The Majmu' al-tarbiya between Text and Paratext: Exploring the Social History of a Community's Reading Culture
Book Chapter in "Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond"
“In general terms, the manuscripts of the Majmūʿ al-tarbiya (henceforth MT) in The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London (henceforth IIS) can be described as multiple-text manuscripts featuring a content-wise homogeneous, miscellaneous work belonging to the Ismaili Ṭayyibī literary tradition of the 12th century. As literary objects the manuscripts belong to the handwritten heritage of the Dāʾūdī Bohra community of, mostly, the 19th century. Recently an edition of part one of the MT was published based on a manuscript in Tübingen University library while the second part of this work is still extant only in manuscript form. Altogether, selected extracts of this work have been published in recent years or been the subject of study. Many copies of this work are to be found in several public and private libraries worldwide. The MT is perhaps best known for including the earliest known extract of a letter allegedly sent by the Fatimid caliph al-Āmir (d. 524/1130) to the Yemeni Queen al-Sayyida al-Ḥurra (d. 532/1138) announcing the birth of his son al-Ṭayyib, a document that played a foundational role in the establishment of Ṭayyibī Ismailism.
The manuscripts considered in this chapter are exclusively those in the IIS collection. These are 8 MSS of volume 1, cat. nos: B (121), A (263) (Gacek); 937, 953, 961, 1012 (Cortese 2000); 1163 (Cortese 2003); 1502 (de Blois) and 4 of volume 2, cat. nos: C (122) (Gacek); 867, 932 part only (Cortese 2000); 1503 (de Blois). Content-wise the MT includes 51 different texts of various lengths, some consisting of complete short treatises and many being extracts from or abridgments of larger treatises. The oldest dated copy of the MT in this collection is that of MS 937 dated 20 Rabīʿ al-awwal 1121/30 May 1709. All of these manuscripts are the product of individual strands of transmission of the work as none show any indication of having served as master copy for another item in this collection.” (Delia Cortese)
Author: Delia Cortese
Link to Full Chapter: Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond