Content area
Full Text
The Pillars of Islam: Da'a'im al-lslam of al-Qadi alNu'man, vol. 1. Translated by ASAF A. A. FYZEE, revised and annotated by ISMAIL KURBAN HUSEIN POONAWALA. New Delhi: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. xxxiii + 558.
At the summit of his career in service to the Fatimid caliphs, Qadi al-Nu'man composed at the request of alMuizz a handbook of Ismaili law, the famous Daaim al-lslam. Dating therefore from the mid-fourth/midlcnth century, this one work quickly became the standard authority on the subject. Oddly, however, it features solely legal material (hadith, akhbar) related from Alid imams that arc accepted equally by Imami and lsmaili Shi'a alike, that is, from Ja'far al-Sadiq and those who preceded him. It contains no examples of spécifie legal rulings by any of the Fatimids, for example. Its essential character is thus not sectarian but is...