A long lecture on Ismailism, a form of Shia Islam with an esoteric message similar in some ways to Neo-Platonism. Their strong "apophaticism" towards God (harder than usual among mystics) strikes me as weird, since it would make God utterly unknowable, indeed, how can we even know that he exists at all?
Since God is unapproachable and the real meaning of his revelation unknown to ordinary mortals, the living imam (i.e. a human endowed with esoteric knowledge) plays a central role. This is true even in exoteric matters, with the imams having the right to interpret the sharia - the same imams who were also absolutist rulers during the Fatimid era in North Africa.
Later, the imam even got the exclusive rights to change or abrogate the sharia, making them deviate even more strongly from the Islamic mainstream. I used to be interested in Ismailism decades ago, but now I see them as just another exclusivist sect...or cluster of several such! Their "liberalism" is decreed by the great leader, and you never really know what is protective dissimulation.
Speaking of which...why does the lecturer adapt to orthodox Islamic practice in his video, blotting out the faces of Muslim leaders *even when they are shown on ancient Muslim portraits*? A peculiar negation, this!
En gång i tiden var en gren av ismaeliterna riktigt våldsamma och uppfattades som farliga. De kallades assasinerna, och från detta namn utvecklades namnet för lönnmord i flera språk, Om jag inte minns helt fel går det någon form av linje från dessa till de ismaeliter som idag leds av Agha Khan. En västanpassad religiös ledare som knappast skrämmer någon.
ReplyDeleteJa, det stämmer. De kallas Nizari eller Nizaris och en stor del av de teologiska utläggningarna i klippet ovan verkar faktiskt handla om dem. Sedan har mannen bakom klippet (som är svensk) även gjort en hel video om just assasinerna specifikt, men den har jag ännu inte sett. Nizari-ismailiterna verkar ha en väldigt komplicerad historia!
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