Publisher's Synopsis
"Ismailism, one of the three major branches of Shiism, is best known for tawil, an esoteric, allegorizing scriptural exegesis. Beyond the Quran: Early Ismaili tawil and the Secrets of the Prophets is the first book-length study of this interpretive genre. Analyzing sources composed by tenth-century Ismaili missionaries in light of social-science theories of cognition and sectarianism, David Hollenberg argues that the missionaries used tawil to instill in acolytes a set of symbolic patterns, forms, and "logics." This shared symbolic world bound the community together as it created a gulf between community members and those outside the movement. Hollenberg thus situates tawil socially, as an interpretive practice that sustained a community of believers. An important aspect of tawil is its unconventional objects of interpretation. Ismaili missionaries mixed Quranic exegesis with interpretation of Torah, Gospels, Greek philosophy, and symb
