Temple and Contemplation brings together for the first ... - ImagoMundi

SABIAN TEMPLE AND ISMAILISM
ments in Islam lies in the fact that it represents an intermediary between
these ancient cults and the Nusayris. Before their conversion the Nusayris
shared with the Harranians a great many religious forms, drawn from
sources which were also those of ancient Gnosis. 10 At the same time, they
present us with the unique example of a community won over to Islam not
in its orthodox, official form, but directly in its esoteric and initiatory
form, Ismailism, representative par excellence of Gnosis in Islam.
With regard to the Ismaili religion itself, whose articulation in the
extreme form of Shiism can be traced back to the second/eighth century,
we can now glimpse its supreme intellectual achievements through the
publication of manuscripts which, for centuries, have been preserved
over-jealously in private libraries. 11 What needs emphasizing here is, of
course, its constitutive principle: spiritual exegesis. Ta'wil postulates the
principle of the Imam as guardian of its secret; his person is at the origin
of the entire esoteric hierarchy which constitutes the "Ismaili Order'.', 12
each level of which corresponds to a rank in the celestial hierarchies.
Lastly, the whole hiero-history developed by speculative Ismailism func-
More recently, see the paper by J. Pedersen, 'The Sabians' (in A Volume of Oriental
Studies presented to Edward G. Browne . . . (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 383-391, which
emphasizes the complexity of the sects (Mandeans, Mughtasilah, the Koran Sabians,
Bardesanites, Manicheans, Elkesaites), which certain previous researches were too
hastily inclined to identify. The term "Sabian" designates less a defined religion
than a common name referring to several sects and signifying simply "gnostics".
(Biruni saw in it the synthesis of Judaism and the religion of the Mages.) On the
other hand, L. Massignon ('Esquisse d'une bibliographie qarmate', in ibid., pp.
329-338) clearly perceived, in the "syncretistic story of the Sabians", the profound
creative aspiration of the "myth which, in the East of the ninth century of our era,
apparently played the same part in the diffusion of the Carmathian social conspiracy as
Johann Valentin Andreae's (1616) myth of the Rosicrucians played in the West,
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in the propagation of freemasonry"
(p. 333; cf. L. Massignon, Opera minora, vol. I (Beirut, 1963), p. 632). [The two last
mentioned studies have been taken up again in Opera minora, vol. I, pp. 640—650 and
514-522.]
10 Cf. Rene Dussaud, Histoire et religion des Nosairis (Paris, 1900), p. 127. Cf. also L.
Massignon, the article 'Nusayris' in Encyclopedic de I'Islam; 'Esquisse d'une bibliographie
nusayrie' (in Melanges syriens presented to M. R. Dussaud); 'Der gnostische
Kult der Fatima im schiitischen Islam' (Eranos-Jahrbuch VI/1939).
11 Cf. my study, 'Le Livre du Glorieux de Jabir ibn Hayyan (supra, ch. II, n. 3), pp. 47 II.
12 Ahl-i tarattub, the concept of an Ordinatio, hierarchy and ascent by levels, requiring
the progressive typification of a celestial Order whose supreme level is represented
by the Ahl-i Wahdah, those who have reached the stage of unitude and whose actions
typify the actions of the divinity itself. Cf. v.g. Kalami Fir, a treatise on Ismaili doctrine
. . . edited . . . and translated ... by W. Ivanow, Islamic Research Association, no.
4 (Bombay, 1935), index s.v.
136
4
SABIAN TEMPLE AND ISMAILISM
tions according to the Septenary, whose rhythm determines every phase of
its cosmogony and eschatology.
When subject to a rigorous esotericism, a systematic and unlimited
endeavour to achieve a state of interiorization connects with the idea of
the alchemical Operation, 13 and results in the creation of a third world, or
mesocosm, between the classic types of macrocosm and microcosm. This
sacred cosmos is the place and instrument of the spiritual Ritual; its
heavens are neither the heavens of astronomy, nor yet the inner heavens
of pure subjectivity, but the esoteric heavens, rising in tiers to form the
dome of the ideal Temple of the Imam, and revealing at every tier their
angelic archetype. The unfolding of these heavens is thus both our starting
point and the goal of our search. In the tenth century A.D., an intellectual
society which called itself by the name of "Brothers of Purity and Lovers
of Faith" left behind it a monument of Ismaili thought in the form of a vast
encyclopaedia, consisting of 52 treatises. 14 Here, the invitation to enter
into the new Temple is couched in terms which make explicit mention of
ideal Sabianism, for there is a reference to Agathodaimon, whom the
Sabians acknowledged as their prophet: "Will you not choose, oh my
brother, to enter the Temple of Agathodaimon, in order to contemplate
the heavens of which Plato spoke 15 —spiritual Heavens, not the visible
heavens shown by the astronomers?" 16
Thus, the themes to be meditated in order to effect such an entry are,
essentially, the idea of the Temple, the idea of the Angel who governs it,
and the ta'wil or exegesis whereby one attains to the person of the Angel
through the Temple. The transformation of the Ritual effected by ta'wil
culminates in an angelomorphic vision, a transfiguration of all figures, in
13 Cf. my 'Livre du Glorieux', (supra, ch. II, n. 3), pp. 59 ff.
14 Cf. Bernard Lewis, The Origins of Ismailism (Cambridge, 1940), pp. 17 ff. and index
s.v.; W. Ivanow, Ismaili Tradition concerning the Rise of the Fatimids, Islamic Research
Association Series, no. 10 (London, 1942), pp. 250-252. M. Adel Awa's interesting
book, L'Esprit critique des "Freres de la Purete", encylopedistes arabes du IVe/Xe siecle
(Beirut, 1948), came to my notice too late for me to make use of it here. The
"Brothers" added to their encyclopaedia a secret Epistle or esoteric synopsis (al-
Risdlah al-Jami'ah); cf. W. Ivanow, A guide to Ismaili Literature (London, 1933), p. 31,
nos. 14-15- Here I have used the manuscript in the possession of the Malek Library
in Tehran, which was kindly put at my disposal. Unfortunately, I was not in time to
use the first volume of the edition (Damascus, 1949) which we owe to M. Jamil
Saliba.
15 This is a reference to the Plotinian ecstasy mentioned in the "Theology" attributed
10 Aristotle, to which all these mystical theosophers make favourable allusion.
16 Cf. Rasa'il lkhwan al-Safa' wa-Khillan al-wafa', vol. IV (Cairo edition, 1928), p. 86.
137