Bloomsbury Academic in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies

The Ismaili dai (missionary) and poet Nasir-i Khusraw (d. after 1070) wrote Khwan al-ikhwan (The Banquet of the Brethren) when he was living in his remote mountain refuge of Yumgan in Badakhshan. This work includes a précis of ideas found in the Kitab al-Yanabi (al-hikma) (The Wellsprings of Wisdom), written by the earlier dai Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani (d. after 971). Nasir-i Khusraw recast these ideas in Persian and then expanded them into 100 chapters (or 'courses' of a banquet). The text presents a sequence of dynamic arguments for divine unicity (tawhid), while also asserting the authority of the Prophet Muhammad, his legatee and son-in-law 'Ali b. Abi Talib, and the subsequent Imams from the line of the Prophet's descendant Isma'il b. Ja'far al-Sadiq.

Khwan al-ikhwan stands as a significant work in Ismaili theology and philosophy, exemplifying the central role of ta'wil (esoteric interpretation). It also reflects the learning of the age, including the conception of a geocentric cosmos, Aristotelian physics, and Neoplatonic philosophy, all of which profoundly influenced the Ismaili dais in Iran.

This first English translation of Khwan al-ikhwan, derived from the Persian critical edition presented in Part 1, is accompanied by detailed annotation and an introduction which situates this important text in the context of Na?ir-i Khusraw's other works and Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani's Kitab al-Yanabi.