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Keys to the Arcana: Shahrastānī's Esoteric Commentary on the Qurʾan: A

Translation of the Commentary of Sūrat al-Fātiḥa from Muḥammad b. ʿAbd
al-Karīm Shahrastānī's Mafātīḥ al-asrā...

Article in Journal of the American Oriental Society · January 2011

DOI: 10.2307/23044749

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Review
Reviewed Work(s): Keys to the Arcana: Shahrastānī's Esoteric Commentary on the
Qurʾan: A Translation of the Commentary of Sūrat al-Fātiḥa from Muḥammad b. ʿAbd
al-Karīm Shahrastānī's Mafātīḥ al-asrār wa maṣābīḥ al-abrār. Qurʾanic Studies Series, vol.
6 by Toby Mayer
Review by: Todd Lawson
Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society , January-March 2011, Vol. 131, No. 1
(January-March 2011), pp. 170-171
Published by: American Oriental Society

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170 Journal of the American Oriental Society 131.1 (2011)

Keys to the Arcana: Shahrastani's Esoteric Commentary on the Qur'an: A Translation of the Com
mentary o/Surat al-Fatiha from Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Karlm Shahrastani's Mafatlh al-asrar wa
masablh al-abrar. Translated by Toby Mayer. Qur'anic Studies Series, vol. 6. New York: Oxford
University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies (London), 2009. Pp. xvi +
267 + 123 (Arabic text). $99.

Muhammad b. cAbd al-Karim al-Shahrastanl (d. 548/1153) was an Ismacill who was also known
as an Ashcarite theologian and as a philosopher: a man of religious parts, as it were. His descrip
tive catalogue of the various religious groups known to his time and place (what used to be called a
heresiography) has long been valued not only for the information it provides but for the spirit in which
it was composed. The K. al-Milal is one of the proof texts for those who would claim that the study
of comparative religion was born during the heyday of Islamicate cosmopolitanism in the early and
later medieval periods (from the cAbbasids to the Mongols). Al-Shahrastanl was also a professor at the
famous Nizamiyya of Baghdad for three years.
The book at hand is a careful, learned, and deeply considered presentation of al-Shahrastanl's tafslr,
a work that began attracting scholarly attention in "the West" about twenty-five years ago in Guy Mon
not's courses at the Sorbonne and in an article he later published in a collected volume dedicated to
Henry Corbin, This research on the tafslr had been stimulated to life by the pioneering scholarship on
al-Shahrastanl by M. R. Jalall-Na'Ini which appeared in 1964. There is no question that these earlier
studies have been surpassed by the present work. Given the nature of the original composition, this
book is not only a most welcome addition to the general tafslr and Qur'anic studies library but also to
the broader field of Islamic thought: theology, philosophy, and mysticism. The importance of the tafslr,
correctly postulated in the earlier French scholarship, is now clearly illustrated. The extant unicum of
the original work consists of al-Shahrastani's twelve-part introduction and commentary on the first two
suras, al-Fatiha (here referred to throughout as the Exordium) and al-Baqara. The book at hand trans
lates the Fatiha and its commentary. It is hoped that volume two—and probably three and four—will
appear in the not-too-distant future.
Every section of this new book is valuable, beginning with Hermann Landolt's foreword and the
substantial "translator's" introduction (pp. 3-59). Quotation marks are used here to draw attention to the
extraordinary service to which, in the present instance, the word "translator" is summoned. Mayer has,
in fact, done proud the prophetic mantle of mutarjim in the mastery he displays of the workings of the
true spirit (cf. sirr, sg. of asrar) of the present text. This thoroughly annotated introduction is followed
by a translation of al-Shahrastanf s introduction covering a wide range of crucial issues in Qur'anic
sciences (pp. 61-128): (1) the first and last suras to be revealed and a treatment of the sequence of
revelation. In the spirit of al-Shahrastanf s more famous work, this sequence is given—without preju
dice—according to several different authorities; (2) on the collection of the Qur'an; (3) again on the
various opinions regarding the order of revelation; (4) "On readings (qira'at)"; (5) on "seeking refuge
(isti'adlia)" before reading the Qur'an; (6) on the number of chapters, verses, words, and letters; (7)
an enumeration of exegetes from among the Companions; (8) on the respective meanings of tafslr
and ta'wil; (9) on generality and specificity, on the clear and ambiguous, on the abrogating and abro
gated, etc.; (10) "On the two principles of the accomplished (mafrugh) and the inchoative (musta'naf)";
(11) on the inimitability of the Qur'an; and (12) "On the prerequisites for exegesis (shara'it tafslr
al-Qur'ari). . .
Following the order of the original, the next section is the translation of the Fatiha commentary (pp.
129-88). The substantial notes to both the introduction and the commentary follow (pp. 189-237). A
bibliography, index of Qur'anic verses, and an excellent general index finish the English-language part
of the book. M. A. Adharshab's edition of the portion of the translated Arabic text, consisting of 122
pages, is reproduced in a pleasing font.
The content of the tafslr is conditioned by three major theological presuppositions or conceits. Two
of these are the absolute transcendence of God—the God beyond being and non-being; and the lattice
of infinitely dynamic and interactive complementarities and oppositions. Of these two, the first is fre
quently cited as an emblem of Nizarl IsmacIlI doctrine while the second may be thought a characteristic

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 Reviews of Books 171

of the Qur'an itself. Absolute transcendence is highlighted by the IsmacIlI philosophers as the sine qua
non of right doctrine, on the basis of which such comparatively inappropriate formulations as the Avi
cennan equation of God with the Necessary Existent (wajib al-wujud) is found wanting, anemic. One
wonders, however, if in the context of common or garden Islam such stark apophaticism could stand
as an IsmacIl3 shibboleth? Surely all Muslims read Sura 112. But even if this were not a sufficiently
characteristic doctrinal proclivity, there is more explicit and compelling evidence in the commentary
for the author's Nizarl allegiance. Specifically revealing is his reference to "the present, living, reigning
imam" (al-imam al-hadir al-hayy al-qa'im). Al-ShahrastanI condemns both the Sunnis and the "wait
ing" or Twelver Shica (al-shfa al-muntaiira) for refusing to acknowledge this figure's authority (p. 18).
The ecumenical spirit of the K. al-Milal is also reflected in the present work. In his discussion of
abrogation, he offers three possibilities: (1) "the annulment of an established injunction (rafc al-hukm
al-thabit)"; (2) the (?natural) expiry of the time allotted for the law (intiha' muddat al-hukm); and (3) a
process of perfection (takmll). As Mayer points out, al-Shahrastanl favors the third possibility:

That any revelation becomes redundant is ill-sounding to him ... He even states categorically:
"Never hold the opinion that one divine system (sharfa min al-shara>i<) is negated by another or
that its injunctions are annulled and others laid down." Instead, for ShahrastanI, each successive
sharfa is supplementary (mukammila) to what preceded it in an unfolding process from Adam
till the Resurrection, (p. 32)

Whether such a view can be ascribed, de facto, an IsmacIli provenance, it is nonetheless true that a
third "theological" feature of the commentary reflects both the spirit and form of the Ismacili da'wa.
This is the concern with a hierarchical structure for knowledge or learning and reality or being as such.
Of course, Ismacilis were not the only ones to employ hierarchies—we are in a Ptolemaic universe after
all. But the "enchanted hierarchy" al-Shahrastanl employs in this commentary seems to be distinctive
and could easily be a function (or interpretation) of the social, "politico-theological," and administra
tive shape and elan of an architectonic Nizari ethos. Publically a Sunni, privately an Ismacili, the great
father of Comparative Religion emerges as a complex son of his time and place, embodying and per
forming the hopes and anxieties of his culture: that religion be reasonable and that philosophical truths
be based on absolute certitude of a type usually found only among the religious.
Toby Mayer has done a great service to Islamic studies, both religious and philosophical, with
this edited and annotated translation of a bonafide Ismac!li tafsir—something we were until now not
sure existed. By confirming the hypothesis of Wilferd Madelung, who many years ago published a
discussion of the possibility of al-Shahrastani's Ismacxli allegiances, and the later suspicions of French
scholarship, we are now tacitly advised to take seriously the intramural conversations of medieval
Islamicate civilization even if not all of the quite various voices are always identified or if some of
them are only whispers.
This is the sixth volume in the new Qur'anic Studies series from the Institute of Ismaili Studies.
As such it augurs very well indeed for the future. It is beautifully edited, as well as remarkably free of
typographical errors and other such lapses. But most importantly, it deepens our understanding of Islam
with skill and perspicacity.

Todd Lawson
University of Toronto

Muhammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet. By
ers. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pe
Press, 2009. Pp. xvi + 357. $55.

Muhammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men is as provocative as it is ambitious. It

in philological and legal questions—what does kalala mean in Qur'an 4:12 and 4:176 an

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