Knowledge and Liberation: A Treatise on Philosophical Theology »

Nasir Khusraw was a leading Ismaili poet, theologian and philosopher of the Fatimid period.

The writings of Nasir Khusraw have had a major formative influence on the Ismaili communities of Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. The bulk of his surviving work was produced in exile in a remote mountainous region of Badakhshan where he sought refuge from persecution in his native district of Balkh. This is the first of his doctrinal treatises to be translated into English. Consisting of a series of 30 questions and answers, it addresses some of the central theological and philosophical issues of his time, ranging from the creation of the world and the nature of the soul to the questions of human free will and accountability in the afterlife.

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A new Persian edition and new English translation of by prominent 11th-century (AD) Ismaili theologian Khusraw. Specialists in Islamic studies will find a philosophical system integrating purely Ismaili, Neoplatonic, and original constituents shedding light on both the intellectual history of the Ismaili position and the originality of its author. General readers will find a formulation of the problem of alienation beyond its religious and historical contexts. US distribution is by St. Martin's Press. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)