The "sphere of walāyah" : Ismā'īlī ta'wīl in practice according to al-Mu'ayyad (d.ca. 1078 C.E.)

In his collection of lectures, the Majalis al-Mu'ayyadiyyah, al-Mu'ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi's (d.ca. 1078 C.E.) typologies of the imam set forth a distinctive concept of the Isma`ili imam, as it subsequently results from al-Mu'ayyad's engagement in the works of his predecessors and contemporaries in the Isma`ili missionary organization (da`wah). Al-Mu'ayyad's refutations against the "Exaggerators" (Ghulat) and the "Shortcomers" (Muqaṣṣirun) call attention to the importance of walayah as a doctrine of religious authority and guidance in the light of debates concerning the divinity or humanity of the figure of the imam in the mediaeval Shi`i tradition. In his main doctrinal work, the concept of the human being (al-insan) and a theory of prophetic anthropology are inherently enmeshed in al-Mu'ayyad's skillful presentation of the Isma`ili imam and the "friends of God" (awliya' Allah ). The shared significance of the da`wah and the "ranks of religion" (ḥudud al-din) as vehicles for perfection on the level of the individual human being stresses the necessity of religious guidance throughout the individual practitioner's formation and development (al-nash'ah). Through the guidance of the "friends of God", the individual practitioner may potentially attain to a true humanity that is associated with another birth and formation ( al-nash'ah al-akhirah); another formation that is spiritual rather than physical, and which takes place in the individual's subtle soul.Underlying al-Mu'ayyad's typologies of the imam, where one of the specified lower ranks of the ḥudud al-din may potentially qualify to become the imam, is the idea that there has to be one specific imam at any time who is manifest and physically present so that individual practitioners can benefit from the presence of the imam. As this dissertation aims to elucidate, al-Mu'ayyad's introduction of the imam as the "absolute human being" (al-insan al-muṭlaq) and the concepts of the "imam at any (undetermined) time" (al-imam al-muṭlaq ) and the "seal of the imams" (khatam al-a'immah) into the 11th-century Fat&dotbelow;imid Isma`ili technical lexicon has broader implications for the internal mediaeval Isma'ili debates concerning the concept of walayah and the hierarchy of the "friends of God". In terms of al-Mu'ayyad's definition of the parameters of the "sphere of walayah", the soteriological doctrines associated with the final perfection of prophetic revelation through the guidance of the "friends of God" culminate in the appearance of the Messiah (al-Qa'im ) at the end of time