On 'Astronomia'

The ongoing project sponsored by the Institute of Ismaili Studies and headed by Nader el-Bizri of the American University of Beirut to produce a critical edition and translation of the corpus of this most intriguing group of [Abbasid intellectuals, the Brethren of Purity (ikhwan al-safa’) is a welcome contribution to Islamic intellectual history. These texts not only reflect the thought of a highly original and exciting group of individuals, they also instruct us on the variety of intellectual and cultural influences and tendencies in [Abbasid Baghdad in that most vibrant age of cultural production and the estimation of cultural and social capital. As such they tell us much about the concerns of the times and what they knew of the ‘known’ world and its intellectual legacies (East and West) and how they envisaged the life of the mind, the holistic pursuit of knowledge and the making of a cultured person. All of this took place in the confidence of empire, within the hegemony of Islam, formed by a group of individuals who were Shi[i in persuasion and probably more specifically Isma[ili.