Isma'ilism, one of the most colourful and dynamic sects of Islam, boasts a rich and fascinating history. This thesis studies the life and works of Nur Muhammad Shah, a gifted exponent of the Isma'ili Sat Panth movement in Indo-Pakistan during the 15th/16th centuries. Sat Panth, the Path of Truth, is the highly mystical form of Isma'ilism which resulted from conversion efforts in the Subcontinent during the eleventh and subsequent centuries. The legacy of the order which was fostered is to be found in its corpus of sacred religious literature known as Ginans, an appellation that suggests supreme, gnostic knowledge. The Sat Panthi Isma'ilis consider the Ginans to be the embodiment, par excellence, of the Qur'an's esoteric dimension. Nur Muhammad Shah is the last of the Sat Panth authors for whom a large body of Ginanas has been preserved. / This work gives a historical background of the Isma'ili movement in Indo-Pakistan, examines the career of Nur Muhammad Shah from the earliest available primary sources and disproves suggestions by previous scholars that he forsook his allegiance to the Isma'ili Imam and became the founder of his own rival sect. In addition, it provides for the first time a scholarly translation of a significant portion of the Nur Muhammad Shah's Sat Veni Moti or Tale of Truth (Larger), an important Sat Panthi mystical text.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.23249 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Virani, Shafique |
| Contributors | Landalt, Hermann (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Institute of Islamic Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001483494, proquestno: MM07965, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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