Ismaili Cosmology: Nature and Religion

As part of the “Shia Islam and Ismaili Studies” lecture series, the Fondation Inalco will welcome Dr Daryoush Mohammad Poor from the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London on January 13, 2025, for a lecture entitled “Ismaili Cosmology - Nature and Religion”.
Visuel de la conférence "Ismaili Cosmology – Nature and Religion" avec le portrait de l'intervenant
Ismaili Cosmology – Nature and Religion © Fondation Inalco ‎

There is a tradition which is peculiarly cited by Ismaili authors only.  Through all the years I have been studying Ismaili literature, I have not been able to trace this tradition, attributed (by different sources) to the Prophet Muhammad and to Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq. I will discuss how this tradition offers a framework for an ‘Ismaili’ understanding of religion, religious law and creation. I will also provide a narrative of the underlying Ismaili principle of the compatibility of faith and intellect — and by extension ‘science’.

In Ismaili cosmology, an understanding of faith is closely intertwined with an understanding of the cosmos, in its very physical and earthly sense. What we see in Ismaili thought through the centuries is the confluence between revelation and reason. Revelation or authority are historically associated with the Prophet and Ismaili Imams, and reason is seen in the wide spectrum of intellectual activities that cover areas such as science, philosophy, kalām and anything in which the role of human reason is prominent. In this paper, drawing on the tradition of dīn and khalq, I will explore this common thread among Fatimid and Nizari Ismailis, with some references to contemporary Ismaili thought. These include references to al-Muʾayyad fī al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Nāṣir-i Khusraw, Muḥammad al-Shahrastānī and Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī. I will also demonstrate that examples from Ismaili thought in contemporary times rely on this framework

Biographical note

Dr Daryoush Mohammad Poor is Associate Professor and the Interim Head of the Constituency Studies Unit at the Institute of Ismaili Studies. His first monograph, Authority without Territory: The Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili Imamate (2014) is a fresh theoretical engagement with the contemporary institutions of the Ismaili imamate. His most recent IIS book, Command and Creation: A Shiʿi Cosmological Treatise (2021), is a Persian edition and English translation of Muḥammad al-Shahrastānī’s Majlis-i maktūb. Daryoush is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK and Editor of the Ismaili Heritage Series.