I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
The Ismaili da?i (missionary) and poet Na?ir-i Khusraw (d. after 1070) wrote Khwan al-ikhwan (The Banquet of the Brethren) when he was living in his remote mountain refuge of Yumgan in Badakhshan. This work includes a précis of ideas found in the Kitab al-Yanabi? (al-?ikma) (The Wellsprings of Wisdom), written by the earlier da?i Abu Ya?qub al-Sijistani (d. ca. 971). Na?ir-i Khusraw recast these ideas in Persian and then expanded them into 100 chapters (or 'courses' of a banquet). The text presents a sequence of dynamic arguments for divine unicity (taw?id), while also asserting the authority of the Prophet Muhammad, his legatee and son-in-law ?Ali b. Abi ?alib, and the subsequent Imams from the line of the Prophet's descendant Isma?il b. Ja?far al-?adiq.
Khwan al-ikhwan stands as a significant work in Ismaili theology and philosophy, exemplifying the central role of ta?wil (esoteric interpretation). It also reflects the learning of the age, including the conception of a geocentric cosmos, Aristotelian physics, and Neoplatonic philosophy, all of which profoundly influenced the Ismaili da?is in Iran.
This new Persian critical edition is based on the only two extant manuscripts, making it a comprehensive resource. Rahim Gholami has also prepared an accompanying volume containing an annotated English translation of the Persian text.

Rahim Gholami is a Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK. He received his PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter, UK, in 2021. He has translated over 100 articles for Encyclopaedia Islamica (2008- ), an abridged and edited translation of the Persian Da'irat al- Ma'arif-i Buzurg-i Islami, which is a comprehensive reference work on the Muslim world, with a focus on Shi'i Islam. His research interests include Shi'i esoterism and poetics, Ismaili intellectual traditions, and esoteric hermeneutics and literature.