On the margins of minority life: Zoroastrians and the state in Safavid Iran

This article looks at the treatment of the Zoroastrians by central and provincial authorities in early modern Yazd, Kirman and Isfahan, emphasizing the institutional weaknesses of the central or khāsṣạ protection they were supposed to benefit from under the Safavids (907–1135/1501– 1722). It is argued that the maltreatment the Zoroastrians endured under the Safavids had little to do with religious bigotry. Rather, it arose from rivalries between the central and the provincial services of the Safavid bureaucracy, putting Zoroastrians in Yazd, Kirman, Sistan and Isfahan at risk of over-taxation, extortion, forced labour and religious persecution. The argument developed in this article pivots on the material interest of the central and the provincial agents of the Safavid bureaucracy in the revenue and labour potentials of the Zoroastrians, and the way in which the conflict of interest between these two sectors led to such acts of persecution as over-taxation, forced labour, extortion and violenc

Treatises on the Salvation of Abū Ṭālib

The following article surveys a few treatises regarding the salvation of the Prophet Muḥammad’s uncle, Abū Ṭālib b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (d. circa 619ce). The controversy concerning Abū Ṭālib’s place in the hereafter stems from a wealth of reports condemning him to hell due to his refusal to convert to Islam and others which testify to his lifelong belief in God and the prophethood of Muḥammad. The first group of reports was canonized in the collections of Bukhārī and Muslim, while the second group largely appeared insīraand Shīʿīḥadīthliterature. Although Shīʿī thinkers have upheld the faith and salvation of Abū Ṭālib from the earliest periods of Islamic history, very few Sunnīs shared this opinion despite transmitting some of the same proof-texts cited in Shīʿī works. According to most Sunnīs, these proof-texts were either inconclusive or insufficient in proving Abū Ṭālib’s conversion to Islam or his salvation. However, there is a remarkable shift in the sensibilities of some Sunnīs after the ninth centuryhijrī(fifteenth centuryce). In contrast to early Sunnīs who considered such a possibility to be unlikely or flatly denied it, a few Sunnīs over the past five centuries have joined their Shīʿī co-religionists in their commitment to the salvation of Abū Ṭālib. This article introduces the relevant proof-texts and theological arguments that classical Shīʿī and modern Sunnī writers have utilized to advocate the belief in Abū Ṭālib’s salvation

[Majmūʻat rasāʼil, 974, i.e. 1567 and late 16th or early 17th century?].

Composite collection (majmūʻah / mecmua) of tracts on legal and religious subjects.Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 157Origin: A dated excerpt [?] at the close of Sharḥ al-Fiqh al-akbar on p.206 may provide a rough terminous post quem of Jumādá I 1047 [September-October 1637], however this may also be a corrupted reading of the date of composition for the commentary transmitted by the copyist. Paper suggests late 16th or very early 17th century. As appears in colophon on p.340, al-Ḥillī's al-Kāfiyah al-badīʻīyah copied by Asad Allāh ibn Darvīsh ʻArab in the town of Jilb [Julb ? i.e. جلب though طبب is also a possible reading] with transcription finished 12 Ramaḍān 974 [ca. 23 March 1567].Accompanying materials: In two works of tafsīr, several inserts carrying notes (paginated pp.235-236, pp.239-240, pp.241-242, pp.245-246, pp.249-250, pp.253-254).Former shelfmark: British Museum, London "No. 105. Tracts on law & religion."Binding: Pasteboards covered in very dark brown leather with tan leather over spine and foreedge flap ; Type II binding (with flap) ; pastedowns and flyleaves in laid paper ; upper and lower covers carry blind-stamped scalloped mandorla filled with vegetal composition (compare Deroche class. OSd, similar to OSd 1 or OSd 8) ; sewn in light pink thread, two stations ; worked chevron endbands in yellow and pink, headband half-gone, tailband in fair condition ; overall in poor condition with some abrasion, staining, lifting and losses of leather (especially at foreedge flap), delamination of boards, some shrinkage and negative draw in upper cover, etc. ; repairs in red leather.Support: European laid paper of several types ; opening work supplied on a European paper with 11 laid lines per cm. (vertical), chain lines spaced 20 mm. apart (horizontal), watermark consisting of cross in shield with letters "AMB" below, well-burnished, thin and transluscent ; works of tafsīr and assorted excerpts on a European paper with 7 laid lines per cm. (vertical), chain lines spaced 30 mm. apart (horizontal), crown star (six-pointed) crescent watermark (compare Heawood 1132), thick and burnished ; al-Kāfiyah al-badīʻīyah to end supplied on a European paper with 9 laid lines per cm. (vertical), chain lines spaced roughly 30 mm. apart (horizontal), anchor in circle watermark (six-pointed star above?), very smooth and well-burnished ; minor blocking in some sections due to tacky ink.Decoration: Some marginalia and abbreviation symbols rubricated in opening work ; headings and keywords in al-Kāfiyah al-badīʻīyah rubricated ; written area of incipit and facing page for Sharḥ al-Fiqh al-akbar surrounded by frame consisting of heavy gold band outlined by black fillets.Script: Naskh ; several fine hands ; opening hand virtually serifless with effect of tilt to the left, open and closed counters, very slight effect of words descending to baseline (occasionally more exaggerated) ; al-Kāfiyah al-badīʻīyah supplied in an elegant Persianate hand with mainly open counters, tapered, rectilinear descenders, fully vocalized.Layout: Written in 19, 20, 21 and 33 lines per page ; frame-ruled.Collation: i, 10 V(100), I (102), 2 V+1(124), V-1 (133), VI (145), V (155), 2 V(175), II (179), i ; chiefly quinions ; appears to be a leaf missing between pp.262-263 ; opening work lacks proper catchwords but last word of final line on the verso of each leaf is usually repeated at the beginning of the first line on the following recto ; catchwords present in most other works and assorted excerpts ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during digitization (includes flyleaves and inserts).Colophon: [al-Qaṣīdah al-Kāfiyah al-badīʻīyah] "Scribal," "rectangular, reads: تمت بحمد الله وعونه وحسن توفيقه غفر الله تعالى لكاتبها وناظمها ولمن قراء فيها ودعا لهما بالتوبة والمغفرة ولساير المسلمين وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد واله وصحبه اجمعين وسلم تسليما كثيرا وكان الفراغ من كتابتها يوم الاحد اثنا عشر شهر رمضان المبارك سنة اربع وسبعين وتسعمايه در بلده جلب [طبب ؟] در محله زاويه كتابت شد كاتب العبد اسد الله بن درويش عرب تم"Title supplied by cataloguer.Ms. composite codex.10. p.341-p.372 : [al-Natāʼij al-ilāhīyah fī sharḥ al-Kāfiyah al-badīʻīyah] / Ṣafī al-Dīn ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz ibn Sarāyā al-Ḥillī.9. p. 325-p.340 : al-Qaṣīdah al-Kāfiyah al-badīʻīyah fī al-madāʼiḥ al-nabawīyah / Ṣafī al-Dīn ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz ibn Sarāyā al-Ḥillī.8. p.256-p.324 : [assorted excerpts on various topics (see listing on p.2) from Munyat al-mushtāqīn, Ḥayāt al-qulūb, Munyat al-wāiʻẓīn, etc.] / [Muḥammad Bāqir Majlisī, etc.].7. p.238-p.255 : [Tafsīr Sūrat al-Mulk] / Kemalpaşazade.6. p.210-p.237 : [Tafsīr Sūrat Yāsīn] / al-Ḥanafī [?].5. p.207-p.209 : [mainly blank with a few excerpts].4. p.4-p.206 : [Sharḥ al-Fiqh al-akbar] / Abū al-Muntahá Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Maghnīsāwī.3. p.3 : [excerpts].2. p.2 : [listing of contents].1. p.1 : [blank].Brockelmann, C. GAL,Brockelmann, C. GAL,Brockelmann, C. GAL,Brockelmann, C. GAL,Composite collection (majmūʻah / mecmua) of tracts on legal and religious subjects.Mode of access: Internet.Acquired by purchase (funds donated by Horace Rackham).Bookplate of British Museum, London on interior of upper cover, "British Museum, London. No. 105. Tracts on law & religion." ; circular seal impression with figure of goat/gazelle in purple ink as well as inscription "126" in Western numerals on opening leaf (p.1) ; circular waqf-seal impression in black ink also appears on opening leaf (p.1) and several places throughout, reads: "هذا وقف الراجي فيض الصمدي الشيخ احمد ضيا الدين ابن مصطفى الخالدي فمن بدله بعد ما سمعه فانما اثمه على الذين يبدلونه" in name of Aḥmad Ḍiyāʼ al-Dīn ibn Muṣṭafá al-Khālidī (i.e. Ahmed Ziyâüddîn Gümüşhanevî, d. 1893 or 4) ; 'title page' of opening work obscured by pasted-on leaf which covers octagonal seal impression, contents listing, etc. ; occasional marginal glosses, corrections and notabilia (sideheads), many rubricated