Beyond the Quran

As most people in the study of Islam know, the Isma[ilis represent an esoteric approach to scripture and symbols of the faith and are particularly associated with a hermeneutics of ta’wil par excellence as a means for establishing a dynamic and unfolding understanding of the faith. Despite this reputation, already articulated in studies by Corbin, Ivanow, and De Smet, the nature and purpose of ta’wil as an allegoresis of scriptural exegesis is little understood and studied. Ta’wil was essential to the early Isma[ili kerygma/mission (da[wah) and the means for the dissemination of the notion of salvation history and of salvific knowledge itself. The unconventional modes of this interpretation often led to the characterization of the Isma[ilis as socially radical and transgressive in their esotericism by particularly Sunni authorities such as, in perhaps the most famous case, al-Ghazali in his Calumnies of the Esotericists (Fada’ih al-batiniyyah).