The Book of Unveiling

A recent publication in the Shiʿi Heritage Series of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, this intriguing text is an essential witness to early Ismaili thought and its relationship to other related Shiʿi trends including the emergent Twelver Shiʿi theological tradition and the more radically esoteric Nuṣayrīs. It is particularly useful as it demonstrates common themes before the emergence of the new ‘orthodoxies’ of Twelver Shiʿi and Fāṭimid Ismaili (as well as Nuṣayrī) Islam. The text comprises a series of seemingly disparate treatises – six in total – similar to other works attributed to the Ismaili missionary Jaʿfar b. Manṣūr al-Yaman and  contains elements of esoteric hermeneutics and exegesis of Qurʾanic verses and hadith reports as well as typology and sacred history that defines their own tradition.