Abu Ya'qub Al-Sijistani
Intellectual Missionary

An overview of the contributions as a thinker of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani, a 10th-century missionary whose writings reveal him as both a philosopher and an exponent of the intellectual understanding of Islam.

This work provides an overview of the contributions as a thinker of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani, a 10th-century missionary whose writings reveal him as both a philosopher and an exponent of the intellectual understanding of Islam. The old problem of the meaning of science and religion and their interaction as reflected in the thought of an Ismaili author from the early Islamic period is now interpreted within the framework that brings together ideas and obscure doctrines surviving only piecemeal from medieval Arabic books and treatises.

Part 1 The Shiite renaissance - religion and science in the early Ismaili mission: the renaissance century
the intellectual dimension
the intellectual mission and its missionaries
the confrontation with philosophy
the personnel of the Renaissance
the school of Khurasan
two renaissance men
the literature of ideas. Part 2 The sources of truth: the quest for certainty
the wellsprings of truth
intellect and the ta'yid
the soul and its tarkib
the speaking-prophet and his ta'lif
the sacred interpretation and its founder. Part 3 The ladder of salvation: the excellence of humans
history and hierarchy
the Messiah
paradise. Part 4 The ultimate recourse in God and the tawhid: the problem of tawhid
intellectual anthropomorphism
creation
a language for theology
Al-Sijistani's contribution. Appendix: the study of al-sijistani and his works - a brief history and guide.