We have ndcated a bove that the person of Fatma s the soce of entre Shte sophology As an object of common perc epton she was the spouse of the rt Im am , 'All bn Ab Talb, and the moer of the two young Imams Hasan and Husayn Ths representaton does not nfre on the "natural laws" But smultaneoly epphanc fath endows her person wth prerogatves equvalent to an Immaculate Concepton, or to the Gnostc ntuton of the el sent to Earth ahead of Chrst to be the Vn Mother 11 4 Fatma was deed bo m 1112 13 C F Idris, wat c ces XVI, and p 1 3varies 1 is te aece, te phaomenon, of tis b objet of te vi wc it iel Tis accos f te cotce te Siites of wat as be cled teir "dolism"eir ear ct of e Psion of e s of Krbala e cleest Dec statements. o of te bos dvoted e mardm of te Imam Ha f emple, we te fl lital quotaon te Koran "No, tey d t ll you a emblance of yo body w mad f tem, s of te eroic ight" (quod Sotma p 1 21). Te material bo is reted ( raise to te level of a le ss or ime of te Tele of Ligt. Accorly, te Imam Mmmad Bar (Iis, p. 131) decles at e s, ials, nd sfornes of e Holy Imms were appare, 'la'l-ayl wc is te literal eqve of• (s of coespo tetive wic cs te Catari c Ser, p 204) so Msign p 2 1 , wre, the Nusai ps of Kasib, the mam Ha is esed a reai Je impatiili 114 C 12 above. 107
a fruit of aradie, wic te el ave te ropet to tate i te coe of i celetial aceio. Se i called atima-Batul, tat i to ay, te ii Fatia; o te plae of teopaic viio e i really te oter of te diviity (Iaut of te two you I a ; e a te power to bear te to te Iaate. Te e trai t tat I briey out lie uce, o doubt, to ow u ow i Iaoloy tout operated very dieretly fro te ritia peculatio wic wa t culiate i te ritoloical fo ula of te ocil . autor, we ay ay, bear wite to te iultaeity of a tofold plae of viio coepodi to a tofold plae of appei: te wole quetio cae te oet oe pae o oe plae to aoter. d tat i wy, we it coe to udertadi te uaity (asu of te Ia, tat i, to tralati Iaoloy ito aropoloical ter a a evet lived by te oul, te data of te proble will ot partae of te pyioloy tat ipoe itelf o ee perceptio ad ordiary cocioe . It i a arcetypa l Ia e wic will fuctio a a ora of perce ptio, replaci te facultie of ee perceptio ad ai perceptible a obj ect tat it coepo d to te " b ody of trafo atio" i aayaa Buddiad yet te uaity of te Ia i ot reduced to wat o " re al i t" eiecie would qualify a a " alluc iatio" ad doe ot t i wit te idea of a ypotatic uio. Te proble i, te: ow ca a uaity tat i te maa of te odead be cotituted, to wat order of 5 Idris, ch XVI, p 28 " Let who ss to breae arase in the er of Mad breati is aughters pe is h d on wat she reveas of the Secret idn in her pson; f she is the H of she esbishes the esoteric s of his nowege and gdes those who attain to it Through her, then, ara se i s breathed, as the essena se aqiqa ofthe dawat. " 6 the ecae the t of e arase istrar wch Fama rethe of to co Imamate and tida). In theses pson the of Fama w bo to cos of the Imamate are cbine but they sepate e more in her s, Hasan and Han (Idris, p ) The to i tte Imams were not bo of h as other c of m are bo rather ey we the cien of Fama in the physica se and in the most concrete spirit lismaniya wahan). Hasan issued her le sidebecae he is the istida and so the exoteric aw to wich the tawil mt appy Han ised her riht side becae he is the isqrar a the esotec aw e ess s aqiqa. In this sse (d not by virt of a phioic process), Fama is the mother ofthe divini ofthe Ims (eir c beow) f e sefees a Tee of Light, e is a repository oflahut (c I is , pp 27 2) These are bef incaons ses the resech that rem to be done; the imge of Fama, VirginMoer d moth of the viity of the Imams, shows that a pare study of Imamoogy and e Cris toogy shd have and its preu an aysis of this aspec wch coespon in Si to a Moy Sopoy 8
reality ut it belo, tat i ay, wat trauratio of it i preuppoed i order tat te epipay (uu, ia) of ti epipaic Fiure (maa) ay be proced ot to te eye of te body but to te oul' "eye of lit"? 7 learly we are dali wit eti very differet o a attept dfie oe ort of oatic reality Here te active Iaiatio i at wor, produci te "body of etaorpoi" tat i te upport of it teopaic viio ow eactive i te ora par for ecellece of te alceical 8 TiIaiatio operatio i o icidetal rear, te editatio tat o autor elaborate wit a view to copoi a etal repreetatio of te uaity of te Holy Ia will develop a vat operatio of coic alcey, wic, oreover, oe te etree iteret of bei oly a variat of aicaea coceptio e ow tat accordi to te aicaea coceptio of a' potuou developet, te purified oul, avi bece oce ore pure lit, rie toward te ol of Glory tat i te erfect a, te toward te Heave of te oo tat i te eel of te it, iabited by te riordial a, te toward te eel of Livi Fire, te S wic i te veel of te ay ad te abode of te Tird eeer 9 Te etire cee of ti oce recur i te Iailia repreetatio, wit ti particularity, tat tere i a duplicatio aicaei ad o eed to worry about te ul terior de tiy of te body o f e wic wa produced by deo ; i ilarly for Iai li , ice te a el oul are coplete ubtace i teelve, te viciitude of te ortal reat are witout iportace f te triupat retur of te oul of lit to te aelic pleroa Here coic alcey repod to aoter preoccupatio; to it we owe te otio of te ubtle body, te delicate, pure, already aelic uaity, wic i te oly "true appearace" tat te "apparitio" of te ot ure Ia c aue Ti alcey ut ubliate te ortal reai of te adept, te true Gotic It iitial pae are a repetitio 7 s s lso te obl tly reested f te s te sc of t Matle ts Me tat s a vel f te tat sees te "Fve Perso," morals rgard oly becae y temselves e te Vels lest to t Vels w s at e veled ad mafested by te vels remas dde to te Matle tat s te Shari'at ve lo) Irs, p 2 f Kora 33 • 33) c so Los Msgo pp 24 C. G. Pcho and/chemy CWJ, 2 953), 243 8 C 9 Michaiche Hancen Vol. , Kephalaia Stttgart, 940), p 20 09
of ose which punctuate the Return of the souls in Manichaean soteriolo. The subtle aerial and ieo elements of the adept's body, the vital spirits, soces of vital heat, rise like a diaphanous vapor drawn by the Moon's force of attraction; refined and sublimated, they are transmitted to the Sun, and after rising om Heaven to Heaven, they fall back to earth like a celestial ew that settles on certain of the most exquisite fruits or on the sface of an absolutely pure body of water. Through the providence of the el Imam and his consort willoftaste of these fruits drink ofdemiurge, this water;thethus the humanity the future Im am, theand subtle (nasut) envelope of his T em ple of Light, will be m ade of this sub tle subst ance elaborated in the secret heights of the Heavens. 1 20 O theosophers admit that the child wi ll then be bo like all other chilen of m en; however they hav e opened a eld of vision that enables the True Believer to perceive this humanity as not homoousian, or identifiable wi common humanity; and yet the eyes of the e disce only this latter humanity, "even ough a ash of light may shine through, a beauty and a purity defying all description. " 121 The humanity (nasu of the Imam is thus conceived as the result of a cosmic process exemplifying an archetypal Manichaean representation. And it is in accordance wi another Manichaean archetype that Ismailian Gnosis conceives the divinity ahu of the Imam. The conjunction of these Manichaean motifs in the he art of Im amology is truly strikin g if we consider how little we still know about the sources of Ismailism. We have noted in Abu Ya'qub Sejestani a distinct allion to the mystery of the Cross of Light proclaimed in the Acts of John. In Manichaeism this conception goes hand in hand with that of the Pillar of Light or Pillar of Glory; the to motifs ascensus, typifyhere thethis toPillar phases, the scensus of Light. And of Light is presentedandas the mysteryof ofthethesouls Imamate. For the Manichaeans the Cross of Light is the mystery of the descent of the souls of Light, of the energies and particles of Light held captive in the prison of Darkness, in the Gehenna of material bodies. 1 22 Twice a day, this 1 20 r a escr itin the rcess, . I ris, ch. XVI I I , . 20 7- 8, a n Str thmann, I, 2, . -7 the Ar abic te xt . 121 Humanit s ure an subtle that, when the Imams ie, the b evarates like ji fu (a b having the whiteness camhr), s subtle that the celestial alchem reners it it t be unite with t he suls the ab, the Hujjat, an th e a'i ; . ibi., I, 1 . 122 ph . 177; . als ch. 110
LXXX . 2 .
my stery is an nounce d: at dawn and at dusk. T he ascent of the Pillar of Light, leaving the darkness t ielf, is the triumphant response to the descent of the Cross of Light: it is the ascending procession of the elemen of Light, of the aelsouls saved from their captivity, returning t their srcinal world. Let us examine the details of this conception, f we shall meet with them again in Imamology. This Pillar of Light that is foed of all the souls of Light reting triPillar of umph omprecisely, aicon their of srcinal wo rld called the the or more the to Pillar the isplural stresses multiGlo,antly Glories; plicity of the individual souls that compose it, while the souls emselves are designated by a te that caies us back to the old Iranian notion of Xvaah, "L ightGlory. " 12 4 However, the representation of this Pillar of Glory does not coincide purely and simply with that of the collectivi of souls that composes it. Thanks to a specifically Iranian mode of thought, it is ao a Person, a personal unity distinct om the totality whose parts are thus coidered as th e Person' s m embers. This Person is the great No of Light, he whom the Iranian texts call the Great Vahman (name of the first archangel aer Ohrmazd in the Zoroastrian heptad), or Manvamed. 125 This Person is also designated as the Perfect M 126 who transfers the elements of light om the earthly Church to the celestial pleroma. This action in ielf individlizes the Person and distinguishes him om his own souls which he saves; and moreover, the Person is invoked in a hymn which 123 Whe the su ises at daw ad the ceatues begi to move o eath to beak the oss of ight that stads thee i silece, the same thig happes as happeed to th e pimo dial a whe om t h e heights of ight he os e up agai st the sos of akess, the sos of akess mouted om the depths ad stove to coupt the body of his sos i whi ch his body w as cloth ed (his "a mo " ) . Ad at dusk , whe me etu to thei abodes, it is the mystey of the ed. All the puied light ises oce moe i a last olumn towad the Aeo of ight eve agai will the wod ight be utteed ove those who have so hated it ad so much loved the akess (phalai pp. 14-5). his illar of Light, the mystey of which is the tiumphal ase to that of the oss of ight, is theefoe the ascedig pocessio of the elemets of light, the agel-souls deliveed om thei captivity. Ad Abu a'qub Sej estai had a itima tio of pecisel y this ( abo ve, sectio 3 , ed) whe, i the symbol of the oss tasfigued at the ed of the ight of estiy, he disceed the mu ltitude of the hudud of the soteic huch. 124 C. . Waldschmidt ad W. etz, Manihdishe Dogmati(e li, 1 933), pp . 27-28 (the hym, ad comm etay p. 1 2 3); Die Stellung Jesu im Manihaismus(192), p. 57; o the Xvaah as Igo Glori, see ou "e e elest e, " pp . 1 21 -3 5 . 1 25 C. Geo ge Widege, e Great ohu Manah and the Apole of God (ppsala, 1945), pp. 12-34. 12 See texts cited i ibid., p. 14.
addresses him as Srosh (the Zoroastrian el Sraosha), who is the homologue of Gabriel just as the Nos of Light is identified with Christ. This central fige of GabrielChristos brings back once more to el Christology. And indeed this No of Light, the Great Manvahmed, a total Person, yet distinct from the totality of its souls, is designated as Aelos Christos, or as Sophia, the personal Ael of Mani, who confeed his prophetic mission upon him at the age of tentyfour 1 27 and remained his eternal Thus companion we m ay firsteven of allaer notedeath. that the P illar of Light has a to fold aspe ct; it is the co llectivi of the souls of Li ght, and it is also a Person distinct om this Totality. Thus distinct, it appears to Mani as an individual person in a strictly individuated relation, that is, as a personal Ael, Manvahmed, appearing t his terrestrial soul. And this relation is reiterated for every soul. It is grounded in the very relation which posi the great Nos (Srosh, the Perfect Man) and the Coln of Light as to distinct terms: here is born the idea of "geminity," the idea that every earthly soul has a celestial "twin." 1 2 8 We have, then, an analogy of relations presupposing four terms: the great Nos o f Li ght is to the to tal ity (the Pillar) of the souls o f Li ght as every Ns or Angel is toward its Soul. And it would not be suicient t say that the souls of Light are ea ch one of them a part of the Great Ns of Light. We may speak neither of fragmentation nor of incaation, but only of an individuation, an individuation of relations: a perfect homology of structure between the each and the AlL so that the All is present in the each.
129 All these features recur in Ismailian Imamology. Idris 'Imadaddin repeats that the Imamate is the coalescence (majma� of all the souls of Light, who have been dyed with the precious spiritual Dye, substantialized by the teachings of Gnosis, and caied t the deee of subtlety of the spiritual worl and who have migrated om the material body and been drawn to join the Pillar of Light ('amud al-Nu al- 'amud al-nu rani), the 1 30 With a summit of which reaches into the pleroma of the Archaels. 127 Wi engren, . 2 an 271 1. 128 Sharing t h e na me " Angel " b reas n their cmmn r igin ( . Serb erg, . 1 29, n 1)
, ch. X, pp. 206-7, ch. XX, pp. 240-42. so Sothm ann p . S3 of the Ara bi tex t; the same represon o urs the "oriental theos ophy " of Suhrawardi; edion of l-Ishr, p. 233 and our Prolgomes in 129
lyricism eql to that of the Mani chacans , o texts descri be the power of this Pillar of Light, whose prodigious maetism reaches down t the last ranks of the initiatory sodality to raise them upward om degree to degree, reaches down even to the neophytes (mustajib, the "hearers" of the Manichaean hierarchy) and gathers them together in the Bab, the "Threshold" of the Im am . Such is the Imamate, the Pillar of Light that constitutes the divinity lahut) of the Imam. This highly complex conception is elucidated by its hom ology to Manichaeism . To understand the rel ation of the Im am with his divinity, that is, wi the Pillar of Light constituting his Imamatea relation that is very dierent om an incarnationlet us turn to the Isma ilian concep tion th at is the homologe of th e Perfect Man : the conception of man in the true see {insan haqiqi) and in the absolute sense ('ald'l a. We are told, for example , th at the ar changelic al F orm s of the cel estial pleroma (dar al-ib have human fo, "for it is the most beautiful of fo s" ; but it is m ade clear that t his refers to Man in the true and abso lute see, that is to the Imams, and most particularly to him who completes their line, the "Perfect Child," the Resurrector (Qa 'im}. 3 Here it is implied that the celestial pleroma is not limited to ten archangelical Figures; each Archael is an aeo and his person stands in the same relation to the els of his own plerom a as the Per fect Man, that is the Im am , t the souls of light constituting his Imamate. Perfect, divine humanity, that of the Imam, coesponds to the archaelical archetype in the sense that it is the earthly support, the receptacle of a coalescence of souls of light, which is his lahu his divinity, his Temple of Light aykal nurani). Thus the conjunction of the divine and the human in the person of the Imam follows the example of the pleromatic relation between the Ael of humanity and the race of celestial humanity issued om him, becae the Imam is precisely this Ael's terrestrial support. And that is why, in his individual person that is to say, in that subtle superhumanity which alchemy, as we have seen, meditated upon and elaboratedthe Imam is the mazhar, the epiphanic Form (not the Incarnation) of the celestial ngel Adam. In this exemplification we also find the process of individuation repeated in multiple geminations analogo to those which joined Mani and the C Sot 131 the 1 , p 6;esbes so Keani, p the 145 (the of theceao pfect h b, the st, esecd of thete peoma, a cid esbes is paents)
ngel Christos, each soul with its ngel or "Holy Spirit." The Sublime Temple of Light ( shari of the lst Im am gather s together, integrates, all the Prophets, Wasi, Imams, all the hud and true Gnostics who have preceded him in the course of the Cycles. He contains each of the Temples of Light of each Imam aykal imamishari, progressively erected by the ngel demiurge to constitute the resuective Fo (surat qa'ima), the T em pl e of the Re surrector kal al-Qa 'im). 3 Without fion or confion of subsists persons,asina member the image of theole, Heavens one in the other, each Form in the just encased as each hadd subsists in the Temple of Light of its Imam, and each Form is preseed in its perfect living individuality that is all life, all power, all knowledge. What the Temple of each Imam is t the Sublime Temple of the Imam Qa'im, eh hadd is to the Te mple of his Im am ; what this Im am is for the had the himself is for his own mahdu the "companion" who follows him. In these individuations and their law of homolo, the presence of the A in the each, we once again encounter the principle that we found at the source of the m axim : he who knows himself knows his Lo rd. Thi s verification of homologies, defining the dyadic height of each soul in the Cous mysticum and hence, with the horizon of its being and its owledge, the rhythm of its metamorphoses, is caied so far that we should have difcul in finding a parallel except perhaps in Swedenborg, where, for example, he says: "Each soul is the whole Church; to each angelical consociation the Lord appears as an el coesponding to the very fo of this consociation ' 1 33 nd such words are perhaps the most satisfying commentary on the sentence "Whoeve r knows himself (= knows his soul) , ows his G od . " In this very brief sketch we have indicated the structure of the Pillar of lahut Light thatmay constitutes Imamate, the brings or the divinity of the Imam. Now, we ask, whatthe is the event that about conjunction of the 132 See n 129 abve. 1 Sweenbrg, Heaven and Hell, 52 an 7 2. Th e Sween b rgian ie a th at ever he aven
r cm an Ang els has the a hum an b eing mo mimus insan mutla ma be cmare t the Ismailian arallel between the rgress the sul rising m egree t egree the hierarch an the hases embrlg (Iris, ch. XVIII, . 207), r better still the iea that in the Temle ight that is the lut r ivinit the Imam the suls are isse in a certain rer, in unctin their rank, their knwlege, their activit: sme are in the heart, thers in the brain, thers in the limbs, etc., accring t their egree maturit an elevatin. All tgether the sublime an luminus Imamic Temle, each ne rejicing in his ellws (ibi., . 209). 1 14
Imamate wth the Imam, of the lahut wth the nasul ofthe dvne w e human? en the young Imam attans a certan age," 4 the Imam hs father confers on h the nvestture (nass), a solemn act that does not mae hm an Imths he already s potentally by vrtue of hs brbut enables the adepts to recgne n hm the mystc al presence of the Im am ate The mystery s accomplshed the Temple of Lght assembled n the Ba, the " Thres hol d" of the prevous Im am , s transferred nvsbly to the y oung Imam n the ofmanner of theThe el Chrstos upon e es natalis hs baptsm youn Imamdescend s henceforth theJesus epphanc Form, the mazhar of the celestal el Adam, because he s the terrestral support of the Pllar of Lght whose summt rests on ths Angels Heaven 13 5 en the Imam departs om ts world, 36 he draws wth hm ths entre Pllar of Lght All togeer ts component souls dwell n the realm of the Tenth ngel, the celestal sprtual Adam, the ngel GabrelHoly Sprt of the phlosophers Here, accord to our theosophers, they lve n an expectaton of stll new sprtual upsurges, new burgeonngs of lght and perfectonuntl the total Cycle s consummated, that s, untl Man n the true sense, the last Imam of the Cycle, the Qa'im or Resurrector, havng completed the wor of the Seventh Day and erected the Throne that he hself s "n person," also rses to that realm n whch all the Temples of Lght of te Imams who have preceded hm are awatng hs apotheoss Then there occu n Heaven an Event as nscrutable to o manatons as the prologue of the drama, the stupor that "retarded" the el of our humanty And yet ths Event s the response to that other Event, denouement The Resurrector, support of the Sublme Temple of Lght, te Perfect Man ar the example of the archaelcal Forms of the Pleroma, so totally Imageal of the ngel that he whle s worthy to sceed hm. He sexemples enthroned the as hs hs successor, the tenth el rses to the next hgher degree (the nnth, eghth, etc), thus reconquerng the "retarded eternty," the lost n preeterntynot as though reconqrng t over the other Archaels of the Pleroma but sng them too ths vertgnous ascent whch draws the entre verse of beng 3 Te e ae va ants wen t e c d as attan ed te ag e of edc at on (tbit)tat s te age of fo (d s p 2 08) o wen te Ange dege eca s t e B ab to (Stotann p 8) 35 ds c XV p 208
Fo t s woe paag ap
bd ch. XII pp. 757
c. XVIII pp c
Y toward the " lotus of the lim it, " that is, to the threshold of the prim ordial Archangel whose Fo of Light emerges eteally from the inscrutable night of the deity, in the sublime selfabnegation of the "No God outside of Him," that abnegation which makes Him, precisely, the one and primordial theophany. I hope that this brief sketch of a very complex doctrine will sce to suggest how Imamology both extends and modifies an el Christology. We have pointed out that the Docetism of our eosophers was situated in the context of an affirmation of the Imam as an el in act ssimulated bene ath the g arm ent of a bo dy. We hav e j ust examined t he rel ation between the nasut and the lahu in other words, the "how" of the aelicity that has the power to fold the angel icity of those souls whose Saviour (through the Imam) is the Ael, because their own nature is srcinally and eschatologically also that of the Ael. The Saviour need not assume an alien nature inferior to his own; on the contrary, he saves his followers by awakening them to their primitive nature that is also his. In this sense we
may saylevel thatofthe as anthropomorphosis accomplished on the thedivine AelEpiphany (the Archangels of the pleroma ishave the perfect human Form). And if it is on the level of the el that the divine becomes man and that the divine and the human meet, it is precisely because the human bei by his srcin is an el in potentia and because such a theophany presupposes the "opening" of this very dimension in the soul, the realization of its aelical potency, which is the measure of its qualem capere poi. Here the scent of the divinity is conceivable only through a simultaneous assumption of man, a bursting of the human condition that passes as " natural . " Anthropomorp hosis an d theosis (our authors say "angelomorphosis," in Persian beereshtai rasidan), are here coelative terms. Eo ipso such an Ael Christology, either in ielf or in the Imamology that is its extension, marks the sharpest contrast with the Cristological dogma of the Councils: the godhead incarnated in man, assing all the miseries of the human lo t in order to sav e m ankind, inspiring a cult o f hum an suering, the contempl ation of the " outrage d Chri st. " Th e contrast throws a blinding light on what wasand perhaps remainsa crossroa in the destiny of each man, in the destiny of humanity, in the destiny that mankind has prepared for ielf according to the manner in which it has understood It isielf. perhaps at this point that Imamology discloses the deee and fo 116
P P H
P B H
of spiritual ener which dominates it and shows how it absorbed and .passed simple prophetology. It has already gone beyond Ebionite prophetology; we no longer have merely the one True Prophet "running through the centuries" and through his memorphoses to his repose which is already ul hand. Rather we must note the plurali of the perso of the Imams and the uni of Imamic epiphany or existence (wujud as zuhur and ishra. Thi s unity is the Sublim e T em ple of L ight of the Im am ate , with which these Persons are integrated each in his turn while still preseing their individuality. But the dome of the Temple will rise only in the dawning light of the Seventh Day ! The predom inance of Im amology, of the figre of the Imam over that of the Prophet, did not result om phases comparable to the exhausting controversies which led in Christianity to the formulation of the Christo logica l dogm a. Since the idea of an ete al Im am im poses ielf upon the horizon of the soul, it is in its own secrecy that the soul verifies his theophanies. The process rather resembles the trafer of interest in Mahayana Buddhism om lived religion, from the "historical" Buddha perceived in his "body of transformation," to the Buddha meditated upon in his "body of the law" (Dharmakaya).
Th nal mam It would even be difficult to coider this idea of the priority of the Imam as the result of a historical process. The idea is disceible at the very beginning of Shiite Gnosis and is no doubt the most compelli force in its development. On August 8, 1 1 64, the Great Resuection was proclaimed at Alamut (the Ismailian "commandery" erected in Iran,the in statute the chain of Law m ountains southwe st of the Caspian Sea). In settling of the hum-e shari'at) against the statute of Resuection um-e qiyamat ) and in proclaiming ielf a religion of Resurrection (n-e qiyama, Ismailism merely returned t its srcins aer the closing of the Fatimid episode, the political success of which was a paradox doomed to faile on the spiritual plane, since it presupposed the accomplishment of an eschatology. Refoed Ismailism established once and for all the priority of the Imam and the Imamate, since the Resurrection is the application of the ta'wil, the spiritual exegesis that carries every exoteric figure back to its tran Tasra XX
. 79 ofthe Pe te 11
scendent orgn, 138 d snce the Imam s the ey to Resurrecton Here precsely s the paradox, the permanent challenge of ths Shte Gnoss: to experence the relgon of Resurrecton, the relgon of the Imam, s penetrate the hdden sense of the postve relgon and at the same tme surpass t. And yet the postve relgon must be retaned, precsely n order constran men to exceed t, to call forth the resurrecton of the adepts. Such meanng sxPers perods of then exoterc of tthe Prop hetss, the whch one ofofthetherare an texts the Alamrevelaton ut tradton o have survved e Mool tempests descrbes as the "Nght of the True Relgon" (shab- e Din 3), a Nght that s the velng ijab) of the Im am just as n the physcal world the nght s the hdn of the Sunnd we already ow that t s t he "Nght of De stny . " Is then a Moon not necessary to ll ne ths nght wth the True Fath? In respoe to ths queston, a dstncton s ma de between two Epphanes of th e Im am one Epphany that we m ay desgnate as corporeal and plastc (zuhure shli) and whch has always been exceptonal n our Cycle, and another sprtual or mental Epphany zuhur-e maawi), that of hs true hdden atin) meanng, vsble only te soul of e ntate, forever nvsble to the profane, even when the crporeal Manfestaton s present to hs eyes nd an Ismalan poet, Ghar, ass "If the sprtual Epphany today s wthout proft, what wll the corporeal Epphany aval tomorrow?" 140 In the foreound of ths sprtual Epphany the gure of the a the "Proof," the "Wtness" of the Imam, wll stand out, assumng the role that prevously fe to the Ba, the "Threshold" Ths promoton s of nestmable mportance for the rejuncton of Ialsm and the mystcal relg To understand ts repercussons n e ndvdual beng of each adept, let us consder the ontologcal aspect n whch the concept of the Imam s now perceved Wth great psychologcal subtlety a treatse attrbuted to Nasraddn Tus observes that the measure of a True Belever, what he s n hs nnermost beng, can never be understood by others. And he goes on to nfer "How then wll t be wth hm n whom the True Belever puts hs 3 8 Defnt n f te tail: (Aabc) "du in ild aalihi" i 303) (Pesan) "hizi bele kwod id" (Kli i 57) 39 C te tte t eatse n a gy b sed n Pesan b y W vanw nde te tte d bne shakte Im (e den 99); On the Reognition of the Im (Bbay 97) 2 f te text (abbev ee St) 2 8
faith?" 1 4 1 Conceing the object of this faith, the Imam, we are told that owledge must avoid both his tashbih and his la'til; one can neither a nor deny the resemblance of the Imam to creatres 1 42 The Imam as Imam is unowable for men; he is knowable only in his bei that is relative to the creatures, to eh accordi to his rank in being (unicuique secundum quad dinus est, to cite Origen's foula). But have we not here the entire problem concei knowledge of the godhead? Assuredly; and the esis is precisely that owledge of the Imam is knowlege of God. 143 Thus a decisive change has been made in the system of coespondences that we have fod established among the thinkers of the Fatimid tradition, such as Hamidaddin Kermani. The Imam is no loer the epiphanic Figure (mazhar) of the second Intelligence or universal soul, but, extending over the entire hierarchy of the pleroma, it is the Epiphany of the existentiating Word alimat), the creative Fiat (KN) 1 44 of eteal existentiation (ib, the being in the imperative and e imperative of bei that vibrates in every being. In his essence he is essentially this Epiphany, that is, the possibility of giving attributes t the 1 godhead; concretely, he is the godhead ielf cloed in these attributes, 4 5 that is to say, not Epiphany of the divine Essence but Epiphany of those attributes that are entirely relative to men. There is a sayi in which Imamology coincides literally with Christology: "He who knows me knows God"; 1 46 here it is not this or that Imam who speaks in his own name, but an eternal Imam. And as primordial Epiphany it is, in protoIsmailism, the Five Preeternal Perso (ashkhas azaliyun), who are epiphanized in the successive stages of the cosmolo (the Five Archangels, the Five "Persons of the Mantle"4 7 as Manifestations of the godhead (surat-e zahir-e oda), as his Attributes, his eternal theophanies. "We are the beautiful Names of God and his supreme attributes, that is to say, the suprem e Nam e and the c oncretized and hypostatiz ed Attributes . " 1 4 8 141 Tasaurat, . 87. 142 Ibi.; Shihabain Shah Husani, The Te Meaning of Religion or Risala dar Haq-e Din, tr. W. Ivanw (2n en., mba, 1947), . 20-21 (hereinaer abbre viate as Te Meanin. 143 Ibi. , . 20. 1 The cnsnant s the abi c wr un, "et there be," m "t be." 145 Tawwurat, . 88: "His wr, his actin, his knwlege, his ace can be calle the wr, actin , knwlege a n ace G . " 14 True Meaning, . 20: Har mara shanakt, oda shandktah. C. Gsel St. hn 1 4 : 7 an 9: "H e that hath seen me hath s een the ather . " 147 C. nn . 44, 47, 1 1 7 ab ve an the en sectin belw. 148 Tasaurat XX . 88.: "I knew G bere the Heavens an the arth were
The Prophets pass away and change, while "We are an eternal people" (nah anas sama diyun) . 49
We must take note of this plura It marks the plurality which om the outset attaches essentially to the very notion of a theophany. Yet we must take care not to interpret it as indicating quantitative fragmentation, as though each Imam were a fragmentary Imam. Here we see at work the notion of individuation, having as its corollary the homolo between the each the A that we sessed 150 above. Each Imam is thetoEpiphany of a he degree,and a mystery, a beneficence, a gradation relative him to whom "shows himself," but each one homologically contains the totality. To make it clear that he is not speaking of the fragmentation of a species into individuals differing numerically (and only numerically) amo themselves, Nasir, awing on the lexicon of Avicennan angelology, points out that the individual person of the Imam is ielf his entire species, that his ecies is his person. 1 5 1 The plural refers to what we have called above the "metam orphose s of theophanic visions " ; it is the basis of the distinctio n that we have just remarked between plastic or corporeal Epiphany and spiritual or mental Epiphany. Now this fundamental distinction encompasses another: the modes of manifestation (or theophanic visio) vary according to the modes of owledge, which vary accordi to the mode of coociation (paastai) with the Imam. This consociation ielf presents a reefold variety, deteining a reefold mode of being which differentiates human beis and t which correspon a reefold mode of perception or knowlege of the Imam. There can be a purely physical bond with the Imam (as in the case of those of his lineage who have not been invested with the Imamate); there
can be a purely spiritual bond (this will eminently be the case of Salman the Pure); and lastly, there can be a consociation realized at once on the physical and spiritual plane and on the plane of Essence (this in general is created. . . . We stand in such a reaon to God that being Him, we are He. I he who ises the Heavs and he who lays out the Earth. I am the First and the Last, the Manifest d the Hidden. I coizant of all thing s . " In such texts we gain inmaon of the gure of eteal S ophia through the eteal Im am . 49 Twurat, p. 90 50 Ibid., p. 94 Through the unity of the hiqa of the Eternal I mam, the per so hh) of the Imams are conceptuly d ontolocly dar ma'niyat wa hiqa both disnct; it is in this se that one may spe of the " return" raj 'a ofthe Imam. 5 Ibid., p. 89
1
the cse with the telve Imams of Duodeciman Shiism, who comprise the rst heptad of Imams recognized by Iailism)." 152 To the reefold mode of co ociation corresponds a reefold division of hum an be ings : there are the Exoterists (ahl-e zahir) who require a material presence and attach themselves to the genealogy of the Imam, to his carnal lineage. There are the Esoterics (ahl-e ban), who disce and examine hidden meanis and fos; they are open to the mental Epiphany, and what they perceive in the Gnostics genealogyofofthethe Imams haqiqa, is a spiritual Finally, , there are the the Essence the perpetuation. e soterics o f esoterics for whom Im am i s this Essence, the eteal Im am . To the three m odes of being coespond, then, three modes of knowledge: there is a perception of the Imam in his physical person (but of this animals are also capable), or in his common name, his carnal genealo (but of is his enemies and negators are also capable); there is the knowlege of his Imamate, coespondi to the lf (a of the Imam, or rather of the Self that is the Imam, of the Essence which creates the truth of his attributes aqiqat-e sat-e u), that is t say, which is the foundation of his very being as primordial Epiphany, eus deteinas. ly the t possesses this knowledge. 153 All these functional relations between modes of consociation with the Imam and modes of being and knowing, combine to deteine the very concept of Epiphany, to define what may be meant when it is said that an " Im am has come to this worl d. " O f course , this comin g canno t (any m ore than in the case of Angelos Cristos) be an incarnation into this world nor an entrance into becoming. This "coming to the world" is essentially an Epiphany, a Manifestation, which is equally present in the three worl (the physical world, the psychospiritual world of the da'wa the spiritual world of the heavenly Angel), a Manifestation that is the cae of their be ing, of their reve lation to be i. 15 4 This means that his coming consis in his making himself visible in the Fo in which he is contemplated and that the eteal Imam epiphanizes himself to this world without coming into
Here, of cose, we leave out of account the divgce conceg the peon of the Seven Im (the successor of the Im Ja' f S adiq) . 53 Twurat, pp. - 3; Shanat, p. 22. This law of essce that denes the reaon betwe the subje ct's mode of b and his mo de of pcepon of the Im m ay be comped with the discusons on the Light o f Tabor o the Byzanne Hesychasts: an anim, unbelie, would not have percved this light. Turat, pp. -2 5; Shanat, pp. 2 6 of the text), 2; compe the ad
mirable phomenology in Nasiraddin Tusi (ibid.) of "coming into this world" and "d ep arting om this world" " Cyclical Tim e, " pp . 5-5.
this world; his epiphany does not reveal his essenceit is always "relative to" (that is to say, relative to the capacity for vision o him who contemplates it. 155 Thus, so far as the eternal Essence aqiqat al-haqa'i is conceed, the Imam has never come and never does come into this world; but in regard to the relation of which we have been speaking, he has had and will have , down through the ages, his Epiphanie s to this world. Thus he is at once faer and so sometimes a youth, sometimes an old man. Trait for trait, they we recoize the theophanic visionsSuch of theand Acts of aPeter the reladoctrine imply: qualem such visionand is the caper e poi. tion in actu with s uch and such a divine attribute " in per son" ; the Im am s are the Manife station, the hypostasis o f these attribute s (" We are the beautiful Names of God and his attributes"). In short, each being t whom he epiphanizes himself is the com ing of the Im am into this world. Of course our familiar cociousn ess of th e " real" will mobilize our antiDo cetic instinct to utter the objection: but what guarantees the truth of this vision relave to mysel Our Gnostics foresaw this objection and answered it: it is the truth of the Imam that makes the vision true and not, inversely, some exteal criterion that makes the vision of the Imam true. The setting up of a relation between the two terms, the contemplator (or, him who contemplates) and the contemplated, results from an individuation, the truth of which does not arise om the contemplant alone but also from the Figre individually contemplated. The only criterion, the Imam, formulates this by declarin g: "He who reco ized me in pre eternity will recog nize me . " 156 Once we have taken together these coiderations regarding the plurality of theophanies as individuations of the eternal Imam, the functional relations that condition them, their nature as spiritual eventsnot as visio of 155 Shanakt, . 2. 15 Tasawwurat, . 9, ging as ar as the arax "Withut him, the truth itsel is imius errr { with him even luralism (shir is Truth an True aith." With th i s iea re- eternal recgnitin w e ma cnnect t he mti an ihan the Imam which is cnsnant with the hristlg Origen (hrist an Angel r th e Angels, a man r m en) : "T h u ae arest a man amng men , an An gel amng Angels" (Shanakt, . 2 5 the text, eali ng wi th the istin cti n beeen the wrl the alq an the wrl the Amr. the names the ive ersns written in letters light n th e Thrne (Iri s, ch. XI II ) an t he Angels cn tem lating 'Ali (which is nl the krilgical name the eternal Imam, Eelsu in the Angel (Klami ir, . 88 an Tail al-at Sharaain "All Astarabai, in ne cmare als the iea the personal rm ever ihan (araise is a ersn, raer is a ersn, etc.) an the iea Fedeli d'amo (R uehan.
1
mar amng the
the Imam n hs epphanc essence (whch would be to penetrate the mystery of the creatve Hat) but as epphanc relations consttutng, as such, e only com of the Imam nto ths worldt becomes possble for to gan an ntm aton of the mean of the H the Wess, the oof of the Imam, and the reasons whch mpose ths Fgure on Imamology carred to ths speculatve heght Two characterstcs dee the at Ths Moon, we are told, "llumnes the Nght tofreceves Fath" 157frm just the as the llumnes the world the measure n whch SunMoon a lght proportonal to tsn capacty: elf t s nong and has nothng, but e radant brghtness of the Imam maes t ncandescent, and t s hs substtute ala, dadochos) durn hs "occultaton" The uat s dscrbed to us as the person who fm preeternty s the perfect homolog of the Imam; ther concepts are one 1 58 It s the true yrolgcal name (i haqiqi) of the Imam; t s the "Door of Compasson" (dare Rahmat), the "Threshold of Knowledge" abe ma'rifa of the Imam By vrtue of the dentty of ther concept (maa), the at s the mental or sprtual Epphany (zuhure ma'naw of the Imam ; other ter m s, hs person s not an In caaton of the Im am but s the form of hs "comn to ths world" That s to say, that snce the Imam, as epphany of the dvne attrbutes, s nowable only rele human creatures, the uat, the "Threshold of Conscousness," s precsely ths relaon 9 The second trat that completes the characteraton of hs person brngs us to the strng convergence of Imamology and el Chrstology The mode of "consocaton" whch places the person of the uat n respect to the Imam s by no means the mode of caal descent, of genealogcal legtmacy He s e Sprtual Chld aande ma'nawi), the Adopted Chld of the Imam 1 It s no accdent that ths term should remnd us of the adoptansm of the Chrstology of the Ebontes and of the epherd of ei; ndeed, the convergence of whch we have just spoen becomes cle ar as soon as we gve the uaths archet ypal proper name, the na me of 57 Tawwur 97 58 Shanakt . 28 59 bd 3637 00 of te te xt) To ente by te Tesod s to ent e te ose b t t s by te Tes o d t at on e st ente God cannot be nown by te ceate and te nowedge o f te a cannot be eazed n ts Ngt of te Fat w tot te uat wo s te s ta o enta E any (zuhue manawi) of te a (bd) 60 b d 23 ( 4 of te tex t) 23
Salman e Persan or Salman the Pure (Salm Fars, Salm Pa) The Imam may be sad to stand n the same relaton to Salman, hs Adopted Chld, hs Sprtual Chld, as the Ael Chrstos to Jesus If we recall the equvalence beeen Gabrel and Chrstos professed by an entre ngel Chrstology, we shall not be far fm the secret of the engmatc gure of Salman, n whom our texts show us the earthly typfcaton of the el of Revelaton, and as such the ngel of ntaton The nterventon of Salman naugura tes wll a process thatthe wllProphet mae esoterc a pa radox Islam , for Salman outran hmself,Imam and ology ths prorty wlln derve om hs qualty as ua as Wtness and Sprtual Chld of the Imam Snce n ths capacty he wll be presented as e archetype of the Gnostc, of the True Belever, he may be sad to mar the most personal sprtual experence to whch Ismalan Imamology can lead Who s Salman? A domnant fge of ths Islamc esotercsm the Expatr ate, the Exle , he who comes from a ds tant horon he s the Orph an am) and also the Adopted One, the Sprtual Chld of the Imam 1 6 1 Hstorcally an Iranan, son of a Madean nght of Fars; after attendng a lturgy he became a Chrstan and set out on a plgrmage n quest of the True Prophet, n the course of whch he came nto contact wth Mohammed Mnfed to the gnostc dmensons of the Ismalan conscousness, hs Person rose to an extraordnary ran Salm an s he who ntat ed the Prophet, who helped hm to gan awareness of the scrptural antecedents of hs Revel aton. He s the " epphanc fo rm " of the el Gabrel , h s human, eart hly fo, snce the Prophet could not sustan the brllance of the Aels orgnal form 1 Thus he was the Prophet's companon of ntaton, the whose mahd s the Prophet, the exegete of the esoterc me of the words "dctated" the ngeln oter words, he ton whom t s gven to demonstrate the by recurrences and coespondences the Revelatons communcated by the Angel Accordly he alteates wth the ngel Gabrel as "sxth" by the sde of the Fve Persons of the Mantle 163 f
Loui aignon, Salman Pak (Pai-Tou, 3 4 ) ou tudy on "Le Live du Goieux," pp 6o on te otif of te Expatiate, cf o ou Prolegomena to te Wok of Suawdi, pp. 87 7 f. n 42 aove (te two fo of te ge) Tu te toy tat oaed e ceived t e initiation ('m) Gaie, te nge ua fo, i to e efeed to te H of te Ia c o n 8 6 aove ya, H of Je u, eceiv i te R te Ia, o te Huat of te Ia of te peceding peod 63 f 43 -47 aove igno Saan Pak, pp 16 ou "Le Live du Goeux," pp
these indices of superio r rank are alluded to in enigm atic hadi
but above all ey are motivated by the solemn attestations of Salman's adoption, given by the Prophet and, wi still more weight, by the first Imam. Such attestations are known in many variants, pointing to different se of circum stances . Thi s v ariant, f or examp le, em anates om the Imam : "Salman is one of us, the members of the Hoe (Salman minna, Ahl al Bay, a S of the divine Light, an integral part of oselves. The heart of the True Believer is the Light of God; no one measures his measure, for the True Believer is forever living in the two universes." 1 6 5 Or yet again: " Salm an is p art of myself, and I mysel f am part of Salman ' 1 66 In primitive Shiism, or more precisely in protoIsmailism, this assumption of Salman is reeted in the speculations developed around the three symbolic letters 'AYN, SIN, MIM, typifying respectively the Imam, Salman the Adopted One is Spiritual Child), and the Prophet. The "Book of the Glorio One" of Jabir ibn Hayyan starts om these highly abstruse speculatio 167 The order in which the three symbolic letters have just been enumerated coesponds to the order of rank adopted by the refoed Ism ailism of Alamut, which thus returned t its primitive inspiration. Considered on the plane of hierarchical archetypes, according to the law of homolo that we have disceed in the basic aelolo, this order of rank introduces a radical and highly meaningful change into the schema of 1 68 coespondences esblished by the thinkers of the Fatimid tradition And indeed this modification is the direct coequence of the promotion of the Imam, who is now meditated upon as a typification not of the second 64 f Au Da ew wat tere is in te eart o f S e would url te anatea against i or even ( alternative read ing) would s to kill i. Te a explai ns: f San decl ed to Au D a tat is o rank is superior to tat of te Propet (priority of te Sin over te Mim n. 78 aove and n. 67 elow) d tat te is te Creator and oer of te World Au Darr wod regd as an idel d would to i Shana� p. 7•· ) . Tus te sai li exeges of tis hadi akes it a witness attesting te superiority of te yn and te Sin over te m (see references in prec edi note ) . sl also ention te exegesis given e recently y ranian end (a Duodec Siite): te secret of S is te secret of each eliever: eac eliever as secretly his o a; pe raps if e vulge d is se cret e would pas s an idel! Tis exegesis strikes e caracteristic of ranian individualis; it aply jties te idea of S cetype of te True B eliever (c so n. 76 elow). 65 Shana� p. 7 66 p. 9references �. 67 id. C te given in 63 d aove and n. 69 el ow. 68 See sect ion 3 aove the tale of iercies .
Intelligenc e but of te cre ative L OGOS whi dominates the entire hier archy of the Emanations which it gives rise The entire doctrine of epiphic Forms (mazr) is thus reformed m the top down: the Im am is the mazhar or epiphany of the creative Logos the Hat (or Salman as human correspondence of Gabriel) that of the first Archangel the Prophet (who is initiated by GabrieSaman) that of the second Inteigence, the universa Soul. Thus the Huatstands in the same relation to the Imam as the first Fiat Archael is theator),Facm (ib As to forthe te creative Prophet Logos aq, he Enunci he now(mubda takes his raofnkthis simply among the Da'i, e Preachers "Each time that the Da'i ('he who calls') is m entioned, we e told, it is an allusion the Prophet, as f example in this Koran verse: And as a Smoner to Allah, by his permissio and as a l amp that givet h light" (33 s). 169 We need hardly point out that we are far om Islamic orthodoxy To foow the road opened up by Isaiian Gnosis to its end, we must now compare the texts celebrating the apotheosis of Salman with ose ich show him as archetype of the True Believer, as the Adopted e, the Spiritual hild, exemplifyi the bond between the True Bel iever d the Im am The "Glorious One," the hero of the alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, already gives an intimation of this Glory he is the Expatriate, come fm afar, who required no master nor any lo initiation and familiarity with the Imam, as did the Prophet, but who leaed e verything fm the presentim ent of his Quest, from the direct magnetis of the Ia upon his person 1 70 But et now consider the siificance of declarations uch as this " Salm an is the Thresho ld of Paradi se Since the Thresho ld of Paradise is a human being, the place of Paradise m ust also be a hum an being " And elsewhere:
"I am wis on mythe friends they seekdes me,ertsometimes on e sometime plain,wherever some times in the He to whom I hamountain, ve revealed my Person, that is, the owledge of mysel has no need of proximity 1
Shanakht a and hs tt tats Imgy bgns wth a th f th "hanc Fs" (mhar accd wt that ut fd by Tasawwat XXIV 2 t Im s tnly th n, d th "llas f ths tn" a th H th Ag-c s (Ga and Mcha, Sh and Aza) nd n th stv n h th athy tycn ths gus Shankht, 7 ) h f th as ( 'i,t whch an s assd that f th ht, the tw "cntats," th Audt) a th hs f th vsa S d st and n th sam atn t th H as th S cnd Intgnc t th F st
Ia) f u " v du Gux" 66-67 74, 10 1 (bd 1 26
space ; ts s te Great. Resurre cto d lastly, ts setece wc Imamology offers te decsve fulfllmet Cosecrate to me ty devoto ad ty owledge, 1 71 ad tou wlt become, as Salman, like unto me. " To become as Sa lm a s to become o eself a H te Im am s oof ad Adopted Oe, ad t ereby to become le uto te Im am ; suc s e ultmate metamorposs to wc te tate wll aspre. Now we may udersta d te reso ace of tese verses b y Ra s Has a, a Ism al a poet Tou art He wose Hat s te Tresold ts world; I a sympoy of a udred tousad voces, Wsdom proclams te Keoma ad te Pleroma, Hs ra s symboled by te dstace of te two arrows . II Tus S alma te Made a, te te Crst a, te Exle Quest of te True Propet, te te Sprtual Cld of te Imam wo solemly attests s adopto, as be come t e Tres ol d ; so w ll t be wt all te Salm as, wt every sou l tat exemplfes s case ; eac o e, as a ve ry acet text declares, becomes te II Sa lm a of te m crocosmos . 174 We ave already poted to te omolo of ts adoptast relato te el Crstos s to Jesus as te Imam s to s Huat. To become le uto te Imam correspo ere a Imitaio Christi, o loger te cotext of a carato Crstology, but te oly sese tat ts mtato mples for a Gostc as exemplfy a smlar relato wt elos Crs tos, wc Teodotuss Gostcs also expressed as a coucto of te soul wt ts el. 175 d ts essetally s te cocepto ad vso of te Imam attaed by Ssm at te lmt of ts sprtual maturty. Mulla Sadra ofmSra, oe of te us greatest of seveteetcetury Duodec a Ssm, gves t s plosopers edfy defto Tere s te uma beg a realty of te aelc world, a dve tg, wc comes to t om God ad s absolutely proper to t; ts tg tat s absolutely proper 171 Faan-e man bar,
oce s at bt d (bd., p.
72 Shanat p. 9 . 73 usion to Koran 53 : 9: te distce Muaad at wic te el descend ing o eaven stands at te tie of te t revelation d te distance o te vine ystery to wic te Propet (d iitation of i te ystic ere te Hat approaces. Tis verse represented a particular callenge to te sagacity of te tafsir
74 Saan-e alam-e saghir: teccal te Umm al-Kib uestion 34. 75 Extraits de Theodote ed. F Sagnd pp. 37-39 87 Sodere p. 249. 27
to the human being is the Imamate 6. In meditating this message we shall discover the ripened fruit of that other maxim that has guided us om the start: "He who ows himself n his Anima) knows his Lord." 1 77 Illustrations might be drawn from all the suiving Ismailian literature and from Shiite l iterature in genera l. In ese i llustrations the sam e constants are confirmed: nostalgia for the vision reed and at the same time granted by the epiphanic meaning of the symbols, the noslgia whose premises and fulfillments attempted to analyze here; and dominati the whole, the see we of have the incommunicable, of the intransmissible personal secret. We still d it in a little book composed at the end of the last century, by a man whose premature death was an inestimable loss for the Ismailian community: Shihabaddln Shah Husayni. 1 78 Certain traditional sayings, or logia, which our author recalls and enchases in his own text, propagate the same ame of intrepid devotion. This one, for example, attribute d to the first Imam : "I would neve r worship a God whom I did not see." nd this other, which comes as an answer t the challee of the impossible vi sion: " H e who does not know his Imam does not know God." 179 But we must take care: this vision is given not to the eyesight (it does not even reside in t he mater ial " data" of the pa st) but t o the visi on of the heart: what the heart sees is pure Light; 180 it is not an object that one can point to with the ger, that one can fin identify, impose on others, not even by invoking the materiality of what we call a "historical fact." To attain t o this vision wh ich other s d o not see, to this audition that ot hers do not hear, a long, very lon g struggle i s neede d. " How might one say these 76 Quoted Sayk a Bozorg Zaria (Siite Biliograpy) 325. te coue of o conveion aout Au Darrs adith te se ranian iend to wo ave refeed aove (n. also sd to e apropos of tis deition of Mula Sadra: So you see eac one of as indeed his a. Basically te a is f wat te ravarti ws to te cient rani ans . ny coentary wod ween tis te stiony t o a lived religion wic in its conciseness expresses wat is pe raps te ost srcinal spiritu essge tat ran as ever given to anind. 77 Kalami Pir (p. 73 of te t ext ) citing tis ver se of Nasire K usraw (iwan Teeran edition p. 528 line 7: Becoe conscio of tine o ei d ten old ty ead ig ao te ult itude (or els e: take te ead of te ultitude) adds : Te owledge of te is ten acieved. 78 Died 885 te ge of 40. He le a sort treatise wic e ad coposed not for te iger initiates ut for te slian counity general. ts Peian text alo wit an Elis trslation ws pulised y W. vow True Meaning (Boay 933 2nd edn. 947 (c n. 42 aove). 79 Tr Meaning (2nd edn.) p. 2. 80 id. p. 48. 28
D VNE
EP
PH ANY
A ND
SP R TUAL
B RTH
ins to the rstcomer, and how miht the firstromer see them, hear them, and understand them? No, only ose who see wi the eye that sees the truth can do so" 1 8 1 nd so the enimatic allis are illed for us too in e transparenc y of a wholly interior liht; suh allusions, f r example, as those referrin to Adam' s Pa dise, Noah' s Ark, Abraham' s v isio the Mo unt Sii of Moses, Maryam mother of esus, Gabriel Ael of the Prophet, as so many fos of the H 8 For in the conte xt of the Ism ailian spirituality that repudiates all purely abstract or anecdotic sinificance, these are all metamorphoses of theophanic visions, always perceived as personal presences (Paradise is a person, Hell is a perso Prayer is a person, ec) 183 d it is precisely as such that they can neither be communicated nor made cprehensible to te firstcom, any more than they can be rationally demonstrated or dom atical ly imposed The discovery of e H or epiphany of the eternal Imam, remains the most intimate of secrets in the depths of the heart, the secret which the True Believer discloses to no one; here the "Docetic" conscioness attains its profound truth throuh the sentiment of its essential individuation Witness also this tale upon which our author invites us to meditate The Imam afar Sadiq replied one day to a man who aed him whether it was true that on the day of the Resurrection God would be vis ible to all " Ye s, " said the Im am " He is visib le even befre that day; he has been visible since the day when he asked, ' I not your Lord?' 184 The True Believers have seen him even in this world. Dost thou not see him ?" nd the man repl ied " 0 my Lord, I see thee Permit that by thy authority I o and announce it to the others" But the Imam said "No, say nothin to anyone, fr the people areyou stupid they will they will disavo w andand hurlinorant, the anathem a at not youunderstand; ." And our author comments Know, 0 my brother, that this subject was always kept hidden om the unworthy and the incompetent; it has been condd only to a small number. If one of the True Gnostics (Ahle haqiqat) 8 bd p 22 82 S p 8a ( tansa ton p 3 ) 83 bd tans at on p 4 7; o Rt e S abe en pp 232 23 Ason to te pact concded n peetenty n te Ngt of te ovenant wen God a sed te anty pesent n ts a c etype s "A not yo L od ?" (Koa n 77) 29
is s omew here, the pe ople sla nder him and mo ck him . . . . Each thing, whether it he exoteric or esoteric, can be for you yoself a fo of worship ('iba. Worship, assuredly, is identical wi Knowledge (ma'rifat),but worship in every case fos a thing iel different from every other thing. Knowledge by the organ of your eyes means that you know this human Fo that gides you, which is proper to the person who bears outwardly all the features of simple human reality {insaniya. But it is not wi the eyes that the heart you can obtain is different a representation from that of of sight: the heart. it is The pure Knowledge luminescence, of shining for ielf. And neither have I the power t tell you more nor you the capacity to hear more 18 5 Theophanic vision is eerienced by each man alone; it is revelation and pure luminescence of the "Alone for the Alone," a ll spiritual event the evidence of which is incommensurable with the norms governing common evidence, that which imposes ielf on the sees and on common reason, or that which is re corde d in history and profane cronology. The only transitive action that is conceivable and effective is that of helpi each man to encounter his Imam, and this is eminently the role of Salman the Pure, the "companion of initiation," who his dealings with the Prophet pies the ministration of the invisible Ael. "No more than this?" it may be asked. But "this" alone is perhaps the total encounter to which every soul aspres. 6.
he "Quest of the mm "
We may thematize the search for this encounter as the "Quest of the Im am . " Since the reaso an d the vicissitu des of this Quest are the same as those which motivate and guide all the doctrinal eositio of Ismailism, the aspects we have so f considered will s ce to provide the foundation of an inquiry into it. At this po int a brief recapitulation m ay suggest the main lines of such an inquiry. e of the questio raised by an initiatory sect such as Ismailism is this: Is there any trace of an experimental spiritual pedagogy, of a "psychagogy," that is specifically Ismailian, leading the soul to "birth," to metamorphosis, making it apt for theophanic visions, as the widows in the Ac of Peter are made accessible to the story of the Transfiguration? Unfortunately, fe documents relating to such a pedagogy, and 185
Meaning, . 0
4 (Persian text, . 840 34)130
paticulaly to the efed Ianian Imailism that most inteests us hee, have come do to us We do, howeve, have a little omance of initiation, datin fm a emote peiod, peceding the Fatimid ea It etaces the phases which put the neophyte upon the "way of the Quest" and lead him to membeship in the esoteic s odal ity. Its possible autho is Mansu al am an, the st Ismailian Da'i sent (in 26687) to southe Aabia, whee his mission was Mastertoand the Hee be cowned geatwa'l-hulam) success Its title is simply Disciple isalatwith al'alim I cannot The undetake sum-
maie it, but all meely point out cetain of its chacteistics The essential is that it is not an anecdotic histoy but an achetypal naative 187 In the Ianian povince of Fas (Pesis), amid geneal ignoance, thee lived a man who attained Tue Knowledge (that is to say, an Ismailian) Endowed with a seitive heat, a penetating intelligence, and a lof moal sense, he undestood the illusion and the emptiness of the miage of life He abandons hi s h e and his people , becom es a pilim wandeing though the wold, amo the Pesian populations and the Aab tibes Diectly ou potagonist, Abu Malik, becomes e type of the spiitual Exile, te Expatiate afte the manne of Salman the Pesian o Jabi's "Gloious One," o the heo of Suhawadi's Recital ofthe Weste xi; he is the Stange, the Alenos of the Sethian Gnostics (the childen of Seth) He entes a town unnoticed o unecognied; this incognito is an essential condition of his mission mission totally diffeent fom what the histoy of the Chistian Chuches has accustomed us to undestand unde this wod, implying a diffeent aim and diffeent tiumphs His mission is neithe to spea ingoup the public squae no towho convet the cowdsofAbu Malik mingles with of pious Moslems ae convesing; couse he does not say who o what he is; he pes ents himself as a p ious foene on a jouey and contents himself wi seii the oppotunity, between sentences, to inject disceetly a question, edifying pehaps, assuedly distubi, if only his intelocuto wee capable of gasping it But soo called back to thei affais, all aise and dispese except fo a single one, a youth who, like 86 W vanow as gve n a sa y of t s tt e spta oance n ersi ail (Bobay and Leden 8
s Studies in Ely
87 Te naes of te two pncpa eoes ae aso tose of acetypa caactes te aste s caed Ab Ma er gis) and te dscpe a (doneu 3
Parsifal aks in his turn the question which none of the others has even thought or will ever think of asking This is e "disciple" e second protagonist of the romance Then there opens a series of dialogues which progressivel awaken the oung man's curiosit aroing a dsire to ow ever more to enter upon the path of the " Quest " These dialog us reveal the entire Ismail ian art of pedagog or let us rather sa "pschagog" which awakens the meaning of (ta'wi as the necessar exos smbols desire spiritual frm the the letter But f the afirt decisiveexegesis step is taken l after a conversation ll of paos in the cose of which the Da'i receives frm his disciple the first solemn promise not to reveal to anone what he will learn in the course of their ensuin conversations And these conversations initiate him graduall into the fundamental questions some of which we have discussed here The dazzle the outh; om now on he is dominated b the attraction of an unsuspected dimeion that ope up access to spiritual liberation. It is not onl the oosition between the exoteric and the esoteric (zahir and bain) that is revealed to him; this is known also to the us For there is more namel the esoteric of the esoric an albatin), that is to sa that wh ich underlies e organic cnection between zahir and bati that which in Ismailian terms is its keto wit the third world the cosmos of the esoteric Church the hierocosmos a world intermediate beeen the phsical and the spiritual cosmos: this is the "Paradise in potenti " "the potential angelical world" structured in imitation of the celestial hierarchies Then the me tamorphosis of the disciple is announce d; this p otentialit is awakened in him too; he asks to see and to ow more conceing the "person" who smbol icall holds in his hands the kes of Pa radise i e the Imam 1 88 1 The knowledge of e exoteric, our author points out, coesponds to the dgre ofthe anim al; that of the esoric, t the dgree ofhuman beins: to possess it is to be a Te Believer, that is t say, a man the ue sense. Lstly, that of the esoric of the esoteric is atibute of the els To acquire it is to become a spiritual be spect to owlee, wile remning a hum being respect to physic pear ce It is thus that the Envoy of d is called the V w ch dissulates th e es ha alMala'iibid., p. . The gelomorposis toward wch iniaon starts the yog adept presupposes an tology whose concio are pfectly clear. In ts wld there are y to types of m the real and true sse: 'im i (coespd to the him mu'lih of the Isaqiyun, the "theosopanic S age" ), who has attaine d the summit of ro kowlee d whose spit has xperimentlly reed the Spirit of certn, d 2 the muta'allim e disple who seeks the Way and prgresses, n ngl in ntia l the rest are hum only in a purely mephoric see (ibid, p.
132
At s moment the master vanshes He has ge to consult te youth's "senor parent" (waiu'lar), 8 that s to say the Da'i of the next hher deee Soon he returns n haste to o hs dscple that e "gates of Compasson are wd open hm " The o dep art together lk e Gurnemanz and Parsfal toward the "Threshold of Compasson" tak good care to tell the youths blood father nothng about the jouey Here beg ns the scene of the " Transfor maton " the rtua l of the ntaton Da' i, proper one even to the presence o f the Shaykh the senor and of Admtted hs assembly the to plgrms soon wthdraw; they pass te nght wth ther compons n frendly and edfyng dscussons; at dawn tey return to the hoe of the Shaykh The assembly takes place and aer a solemn sermon by the Shaykh there opens a dalogue that lays the grodwork for the lturgy of ntaton In the course of t the neophyte leas that the name whch he bears by vrtue of hs earthly genealo s not hs real name that for the moment he has no namea stuaton correspond to hs status as a sprtual " newbo babe " It s the Shaykh who must gve hm hs real name hs ntator y Nam e the Nam e whch wll be hs God and whch he wll sere 1 Ths nvestture n hs real Name mkng hs es 1 C in Suhrawar's Recit de il cciden In reveng to his adept the esnce of the els or Intelligences preceding him, the Ael Gabriel-Acv Intelligence speaks, despite their eteal youth, of their rent enire ajdd In addi on, we have here the homology beteen Heaven d Earth required by the p leli beteen th e Ism aili hierchies . Frgment of the aloe (Sh the Shayk, D the disciple) "Sh: yog man, thou hast been ved by a d ce to thee as an Envoy, beloved of a Mess me to visit thee . What is thy nme? D: 'baydallah i 'Abdlah ittle of God, son of the of God) Sh: Thi s nam e descbes thy qualies and we hav e already hed tell of them (he an unspoken queson is implied). D: I am aee man, sn of the e of God Sh: Who, then, has d thee thy sle state, that ou hast bec ome a e m? D: oin his nger at who iniated im) This Sage. Sh : But dost ou not see at he is mself a not e owne How can he have eed thee? D : N o, indeed, he cannot have done so. Sh: Then what is thy ue ne? D: (ly seeks the swer.) Sh: young m, how shall a thin, any more than a newbo babe, be own if it has no ne? D: It is to thee that I have been bo It is then incumbent on thee to give me a ne. Sh I will do so when seen days have pas sed D: Why delay? Sh : For the prot ofth e newbo babe . D And if the newbo babe sod die befe the sv days have passed? Sh : N othing befall; he will recve is name ce the e has gone by. D : But will this nme that tho u art prag ve me remain mine? Sh: As l as it is thy God. D: How c one spe thus? S h : Thy N e is thy Lord and thou art its s Do not enge in discussins out of turn. Go now, unl the appointed day . " (Ibi d. , pp 1 0 1 , 1 02.) The osing words of the dilogue, which
t
se of at Qusta st (Dben is surised at bel em) , beme cl e wequeson compare"Who emiswi the Luqa cited ow (in response to if the my teaching
natalis, will take place seven days later The ceremony does indeed take
place at the end of the week: in the midst of e ssembly the Shaykh and the new adept stride solemnly toward one another Then says our text "the Shaykh begi to say the things that the pen cannot write that the imagination cannot invent the things that cannot rise to the consciousness of the profane 191 The text does not divulge this great secret f fear no doubt that the book may fall into the hands of an orthodox adversary But the " sacrammoment ent ofofthetheprop er Nam us an timawakening ation of what it is Thisdecisive " Quest fe"thegives Im am " isinthe of cocio ness to th e secret of te m otto : " He who knows himself knows his Lord " 1
1
1
G? ") - C he nay names (ism i mse an Imam's ne an a sbsane aee exs a ean esna en he Imam exame, n Ian (na by sne he e san he en he 1 h en by N Shah) he names mse wh ce/s) Shh Rex) N S (Len Excei Regis) as Sh (nxe wh Kng A), azub h (Fe wh esy by Kng A), e he es he Im s nw s en se we ann nee he eean he see mean ha he new ae s en he see "aess" he hen Imam we hae eay qe me han e ex shw ha he ean he Imam an be ee any a hys xmy) me e ha he s sea nw Quest gmag e, he ah es ens s hases n es he 'wi ha s, he s exegess he es bsee n he e see by he gms ea he 'wi/ hes e e s esns exay he s a memhss he ae he s abe n he Him wh he ms n ene he sae ey He s abe msh he "mambans" n he Ka'aba, e he esbe es, an ee he s ayes he m ees hs gmage by eng he Ayat aKubra Nw hs as h wha we w he Ismaan wi/ he es gmge nee he mge he Ka'aba s gaay abn he bees ha e esse by sm n n aane he eee tajib ha he H@ he ih s e away he aes n he sey hse wh he ee (zahir) en he " mambans " hase ah h e I mam, e ( Ka/ami Pir 6 he ex) hs es mg be sae by he g ahes s Isms, sh Ns-e Khsaw ( Ete reminaire 2 -33), H san Sabbah (e A, nee Ismsm a he e seeen ae a gae ness, Ray, hs bhae) One mgh s he nages wh he nan ae n S e abns, hge amen, msn a new nme, shang n he mys he (a sm men ne n he FutuwwatNah manas "sa hay," e.g ha m se n Pes by "Abzaq Kashan), aesng hs esene Ismasm an S wh, ae he ng nns, gae Ian S, Se S s se sam H ee I hae n he sa e men n he sg es nan s esb e by he hx agss n he ebe hsy Ismasm nne ses he "hng he ae n" an he "hysgnm a " by h e 'i (zarq wa farr) he n se n wh he ae shes hs ses an ms (insi) . We ae not ene, meey bease s ny he m ans by he aeses
Idd, th phass of our lttl sprtual romac prst succssvl all th thms whch, grall spakg, our txts group aroud th cocpt of "sprtual brth" (wilate ruhani) Th Kalami Pir, f xampl (o of th prcpal rcords of th rfod Ismalsm of Alamut to hav com dow to us), dclars that "phscal brth" taks plac th world of th tanzil (th lttr of th rvald Rlgo), whl "sprtual brth" taks pla c th world of th ta'wiL that s to sa, th word of ward or sotrc xgss author, followauthtc th Ismala prdlcto f a xgss ofAd th hr Nw our T stam t whr or " apoc rphal , " sts quotato om th Gospl of St Joh "Excpt a ma b bo aga h caot s th kgdom of God." 1 Ths trasto th tanzil to th ta'wil s as a w brth dpds s stall o "kowldg of th Im am , " whch thus bcoms absolut css 19 ths ais, th odus of ths exegesis, is ths kowl sl Sm ultaousl ths owl of th Prfct Ma nsan Kamil) dpds sstall o owldg of o's Slf "H who dos ot ach v th kowldg of th Im am of hs tm ad th kow ldg of hslf wll d gorac " 195 Th "Imam of his tm " ths should b tak ot th ss of a offsv croolo but rathr th ss accordg to whch, as w hav s, vr adpt s a "prod" of hs Im am , who for hm s hs A o To atta to ths kowl s , thrfor, to tak o's plac amog t Als of th hghst d, th mu qarrab, to achv battud th two uvrss, whch s owl of osl Th Prsa txt s xplct "H who kows hmslf, ows his God," ad that s th kowlg of th Imam 1 W ar ow a posto sa that th gur of th Imam prstd lf to Ismala Goss, at th hght of ts sprtual maturt, as a smbol of th Sl a pl that far fromwrtrs opposg slf to a mstcsm prsoal God (a th opposto whch som of o o comparatv cl), lf cato mafst lf ol through ths prsoal Fgur whch s ts mazha ts pphac Form I th prsc of ths pphac Form stuato r Ismlsm that ha om do to s, to dy th al o ths tto Ismsm a j st tsl wtot layg l to orthodo xy s rsm Brow, I, pp 41115 ad th rmarks o ard ws utin of th hoo l of rin / Stis 1938 p 696 Kai Pir, p 114 o th txt, d Gosp o S t Joh 3 3 t s qotd most trly 195 Ibd' pp 7211415 For th odm Shts, th Im o th tm s th wlh Imam, t "hdd Im am, " whos posa wll tsg th world 1 Ibd, p 73 177 abo, th dsth o Nr- Khraw.
35
as sstally dialogical. H t dos ot occu at t lvl of t co uty; t psupposs a auttc dvduato s to pat lf at ac succssv dg lk a casg tgato ad popotoal to ts dvduato. Ts stuato ad ts xgcy of t slf alo wt l dlat wat t as to t Tu Blv t o say God ; t Deus revelatus dos ot blo all but to ac accodg to s capacty fo vso; ad wat tsTs vso tally vslzsouts by a areal dv dvduato opay. stuato s bougt adabl txt attbutdas tot t Cs ta pysc a Qusta b Lua (Costa t so of Luk t ctuy) 97 wc Isals ss to av appopatd by cals tat a stll ucla. Wt adabl pcso ts txt sus up vytg tat w av attptd to bg out gadg t ag ad t opac fuctos of t Isala acs 98 ala t Gk ustod s ast Qusta b Lua Wll you tac to ow y God (ma'budi), askd so tat ISg aysaappoac Hkow ad takwo fg T d oly Do you casoly yout o H kowyou (nafsak you Anima), you wo w goat of youslf H wo sows you t advatags ad t us tat flow Qa b uqa a na o abk w o rk dn h wa a Mi i Orhodo hri ordi h daon o i work h u ha b bo abou 2 D and ha id o ar Encycldie de 'Ilam, ar Fad a a hii h wa no r in hiooh aono go d ui Hi rood owg o rk Sia and rabi a hi ai a anaor on a ar wih ha o Hunan ibn haq i uur iiad a onidb oron o i i hrough hi aon a hoohr h�"i d ibod or i work on h di boward o and iri h a ub Hii srcinai i ho in hi aud h ou i h adi a h daa hann onuraon bu h hi ri Fro hi oin o w h d h l an on o horai i hi a o i work ha wod o aoun or hi r in ian oi hi ioran i id a g in dri h XX 225. No or han h aroriaon o Qua b h i aoun h rn o a hi dii o o Pau rau had rd o aiian onaing a naa ha u b ida wih our o hi abir ibn H, n on 4-4. rau o oind ou ha wo a ong abir X book bar h ook o h aki d ha h b no good ron or hi na howr h aki a a oid rab ro in gda hior o anin Eg and a book o aibud o h Si a aar S adiq non h aiqa id b id wi D Sooo and h hooh
3
it for your life, when you took no heed of them? Him who causes you, on condition that you confo to his law, to ow what will make you forget fe if you are menaced by it? Him who delivers you frm sadness, who produces in you something whose inner sweeess you savor and whose power you sense at the se time, something that makes you independent of everythi that is not himsel If you know him," he added, "it can only be as a part of yoursel Then indeed you have found your God aqad wajadta yout ofare True Believer 'Amalaq asked: "0rabbaka); Source o f then te ligh theaMystery ! What" isnd there beyond my Go in order that I may be among those who have obtained all?" nd the Sage said to him eyond him there is he who is to him what he himseisfor thee, a One for a One (wahid liwahid) and
so forth up to the Threshold of Him in whom are contained all the Ones who are situated below him, of Him who can be attained neither by any Sae of his epoch nor by the people of his time, Him whom all those of his Aeon (dahr) need That is the Lord of the Lords of this time, a Defender with a rank in creation which permits him to a help of his exalted Lord and to be heard by his invisible
him, his elevation protector; his invisibility conceals in turn him in hides its him height; omand himsowho forth is below up to the ultimate One, the Lord of the world of the beginning, the Holy Spirit, he who is the primordial Archael and the First Existent, om wh isues the Begining and in whom culminates the Accomplishment for what is beyond him, it is Mystery without name, grace without num er "Meditate, 0 my brother, the positions of the Ses and the symbols configured by those who know Be faiful to the promises and oaths that have been received you Maintain your obedience to the hu Know your hadd in osis adka'l-'ilm,
(mab'u wa
muntaha), then you willand know youyour willbegining know your andImam, your and end you will attain to the tawhid of yo ur srcinator (mubdi'uka) ay God help you
and guide you! May he raise you through the degrees of Deliverance Glory be to him for having atified us with the owlee of the hudud by which the Adored One is epiphanied May he confim us in obedience to his Friends by whom bei is epiphanied in the hierocosmos" It seems to us that throughout tese pages we have merely been commenting on this text, so remarkable for its density We have spoken of the theophanic between fctionthe of the Ismailian hierarchies as shown usbyview theofcorrespondence hud and the celetial hierarchies, the 7
see of "horizon" implicit in the word had nd it is precisely ere that we find the connection beteen owledge of Self and the knowlege of thy God: "A e for a One" ath'hena wahid li-wahi. And this means: y God is the mysterious Figure that appears at thy "horizon," thy had which is thy " lim it " and also thy com panion of initiati on (as Salm anGabriel for the Prophet), the horizon of thy ansconsciousness. ine ngel is the Ael of this theophany of thine, which is in the measure of t God is also his Go that thy But,hadd as Qusta reminds is tobeing. say, thy also ibn has Luqa its own had us, To raise yself to this hadd is to perceive a new theophany at a new level. nd thy companion of initiation raise s himself to a still higher horizon when he raise s ee to his own ho rizon, and when simultaneously thou too raisest to thy horizon the companion who follows thee. This is the profod meaning of the sentence attributed to the Imam alMu'izz: "The True Believer is a true Believer only when he has raised up a True Believer like unto himsel" 1 A "One for a One" this is the foula for what we must here call a kathenotheism which goes hand in hand with angelology and the Imitatio aneli: a turning upside down of all the mystical hierarchies from the bottom to the summits of the pleroma. Thus we see that the invisible unity at the summit of ese summits is not the unity of an "Allpowerful" in an immediate and equidistant relation with all the Ones: there are successive and repeated integrations 199 Str oth ma nn, pp 6 1 , in e 3; 1 1 4, i ne 1 1 ; c ld ris, h X X, p 6 eliverance cmes t the suls thrugh their aherence t the hudud; the ascen thrugh the kn wlege
thse which recee him. Then the rise in the cman their hudud twar the ranks the Imams, with whm the ascensin the ble Temle the Qa'im is cmlete. This ascensin an this raising-u twar the Sublime Temle the
Intelligence, the irst ( are unceasing. This aherence r each sul its tawhid; it ismanatin the knwlege theSul), siritual wrl in which cnsists theis attain ment t existence in the true sense, pefetio seunda.This ascensin m egree t eg ree the esteric "H eaven s, " rmte b t h e hel th at each hd gives t the M T. 'Alvern in next llwing, remins us curius assages ublishe b "es eregrinatins e l'ame ans 'autre mne 'ares un annme e a in u XII siecle," Ahives d'histoire dotrinale et lilteire du Moyen-Age,94094 l. . 6869 thugh t hese igura tive allusins nt ermit us t establi sh a material iliatin between the annmus Avicennan an Ismailism; it shul be nte, hw ever, that bth the inicatins soii os n the circle ature an etera turba in the tenth shere just belw (ibi., . rather suggest the hierarchical istributin that we have nte a bve . With thi s ascensin t war the Im am- a'i m, th e substitute r the Tenth Angel, ne ma als cmare the interretatin given b the Ishraiun th e K ranic allus in t th e " cl eava ge the m n , " as sig niing the cnjuncti n the mstic with the Ative Intelligence (since
is a a Ismae)
138
the Ange the Shere
the Moon
of ac unies or iunitis. The idea that goves the gradation of these "horizons" is the axiom that we have found at the beginning of Ismailian theosophy: the eus abscontus is not the personal, revealed God; and it is an attribute of this latter, the only God with whom a personal relation is experienced, to be "unique f every unique individual," that is to say, uniquely revealed and visible at each theophanic horizon. At the highest accessible horizon the ge of the Imam who is the primordial Epiphany conditions and epiphanizes these epiphanies, ifies each One for each e. Now we may understand the ideas of our authors on the hierarchy of their sodality. We have already mentioned some of them; the essential is the idea of homology repeated om degree to deee. We recall that all the hu all the spiritual ranks, mark as many qiyama Resurrections; each of the "companions" rises, "resuscitates" to the spiritual Forms which he attains when they rise to his "horizon," that is, when he gains awareness of them . Tha t is why each hadd is a Resurr ector, a Qa'im, f his own mahdud that is to say, for the ha or companion, immediately below him Each ha is an Imam for him who is next below, and he is the Imamate for him whose mahdud he is (by whom he is "contained," as the Temple of Light supported by the Imam). 201 The esoteric sense (ta'wil) of death is this transfer from degree to deee, from metamorphosis to metamorphosis, each time amplifyi the dimeion of vision. 202 We now understand why for each deree adherence to the preceding hadd who raises it up toward him is its tawhias Qus ibn Luqa. also declaresits unification of the Unique (its God), homologous to the tawhid that the second Intelligence accomplishes toward the first Archangel. The Ismailian profession of monotheistic faith thus escapes the trapa of monism as the unconscio of orthodoxy by becomi kind of "mas well onadism. " The Cycle of dlism the "eight resurrections" (which coists in traversing the eight Thresholds of "Para
the text of ldris, quoted in Ivanow, F: pp 54-55 of the Arabi text 201 ldris , h XVI , p 210 ; here th ere is a on g deveopm ent, whi h I an on y men tion here, in whih the work of the is ompar the eaboration of the (subte humanity) of the Imam (c ti on 4 above) ; j ust as t he divini ty the Imam is epiphaniz by the nasut, the thehic Veritie (ha'iq 'lim al-din are gathered together in the Initiatr, the erect aemle in the taid (the celetial ongregation), just as a or divini is onentrat in the Imam, and an be manifested ony by the subte teahings of the 2 Ibid, p 2 200
'
'
139
dise " 203 to the Threshold of the Im am) is the " Quest for the I m am " within the sodal ity seen as the " spiritual care er" of the Ism ailian ade pt. 2 This Quest which raises each adept, which memorphoses him from resurrection to resurrection, om degree to degree of the Temple of Light which is the Im am ate, the lahut of the Imam, is ielf the ascension of this Pillar of Light which has enabled us t recoize in Ismailian Gnosis one of the most characteristic motifs of Manichaean Gnosis. We d this motif once again in the no less characteristic aspect of what has been called the
theolooumenon of the " m em be rs . " H ere aga in we are indeb ted to Abu Ya ' qub Sej estaniin this instanc e, to his personal int erpret atio n of a text from the Gospel. Butand this is a highly remarkable detailthe lesson known to our Ism ail ian theosoph er brings t the text, which we read today as authentic, a change which accords strikingly with a certain lesson om the Seon on the Mount as read by the Gnostic Carpocrates (second c entury) . Where ou r Bibles re ad : " Firs t be recon ciled to thy brother, and then come and oer thy gi ft" (Matthew 5 : 24) , our Gnostic' s text re ads : "If thou seest that thou art not a t peace with thyse go first and be reconciled with se Now here is the version that we read in Abu Ya ' qub Sejestan o f a passage om the Go spel accordin g to St. Matthew (25 : 40 and 45) : when " the L ord shal l gather t he j ust and the wicked in t he sam e 23 Idris , ch. XVI , p. 23; these eight "thres hol ds " are the " eight resuecons " (qama marked by the deees of the esotic hierarchy (ibid., p. 22. 2 so a text of M u' ayyad Si quoted by I dris, p . 23; it lies in the ndenl sucture of the human bng that, having achieed his subtle Fo, he becomes Ael {al-insan a bda 'an siMalakan). This growth is compable to that of the physical body. The Noble Fo must resble more a nd more his "c elesal p arents " if he is to re to his ogin, and he acqres this res blce by ae rence to thehish which draw the so this higher d igh towd them . into He who om material body, condio is memorphosed the sep f oates of the h or ceesal enes : he recoges them d the recoe him ; he j oins them, taking his place in their compy and in eir abode. 25 My attenon ws cled this ndamenl variant, s well s to the quesons that be rsed below in conclion, by one of G. Jung's semins, "Psychologic Aspec of Niesche's Zathut, " Part (mulgraphed, 3. 2 Kib-al-ani', u' 3 in wich Ab u Ya'qu b asks himself how one c accept the absurdity o f an outcom e th at would be idencal f or the good and the cked a their pssage to the oer worl the absurdity of an indenite producon ofindividu als, centy a century, if the result we not, a death, a t status in their vy b? Shl we suest that there eists Author of this world who seeks to acquire some gain or to avoid some ha by producing this world? The proposion is absurd if it is taken in the se of ulitarian relao founded on the exteriori of the p arts to each other, but its siicce chges rely if it is taken in the se e of the Gospe l text as commted on by Abu Ya' qub .
t
4
plac, h will sa unto th just how wll hav wrou and actd toward m was an hunrd and . av m mat. was thirst and av m drink Th ju st will rpl to h im : Whn wast thou hunr and thirs t, whn wast ou captiv, that w should hav ivn th fo and dri, clothd th and dlivrd ? And th Lord will sa to thm : Y spak th truth, but what hav wrouht yoursees iansikum, for our own "souls"), hav don it f m" 207 But our Bibls do not rad "what you eles but " unto on of last of ths m brthrn " don/ormotivation Thhav profound undrlin th variant bars wiss to a strikin continuit btwn Christian and smailian Gnosis Abu Yaqubs passa calls for two rmarks Th first is that his xsis of th Gol txt hows us in all clarit to what dr h was awar of th profound rlation btwn th o concpts of th Se and th Soul dsinatd b th on word na "t is th Soul of th World," h sas, "which convrss hr with i soul th individual souls that it nds attain to what its rank implisw hich m ans tha t it nds th intlliibl ifts which
th thissvral world tims throuh th intrmdiar snsiblindividual thins" 208souls Nowacquir as w inhav pointd out, to knowofon s S ons "soul," ons "total bin," is to ow ons prsonal Go that is to sa, ons mam Hnc it follows that th mam is th of this S of this Soul whos piphan prorsss b wa of th souls that work and act f it and with whom it carris on a dialou Th scond rmark is that w hav hr th smailian vrsion of th Manichaan olooumnon of th "m mbrs ," just as w had ab ov th sm ailian vrsion of th motif of th Cross o f Liht and of th Pillar of Liht Thr w strss d that is rprsnta tion was basd on th homolo btwn each and a homolo which a strikin rssion in th fact, amon othrs, that ach ha is thouht of as a "priod" of th Ccl, of th Aon which is its mam . L t us furtr rcall th clstial Cit which tim immmorial th mams hav built " out of ir souls b mans of thir souls " Thn, indd, what The quota on ds as follows "Then he wll say to the wcked: how ckedly ye have wrought toward me I w hunged and ye gave me no meat. I w thrsty and ye gave me no Then they w say unto hm Lord, when ht ou been so? nd he wll rly to them : Yes, ye speak ue, but l ye have omted to do fr yurelve t s ough ye had omtted to do fr me " 2 To ths dencaon of Chrst wth the Soul of the World we may compare the phe nomenoloc denty ed by Wderen, pp . 23 betwe Chrst as "Great Mnd the work of the Syac mysc Sth b Su d the Iranan and Mcae cco that have ready be moned here.
141
ea ndvdual does "for hs soul," what each ed desf s done for the celestal Cty, f the entre Ccle At the same tme ths homology forms the foundaton of the only strct ethc, the ethc that makes a man responsble hmsel For f you must frst reconcle yoself w yoself, ths mples that the form of your love (for any of your brothers) s yoself, and "your love s euvalent to what you are" (etzsche) Hence you must frst do rght by yourself; all the rest merely follows om ths In other words: you are responsble, that s, you
answerfo the vson that s gven to you of your God; the form of your
vson and your worp, lke the form of your love, are euvalent to what you are And t s precsely ths prorty of being over doing that forms the foundaton of the recprocty presupposed both the Gospel lesson of our Gnostcs and n the Manchaean eolo goumeno n of the "mem bers " "What you have done for yourselves, you have done for me." Snce ing s a form ofbeing, ts mples that eac soul as the respoblty by being to make to be the very entty that t exeplfes and of whch t s a "member" We have spoken of a holo beeen the each and the Ths Gnostc feel, carred to the lm t,' nds a powerful eresson n a passage of the Pistis Sophia "Amen I say unto you (t s Cstos Aelos who speaks), ee man who wll receve that mystery of the Ineffle and accomplsh t n all ts pes and all tsgures s a man n the world but he towereth above all Anels . He s a man n the world, but he s kng the Lght. . men I say unto you, at man is and am that man 9 Here we ave a supreme metamorposs by a typologcal dentfcaton whch however, does not presuppose a confuson of persons. It s euvalent to the solemn declaraton of the Imam regard Salman Each soul has the vocaton to become Salman But to become Salman s to have a teophanc vson of the Imam, to be the Wess of hs transfguratons, to perceve e Person hdden beneath the Vel of the emprcal fe And for ths one must realze toward the Imam the ndvduaton of a relaton whch the vson wll be proportonal. That s why the scenes of Transfga 2 PistisSophia, A Gnostic Misceany, G R S Mead (Ld 1 0,1 , pp 1 91 -92 Enoch, 1, ed. H. O, p 179: ; The denty n nd e the spt of the han b nd the aelc nate s the necessa esup f the mtamphoss of s h o el o celel b (e.g., that of Ech nto Meta). The "gment of gloy," the 'no gament," eesen the gh cesal natue, the c nae (the ea s nvted medtat teen me of the wos Iw not cloe ofd me) Theto man and el s oly oned of dee pefecon. 142
tion prcivd in th "alon to th alon" hav all th importanc of xprimntal psychospirtual facts, markng th hghst mod of "consociaton" with th Imam, th d of "spiritual Epiphany" (zure ma'nawi) W hav mntiond on of ts abov: by imposing scrcy th Imam Ja'far Sadiq taught th validity of strictly prsonal xprinc Thr is anothr tal concrni th Imam Muhammad Baqir, who was th fathr and dcssor of th Imam Ja'far W should lik to cit it in conclion, f vryting w hav attm to analy hr c i itthcdnss connctions btwnthat th ophanis andpt thd mtamorphoss of ncth soul, th intrconnction btwn th "thou seest" and th "thou a" as sis of th ndividuaton that accomplshs th " alon for th alon . " Th story coms to us om a familiar of th Imam, Jabir ibn Zayd alJu' (who is not to b confd with Jabir ibn Hayyan) 2 1 0 Entrin th Imam's hous, h nds him in a stat of mditation, his rosary in hand, rcitin s vrss: "Glory to Him bfor whom vry Vil that I ld discovrd a closd Door to m Evry closd Door that I ncotrd discovrd to m a Vil ! " A tramission of ought occ s Mntally ad ssg his Imam , th visitor thinks : "Ys, thou art a sublim bing " nd th Imam raiss hs had and says : " Th Sublim is h w ho has constt utd th sublim H who knows is h who has constitutd somon who knows, throh what manatd om Him into m I am th srf of Go to whom h rvald himsl Worship no on but God" (Th Imam thus w against any tmptation to attach lf to his prson as a divin Incaation But immdiatly thr follows th thophany that ansfigurs) Jabir thinks inwardly: "This man is th Vil What n will b h whom h vils?" (Th qustion is compabl to that which was latr askd of Imam Ja'far; and th aswr will b th sam spiritual vnt.) Having mntally hard ths quston as wll, th Imam raiss hs had agan: I saw an xtraordinary splndor gling in him, a dali light that my ys could scarcly sustain or my intllignc contain d th Imam said "Hr is on of Thy Saints whom thou hast hapd w thy favors " d to m h sai d " Should I show th still mor?" "No," I said, "that is my masur" [In this rply Jabir alrady shows an awarnss of t qualem cere potui 0 Jabir ! " h said to m, "rjoic at th good tidins God has 30 ofe la d by Is, Fatimides, pp 663 of bic tt. tx
Iv, e Rise 3
pified ee too11 in order that His hadow ma descend on tee and that through ee ma be manifested His Threshold the most noble Saa [Salsal is the Gnostic name for alman This attestation of Jabir's "purification" b an allusion to the Fie Companions of the Mantle of whom alman is th e " sixth " m eans that Jabir too is apted amon the "members of the Household" Ahl alBayt The dow that is the diine Protection descendi upon him enenders alman in him just as the Hol pirit descendedofonhisMaram andisupon on members the es natalis Baptismwho ] "0 bore Jabi r!Jes alman one ofJesus us the of e Household His exterior zahi his exoteri c as he appe s
to the noninitiate) pies e exterior of a closed Door His interior ban, esoteric l is a liht fm the eil of the Merciful and Compassionate When a eil hides thee m the ees and th person shines throuh the heart of his splendor of Liht thou seest how much of it thou art capable of assumin and the creatures see what in thee is its rec eptacle it is He who utters w hat He utters in thee it is He who sas what He sas b thee. As for us we are on the other side of the Veil He is for us the Manifested One zahir)
of us, cisel theAnd part so thatwhen thouthou assumest assest that wepart are by of itthee which whatiswepreare in relation to Him Hasten en to discoer the true relation beeen us and him ; th ou wilt nd then what was hid den om the e " These are abstruse words concise and chared with meani The scene of transfiuration the theophanic eent is foowed b a lesson that shows its conditions and implications. Like alman Jabir can become (or rather becomes) the H a the mirror in which is reealed ma the Imam For this the Imam must be epiphanied to him must become "manifest" zhir) to him in a ision which is not that of the senses But to hae this to becme olf ision is to assume onese thehsel liht ofThus the Imam it is is closed the mirror in whichin he reeals e circle For what thou seest is the part that the measure of th bein can assume car, con ceie) The text ies us an almost literal equi ale nt of the Talem e um idi qualem capere potui, for indeed we hae here an archetpal situation Then too the Imam becomes "throuh thee" what he is in relation to the Deus abscontus he is the mirror that reeals ma him because God for him and thugh him the Manifested One for and through Salman, in the 211 luon to the - (3 3 3) or verse o f Pcaon sl out the mb of the Household e Fve Psons of e M e to whom e ngl aelr Smns added sx; c nd 111 above. 412 As s sggested by the use o f the root ' l ' n o text.
measure in which SalmanJabir, as he to whom the Imam manifes himself zahi, is thereby the place and fm of his anifestation mazha: he is his "coming into is world" (c section above). In other words, the hidden goead stands i n the sam e relation to th e Im am a s e Im am to Salman. And this is the epiphanic m ediation of the eteal I m am . To achieve the capacity for this vision is the supreme metamorphosis: it is to become the pure mior in which the epiphanies are accomplished. It is to be the " Salm an of the mi crocosm , " to be at the end of the " Quest for the Im am " and it is to keep his personal secret inviolable. Her e we hav e ver ification of the spiritual experience to whic h we were led by Imamology as a metamorphosis of Angel Christology. What we might call its " Do cetis m " is theophany lived as a theop athy, and vice versa, which amounts to saying that every transfiguration is accomplished coelatively for the two terms, or that the figes are trafigred only for the soul which is ielf trafigured. And that is why the event is accomplished on the level of the su perhuman, o f the Angel, in the solit ude o f the " One wit h his One . " This presence o f the totali in the each i s a fundam ental catego ry of kathenotheis m : it mo lizes another vision of which the Im am Muhamm ad Baqir is again the hero. Here the theophany occurs after a scene which closely repeats a scene om the Childhood Gospels. Only the name has change d: the child Im am i s substituted f or Jesus. His master makes it his duty to teach him the letters of the alphabet, but the little Imam interrupts him, takes the initiative, and formulates questions which anspose the lesson to the plane of the philosophical alphabet. The master is dumfounded; it is the child Imam who ceases to be the pupil and becomes the master. His preceptor loses cociousness and in this state has five times a vision of each of the Five Preeternal Persons composi the divine Pentad (pified on earth by the Five of the Mantle); each one expresses himself in the first person singular as though he were at once alone and all the ot hers. This is one of the most significant records of primitive Ismailian experiece. 23 is direct exeges, om the Go spel ofThoma s (in Jame s, ch. VI, pp . 50 and 5 1 . ch. VII, p. 5 to the Umm al-Kita,suddenly proves to be chged with nsuspected meing if we obsee that in this Gospe the Apose is called "T hom as the I sm aelite, the philosoph. " The se episode is men oned in the Episla Apostoo,ibid., p . 4. We intd to me back to it. ed.and W instead Ivanow,sees fol.the mster ("Abl Sabbah) 24 t see Umm Prophet -22. ensgured, the al-Ki, little Imam his ce haloedceses in
Our inquiry begi wi theophanic visio, and in theophanic visions it culminates. The circle has closed. We have seen why it could not but exclude any idea of Incarnation such as that which has been professed for many years by the ocial Christolo of the Church. It seemed t us that we should elucidate the reaso for this exclusion by comparing the diverse fos assumed by Cristology with the anthropology that goes hand in hand with it. From this point of view Ism ai lian Ima mo logy has shown us ce rtain traits it poss esse s in common wi the gel Christology of Christian Gnostici sm . We hav e seen the outlines of an anthropology which is a phase of aelolo and which, as such, permits us to understand the metamorphoses of the theophanic visions; it is under this aspect that we have here developed the theme of Man and ranoation. In analyzing the pure spiritual event of these theophanies, we have seen how a coelation takes fo between the mode of the theophanic person's real appation and the mode of the seein soul's consociation, which varies with this person himself. This consoci ation, as po stulate of t he spiritual event, confirmed in Mount the secret dialogue Christos in elos in the eveniissolitude of the of Olives, as itwith is confirmed the instances of transfigri vision individually attained by the devotees of this or that Im am . In this sam e c orrelativity, phenomen ology discer a situation and a mode of being contrasting in the extreme with those which ultimately prevailed in the spiritual history of the Occident. Very briey, the postulates and implicatio of Ael Christology and Imamology considered as one of its exeions c ontrast shar ply with the doctrine of hom oousia foulated by the Co unci ls. As we know, this techn ica l term of Christian eolo b ears wiin it grave psychological and sociological consequences, the remote echoes of which have long evaded a criticism whose own postulates hardly predisposed it to an analysis of the positive data of the soul and the connections between them . To am homoou sia, th at is, the consubstantialit y of the Log os as second person of t he T rinity, with th e " Father " to a
esses ofiht: e pe Lo cen atibte d scipon Scessivey, he sees Ai, then ama esd in d d ba, a e v on h ama deces: Thee is no besie me, neithe in viit haity, n in the Heaves on eat otsi of me, ho ama Ceat (in the mascine:FamaFair) it is ho ceated the spit of the T eievs n the e thee appea the m Hsa e Han, o caes: Han ibn i, Hs ibn ama the Raant aima ect Zahra aAa xcelsus excelssimus) ad the 46
the homooia of the incarnate Logos, as true God and true man, wi our actual and present humanity.is, in both cases, to postulate the definite concept of a divine " nat ur e " and of a human " nature . " To dee their relation by the te homoousios is precisely what el Cristology and Imamology refe to do. Chstos Anelos is not consubstantial with the eus absconditus he is, for example, the first of the Seven Protoktiste s, or firstcreated A rchaels, or the " magnifice nt Ange l" of the
Shepherd ofHeias. Similarly, neither the primordial Archael nor the Im am as Epiphany of the cre ative Logos is consub stantia l with t he godhead "w hom the boless of thought cannot attai n. " Moreov er, their Epip hany is accomplished only by transfiging at the outset the soul in which and to which it " shows itself , " i . e . , in whom the pot entiality of the ael has already owered. This potentiality ielf excludes what our anropology po sits and dees as " hum an nature , " and thereby it deprives the idea of an incaation within the frame of this anthropology of any possible meaning. Consubstantiality would presuppose that the potentiality of the el were lly realized; for an el Christology, homoousia has and can have only an eschatological meaning. The repetition of a single device ("he who knows himse his God," that is to say, his Im am) and i confirm ation at the homo logous degree s o f the coesponding hierarchies have led us to recoize in the Imam the symbol, or personal Figure, of the Self and in this symbol to see the source and organ of the soul's metamorphoses. It is here that we disce the extreme gravity of the co nsequ ences tha t follow from the decis ion in favor of hom oousia, that is, of consubstantiality (one substance), or else in favor of the position with its numerous shadings by which a pluralist monoeism attempted to consolite and save its intuitions. e cannot, on the pretext that an authentically religio utterance necessarily implies a challenge to the demands of rational thought, maintain that such a pluralist monotheism is decient in "religious m e aning. " For the adversarie s of homoous ia were not preoccu pied with satisfying the exigencies of rational thought, and in the eyes of philosophical rationalism, adversaries and defenders of homoousia are doubtless equal in regard to passion f the iational. In any case their opposition marks a profod suggle in the history of Christian dogmas. Perhaps its traces are discernible even in iconoaphyin the contrast between the primitive type of adolescent Christos (Orphic type, the Young Shepherd. etc.) and the type of Christos Pantokrator, the "Omnipotent." To pass
47
from one to the other the active Imagination must traverse the entire distance that separates the representation of the incarnate Logos, consubstantial with the Father, and that of the celestial el in his theophanic and soteriological f unction. The ide a of the Pantokrato r suits on ly the foer. But then, as we hav e see a very dierent conception of the Imitatio Christi is decided upon. If the guiding vision is that translated by Qusta ibn Luqa, "One for the One," perhaps the practical implications of an el Christology recur in certain Ismailian attitudes that we have analyzed. It is, for example, the mission of the a'i who calls a single soul and not a multitude, a soul which is not to be convinced of a doa butfar om itin which there must be awakened the meaning of the ta'wil, of th e spiritual exegesis which ees it om re adym ade facts and " leads it back" to its "horizon," its own had its Im am . To the homooic co nception i as a fact of universal hi story that " Go d m ade himself m an" is opposed the personal theophanic vision which no man can eier communicate or dem onstrate . Th at is why the Im am Ja 'far, far om allowing his adept to go and " conv inc e" the others, i mposes secrecy upon him . nd Mulla Sadra admirably defines the Imamate as an aelical and divine re ality i n man. Here the ide a of the Im am ate come s close to th e " inner Christ" of our mystics. But it is dicult t constitute any sort of a Chch with this " inner Chr ist" ; it is still m ore dicult for sec ular thought to take possession of it in order t substitute the idea of a "social Incarnation" for the religious idea. For it would seem that aelolo and sociolo must remain forever alien to one another. nd here, no doubt, is one of the characteristic implications of Gnostic anthropology. By arousing the human being t the vocation of a potential angel, it caes him to move in this world as a Stranger, a "prince of the other world" on his way back to his nativ e home . Hence this extrem e gentleness, this appreciation of the derisory character of any exercise of the will t power, of any appetite for kingship, or for conversion tending t bring ab out a m onolii c Unity . The Gnostic lesso of the apocryphal Gospel texts which recur in the writings of our Ismailians have given us this teaching : The fo of your visi on and of your worship bear witn es s to what you are, you answerfor the vision you have of your God. nd what God becomes is reve aled in the mo de of rel ation at teste d in m an's mo de of understanding Him . Here it is not our task to apprehend in terms of pure phenomenology the 148
consequences, a parte ei, of hom ooia and incarnation . God has ceased to be the Eternal in Heaven. Incaated, He is bied in the esh until the time comes f Him to be buried in the grave. And this Incarnation was the l Reve lation of the godhead. Hence ther e i s no more my stery ; the mystery has been pro claime d on the housetops, it has been " profaned . " Still, in te s of pure phenomenology this siifies identification to the point of perfect coincidence between cocioness and transconsciousness, a coincidence that was to have incommensurable consequences for the spiritual history of our Occident. The m ystery of the Cross of L ight was the my stery of Christus impatibilis, savi his own through the love born of their common srcin; it was this love of the he avenly ange l that acted as a magne tism upon " H i s " teestri al soul, His "member," to make it reascend toward him, to recall it to their common angelicity (here a homooia as eschatological anticipation). The fo of love thus lived and meditated upon was wholly different om that meditated upon and "realized" in the divine Incarnation, in compssion with the sueris of the God incarnate, with the death of the Redeemer who was " true God and true m an. " But con sciousness would fully "r ea li ze " the ev ent that had here taken plac e, and Nietz sche would cry out : " God is dead, he has died of his pity f or m en . " Tha t is to say, in the cont ext of cocioness, God has died of this homoousia, of his consubstantiality, his identity with his Incarnation. But what meanin would Nietzsche's words have had for Gnostics who knew the true meaning of "the comi of God into this world , " the m eaning of the epiphanies of the " One for the One," the meaning of the el? In the opposition between epiphanic Figure and Incarnation, mazhar and h we can perceive, both in Gnostic Christology and in Ismailian Imamology, the same demand for Mystery and the s ame protest against the viol ence done to this mystery by a conception implying that the godhead can have suered death. We are compelled to note that the facts of the problem are mutilated if we content ourselves with opposi the Christian idea of the divine Incarnation and the strict transcendence of orthodox Islamic monotheism. Between the two there is a middle term, and this is the entire meaning of Shiite Islam, eminently of Iranian Shiism, and most particularly of Ismailian Imamology. It is impressive that we should find here certain traits characteristic of a Christianity that has vanished from the historical scene, for this modies the meaning of o encounter as men of the West with an Orient that is, to be 149
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sure ver diernt frm the "modern" Orient We perceive a kind of protest agast a f which has become constitutive of our cnscioness which dominates our Cistian theolg of histor as well as the secularied philosophies of a postChristian era nd this protest comi fm the part of spiritual Islam in which Imamolog assed the features of an ancient Crislo also brings to our ears the voice of a vanished Christianit It comesittorises us like a question perhaps urgent of andthose imperious and atthe themster same time up as an answer the anwer who ow of the Crss of Light and who repl to the "God is dead" with the protest uttered in e Koran verse : "No the have not killed him th e have not cruied him ! The hav e been c aught in the trap of the assim ilation (tash bih) committ ed b themselv es "
10
From Gnoss of Antqu to Ismal Gnoss
The title ofthis study indicates not only what it aims to include, but also what it excludes. The historical data do not allow us to establish a comparison between what may have been the relations between the gnostics ofthe West and Ismaili gnostics during the Middle Ages. Even to day we are still very far from hav ing ac ce ss to the bo dy of tex that would have to b e analy zed in orde r to know I sm ai li osis in the details of its structure and dev el opm ent. Yet one can im agine t hat in the m any littl e gnostic circles of the L atin W es twhich hav e be en e spe cially stu die d by P. Alphandery, and which were more or less related to the Catharsthere must ha ve existed ce rtain c onditio ns that would h ave p erm itte d a dialogu e . Wheth er or not t hat o ccurred, no trace of it has r em ained . On the other hand, what ha s left i trac e are the contact s that occued under conditions quite ali en to any spiritual interpe netrati on. It was not in some scholarly retreat, such as that in Toledo where the translations of philosophic texts from Arabic to Latin were prepared, that the Crusaders heard of the I sm aili s . Every ch ronic ler of the Crusades , how ever, om William ofTyre onward, had something to say in their regard. But what was known ofthemand what inamed imaginations very rapidly spread aboutfinally resulted in that cheap adv enture ser ial o f the " Ass as si ns, " and in the popular meaning that word had already assumed in the fourteenth century. People saw their hand everywhere, even in murder attem pts in the West. Moreover , some trouba dours even claime d their rank, ina smu ch as they were re ady, out of love, to m ake the suprem e sacrif ice for their ladies. The designation became traditional, even before being expl oited for sens ational st or ie s, and it has persi sted am ong m any Ori entali sts since the seventeenth century. Where a text reads "smailis," they have 51
casuall translated "Assassins" as though te were the se thing In forgetting that an Ismaili communit still existed the unwittingl made thems el es across the a es obligi agen ts for e stubborn pro paganda o f the Abbasids or for Saladin's fanatical hatred Our purpo se here is no t to go back oer thos e historical icis situd es' or that lack of scientific integrit. A crucial change has occurred in the past twent ears or so com ple tel ansforming the c ondition s under which our predecessors as the were witoreports coming frm Sunni theo logworkedconfronted ians or histori ans ehem entl hostile e er form of Shiism At last we hae gained access t o authentic and complete t reatises of s m aili doctrine These books are what will concern us here and whoeer has reected on them alread knows that Ismaili spiritualit has absolutel nothing to do with those " tale s of assa ssi ns " What such reflection d oes cal l for is rather that sort of tol erant and com prehensi e comparison which did no tor could nottake plac e in the Middle Ages The rst condition for that moreoer is to determine the tpolog of the Ism aili sstem of understanding in order t o connect it wit h its closest spiritual fil It is remarkable tat at the er moment when thanks to the disco er of the Coptic m anuscripts at Nag Ham mad i we can hope to hae acces s for the rst tim e to an entire l ibrar of ancient gnosis we are likewise put in a position to be able to stud the most siificant rec urrenc e of gnosis in Is lam . I at last the unfortunate diculties of acces s to the texts that we hae experienced in both those domains were to be remoed then an encounter delaed for seeral centuries would finall become possible Perhaps one da we shall een be able to demonstrate the secret tread linking one gnosis to te other But for the m om ent we m ust limi t oursel es to noting some traces and signs which are alread enough to raise the problem In an case it is possible to brin out certain structural homologis and it is th es e aboe all that will hold our attention here. Moreo er gnosis has nee r had th e character of a closed dogmatic sstem The speculati e freedo which the gnostics of the sec ond centur testif is such that ea ch one of them sets for hims elf the task of contibuting to the discoe ofthe eents ofthe Pleroma and enriching their smbols: what Irenaeus in a hostile remark interprets as an instabilit or conadiction in I Fo ovevew
Le ws Souesfor the io of the Sy Asns pp B enad 475 89 in Specul, vol. XX (Octobe, 1952).
52
their doctrines is only another testimony to their vitality. There was an analogous proliferation the f centuries of Shiism, which le heresiographcrs with e same perplexity and inability to surmise the thread tying together the doctrines they recorded. A corollary ofthis is that Shiite osis in general, and Ismaili gnosis in particular, cannot be conceived sim ply a s a c ontinuation of an ci ent gnos is . It follows a path tha t is purel y its own, el im inatin g som e them es while it assim ilate s and transfos other perfectly recognizable ones. Th e fact rem ains, howe ver, that here we are indee d in th e pres ence of a gnos isthat is, of a tea ching which does not a im at som e pure th eoretic al knowle dge, of a mode of understa nding whi ch is not a simpl e act of knowing. It is not a teaching for the masses, but an initiatory teaching passed on to each specially chosen disciple. It is an esoteric knowledge ('ilm al-Ban), a knowledge of the T ruth ('ilm al-Haqiqa) that, as such, gives rise t a new birth, a m etam orphosi s, the salvation of the soul. " Th is sp iritu al birth (wildda ruhiya)takes plac e in the world ofta'wiL while physic al b irth takes place in the world of tanzi External relig ion or the li ter al fo (tanzi and spiritual exegesis (ta'wil) are the two poles. Etymologically, ta'wil means "to bring back or lea d back to . . . ," i.e., to bring the literal fos (zahi shari 'a) back to the pl ane of spiritual T ruth aqiqa). By this exegesis, Ism ai lism transform s the l iteral fos of the K oranic Reve lation in th e same way that the gnosis of antiquity worked wi the given fos of Chris tianity : it. perfos a transform ation of all these forms , ev ents, and persons into symbols. In so doing, it realizes a transmutation of the soul, its resurrection (qiyama) thereby bears the fundamental feature that re lates it to the other fo s of gnosi s. Our primary concern here will be to call attention to some traces ofthat relationship, in so far as some important wors that have only recently become accessible allow us to do so. We do not propose to undertake a complete accounting of what has been learned om the publications of the last twenty ye ars : in the face of the task s that s till re m ain, such a listing
2 Kalamiir ed W vano, p 1 14 of e Pesi te On tai as a spiita acvit, H ri, Avienne el le Reit visionnai, tme 1 (Bibliotheque Iranienne, vo 4
ehanP ais, 1954, pp 324 [Avicenna and he Visiona Recial . Wiad i96 ; epi nted Spi bicaons, aas, 19 , and de prelinaire pour le « Liv ist les deux sagesses » de Nasir-e os (Bib/. Iraniennl. 3 a), 1953, ppsv6573 Above , see n Islam iranien , Pais, Gaimad, 1972 /1 97, awil.} 153
would app e ar quite in ad equat e, j ust as any prem ature attem pt at systeatization would be vainl y am bitious . For w e are only at the very frst stage s. A pam phl et publishe d by the I sm ail i Soc iety of Bo bay on the occas ion of i tenth anniversary (February 16, 1956) indicates that until 1922, scarcely three or fo authent ic wors wer e known . Since then, the tex pu blishe d in Arabic and Persian (and on a very diverse range oftopics) constitute some forty titles . More ov er the Guide to smaili iterare ofW. Ivano w (1 933 ; 2nd ed. If[ we 1 963]), 691 ething titles. of ou r ignorance i n that fashion, these are canmm entions e asure som not the only obstacles to be eliminated if we are to allow the first results of this dialogue to unfold. It would seem that osis has always been a controversial problem. From time to time, for example, one encounters per em ptory asse rtions, com ing om the m ost diverse quarter s, such as tha t " Christiani ty and g nosis are hetero geneous an d ie concila ble quantitie s . " It is to be feared tha t this sort of prec onceiv ed opinion m ay forever prev ent any real under standing or valor ization . What should be said instead ; is that there is a heterogeneity between historical, ofcial Christianity and gnostic Christianity comparable to that existing between orthodox Islam and the Islam of the mystics (Ahl al- an) : it is only straightforward intellectual honesty to recognize that fact. But where one goes beyond the bounds of herm eneutic s i s in m aintai ning th is oppos ition in force when the meanin of those term s i s still undeterm inedi . e . , in affirmi a c ontradiction bet we en gnosis and Ch ri stiani ty as such, or bet we en gnosis an d I slam as such. Or rather, it is true that the K oran, in its m ateria l, literal f o, does not establish a g nostic religion; but one of the sks of sm aili studies ou ght precisely to be the uncovering ofhomologies between the gnostic conceptions of Ch ri stianity and the Ism aili gnostic conception of Is lam .
The oldest treatise now accessible to us seems to be the Umm al-Kitab. It appeared in the aabi milieu, so nam ed ae r Abu ' 1 Khat tab, the too enthusiastic disc iple of the Im am Ja' far alSadiq. (d. ca. 1 48765). " T he Ismaili religion (mahab-e ismaili) is that which was founded by the (spiritual) chil dren of Abu' lKha ttab, who sacrificed their lives out of devotio n to I sm a' il, the son of Ja' far al Sadiq. 3 Whether this archaic 3 Umm al-Kitab, ed. W. Iv erIslam, III ), pp. 523 of 154
manipt.
Persian text is the srcinal tex or a tnslation om the Arabic, in either case it failly reec the ideas which were circulating in the nd/th century among those circles in which the themes of Shiite gnosis took form What those themes took over om earlier Gnosticism (f example, with Hisham alJawallqi, Mughira, Shalmaghani, etc) remains to be uncovered in the summary accounts provided by the heresiographers The alKitab has been called a "protoIsmaili" work, which is true, on the condition thatgreat onetreatises recognies atFatimid certainperiod, of its themes are noonlonger to be found in the of the while others, the other hand, are only the firs t hint of subse quent deve lopme nts. At pre sent, it is still dicult to follow in detail the tn sition betwee n this first treatise and the Ismaili s cholastic ism of e Fatim id period It is known that the fourth/tenth century was a period of intense intellectual fermentation 4 the creative controversy in which fo great Iranian Ismaili figures were invol ved (c §X below ) provide s us with som e im portant information Moreover, the vitality ofthe research and creative ability at that time are indicated by the notable differences between works that are virtually contemporary There is, for example, a great difference in the struct ure of the heavenly Pleroma as it is described by Nasi re Khusraw , and the schema set up by Hamid alDin Kermani, who makes it correspond to the tenfold hierar chy of the phi losophers (the fala, alFarabi and Avicenna) After the completion ofthe great schism following the death ofMustansir bi'llah (), the two major branches of Ismailism followed their own paths The "old da'wa " (da 'wa qadima, to use Shahrastani's expression) continued the Fatimid tradition in Arabic up to our own day 5 The "new 'wa " ('wa ja), reformed Ismaidevastat lism ofed theunder tradititheonMo of ngol Alamonut, saw its l iterat ure, in the Ptheersian lan guage, slaught We arc indebted to the labors of W Ivow for our knowledge of some of its major monuments The extreme interest of this literature lies in 4 See ur Itr ducti t the Comment de la Qada ismlienne du Htham Jorji
(Bib/ raniennevol. 6), Tean-Pais, 1 956 Not ly does tis coentay aow to mke se compaisons wit tat ofNasi-e uaw, ut one of s ect sciples (dubtedly Muaad of Nisapu) also teses to e e and eseac of is maste. 5 Amo te Ismaili liteae of te Famid ea, e wok of Nasi-e Kaw stands out as bei competey Pesian so Pesian ae e above-menoed cYa' (n 4) te Psian ve Khf atibuted qubentay Sejestai (eand H. Cbin, B/ rienne vol. 1, -Mb 1949) [2e, 1980] to Abu
55
its rev ival of e gnostic awareness o f early Ism ailism and in is emphas is the aspe ct of a religion of personal salv ation, a religion of Resurrection (dine qiyamat or rastakhiz) It profoundly inuenced all of Iranian Susm, under the guise ofwhich it continued to survive Whatever one may think ofthe srcins of Shamse Tabriz (i.e., whether or not he was the son of a grand as ter of Al a ut), it should be no ted that his "ys tical s ecret" re corded in the WaladNah of the s of Jal al alDin R umi has its exa ct alayan which Ismaili equivalenthasinattributed the commentary the utbat 6 Moreover, tradition to Hasan on Sabbah this commentary is likewise of m ajor signicance for the history of Ismaili spirituality and its connections with Sufism
Still another d ifficul awaits us if we atte pt to situate the speculative the osophy of smai lism in the context of the dev elopm ent of philos ophy in Is lam I have j ust alluded to t he schem atizat ion of the heavenly Plero m a in falasa, in teir Kermani and to its homology with that ofAvicenna own way, likewise bear witness to gnosis in Islam In reality, philosophic understanding always remains a wisdom ia), a gnosis that should provi de sp iritual salv ation through the illum ination of the soul That is precisely its ultimate meaning, so that it would be arbitrary to consider Ismailism in isolation fom Avicennis or the "Oriental theosophy" shra of Suhrawardinot to mention its ainities with the theosophy of Ibn 'Arabi In alluding to those connections, however, we can scarcely do more than suggest a program ofresearch (uqul), Thea succ Avi ession cennanofthsygies eory of that the Intelligence s the or angelology, forth c orres pond to structure o f some ofse e major Gnostic sy stems From e ach Intellige nce (aq, Nous, or Cherub there proceeds a Soul ( that forms a couple with it A brief Risa isala 'lMala'ika) even gives us their respective names 7 The name of the t of these Cherubs, Wajh alQu corresponds exactly to that of the first hypostasis (the Monoenes) in the xceta ofTheodotus the "Face of the 6 Cpae Wad-N ed. Ha, [Tean, 35 .s.], p. (conce te mdm-e ma's d e te ofHas-e Sabba cted Kalami Pir p. 8 of e Pesan te (conce marlaba-ye ma bb-e Haq le e cit vioaire toe pp. wee ts passage ofte 7 See osAvicee isala qted n tselenety [c above, 2].
56
Father" The Tawwurat of Nasr alDn Tus preserves te same schem a, although there t s complcated b the (act at not onl the Intellgence, but also th e Soul produce s acts o f co ntem platon that gve rse to beng In Ismalsm, on the other hand, ths sgal structure s enrched b an aspect whch could not fge n the Avcennan schemae, b the correspond enc e and parallel sm between the levels of t he he avenl lerom a (alhudud al 'a) and those whch co nsttute the es oterc h erarch of the 'wa (the " m es o cosm "), the dfferent ranks of the Ism al brotherhoo d (alhudud alsuya) 8 The Natiq (te "Enuncatng" prophet) s made to correspond to e Frst Intellgence (e ofte Cherubs n Avcenna), whle hs sprtual her (Wa, the foundaton (Asas) of the Imamate, corresponds to the Second Intellgence 9 (The noton that an earthl person ma repre sent or pf a heavenl h postas s also o ccurs n me dev al L atn gnostcsm)' 0 The S econd Intel lgen ce could th us be regarded as th e S oul of the world, formng, together wth the Frst Intell gence , the prm ord al a Or, followng Avcenna, one could consder that both the Frst Soul and the Secondcase, Int ell proceed rm the Frst In tellgence at the same In ether tegence problem arsesf ofe relatonshp between te qltme and the Na, the Intellgence and the Soul: does e fact that desre s the natural prnc ple of moton n the Soul mpl som e mperfec ton n Its beng? Dependng on one 's de cson, there wll fol low ether the prort o f the rophet to the Imam, or that ofthe Imam, the Slent One (Samit), to the Natiq In general, the authors ofthe Fatmd perod chose the frst alternatve� but the opposte contnued to have ts supporters. It appeared, for example, n Nusar texts, as well as n Jabr's alchemcal speculatons, n the order of precedence of the hpostases smboled n the letters ('Al), Sin (Salman), Mim (Muham m ad) " In te tradton of Alamut t e precedence ofthe Imam s more and more strongl a rmed, 2 just as t s alwas ether latent or openl avowed n Twelver Shsm (n whch the 8 C ourEeprelminairepr... Nasir-e Khoaw pp 7 ( the mbolm of the word) 9 e the table of concornce btween e heavely d early erarce (accord to Hamd Kerma and Idr mad al-Dn) [above pp 96] C Ha L a eligion es Cathas Uala, 949, p 3 C L Magnon, SmanP el lespmices spirieles e !'sl irie Tour-Par, 934 H. Corbn, Gloriex e Jair bn Hayyan ErosJhrbch XVIII, 950,Per pp. 6 2 CZch, the ltle eae o n Imamology F bay-e shant-e m ed. W. Ivanow, Bombay, 947.
priority ofnubuwwa depe nds on r st pre suppo sing som e portion of walaya, to which nubuwwa is then ad de d) . Th the situat ion is at one and the sam e time dom inated bo th by the " ev ents " perceiv ed in the Plerom a and by a prophetol ogy that is bro ught to com pletion i n an Im am o logy. In Ism ail ism , that Im am ology is c onnecte d with a so rt of Ebionite Ch ri stol ogy §IX below). Ev en later in Iran , in Shiite Avi cennism , reection on this ete rnal birth of the Avicennan Pleroma led to some remarkable reminiscences and compariso ns. Sayy id Ahm ad 'Alawi, one of the m ost brillian t students of Mir Damad at Isfahan in the seventeenth century, made a connection between ancient Iranian Zervanism and the idea that already with the unfoldi of the First Intelligence there emerges a shadowy dimension (its aspect of nonbeing, inasmuch as its being is not necessary in itsel, a shadow that T o goes on growing and intensifying until the tenth and last Intelligence. be sure, this comparison does involve a profound modification of Zervanism, by delaying somewhat the moment at which the Zervanite schema makes its appearance (since Zervan here has become an angel in the Pleroma, rather than the absolute godhead). Moreover, this is the same transpo sition that one also fi nds in the cosmi c dram aturgy of sm ail ism , and the shi had already taken place in the doctrine ofthe Zervanites and the Ga yo m artian s, a s that was described by Shah ra stani ( c § VII below) . This transposition must be listed among those characteristics differentiating Is m aili gnosis fr om dualism in gene ral. He re the crisis that give s birth to Darkness is conceived as situated within the Pleromabut only so that the Darkne ss m ay be ov ercom e and banished f rom It, as soon as it has em erged . Tha t is why the Intell igence who will assume t he role of the Dem iurge in Ismaili gnosis has none ofthe disquieting traits ofa Ialdabaoth, any more than the Angels governing the celestial spheres resemble hostile Archons. On the c ontrary, the notion of ange li c tarbiya or pedagogy (already indicated in the Miraj-Namah attribute d to Avic enna shows the angels ready to com e to the aid of the gnostic in order to help him to " esc ap e, " to re turn "home" and carry out his mystical Mi'ra Inste ad, the dem onic force is on e arth, where it m anifest s itself in the im pl acab le b attle carri ed on by the opponen ts of the Im am .
i
1 Avienne et le Reil vionnaire, t me I, .
60 d En Islam iranien. .
tme IV,
.954. 4 e eme Miraj d e MirajNamah Ac c ibid. .
191-25
8
This transposition, which shis the Zervanite schema, as it was conceived by e Avicennans and e Ismailis, by one or more levels, allows t establish a comparison differentiating the cosmogony of the falasa from the Ismaili cosmogony. First of all, this comparison should consider two dom inant f igure s : that of the (the "Unknowable God") and the Angel who assumes the function ofthe Demiurge. For the falasa,the Necessary Being ajib al-wuju is the First Being al-Haqq al-awwal). He transcends the cosmos and the heavenly hierarchy, but it is perm iss ible to attribute to Him certain predic ates and relations th at are not incom atible with His immutability. On the other hand, the "Originator" ub : of the Ism ailis is abso lutely unknow able , and nothing can be p redi cated of It: It is beyo nd both bein g and non be ing, beyond yes and no. A dialecti c of doubl e nega tive s conclu des w ith the pri m ord ial " Originate d" bein g -M al-awwal), the First An gel Who is in fact the basis of the divine N a e, Al-ah. The Tenth Intelligence, the Active Intelligence ql fa l) of the
falasa,has it s hom ologu e in Ism ailism (in the schem a of Ke rm ani) . It wa s
the pred om inant rol e o f this Figure that kept pure Avicennism fr om be ing assimilated by orthodox Latin scholasticism, which retreated in the face of the fundamentally angelological perspective which that Figure presupposes From the my stical narrat iv es of Avic enna to tho se o f Suhrawardi, His pe rsonal rel ation wit h the gnostic and the function o f Hi s heavenly pedagogy become both more precise and more emphatic. He is the end of the pilgrim age to the m ystical Sinai desc ribe d in the story of the "Occidental Exile" (al-hurba al-harbiya) . 1 In that same work appear several fa m iliar t hem es of Maniche an gnosis : the young m an thrown in to the bottom of a welL the Straner who is r eawakene d to the aw are ne ss of his self by a letter sent to him by his he ave nly family, the stages of t he pilgrim age of re turn, etc. If there is a F igure t hat would c all for a com parison b etween the spir ituality of the E ast and West dur ing the M iddle A ges, it is sely this 5 ii 1 6 See the Arabi c te and Persian alaon of the Risala alhura alhariya in euvsphilosophiques et myiques de Sohri, ed. . ri {Bibliotheque Inienne, l.
2), Tehran-Paris, 1952 [2nd ed. 1977], . 27. [trench alaon in rchae ere e myscal eases d tales anslated e Persian and Arabic by Henry Corbi Paris , Fayard, 1 976, . 265-89.] 1 7 C Acta Thomae, 1 08- 1 3 (The Hymn ofthe So) Kephalaia . 181-2.
Angel paredros or "guide" who reveals the meaning of the Song of Songs to ce rtain Jew ish mystics and wh o is invoked by certain of Dante' s c om panions (Din Com pagni, for exam ple ) as the Madonna Intellienza. The fal a identified this Figure with the Ael ofrevelation who is Gabriel, i.e., the Holy Spirit; in Suhrawardi, He is designated as the "Angel ofhumanity" (rabb al-naw al-insan. In Ism ailism this In telligen ce becom es th e " spiritu al Adam" {Am ruhani), i.e., the celestial Anthropos well known in different scho ols of anc ient gnos is . As such, He is the protagonist of a dram a which has no e quiva len t in the cos m ogony of the pure a dra m a which m ake s Him fall from the third to t he tenth ange li c rank, and which is the srcin of all our mythohistory (c §VII below). Howe ver, there are still oth er poi nts of co ntact between Ism ail ism and Suhra w ardi' s theosoph y ofshraqthat remain to be explained. There is the idea of the mam, " in the fo that it appears in the prologue to the Kitab Himat al-Ishraq. Th er e is also th e very proj ect o f an " Or ie ntal theos ophy " ima shraqiya o r mashqiya), a s Suhraward i hims elf conceiv ed it. Return ing to Av ic enna' s scheme (an abortive one, in his opinion), Suhrawardi sets up the idea of an " oriental know le dge, " based upon the not ion of an " Or i en t" which is not registered on our maps , but was well known to the gnostics. Strangely enough, a comparable expression can be found in the writing of Alain de Lille ° Fo re shadowing th e schem e of the Byz antine philosopher Gemistos Plethon, Suhrawardi wished to combine the teachings of Plato and Z oroaster . Hi s proje ct m ay appe ar les s surprisin g if we relate it to the way in which Ismaili prophetology conceived ofZoroastrianism . Since the teaching of Zoro aster, th e hat of the fourth Naq, had bee n corrupte d by his succ ess ors (c §X bel ow), the i dea of restoring that teaching t o its srcinal pur ity had to com e . T hat was th e proj ect of Shiha b alDin Yahya Suhrawardi, shay al-Ishraq. 8 [H enry Corbin later substute d r this tm e expres sion hiero-histoire, "sacred history, " due to certain pos sible misun derstandings ofthe t " m yth " ] . 1 C. ur legomenes d II t euvresphilosophiques et myiques de Sohi (l. I : Bibliotheca amica, vol . 16 , Istan bul 1945 [2nd ed. Te hran-P aris, 1 976]; vol. I I : Bibliotheque Iranienne, vol. 2, T ehran- Paris , 1952 [2n d ed. , 1 977]), [and En slam iranien . . ., vol. 2]. 20 "Sicut mundo maiori en movetur ab Oriente Occidentem reve rtitur in Oriente m, sic rao in hom ine m ovetur a contemplaone Orientali , id est caeles . . . consequenter descendit ad Occidentalia, id est consideraonem terrenor . . . deinde revertetur ad Orientem, it e conside rando ca elesa," Patrologia lat., 210, 866. (I owe this refence to Mlle M. T. d'Alvey.) Aln de lle (second hf of the tel century) ws a contempor ary of Suhrawardi (d. 1 1 91 ). 160
Here we can only recall in general terms certain themes common to all the school s of gnos isthose in which, gi ven that broader an ity, the p artic ular inspiration governi ng Ism ail i gnosis reveals itself most clearl y. First of all, there is the them e that we have just m entioned that of the unk nowab e, impredicable, ineable Divinity V the Abyss of ilence which i s the origin of all the be com ing of the worlds Ism aili gnosis, rejecting any m etaphor bor rowe d frm the notio n of " father , " refers to I t as the Mub the "Originator" « eteally giving rise to te archanelic Pleroma (the Dar al' or lam alSafa', the "World of Purity") The crisis occurri in this Pleroma, to which all the forms of gnosis ascribe the great acts ofCreation and salvation, is likewise brought into play by Ismaili dramaturgy; but here it is with variations and nuances that evince the pre occupations of gno stics having to m editate, in particuar, on the m aterials of Is lam ic revelation Th e fige of the nthpo the avedavior, and thefrelation between the homologues heavenly in Chrisos earthly manifestation, example, have their the figureand of his the spiritual Adam (e dam ruhan e ird Angel who bece the tenth), and in His relation with the one who is His terrestrial counterpart, the Imam who leads back to Him all ofHis fellow souls, frm one cycle to the next, until the final Im am who will bring to a n end the Cycle of cyc les , the Resurrector (Qa'im alQiyama, in Khodavand-e Rastaiz) Here, too, the motivating force of this dramaturgy is likewise the gnostic presentiment of the celestial srcin and preexistence of souls, as is clearly sho wn by Is maili anthrop olo gy, which is ultim ately onl y part of an angel ology Thu s the re also arises a classifica tion of sou ls paral lel to the c lassi cal divis ion between pneumatic (ruhi, 'aqlani), psychic (nafsi),and hylic ian oe 2 1 Now that these two terms, Ismaili osis and the gnosis of antiquity, have been identified, one can rec ognize that our aim o f more deeply exploring their relations necessarily imposes a ofold task discovering the indications of an actual tra nsm is sion, and rev eal ing the structura l homol ogies and their meaningthis latter one being the particular ta ofthe phenomenologist Indeed , ifthe historia n is not also aided by the ph enomenologist in Ji ' al-Hiatai ed. H Cb ad M. Mo' 21 C parcar Nasre vol lioteqe raniee 3), 1953, ch apter XI , pp. I35, a d oduo to e Comment a Q . . (abe 4 pp 8 161
this case, given the scarci ty of " archiv al docum entation, " he would most often have to lim it him sel f to fruitles s hypot hes es . Howev er, there arc som e facts that c an put us on the trail of the actu al c ontacts that m ust hav e taken place between Christian gnostics and those early Shiite circles whose feor and enthusi asm hel ped fo the beginni ngs of sm ai lism . We can start by distinguishing between what one could call, on the one hand, the encounters between tex, and on the other hand, contacts between persons. As for the foer, these include, for example, passages showing how ce rtain of the " apo cryphal " Christian Script ures which had srcina ted in a gnos tic setting were subs equently me ditated and ass im ilated in the I sma ili m ilieu. L ater on (§ V), an ex ample of m amol ogy will be t aken up which was dev elope d on the basi s of an episo de om the Gos pe ls of Jesus' childhood, and any study conceing the relations between Ismaili gnosis and the gn osi s o f antiquit y m ust pay parti cular attention to the occ asional re em ergence and furer deve lopm ent of the soc alled " apo cryphal" Scriptures. However, the encounter was not limited to those " ap oc ryp ha . " It is also rev eale d in the fo of certain v ariants modi fying the c anonic al texts of the Gosp el s, vari ants which wer e known and cite d verbatim by Ismaili authors; f the spirit which inspires those variants appears so authentically Gnostic that one must suppose that our theosophers had some knowledge (orally, if not in writing) of texs which we no longer possess. Moreover, in the fourth/tenth century the works of Abu Hatim Razi 'lam al-Nubuwwa) and Abu Ya'qub Sejestani thbat al Nubuww) de m onst rate a firsthand knowledge not only of the Old and New T e stam ent, but also of other religiou s sects (Zoroaster, Marcion, Mani, Mazdak, Behafarid, etc.). A particul arly striking exam ple i s the long quot atio n that Abu Y a ' qub gives f rom the chapter ofthe Gospel acc ording to St Matthe w ( 25 : 35 46) announcing the lastjudgment ofthe nations by the Son ofMan. A variant repeated twice there completely overturns the "social" perspective deve loped b y the c anonical text . Where th e canonical t ext has : " Each time you did the se things f the le ast of these my bthers, you did it for m e , " the ve rsion that Abu Y a' qub cites v erbatim has : " Th e L ord will gather toget her the just an d th e wi cked . . . . The just w ill say to Him : Whe n w ere y ou hungry and thirsty, when were you in prison? . . . And the Lord will say to them : You rightly, but: allulma that you havm e done 'to have your for yourselves selve s', 'to spe youak r own souls' that(or you sa bi-ansikum) 162
done for me (or 'to m sel)" Moreover Abu Ya'qub comments on this: " He re it is e Soul o f the world afs lliya) who i s con versing wi sou, with the individual souls It needs order to attain to everthing Its rank includes; ie It needs the intelligible aptitudes that individual souls acquir e in this world th rough the m edium of sensible thin gs " 22 This variant has the rem arkabl e pe culiarit of substituti ng f the mention of 'brother' that of 'our self' our own soul Abu Ya'qub Sejestani's exegesis ows that for Ismaili theosop her the confirmation of this text occurred spontaneousl Butso lg as we are unable to identif the historic al prov enance and sour ce of is v ariantwhich is so i mp ortant in that it ce nters the understandi ng of the G ospe l text on the subjectiv it of the individual personwe at least ought to identif the mental operation which led to this substitution and the motive which helped dictate this reading In this respect it appears to us that it might be possible to reconstruct the gnostic exegesis which supplied that motive and at the same time to grasp at its source an intuition which was shared b Ismaili gnoss The Carpocr atians give a n exegesis o f another passage in the same Gospel (Matthew : = Luke :) which if it is supplemented b the exegesi s of that s ame passage in the Pistis Sophia, does seem to put us on the path toward a solution There the adversar fm whom one must e onese lf while one is still tr avel ing alo with him (i. e. during one' s earthl life) is the " dev il" who is sup posed to t ake before the Judge (i e the Archon who is the Demiurge) all those souls who have le this world in incomplete and impure state so that the ma be thrown into prison (ie the He ll o f a new earthl bod) 23 The Pistis Sophia indic ates the profoundl subjective meaning of this " dev il" when it id entifies this ad versar wit the V that spirit whi ch is the disged im age o f the soul the source of all the ev ils w ithin it: it is like a bod which the hostile p lane tar archons have bound together wit h the soul at the m om ent of its de scent when the made it drink om the water of the Cup of forgetfulness This spir it is e " advers ar" mentioned in the Gosp el verse t he " other in m e " the brother enem from whom the soul m ust ee itself s o thathav ing 22 ta alYai Yu 38 [ed H. r Trilogie ismienne Biliotheque ee
vol. 9, 96 ] . Here we have shorened the quotaon wich A Ya'qub ives and wich ends with ese wrds " Every wich y ed to dofo elve it is as if you had fled to do itfo me " 23 Irenaeus,. Hae 25 4 G R S Mead, agmen ofaaith ogotten p 232 63
flu it bac at te arcoit ay appear, a pure Lit, befe te ude wo i te Viri of L it " So lo a it d oi ate te oul, te oul cot be at peace wit iel caot redicoer te uity ad wolee of a bei of Li t Co er e ly, to be at pea ce wit o eelf e a precie ly to oercoe ad eliiate ti Sadow Fro ti perpectie, a otic weter e be Carpocratia or oeti elecould read ad udertad te iediately precedi ere attew 5:3f i te followi aer " F irt o ad be recociled ad ly te retur ad offr your i at te alt ar " For, aerwihyr all, o oe ca be at pe ac e wit i broter preci e ly i te e e of te Gopel tet wo i ot firt of all at pe ace wit i el T e priority oft e ub e ctie coditio t ereby beco e quite clear: your loe i oly wort wat you ar Tu te odificatio tat ipoe ti priority ad i u t te way tat bu Ya' qub read it iply derie epe rietially f ti otic priciple Wat ae you doe wih yourad f yoel Te iterpretie traitio, te tae of wic lead u i ti way fr te caoical tet to te Gotic tet, correpod eactly to te etal operatio we ca idetify i te brief coetary ie by bu Ya'qub Wat bu Y a' qub p erceie i te tet of att ew 5 : 35 -46 i a co er ati o betwee t e Soul of te world a d ou te idiidual oul wo It ee d to attai It true ra I Ia il i ter , ti Soul of te world i our Deiure, te piritual da a ha te Tird el wo wa t e prota oit of te crii i te Pl eroa c § VII b elow He wa te ict ite firt, ad witout ee ow i itof a
E
vLJ
te Ibli-ria cocealed witi ielf, te Dare tat e would ae to oercoe ad aqui a oo a e cae to recoize it,
but wic paralyzed i bei o profoudly tat tat firt oet e fell bac ee cele tial ra b eeat i ori ial lee l Te ta of all i ouli e , of all toe wo, ai coe to eart, bel o to i ow P leroa c § VII ad IX belowi to e lp i to rec oquer tat 4 i rolo p ty of e o, �ohia caer
i n 1 13 (containing the comment a on Matthew 5: 25(1 ) d 1 3 1 2 5 This reading would also gree wi th another impo rtant variant that i s v us by the rh "Wher e there are two th are not without God But I say that where there is only one I am with him . " C H G. Evelyn White The Sayin! o e OxyrhcCam bridge 1 920p . 3 Paologia rienais IVp 55. Thispa ssage has been comp e d wi a text m the ospel accoingto e Eptisde Secon
Leer oClement chapte r X I I : beco me one. "
"when the to (i.e. e masculine and the femie)
distance Hence dial coresponsibility of the Soul of the world and His soul which i s here an Ism ai li a spe ct of the " theologoum en on" of the members" so char acteristic of Manichacism . T hus, what ea ch so ul does for itse it also does for this AngelAdam, the Ismaili fige ofthe SavedSavior who, om one cyc le to the next, re conquers Hi s cel estial ran k (c §IX be low) throu gh the aid of His souls each overcoming i own Iblis. This aid consists in each soul's eliminating, in its turn, its own its Iblis Ahriman. To free onese lf om this Adv ers ary is t rediscove r oneself the unity of one's being (the subjective side of the esoteric tawhi, to be ee f " one ' s s el" i. e . , for that fo of L ight which is j o ined to the disciple at t he m om ent of his initiation, and which he must nurture and increa se . For the solidarity which unites the cous mysticum, the "Temple of Light" of the Im am , doe s not deriv e from the authority o f a pre exist ent social colle ctivity; it res ults from the e stabl ishm ent of a dire ct, p ers onal connection of e ach disciple with the corresponding rank (the hadd) in the celestial Pleroma. Therefore, it was the m ost profound me aning of gnosis and Ism aili ethics that Abu Ya ' qub recognized in t he Gos pel text: " What you have done f your selves. . . . " It is rem arkable, m oreover, that his reading of this passa ge corresp onds so intim ately to the w ay a gnostic o f the se cond cent ury would have re ad or und ersto od a text of the Go spel . Now, addition to th ese e ncounte rs bet wee n texts (such as we can infer in bringing out the ir inner agre em ent), there are other testim onie s, p erhap s equally allusive but no less significant, pointing to certain contacts between perso. We c annot dwell here on t he personalit y of Maym un al Q addah and that ofhis son 'Abdullah, nor on the meaning oftheir characterization as " B arde s anian s " ; nor can we m ake any j udgm ent as to their exa ct role in t he fo ation of sm ail ism in its first stages . Acc ording to Ibn al Nadim , the author of the ihs who wrote at the end ofthe fourth/tenth century and whose Shiite symp athie s are well kn own, if there had " form erl y" been a good number ofBardesanians in southern Mesopotamia, it seems that in his own time they no longer existed except in eastern Iran (Khorasan) and in China (i. e. , in Ch inese cent ral Asi a) . " Neve rthel ess, in the s ec ond/eighth century there must still have been a certain number ofthem in Mesopota 26 in te philosophic te s indicated by Abu Ya' qub : in e s oul's ng toward te sible in order to " de- materi alize " it into te intelligible and spiritl Thi s is te process of kowlege a cc ording to e (al- Farabi, Avice, etc ) ; it is precisely wt uites te Acve Intelligence and te sos It illuminates 27 A-Fihrist i-n -Nim, Cro e on, p. 474.
F
F
m ia, since one o f the m ost notab le friends and co mpanions o f the sixth I m am , Ja ' far al- Sadi q, and of his imm e diate succe ssors, wa s in contact with sev eral of them Th e figure of H isham ibn al- Hakam des erves a thorouh study. 28 A feent d isci ple of the I m am Ja ' far, a fam ily friend of the Barmecids, in contact with all sorts ofnon-Muslim elements (Bardesanian gnostics , anicheans, Nestorians, Jews) , he was one of the rs t Shiite theologians and a supporter ofthe nascent Imamology A good number of Shiite traditi ons refer to his au thority That som eone so representa tiv e of the Shiite milieu could have had such "connections" and could even have seed as an intermediary between them and the Imam should give some indi cat ion of e ways in which Gno stic i deas and inuences were abl e to penetrate both Shiism and Sufism. On e epis ode , am ong other s, that stands out as parti cul arly snif icant is an exegesis which Abu Shakir the Bardesanian Ds suggested to Hi sham ib n al-Haka m : " T he re is a verse of the Koran, he sa id to him, 'which exp resses a belief simi lar to the one we pro fess ' 'ich one?' ' The followi ng He who is a God in He aven and a God on ea rth 43:84' "30 H isham , be ing perpl exe d, referred this to the Im am , whose reply (as one m ight hav e expe cte d) w as inoffeively prude nt " As for the Bard es anian, he m e ant that the word " G o d " repeat ed ice in this verse s hould be understood ea ch time as referri to a different " p ers on " His intention was perfectly j ustifiable in te s of gnosis in general, since it seems to nothin m ore than " lead bac k" the me aning of the Koranic vers e to the esta blished distinction between the Unknowable God and the £ ("second Go d" the Anthropos , etc ) ; and this d istinction coespo nds precis ely to that professed by Ismaili gnosis between the and the ub' primordial "Originated one," or Pss ub'- One would, indeed, expect to see the orodox apologists attack at this point. And to be sure, the accusation against the Ismailis ofprofessi the
3OX
the noce in Shahrastam i/ Tehran 1288 p. 87) who includs under the heading imiyboth the school of Hisham ibn al-Hakam and that of Hisham ibn Sm al-Jawaliqi 29 W Ivanow, TheAegedFounder ofai/m, B omb ay, 19 9-8 0 Kulini (or Kulayni according t o the Iranian usage) - / min -, Tehran 1 hs vl I, p 128 1 d for that matter the Ko ranic vee tk in i "exo teric " simplici does not 28
o dic: Does not A Shkir hsel se ne he in Kufa d in B?any But e Bdesanian w not fooled byfbear s simplicaon; remkd not wiout humour that this rply w " an impor e H ej az ''
exit en e of "two G o d " doe re ap p ear with t ireom e mo noton y . Bu t if th orthod ox v ehem ently attake d the notion of a upr em e Divi nity that i unknowable beaue It tranend every prediate and ategory they eem to have been even more andalized by the srcinal dyad ofthe Pleroma: th p air form ed by the firt a nd e ond Intelligen e ql), the primordia Originated being u l an d the F ir t Em anatio n Ji'th l Nous and Psyche. Baghdadi in referring to the Kit l-Mhsul (of Mu ham m ad N ak hh abi) ta te th at th e niy (the "Eoteriit") laim that ine the Firt Intelligene gave rie to the Soul the two ofthem together gov ern the world . T he n he rather ha rdily iden tie thi do trine wit h that o the Mazdean or Magi u aording to wh om Yazd an ha vin g rea t hriman govern the world together with himYazdan being the reator ofall that i beautiful and good while hriman i the reator ofall that i bad and ugly. Ne edle to ay i n on fuin g Yazd an ( O hrm azd) will Zervan and in identifying the yzygy ql-Nwith the antithetial ouple of Ohrm az d and hriman he o mp ound ed h i error . In fat a we have alre ad y realled and w ill have o aion to diu again one p ha e o f th e Imaili omogony an be een a homologou to a Zervanite hema; but that pha e in the Im aili ytem tranpo e t he in itia l mo m ent of o n it to uh an extent that the dr am aturgy of anient Ze rvanim i e entiall y hanged. f or D ayl am i ening t he danger that th e eoter i hi ould po e for the f aith of the ortho d ox he likewie de no un e the " tw o G o d " who a re the Intelligene and the Soul ql and N, Siq and Tli, Qlm and wh} Even more than that it i the entire pleroma o 'Ul that he denoune a multi pliity of God 3 3 ine their onto l ogial tatu alt hough they are deignated a "ngel" ml 'ik, ereshg, in or Cherubim) i ino mparably u per ior to th at of the imple "m e enger " of p opu la r angel olo gy . In fat one ould ay that thee degre e o fthe Plero m a { limites, " horizon ") aume a rol e a h yp otae analogou to t hat of the divine Nam e in Ib n 'rab i' theo ophy ju t a one ould a y that the B arde anian who wa Hi h am ibn a l- Hak am' ondan t mu t ha ve had pr op er en e of their theolo gial impl iation . 32
Baghdadi Ki lrq ynljrq, ed. Muhammad Badr [Cairo 132811 pp. 2-8 [=Moslem Schisms Sects, part II anl. b y . S. alkin reprint Phi
!adelphia 1 8 p. 1 3 1] .
De Gee de Ben, mnn 1 1) pp ym . 5- a nd 2 -3 .
(Bbocsc 1
G QU
Given the present state of our knowledge, it is the structural homologies, even m ore than these pass ing c ontacts between persons, that can provide us with cl ear indic ations tracing a continuous path om the gn osis of antiquity to Is ma il i gnos is . Such indic ations are to be fod in the olde st work that has yet been made accessible to us, the treatise in Persian already mentioned above, caninant be linked eighth c enturyentitled on the bUmm as is oal-Kitab, f one o fwhich its dom motifs,to the the second/ my th of S al ma n. " While lo oking forward to a detail ed study, we shall he re po int out som e of its partic ularly significant them es. 1 . Th e book is pres ented in th e fo of an init iatory discussion bet we en the fih I m am , Muham m ad Baqir, and thre e of his intim ate disciples or " beings of Ligh t" (roshania as the Im am calls them . Th e prologu e repo rts a story om th e chil dhood of the holy Im am , when h is teacher, 'A bdullah S abbah, was pr eparing to teach him the arithmo logica l powers an d symbolic m eaning s of the lett ersi . e . , thejafr, or philos ophic alphabet (t he role of which is no less im portant in Ism ail i gnosis tha n for a Gnost ic lik e Marc us Magus) . Howe ver, with the fi rst letter, ali their roles are rev ersed : the po or teacher, whose learning is outstripped, becomes the pupil, and the young Imam becomes his initiator. This story repeats point by point one that is reported in the Goel ofhomasand which is also known from the Epistula Apm:3 the young Imam has purely and simply been substituted for Jesus. This is a fact that helps to confirm the observation formulated in the prev ious se ction. Only her e, it is not simply th e gnostic version o f a canonical Gospel that has been cited and given value by an Ismaili author; it is I m am ology ielf which, by taki ng over a narrat iv e om those " apoc ryphal " script ures so app rec iated in g nostic an d Man iche an circles, reve als i aini with a Christo logy to the poi nt of ac tually supplanting it. 2. Another charac ter isti c feature o f this proto Ism ai li book is to be fo und in the predominance of groups ofe, in what could be called the "pentad 34 C W Ivanow, The Alled . . . , p. 164. 35 Compare Umm al-Ki, pp. 13, e Gospel ofThom,chapters VI and VII (M. R. James, The Apocryph N Tesment, pp. 5 1 and 5 6), the Gospel of Pseo-Matthew XXX I (James , p. 77), d EpislaApostolo(James , p. 486). Irenaeus . Haer. I, 20, I) mons is epis ode om the Gospels of Je s us ' childhood as be ing a particular favote among Gnoscs ofthe Mcosian school. Moreover theja is nothing more than the ariology which was ready so ply deveoped by Mark the Magus; Divine Epiany. . above, p. 145. 168
s of ts cos ology. Fo all tty Five Lgts ofve colo s xst Sa of tss ahr al-bay, avly alac of t Lt of Lts. Ts Lgts a t bs awah) ad t ppas (zuhur) of a s l so of Lg t (shakhs-e nurani); ua fo o t pla of tst al u aty ashariya), ty appa as Muaad Al Fata Hasa ad Husay.. t Fv sos of Matl (ashab al-ksa, wos topac ol s also podal goss ofTwlv (qubba o diwan: Ss. Bat t Saofdscdg tss od dos Havs) a aagd ac w ts dstctv colo (cysolt f d ald pupl su oo laps lazul wat). I ac of em, sos afst tu t Fv Aglactyps of t Sa of tss (st Gabl Mcal Sap l Aal ad Sul � xt qL Na, Jad Fa, Khayal; tc.) 3 utl ts topac goup acs tat c ocos c E at wc s t Eat of t H at (zamin-e del). T Five Lgts a cood t tkg Sp t (ruh naiqa) of t tu blv wc s t Sxt t utotalty o t Lod. At vy lvl cludg t cocosc cuc s Five Lgts ca b cogzd as aot dstctvly Is al xpl fcato of t fa ous tolo gou o of t b s . (I Macas t ve sp tual bs o t Fv Skas Dwl lgs o Ma fstatos of Kg of t a ads of Lgt t Jive sos of t Spiritus vivens, t fv Elts of Lgt wo a t sos ad ao of Oazd t podal Ma t Jive sptual lts o vtus t dvdual aac of ts goups of Fv sybolcally cospods to all ots. I t goss ofPsts Sophi c t Fst Ipatv ad t v sctos ofLgt t gat Evoy ad hs Jive auxlas. I t syst of Baslds c the
ypostass tc.). 39 I t Is la c s ttg oov t dvots of t 36 already the obseaons of L assignon, Die Urspge und die Bedeung des oszs slrosr, 1 9 3 7 pp . 35. 37 a'is-e Fatimi [by ull a ir Kujuri, Teh ran, 1 3 18 h. l. ] , pp . Ibn Abi Jumhur, Kitab -Mujli,[Tehra n, 13 24 h. l. ] pp . 47 We must so meno n e Shiite com mentaries on the Kor anic vse 33 : 33 (e sccaon ofthe al-Bayt, the appearance of e Ange: "I am the 'sixth' of you ve.").
,
pen,
ee e reiiire r ir-e sr e, n , pp
91 If one presees the equivents of e archangelic iad m enoned there, th e ql d Na in coespon bond oftheophanic subordinaon he would put the dence with Suriel (Uriel) and Azrael.
39 C H. - C . ech , eManicheisme, sonndateur, sa doctrine, Paris , 1 949,p p . 75, 7 7, d notes 297 and 307; W. ousset, Harobleme der Gnosis, pp. 177, 231 169
dv tad w dsgatd by a spcal a t mukhammisa 40 tadsts). I addt o ac o of ts fv so s o b s app as a s co p dg wt s ow dv dualty all of t ot s. A bdull a Sabba t tac oft youg Ia ovwld by t cdtust calld pocds to cotplat a stat of cstasy t succssv p pay of t fv dv s os. Eac of t tu xpssg unio mysica slf tt fstaspso spaks as bgbot slf ots ac f sgula w sultaously s wt ow t psoal dvdualty ad also all t ots. H t catgoy tat dt s t p c pto of ts t opas fuctos as a sot of katot s . 4 T s psc of t ol t dvdual s o patculaly xpssd t ts toug wc Fata fos t vsoay of bg ad pogatvs ts wc fd aot vvd l lustato t sc wc Gab l t Agl of Rv lato sow s a Iag ofaads to tos wo a about to b xld o t dos of Lgt tat Iag s t pso of Fat a. 42 3 . Aot gud g t wc sould b bougt out s t S v Battls o f Sa l a agast t Atagost Azazl ad s coots. T apotoss of Sal a t sa o t u (S ala Fas Sal a ak) to a acaglc Fgu dcats to us a caactstc aspct of potoIsal goss 43 wl t vy a of t Atagost spcfcally ds us oft o wo t Boos ofEoc lads t volt oft Agls assbld o Mout Ho. 44 Howv apat fo t dv coad dctg t acagl Mcal to bd ad cast dow t b ll ous ag ls ad t ss of t obl stuggl tat s v ald a
cto of t l ovd ut by c opass o 43o t t stagsdaatugy of t coct follow tacag ow scao dfft of 40 K ashshi Ma ratAbar alRal, Bombay, 1 8 1, p. 25 3. 41 C Divine Ephany . . ., above , p. 87; mm alKitab, pp. 39-43 of the manuscript. 42 i, p. 8, and mm alKitab, p. 2 1 1 : Fama is seated on a throne; her crow swor and earris smbolize respecvely uhammad, h husband li, and the to it Im ams, Hasan and Husan. Compare Jafar b. ansur Yama Kitab alKah ed. R. Sothma (without is imprimar, Oxfor 1952, pp. 35, 56-; Divine Epiphany ... above, p. 8 . 43 This is the feate wich disshes the ct o fe Salmaniya H. Corbi Livre du G/orieux dejabir ibn Hayyan, (above, n. ; . Maignon, SalmanPak ... , (above, n. 1 1), La Mubahala deMediae et Ihyperdulie de Fatima, Paris, 1955. 44 I Enoch 6, anslated by R. H. Charle s, Oxfor 1 9 1 2, p. 1 4, 2. 45 Enoch 68: 1 1 : "They have acted a s thoh they were the Lord ." 10
Eoc. It s potat to ot tat ts pologu Hav alady cotas t coplt da oftat ytostoy wc wll b dvlopd lat t gat t ats s of Is al tosopy . Sv t s Azazl spods to t tofold suos to ackowldg t Kg Most Hg ad at t sa t to wosp Sa l aac t wt t sa dfac ad dal cayg alog wt tat gato a goup ofs ow kd. Wt ac o f ts d als s stpp d of o of tos c olo d ad acs wc a t spcf c pop ty ad spctv bl of ac do ofLgt. If o ca say tat Sa l a assu s t ol of t acagl Mcal of t Apoc alyps (Rvl ato 127 t ust b ad dd ta t s o spcfcally lk a acagl Mcal wo would b t So of God suc as H w as ps td t f at of t Bogols. 47 I fact H s t g at a vly c (dawar, p. 19 el passim) wo at t sa t bot vls ad uvls t sup Dvty; s bot Its Dooway ) ad Its Vl ab, p. 172 Tus t would ot b appopat to copa ts b; t Maco s D ug t God of t L aw wo s oppos d to t good ad ukow God . A lato of tat sot could ot cospod to Salas topac fucto. O t cotay tat topac ol aks t av ly Anthropos "0 Sal a You a y Dooway ad y Book . . . You a y Rgt Ha d . . . You a y Evoy ad y To . . . You av y safguad ad you a y safguad . . . My Spt afsts Its lf toug you V . . . I a yo u Lo d ad you a t Lo d of t bl v s . . . . You a t Lod of all t Havs ad all t Ea ts p. 172 Tus s ot oly lk a acagl Mcal wo ods 4 t Agls to wosp Ada t but lvs slf s t osbfo wo Agls a odd to postat s . 49 Ts vt dscbd as t pologu Hav to a daa t co ofwc vbats o at o Cycl to Cycl. T s at oc a actypal lato ad a sycos btw Salas seven battl s ad t seven Cycls costtut g a co plt Cycl of popc y . At t daw of ou ow Cycl Ib ls [C 18 ab ove] . 4 C H. Soderberg, L aReligion de Caare (above, n. 10) p . 8; H .- C. Pch and Vaillant, Traite cone le Bogomile de Coa laPree, Paris, 1945, p. 206. 48 Accorng to the episode described in VitaAdae et Evae = The Boo ofAdam and Eve, chapters XI I - XVI I in R. H. Apocrypha andPeudepigrapha ofthe Old Tetament,
ITetment, I , p. 13 ); the Gopel ofBartholomew, IV, 53 (. R. James, The Apocryphal New p. 18). 49 mm alKitab, pp. 143 ; Koran : 10 [ I I ] .
Ahriman repeated, tis time against e terrestial Adam, Aaiel's deance of Sal man, the heavenl Ad am Hence each one of the lesser ccle s enclosed within the total Ccle feels the presence of blis and his accursed crew. It is important to emphasie once again that the author ofthe treatise al-Kitabwas alrea d well ac quainted wi this snchr onism that is so characteristic of Ismaili prophetolog (and which begins, in the later treatises,cwith "prologue in ow) Heaven" protagonist the Third Angel §VII aand bel He iswhose perfectl aware isof the underling motive of this dram a, which is exp res sed in terms that ultim atel bring one face to face with the esoteric meanin of tawhi Aaiel vokes against Salman a God who is beond all the Heavens, without mode or attribute or qualification, a God who does not mafest Himself to anone or b anone (p. 147 However, according to what the Imam Muhammad aqir demonstrates in response to this 149 to designate God, to sa "huwa Al lah, " can have no other posit ive content but the v efold the ophan that is recapitulated within the luminous Person of Salman, the supreme theophan which was itself "Uncreated" (naafada, namaluq,p 252 et which was the rst to proclaim the afrmation oftawhi b refusg to cla im di vinit for iel That is precise l the secret of theophani es, e secret w hich is also their paradox. Withou t theophan , God is onl a pure indetermination whic h caot be worshi ppe d at all ut if theophan is nec essar, it must be accompli shed as an anthropom orphos is perceive d b m ental vision , on the archange lic level of Salm an, not on the plane of a m aterial incarna tion (c p 72 quoted above ) Moreover, if worship can be directed towa rd a theopha ni c person, it is because that person, b refusi divinit f himself, thereb renders himsel f trans parent to the Divinit, Who neve rtheles s can onl be wo rshipped through that theophan Aaiel's resort is onl the recourse of agnosticism (ta'ti to a purel abstrac t Divinit, one depriv ed of ever Veil that could make It show through. Here, b a striking paradox, the orthodox literal ist ic ofession of fai reunites with the a bsolute negati on of e atheist, because the literal m onotheistic dogm a, b rejecting the theophanic functio destros the transpar enc of the Veil ; it couses the Ve il w ith the Divinit that It m anifest s, in believ ing that it m a pre dicate of God what is onl appropriate His Veil The meaning necessitthe oftheophan revealed to Ismailitognosis b that "prologueand in Heaven", mster ofis
which was pondered by all te schools ofgnosis. The Ismaili makes it the very se cret of the esoteric · without these theophanic figres that the Im am oppos es to Az az id' s claim , m onotheism would perish in its own triumph, through the most subtle treasonthat by which one imposes on onesel f a denia l of onesel Th at, es sentiall y, is the intuitio n which ultim ately lies at the ver y srcin of Shiite gnosis and it s Im am ol ogy. 4 Finally, it is fiti to bring up an aspect which comes at the very conclusio n of the treatise Umm al-Kitab and which m ay perhap s allow us to rej oin the Book of Enoch once again. Th is conc lusion i s dom inate d by the microcosmic relationship already mentioned, i.e., by the ultimate identity of essen ce be twe en the Sav ior and the souls whom He save s. Thus the beings of Light, the roshanian to whom the Im am is speakin g, have th e sam e Origin a nd are Its " m em be rs At the end of this initiatory conver sation, the disciples learn that each gnostic is in turn called upon to become this Salm an who takes upon h im sel f the attrib utes of the archangel Mi chae l and the heav enly because his Ruh naliqa wi th its five l ights, the " Angel of a thousand nam e s , " is none other than the " Sa lm an o f the m icroco sm " (Salman-e 'alam-e ucha pp. 92- No doubt, this is for them a rev el ation as ove rwhelm ing as that m om ent when Enoch lear ns that " Th e Son of Man is you" Enoch 7114
As for the Div inity which rem ains hidden behind the v eil of ts th e ophanie s, no nam e o r attribute o r qualification can be given to It . The pure ly nega tive designations to which the gnostics have recourse have only one goal: to pre serv e this D iv inity from any as sim ilation to a m ode of cre ated or srcinated being. The Unknowable God in the £ w< v6 6 Clementine Homilies), the Unnameable God x Carpocrates), the Ineffable and the Abyss g { B0� ·alentinus), the Unengendered One B the Supreme God and PrePrinciple - < all o f these de signations have their equivalents in the Ismaili teinology: the Originator Mubdi�, the Myster y of Mysteries al-Ghuyub), " H e Wh o can not be re ached by th e b ol dness of though ts" (man a tatajasa nahwahu'l-awatir),
(Ev
50 C. W. usset,
Haptpobleme de Gnoss,ttige, 107,] p.
84.
173
tc. O caot attbut to H t bg o ob g � H is ot but causes to be. Ev byod t O H s t f (muwahhi, Wo fs all t Os Wo oadscs all t oads. Tus t tawhid taks o t aspc t of a oadology at t sa t tat t spaats ts f fo all t Os H ufs t also s H toug t. T tawhid ust avod t tofold tap of ta'til (agostcs) ad tashbih (asslatg t Mafstato to Tat wc s afstd). Hc t s tt dalctc wcssobg xpssd ad t two pass of aHdoubl gatvty Ogato not obg� s ot 2 plac ad not otpla c � tc. Tat dalctc cospods to t tofold opato of tanzi wc ovs t Nas ad Attbuts fo t Sup Dvty od to f t to t hud (bot avly ad atly) ad of tajrid wc datly solats s apat o pocts t Dvty byod ts afstatos. I ts way t topa c fucto of b gs s bot goudd ad saf guadd. Ib alWald dfs tawhid as kowg t avly ad atly hudud (t dgs o l ts ) ad c ogzg tat ac of t s uu ak o dg wtout bg assocatd wt ay ot. Tus t dv Nas ad Attbuts f to t aglc ypostass ad t atly xplfcatos ad abov all to t Fst aog t Wo s t otoktstos ' awwa, t Most Holy Agl al-Malak al-muqaddas) t Fst Itllgc ql awwa. I fact ts s t Sup Na a'zam), ad t vy a of God Al-a3 blogs to t pcsly bcaus t s t Vl atad ts taspacy toug ts bg t foud of t vy fst tawhi by fusg to cla dvty f tslf ad stad poctg t abov ad byod lft as ts oologu Sala dd t tats al-Kitab. It s tu tat t Isals (Ka fo xapl) a t fst to ackowldg wat t dalctc of t dv attbuts ows to tat of t Mutazlts� but ty a o lss awa of t pot at wc t 5 1 For l that follows, H ami d - Din Ke ani, - [s eal edions] the enre se cond chapter; Idris ' m ad al-Din (t he 1 9th Yem da'i, d. 872/1468), Zr al-Ma'ani, chapters IIII (personal copy); Ibn -Wid (8 Y d'ai, d. 667/ 1 2 6 8 , al-Mada' wa't-Ma [. H. ri i Trloge s'lenne, Bblotheque Iranienne vol. 9, 1 961 ] . 52 Abu Ya'qub Sest, hf-Mj (above, n. 5 o f the rst chapter.
)
Gnos-Tee der Ismalten, . 80 53 C. R. Strthm, -Mubda al-aal).
sm al-lahya a yaqa' lla 'ala
agreem ent cease s The Mu'tazilit es end u p allowing c ertain preem inent attribu tes to qualify e div ine Ess ence Moreove r, even if they had continued to pursue their dialec tic, te idea o f theophanic m ediati on (y the Angel in e Pleroma, and the Imam on the earthly plane) could never have appeared on the basis of their premi ses alone. Ismaili Im amo logy has its roots in quite another source o f this,theosop fol an aective tonalit it i scan im portant to All rec ognize sinc e thehysigns thati nreve al it are prec iselyy which ose that help u s to grasp the disti nctive ly Ismai li formulation of the gnostic them e in question here the contrast and the connection between the nknowable God and the divine Figure Who is revealed at the farthest accessible horizon One of ese indication s is the etymology wh ich the Ism ail i thinkers resee for the divine name Alah, the name which in fact is applied to the First Intelligence, the Protoktistos. Deriving the noun ilah om the root wh (ilh = wilah), they see this name as referring to the profound emotion and sadne ss of te First el ye arning to know his Originator ub Even be tter, taking th e word uaniya (" divi nity" ) as a sort of ideogram, they read it (by mentally introducing a tashdi as if it had been written alhanniya ( abstra ct noun form ed from the nen aentis of te rst form ofthe root hnn) the state of someone who is sighing om sadness and melancholy Moreover, it is not only the First Intelligence but the entire Pleroma ' 'am allb which, in feeli toge ther with it this same ardent longing, also deserves the same title of" divinity" (ulhaniya � alhanniya = ishyaq, ["yearning"]) What is expressed in the name of the Divinity, AlLah, is not some fulgurating omnipotence, but sadness and nostalgia. That is" a striking feature and one in which the Ismaili soul characterizes its m ost intim ate m ode of perce ption Perhaps , in light of that, the ephemeral success of the Fatimid theocracy would appear as a passing episode, as though that political success demanded a counterbalancing spiritual loss, which in turn could only be atoned for and overcome through political defeat It is significan t that the later treatis es of the refo ed 5 C Nasir-e Khusraw J' Hiin (above n 2) pp. 527 chapter conce ing the discussion with the Mu'tailites about hi 55 R Strothman noiTexte . p 8 (a quotaon Kermani) Jalal al-Din
Manai IV 69; Lane AraicEnglih Lexicon I p. 83 ut sply in e sense that is the rege f wch one longs); and H Corbin En Il inien. Vol III pp. 99
Ism ail i tadition of Alamut ediscove and lend n ew m eang to ese themes fm the peFatimid peiod, and at in Ian Ismailism has suviv ed b edis coveing the wa o f Sufism Moeove, the wos of the Musta'li tadition, those which wee witten b the Da 'i s of Yem en subsequent to the Fatimids and which summaize o expand on the teatises witten duing the Fatimid peiod, still etain thei l "gnostic" eligious and philosophic significance, independentl of an tempoal political doesinindeed seemto that the authentic Shiite conception ofefeences e I mamIt ate, addit ion i escha tological dimensi on, also impl ie s the " invisi bil it" of the Im am in this wold, i e, his puel spiitua l mode of bein Pacticall speaing, fo the M' banch of the Is mai lis , as well a s fo a goo d potion of the Nizais, the Im am ate has et uned to ghayb jus t as it has fo the Twe lve Shi ites
V Ou mental habits would incline us to judge the meaning and eectiveness of spi itua l doctine s b pe suppos ing that thei authos had as the i tasif not as thei c onscious con ce n" m aing histo ," and as if we could on l j udge them b e feence to the " m eaning of histo " Howeve, the complex damatugies ofgnosis in geneal, and paticulal ofsmailism , eviden tl call into q uestion the ve " m e aning " and di ection of what we call histo At the same time, the unique chaacte ofthose damatugies puts us on guad against th e m ost seious of e m isundes tandings which we could fall into ifwe wee to pesuppose, without a moe citical examination, that the modes ofpeception wee identical on eithe side event
What we pved eceive as an in histo m have been peclevel eiv edand ma be pe cei at is ve mo mentas oca cuin on the of a mthohisto 57 and as havin its significance onl in elation to a metahto In such a case, in othe wods, one cannot invoe the "meaning ofhisto" without enouncing it at the same instant, since hee it is in fact transhist orica Consequentl, also, the thematic stuctue of events as such is quite diffeent the fact of the Incanation at the cente of histo, fo example, is one thing, and the fact oftheophanies peceived at the pesent moment on the hoizon of the Pleoma o the intemediate wold is quite anothe This C . [C ]
is one of the m ost cha rac ter ist ic ways in which gnosis can invite to meditate on the confrontation ofOrient and Occident. The m ythohist ory of Ismail ism begins w ith a " prologu e i n He aven, " one vers ion of whic h, from the treatis e has a lre ady been m entioned h ere [ §V 3 ] . T he presenta tion ofthi s dram a varies accordi ng to the structure ofthe Pleroma; that structure reached its definitive fo with the work of Hamid Kermani, where there arises an "isomorphism" between the heavenly Plerom a of sm ail ism a nd the Plerom a of the te n Intel ligence s desc ribed by t he (al Fara bi, Avic enna) . Th e prim ordial " Or iginate d One , " the Archangel Protok tistos { in its turn gives srcin to the First Em anati on which is sometimes designated as the Second Intelligence and sometimes as the Univ er sa l Soul From this dyad of the first to Intell igenc es , and proceeds a third Intelligence which is the Second Emanation This is the one who is designated as the " spir itua l Ad am " { the protagonist o f this dram a which had Salman as its hero in the presentation in the book What constitutes the underlying motivation ofthis drama, as we have noted in relation to that treatise, is expressed in its reference to the esoteric The First Intelligence initiates that by recognizing the Unique, or rather the Unifier of i being (or its sel Who is beyond all categories and all pre di cat es. Its own which it takes on in this way, is in fact its (because it refuses divinity for itsel, and it thereby becomes the Ve il , the horizon or lim it by wh ic h th e Divine shines throu gh and appears to the following Intelligence (its Thus from lev el to lev el, om e ach lim it to that which it lim its (its and which is in turn the lim it or horizon for the one following it, this m aintains the e ntire Ple roma in a n ascendin g move m ent: each ascri bes the Div ine to th at " lim it" which precedes it and which is th e Veil through which the Divine appears to it; and this higher in turn refers the Divi ne to the next " lim it " or degree prec eding iel But then " it happened" that in a vertiginous stupor the spiritual Adamthe Third Angel, whose innermost being concealed the AzazielIblis (the other protag oni st of this d ram a in the broght this m ov em ent to a halt. Like Azazie l, he agreed to recognize the , but he refused to the preeminent theophanic of the Ael who prec ede d him (hisrecognize Thus he was the first among role all the
1
beings to com m it the tofold erro r which is at once that of the atheist and the orthodox believer: either he must leave the Divine in pure indetermination (ta 'l), or else he must m ake It det erm inate . But since he f ailed to rec ognize the the ophanic fction of the Angel who p re ce de d him , he inevitably had to fall into and ultimately, by setting up his own pre dic ates as being those of the Unique an d Suprem e Divinity , he had t o raise him sel f up into a sort of Ia ldab aoth. Th e m yth that in this way re lates the crisis in the Pleroma to the contradiction undermining the monotheism of oicial, exoter ic re ligion is rem arkably pr ofound. However , this sp iritu al AdamAngel is not Azaziel, even though he unnowingly harbored this Azaz ie lI bli s w ithin him self. Th e doubt that he feels is preci sely the rising to consciousness and the exteriorization of the Darkness which had remained hidd en w ithin him , an d which from then on he ca n conquer an d hurl back outsid e himse lf. In a way, he is like an arch ange l Michae l who gains his own victory o ver himse lf, i . e . , over the antagonist who had been latent within his own being. This is the "Zervanite movement" in the Ismaili cosmogony. Yet this im m obi liz ation of the Angel Adam did bring ab out a del ay or "retard" all: a distance is thereby opened up within the Pleroma, a distance which is numbered by the s Cherubim or divine Words, the seven ot her Intell igences who follow Him (each of them being the " Im am " of an entire p lerom a) . The ir nu mbe r corresponds t o that of the s periods m arking out the Cycle of Prophecy (a synch ronism analogous to that of the s battles of Salman). This clical m is eter nity " re tard ed " by the stupor ofthe Third Angel; i periods are the rhythmic "pulsations" marking the re conquest of is di stance and retardatio n. Brou ght back to con sci ousness with the help of the other Intelligences (like the Aeons together interceding for So phia in the Val entinian gnosi s), this heave nly Adam stabil ize s him sel f at a level which is no longer the third, bu t the tenth (co e sponding to that of the Active Intellect the schema of falasa), the m ea sure of his " re ta rd . " He has th rown his own Darkne ss out side himse lf: on e arth, it will fo the p osterity o f Ib li sAhrim an, while those who f ollow him in his rep entanc e will be his own de sc endants, the po sterity of the he ave nly Adam . It is so th at he m ay come to their aid th at he is inst alle d as th e dem iurge of o ur world. And re cipro call y, it is wi their aid that, from Cycle to Cycle each t im e that ImamResurrector (Qa'im al-ama) will lead back to the Plerom a the " T em p le of L ight" fo ed by all the s ouls of L ight
17
belonin to the initiates ofhis Clydethe AnelAnthropos will be lied up one more level toward his oriinal rank Even outlined in i most eneral features this "proloue in Heaven" allows us to establish several points I durin a "time" which is the very oriin of tim e this Ael who m ust subs equently assum e the function of the dem iure does ive in to the vertio of a Ial dabao th he has nothin else in com mon with that fie He i s not at all t he Dem iure o f that nam e (who is neither oodis nor bad and somewhat ratherheasaves beinafter of Liht who compassionate toward hisdisturbin) own beinsbutwhom havin delivered himsel He is preeminently the Ismaili ure of the avedavior Of cou rse tis unique nature of the Ism aili demi ure holds true afortiori for alman the hero ofthe treatise mm alKitab There IblisAaiel was also a member ofthe Pleroma but a personae entirely dierent from that of alm an; while here we have an Ibli s at first hidden with in the AnelAdam who then had to tear him out o f himsel But in both cas es the ev ent takes place with the Pleroma: here too nostic emanatism tends to reab sorb the d uali sm of Manichae ism and Zoroastr ianism . 59 The spiritual Adam is not like Gayomart who is attacked om without by Ahriman and kill ed by him ; it is w ithin Adam 's own will that Ibli sAhrim an em eres in actualitybut far frm succumbin to him he triumphs over him for ood Nor is the heavenly Adam a primordial Man who is overwhelmed by Matter rather the Darkness was in him but he expelled it om himself And finally that opac ity in his be in was brouht about by his preten sion of producin a tawhid which was in fact that orthodox monotheism which claims to know the Unknowable Tha then is Iblis And perhaps it was also out of the determ ination to overco me that nostal ic y earnin for the Unknowable forettin that the Divine (uaniya, § above) is precisely "nostalia" Because this crisis arises inside the Pleroma within a bein ofLiht and is not instiated om outside by a pre existin cont rary power of Darknes s we can understand how the orthodox apoloists althouh they were mistaken could have perceived a Zervanism here (even without knowin 58 Ou bef smay ofts " dama n He aven" s sed pmaly bks of Is 'Imad (chapte I and Ibn alW d ted n n 5 above Fo moe
tals, see ou two stues, Cyclical Divine . , above pp. 6 59 W Boset, Hprobleme Time 3 28Ephany 9
9
that name) One need only refer to the section tat Shahrastani devotes to the Zervanites and e Gayomartians to observe how close they are to the schem atic str ucture of sm ail i cosmogony In both instance s it is definitely a single being who gives birth to the o contrary powers but it is no loer the srcinal A bsolute Div inity. Zerv an has be com e one of the beings of Light an angel ofthe leroma he corresponds to the Third Angel ofthe Ismaili leroma In both cases the other Aels intervene to help lead to victoryAngel the battle In Ismailism the outcome isToa be victory ofthe over against himselfDarkness the expulsion ofthe blisAhriman sure blis' essential substance (the negativity of the deni ers the an tagonists and the add) is also inter m ingl ed in the creation tha t the Dem iurge prod uces to aid his fellowso uls Bu t this intermingling i s by no me ans the sign of a n agreedupon comium in no way is it a legitimation of Ahrim an' s rule f some defini number ofmillennia. 60 Despite these differences it remains true in both cases that the cosmic dramaturgy has its srcin beginning with the splitting apart of a being that was srcinally single and unique It is the emergence of a doubt that is expressed as the appearance of Daress, a Darkness which is distance separation retard Zervan the Unlimited s aside into a " tim e of long dom ination" ; Ete rnity " retarde d" by the Third Angel's doubt tus i into a " cyc lical tim e " which is the time of the Redemption ofthe world The conception of this retard allows us to bring out other structural homologies. For example the dramaturgy ofPistis Sophia(chapters recognies two stages the Soter ees Sophia frm chaos om the clutches of the Archons and her ow n germs of matter and delivers her to a pl ace which is b eneath t he thirtee nth Aeon it is only during His heav enly ascension tha t Christos brings her into the thirteenth Aeon 61 Or again in Valentinian gnosis the divine hero liberates a Sophia held captive in the lower world; the second and final stage is only completed at the end ofthe "historical" process ofRedemption 62 According to the Ismaili schema this "distanciatio n" is exemplified by the retard (takhauof the T hird Angel who "falls back" to the tenth rank The intervening distance of seven levels m easures 60 C our Cl Tme above, pp 41 61 . Bousset, reme , p. 272. (B we cannot see why this should be considered a compilaon, though the myth oe deliverance oSophia by e Soter had been cially related to Jesus, whereas it is really an essen connec on) 62 bi p 20.
80
out the " puls ations " of the seven peri ods of the Cycle of Prophecy, th e turning asid e om the eternal tim e of the Ple rom a into the historical tim e of the Redemption But this latter time is not our linear, boundless, and evolv in tim e It is cycli cal and " inv oluted " : it le ads back and is iself led back to its srcin . B ecaus e it is a Cycle o f cycl es, it is a lit urgical time in each of whose peri ods (at each " festiv al, " as the wan alSafa' put it) the same protagonists reappear: these periods mark the successive stages of Salvation The connection of the Soter, Christos Angelos, with the human Jesus corresp onds to the connec tion of the Tenth el with the Imam . In describing the composition ofthe person ofthe Imam, Imamology reproduces , in its ow n way, a Doc etic Chris tology While the hum anity (nut) of the Im am is the out co me of a whole cosm ic alchemy, His divini ty ahu is explained in terms that indicate an explicit recurrence ofthe Manichean them e of the "P ill ar of Light" alNur) or Pillar of Glory 63 The "distanciation" produced in the Pleroma is the b irth of a hist orical timeat whose or end isiseprecisely ee the th gnostic om Th is how "meaning" the nchronism stablishedtobetween e events in tHistory he Pleroma and a prophetology acc om panie d by an Im amology . Th is is one of the srcinal aspect s of smai li gnosi s Whil e it integrates i nto its vi sion a schem a of propheti c success ion anal ogous to that of Ebionism and Manichaeism , it also indicates a difference: here that succession has not yet come an end The Verus Propheta will only gain His repose with the coming ofthe last Im am , the Resurrector (c §IX be low) Yet, just as the heavenly asc ension of te earthly Chri stos m arks Sophia 's entry i nto te tirtee nth Aeon, so likewise the ascension of each Im am with all of his " T emp le of Light" at the end of a Cycle marks the progressive elevation of the gelAdam as he returns toward his srcinal rank
V Th e tofold allusion tha t has just been m ade to the theme of Sophia an d to prophetol ogy raises the question o fthe prese nce of a figure homol ogous to 63 the chapteron "I mamology a nd Docesm " i n o ne any above pp. 37 and compare Bousset leme . . . p. 7 e ely Je sus receives e pneumatic or spiritual eement of is being Sopa the psycc element the Demiurge and his "apparitional Body" results an lchemy that took place in the higher words. 8
So phia in Shii te gnosis in genera l. In a certain sense, the fi gure of the Third Angel, the SavedSavior, combines the roles ofboth Sophia and the Soter. Th er e is m ore, howeve r. About the person of Fatim a, the dearly beloved daughte r of the Pro phet and the on e who gives rise to the line of the holy Imams, are clustered the themes ofwhat could be called a Shiite Sophiology. There is a par adox here: the cont rast between the exaltat ion of the figure of Fati m a and the abj ect status which has gener ally b een the lot of the Fe m inine in the Islam ic world. H er e, a part o f the nec essary re se arch would be long to analytical psychology. The tre atise Umm al-Kitab already suggests an interpret atio n of that situation . When the angel Gabr ie l had shown to those who were ab out to be exiled from the dom es o f L ight an im age of Paradi se , which was the very perso n of Fatim a encomp assing the divine Pe ntad , Ib li sAhrim an rushed t o as sum e the fo of a wom an (and had his followers take on that fo) so as to deceive the gnostics and lead astray their desire to return to Paradise. Thus, the earthly Feminine appears as be ing in contrad ict ion to the heavenly F em inine . It is at this latter level that the person of Fa tim a is exalted. She i s the majmu ' al-nurayn, the " conflu ence of the to L ights" (of prophet hood and the I m am ate, nubuwwa and wala): that is w hy she is at the center of proph etology and I m am ol ogy in Ism aili gnosis. The luminous aspe ct of the F em inine is indicat ed by the power wit h which it is invested and the masculine attributes which are bestowed upon it, thereby compensating for the situation in which it is maintained by a patriarchal world on the social plane. Fatima the Radiant is extolled as Fatim aF arir, F atima " (i n the m asculine ), in the sense of " init iato r, " one endowed wit h the prim ordi al theophanic f unction (c n. 42 abov e) . It m ay be obser ve d that the Valent inia n Gnostics lik ewise called upon Sophia in the masculine, as KL ["Lord]. This appellation is a prev ale nt feat ure of the Nusayn . One may connect with it certain aspe cts, as ey were c ontemp lated in Su sm, of the Prophet's own des ignat ion of his daughter as " m other of h er father " (umm abiha). Fatima the Radiant atima al-Zahra appears as an archetype exemplified in numerous recurrences, which are carefully noted by the pology 6 U alKiab. 2 1 2 - 1 3 ; c- e refces v above, n. 2. 65 Irena eus, . I, 5, 3 ; U alKia . 0 and 60. 66 Tabardni Feskalender ed. R Sotmann, [in: Der Islam27, 19 -6,] in s.v .; e beau asida of Ibraim Tusi (d. ca. 750/ 1 350 ), aslated by L Massignon Degnhe ul d Fama m hhen slam (Ensahbuch, 1 9 3 . 167. 67 En Islam ane ... , t. III . 9149. 12
of Ismail i 'wil Generally speaking, e feminine figes who exempli this archetype are, like Fa tim a herself above al l, so many typifications of osis ilm albatin, 'ilm alhaqiqa), ofthe initiation into this gnosis, and of e Life which this gnosis breathes into the " de ad, " i e, into those who are unknowin and unconscious Thus, her esoteric rank is above all that of the a, the "Proo f" or Witnes s of the Im am , indeed eve n a substitute f the Im am who, being in possessi on of the ta'wil, is the source ofthat Life which resur the odea d Plerom This dyad (of Imam Hujj a)theis Spiri alreatual dy appa rent on rects the plane f the a, where the Thi and rd Angel, Adam (dam ruhani)forms a sygy with eternal Ev e who is re ferred to as the " leav en of the in itial cr eation" (alkhamira alibda'iya) She is at once th e nost algi a of the heav enly Adam and his return to his Paradis e : she is the one who, from cycle to cycle gives birth to all ofhis fellowsouls in e angelic state. 69 On the earthly plane, we find Eve, as Adam's wife, typifyi the esoteric content of the shari'a; she is the one who knows its meanings contained within the symbols, and that is why Adam cannot the shari'a of this cy cle w ithout her Thi s Adam E ve mystey reapp ears in all the periods: just as the Kaaba is the symbol ofthe Hujja, so is Noah's ark (sana); only those who take their place there will nd salvation It is only through the Hujja that one may be conjoined with the Imam The "Supreme Mary" aam alKubra),who in turn exemplifies the heavenly Eve, was Jesus' Hujja, because it was she who opened the doors ofgnosiswhich had been c losed, by be ing the first to appea l to 'I sa, the m aster of the new shari' Similarly, the "Supreme Fatima" atima al-Kubra) was the Hujj a of the first I mam during the period of te "sixth Adam " (i e, Muham m ad : for this reminiscence o f Ebion ism, §I X belo w) Th is sy allows us to interpret some surprising indications which t end to suggest that, in certain cases, this feminine Hujja refers to a masculine initiate That is the case, for example, in the work ofQadi Nu'man: Jesus' virgin birth r efers to his initiatory bi rth During a tim e of occu ltation o f the Im am , Jesu s was called to his m ission by an initiat e who had receive d, f 68 Ja'fa i Mansu al-Yama Kashp. 98. 69 I di s ' mad al-Di Z -Ma'ani chapte X Cyclical Tie above, pp . 4 1 70 asi -Din Ti, Tasaat [c Cyclical m e , above, p. 42, n. 49] , p. 50 of the Pesian te Cyclical ime . ove, pp. 71 Ja'fa ibn Mans al-Yaman, Kash pp. 97-98; on the aithmoloical value of the nmbe 290, the "ciphe" ofMaams eappeaance in Fama, L. Massno LaMbala (above, n. 43), 183
that purpose, the vocation ofhis Ael (his heavenly hadhu al-'ali): this is the m eaning o f his spiritual birth " without a father. " 72 Th is interpretation is likewise applied t other cases, but it docs not by any means lead us to a pure and simple e li m ination of the Fem inine . For this much remains: either the Feminine appears under the guise of certain masculine designations, or else the Masculine presents ielf under a feminine aspect. In eith er case, what is in volve d is a symbol of totali,a recurren ce that is at least implicit of the symbol of the androgyne (the masfemineus of the al hem ists, the mannliche Junau of Jacob Boe hm e) : what is envisaged here is the Feminine in its creative spiritual function. This is how one should under stand th e femini ne asp ect under whi ch the I m am is likewise perceive d when he is designated as the "spiritual mother" (madar-e nafsani)of his initi ates . 73 As the po sse ssor of ta'wil, he brings about their spiritual birth ruhaniya) and the reb y exemplif ies the he ave nly Ev e of the m hani. This has an important implication for prophetology. It has more than once been noted that Ebionite prophetology had its continuation in Islamic prophetology in general. However, this prolongation is to be observed a great deal more authentically in the prophetology and Imamology of Is m aili Shiism . A s we m ay re call, there is a t ofold lineage here : that ofthe Enunci ating Prophets utaqa� who proclaim the religious Laws, and that of the Im am s (in groups of sev en), which or iginates in each period wit h the spiritual heir W of the Naq. Each Naq fos a sort of syzy with his Wasi (AdamSeth, NoahShem, AbrahamIsmael, MosesAaron, JesusSha m 'un, Muham m ad Al i) , thereby pif ying the dyad of the F irst a nd Second Intelligence ous Pche). Now because the Imam corresponds to the fem inine prin ci pl e, in be ing the source of the spiritual birth o f the initiates, one might be tempted to compare this schema to the tofold lineage ofEbionite prophetology, with its masculine prophecy founded by Adam and the feminine prophecy begun by Eve. Unfortunately, as we know, in Ebionism this feminine line represents false prophecy, the demoniac element. Thus the comparison becomes a differentiation at this point, 72 Q adi Nuan Asas al-Tawi Qissat [ed. ArefTaer Beirut 960 pp. 299ff.]. Here we ay recl in passing te very personal exegesis of Eugene Aroux for wo te Ladies D ante s work sigi te init i es of Aligensian Te plaris . 73 Nasire Kusrawyara al-Hikmatainp. 242; ajh-e in [ed . olez a Aavani Te ran 977 pp . 322f] .
because I smaili Im am olog does not at l agree with that disp aragem ent On the contrar, although it is true at e authors ofthe Fatimid period gener all opted for the prec eden ce of the Natiq over the Im am , nevert heless, there is a constantl reappearing tendenc in all Shiite sects, sometimes secret an d some time s explic it, to and establish the p riorit of the Imam i e , the precedenc e walaya over nubuwwa Fatim a is precisel the "confluence" ofthose o Lights.
With this res ervation in mi nd, one c but a cknowledge c ertain re markabl e homologies between Ebionite prophetolog and Ismaili prophetolog Having dealt with those similarities at length elsewhere, 75 I shall onl mention here a few essential themes These are, above all, the idea ofthe True Prophet and t he m th of Adam Admittedl one does encounter t he idea of a succession of prophe ts in the Ko ranic text and in the hadi, but the num er of prophe ts who are nam ed and the order in which the are mentioned involve a fionvariants is onl, as in well Ismailiasgnosis that the notion of quite a success implingInafact, rec iturrence a specic periodiation, are explicitl formulated We have alread mentioned earlier that the Ccle of Prophec is marked ob seven periods or partial ccles (adw brought to a close b the final Imam, the Qa'im alQiyama or Resurrector The seven Naqs correspond to the " seve n pil lars of Wisdom " or the "he bdo m ad of the Mster " as the are depi cted b Ebionite prophetologie, as reappearances of a Christus aeteus or AdamChristus whose first fo of epiphan was the initial man (c the text cited at n above , wher e Muhamm ad, th e Natiq of the sixth ccle, is d esignated as the "six Adam") Yet it is with the lineage ofthe Imams, even more than in the line o f prophets , that the theme of the True Prophet " haste ning toward his place of repose" is brought into pla Undoubtedl it is natural that reection should more easil recall the line ofmams ofthis current period than those of the earlier ccles (as reconstructed with the help of Biblical and extraBiblical materials) 74 It admits, f eple, cetain e
Aan's piity v Mse s. e the
sde u m ann ie neuentdecen Qutexte und d Judenchistetum der Pseudo ementinen (Bee 2 fte Zeithrf Neutest Wiss) pp 3 9 an d w c ns st s
n the t that e Essenes, f thei p t, ejeted that Ebiite acsm wich included Aans piesd in the line f pphcy. 75 Dive Epiphy , abve, §§1 and
FROM
THE
GNOS
S
OF
AN TQ UTY
T o the idea ofthe Chistus thee coe sponds the idea o f an Imam who emains unique and etenal though the pesons ofhis theophanies. To the sinlessn es s of Ad am who was the st ofthem, thee coesponds the "immunity" which peseves the Most-Pue Imams fom any sin o blemish (ma m) To the ide a of Ch i st as the e capitulation of his pe decessos and as the one in whom th e T ue Pop het f inds the place of his e pos e, thee c oesponds the ide a that al l the patial Qa'ims ae " e c apitula te d" in the la st one among them, the Qa'im o f the Qiyat -Qiyat whose "Temple ofLight" is the majma' o coa lesc enc e of all ofthe oth e s. J a' fa ibn M ansu, in his itab - mentions that acc odin g to th e testimony of j ab i al-Ju', the ri of the h Im am Muhammad Baqi, this Imam epoted that his own ancesto, the st Imam 'Al i ibn A bi Tal ib, pocl aime d one day fom the pulpi t of Kufa: " ' I am the Chist (al-M) who heal s the blind and th e l epes, w ho ceates the bids 77 and dispeses the stom-clouds (ie, he is the "second Chist," al-Masih -ani as J a ' fa ibn M ans u em aks) . I am he and he is I
Q9�),
C
a wa wa a) . . . . In t uth, C his t is the Qa'im bi-'-Hq he is the king of this wo l d and of the oth e wo ld . . . Isa ibn Mayam is pat of me and I am pat ofh wa mii wa dm inh) is the supe me Wod ofGo d (limat Aah l-bra) He is the Witness testifying to the mysteies, and I am That ofwhich he testies.' This is what the Commande ofthe Faithful said In tuth, the Allah is continuous (mttil) fom the st of God's Pophets and Envoys, fom the fist ofthe Imams ofHis eligion until the last o fthem Whoe ve obeys the last of them, it is as tho ugh he obeyed t he st o f the m, be c ause o fthis continu ity ofthe r Alah as it passes fom the st one to h is i mme diate successo and so on do wn t o the last . " This statem ent, among m any oth es , b est illust ates the aspe ct of smaili Imamology which we ae emphasizing hee. The idea ofAdam's sinlessness has as its consequence a distinct afnity between Ebionite and Ismaili Adamologyhoweve distant both may be The entie Ismaili fom the Biblical conception and the Pauline typology pp 77 all to the Kan 5 1 1 0 78 These ae ctly the tes in wich e het esses imself wi egad to s Wash Sa Bih alAw 92; Kli Pir p p 79 and 8 of te text 79 on cenng te / ilahi) i elohi s via) H J Scoe ps Tbng eniphy 950 pp ... 205 80 hchstlicher Fo wat foowsZeit ivie above 2
bioite Adolo d Is
Adolo) Iis 'mad al-Dln, hr l-Ma'i chapte XII Nasi -Din Tusi, Twrat V 86
dram aturgy of the dep arture Paradi se c oe sponds to t hat interpretation which attri bute s the entry o f evil into our world not to the fa ll o f heav enly Ange ls , but rathe r to the fall of the children of Se th, gather ed together on Moun t He rm on, who up to then h ad led the " life of Ange ls . " T h e Korani c verse 2 : 2 8 [30] (" When your Lord said to the Angels : T am goi ng to establish a rep resen tative on earth . . . " ') is here interpreted as a conv ers ation betwee n the last Im am of the cycl e of epi phany (dawr al-kash which d our prese nt cyclecatastrophe o f oc cultatio n (dawr and his al-sa) disciples.prec Theede signs ofthe impending induced the last Imam of that cycle to prov ide for the re establ ishm ent of the L aw and the dis cipl ine of the ar cane , i. e. , the conce alm ent in an ex oteric fo o f those Truths wh ich would hen ce forth be acc es sible only thr ough the veil of symb ol s. Th en the ev ents unfold ed : the inv estiture of the young Adam (by his father, the Im am Hunayd); the order given to the "Angels" (i.e., to the hudu the " earthly angels") to bear witness to their obedience to him; and the refusal ofblis, personified th en by H arith ibn Mu rra , who represents the Darkn es s of that negation and denial which the A ngel Adam had c ast out ofhims elf during the " prologue in He av en . " All of this dram a proceeds om one cent ral intuition : it is not the " p artia l Adam , " the foder of our cycle, who is re sponsib le for the po ve rty and s ueri of our wor ld. Th e cause s of evil and of de ath ar e f earlier than the pr es ent cycle of o ur histo ry. Th e sin of " our " Adam , or rat her his eo r, was to give in to Ibl is ' sugges tions out of generosity toward his fellowsouls: he wished to claim for them that know ledge of the Resue ction which had still been po sse sse d by the pe ople of the dawr al-kashBut his re quest wa s a transg res sion, since it infried on the m is si on which would fall to the lot of the Qa'im. And yet Adam's repe ntance, wh ich was ac cep ted, p urged him of that eo r. . . .
X It is appro pri ate to connect the Ism aili concepti on of the cy cles of Prophecy, in the way in which we have just very briey alluded to it, with the conception that Ism ail ism succeede d in foing of other rel igion s : i . e . , what was t he extent of its c apac ity to take them into acc ount, and of its et to integrate them and giv e them m e aning within the cycle of its mythohistory. Moreover , since the re lation of gnosis to Irani an religions, and in 8 [C
n
8 above 87
particular to oroastianism was and still is on our agenda it is worth while mentioning riey here some sources showing the meaning Ismaili theoso phy gae to o roaster and to oroast rianism It should be c learly understoo d that what is at question is not whether Ism ailism is a reappearance of oro astri anism that would be to ree wi e apologists of orthodoxy (such as Baghdadi) and our preceding remarks should hae shown the onesidedness of that thesis On the other hand Ismailisms integration o f oroa strian p rophecy w ithin the compl ete Cycl e o f Prophecy demonstrates both the ecumenism ofsmaili teosophy and the resources which its complex hierarchies proided for constructing a satisfactory schema ofhistory We owe our information concerning this sject to a controersy which marked the fourth/tenth century and which inoled four great Iranian Ismaili figures Muhammad Nasafi (or Nakhshabi d. /) wrote a book the Kitab alMahsu in reply to which Abu Hatim Razi wrote a correctie work entitled Kitab al-slah (seeral chapters of which hae a alua ble c omplem ent in Kitab 'lam alNubuwwa) Abu Yaqub Sejesi replied in faor of M Nasa his friend wi a new book the Kitab alNusr In turn Hamid Kermani attempted a leaed arbitration in his Kitab alRiya We will not be able to study this important episode in the history of Is ma il i thought in depth and detail un til a m anuscript of the Kib alMasul is rediscoered On the other hand howeer thanks to Abu Hatim Razi we can already form some idea of what was debated concerning the case of the oroastrians. In no way did it inole challenging their status as Ahl alKitab or 82 refuting claims who on that point whatanswas in te question wasofte thesi s of their M Nasafi connec ted theRather oroastri with relig ion the third Natiq (i e Abr aham ) and connected wit h that srcin certain of their religious prescriptions such as taking the sun for their qibla or wearing as their distinctie and symbolic si the zunnar (ie the kosti) Abu Hatim Razis own position is as subtle as it is instctie. His book 'lam alNubuwwa is marked by a firsthand knowledge of the Old and New Testam ent as well as of other sects. The re we f ind f exampl e Danie l s ision interpreted as refeing to the succession of the four gre at religions (Mazdaism Judai sm Christ ianit y and Islam) 83 The positie aluation of
what
ef ai ofW Iw
edp
Zoroa.strianism that is already indicated by this hermeneutic is further confirmed by the Th e latter work stresses on sev eral occ asions the story which has the first Im am interve ning to prev ent Om ar frm killing te Mad eans : " They have a B ook and a Prophet, even though ey have altered their Book" 84 Th e author obse es that i f the Im am doe s not decl are that their religious c ode srcinates with braham , neither d o the Ma deans themselves make any such claim They ai that they have a Prophet {toand a Book;inthat is a llstateme Now innts addi tion, thed rank Imam explicity given Zoroaster several attribute to theofsixth and to the Prophe t himself. It was for that reas on that the Prop het allowed the Zoroas trians to l ll their obligations by m eans of the while he refused to allow this for te rab idolaters 85 What bu Hatim does take exception to is the esis of M Nakhshabi connec ting the Made ans with the cycle of braham 86 What he know s om a reliable source, having leaed it om his predecessors, is that Zoroaster (Zarhusht) was one of the i e, one o f the uas, belonging to the cycle of the who was Moses One of e deputies hufa� of the Imam, during an interreguum or period of occultation of the Imam of that time, gave Zoroaster the investiture; this was also the case with David The re ar e quite a nu m ber of symbols of all that w hich the initiate is able to dec ipher : there is, for exampl e, the fact that the Made ans practic e te deep bow (r�, which corresponds to the rank of the u and not the ll prostration (sujud)corresp onding to the rank of the Imam . nd if the Magi mention that their wrote f them a book of thousand volumes that is likewise allusion to the fact that he was one ofthe uas who were e ach sent out into one of the elve Finally, our zunnar (ie., the author the is likewise givetheanZoro esoteric the their sacr ed able c ordtothat astrimeaning ans weartoaround wai st (bu Hati m stesses that this is actually o ne of Zoroaste r' s pres criptions , not brah am 's) : the four knots · knot or " pa ct" ) refer respe ctiv ely to the fourth, fif, sixth, and seventh his last being e the or "m aste r of the Cyc le " who recapi tulate s it in i entire 87
83 A 'l -bwa [ed. Sal Sawy, Tehan , 1 977, p. 52 ] c the hexaeme f the 'alam-e din Nasi-e haw, . . . p. 165 84 F what fls, c Kitab al-Islahpp . 4 3- 5 pesnal cpy). 85 i c the hadiths uped tget in l a I I , 52 7. The psin ken by Nasi-e haw in Wahe Din pp. l333 is theefe cmpletely atpical 86 Likse f theKami P p. 65) , Zaste was a Huafthe Imam, wh appeaed at e d f Abaham's peid 189
tow ards the one who was the foundation of the Im am ate . T hus Abu Hatim rigorously disting uishe s their case om that of Zoroa ster. " And Abu Ya' qub Seje stani expl ains that Mazdak and Behafar id added their own pre scri pti ons to those of Abr aham (since for Abu Ya ' qub , as f his friend M. Nasafi, Zoroaster's religion was the religion ofAbraham), in the same way that Mani, Bardesanes, and Marcion added their ideas to those of Jes us, while be lie ving that they were cay ing out the work of renov ators . In short, the first of these w ere , in re lation to the Zoro astri ans, what the misguided Sabeans were in relation to the Christians. Cl early it would hav e be en difficult to expect th e oc currenc e of an open rehabi litation or reval oriz ation o f the na m e s of these figures, whose doctrines are most often reduced to more or less accurately condensed formulas. The problem that the existence oftheir sects posed for our theosophers was qu ite different from t he ca se o f the Z oro astri ans a s Ahl al-Kitab. However, they did appeal to them enough f Hisham ibn alHakam to establish t hose " re lati ons " which we have recalled earlier h ere (§IV)' . Al l the m ore signifi cant, then, is the rea ctiv ation of those archetypa l them es which took plac e freely, so to speak, under th e c over of anonym ity . Le t us conclude with this examp le : Abu Ya' qub S ejesni analyse s in detail th e symb ol ic co ncorda nce between the f our branc he s of the Chris tian Cross and the four words making up the shahada. Then he contemplates the mystery of the Night of Destiny lat al-Qa), whose mystical light transfigures alls, when suddenly there appears before his mental vision the imageperfectly recognizable to usfthe "Cross ofLight" of the Ac ts of John and of Manichaeism Our aim here was only to assemble certain indications and to bring together certai n them es , not at all to s ketch a system atization w hich would nece ssarily be pr em ature , given the prese nt state of our knowl edge. Yet one can alr ea dy foresee what larg er scope will be giv en to a whole segm ent of the sci ence of religions on that day let us hope it will be soonw hen we will at last be able to study those Coptic gnostic texts, already discovered some 10 years ago, in conjunction with the texts that Ismaili collections still hold in reserve. Gnosis was not born in Islam in the Middle Ages, any more than it is a s imple Chri stian heresy of the fi rst cen turies of our er a; rather, it is something that existed long before Christianity. There was a gnoss m 91 'l, [69.]. 92 Kitab al- Yanai Y 31 1 92
ivine Epiphany . . . abov pp. 11-2.
FR OM
THE
GNOSIS
OF ANT IQ U ITY
hristianity; tr has bn on, and prhaps thr stll is, in Islamand prhaps it may yt provid f an unforsabl spiritual ncountr btwn Orint and Occidnt For gnosis isl in all its manifold forms and variants, also dsr v s to b calld a Weltreligion
