A TREATISE COMPILED BY HAMZA THE FATIMID, CHIEF MISSIONARY (SAHIB AL-DA'WA) TO THE CALIPH AL-HAKIM BI AMRILLAH AND FOUNDER OF THE DRUZE SECT

A COMPILATION OF RELIGIOUS SAYINGS BY HAMZA BIN 'ALI BIN AHMAD AL-FARISI AL-DRAZI (B.985 AD): KITAB AL-HAQA'IQ WA KASHF AL-MAHJUB

JABAL AL-SUMAQ, LEVANT, DATED RABI' I 461 OF THE DRUZE CALENDAR/1477-78 AD

Details

A COMPILATION OF RELIGIOUS SAYINGS BY HAMZA BIN 'ALI BIN AHMAD AL-FARISI AL-DRAZI (B.985 AD): KITAB AL-HAQA'IQ WA KASHF AL-MAHJUB
JABAL AL-SUMAQ, LEVANT, DATED RABI' I 461 OF THE DRUZE CALENDAR/1477-78 AD
A treatise on rhetoric against Christians composed this major Druze figure, Arabic manuscript on paper, 130ff., each folio with 11-13ll. of black naskh script, titles in larger red thuluth script, some words picked out in red, others with green highlights, with red roundel verse markers, opening folio with title and heading in large silver thuluth script with polychrome illumination, one folio a later replacement, colophon stating that this was copied by Mas'ud bin Hasan bin Karamah known as Bad'i al-Zaman in Rabi' I 461 (of the Druze calendar), paginated, trimmed, some restoration, in paper covered binding
Folio 6 3/8 x 4¾in. (16.3 x 12cm.)

Lot Essay

Hamza bin 'Ali (b.985 AD) is one of the founding figures of the Druze religion. In 1017, he was the first to publicly proclaim the divine nature of the Caliph al-Hakim. This date marks the beginning of the Druze calendar. He gave the Caliph's cult its definitive theological doctrine after al-Hakim's disappearance in 1021 AD, under his own overall leadership, and developed a strong da'wa organization for the propagation of the new doctrine (Farhad Daftary, Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines, 1992, p.196). 'Ali bin Hamza originally came from Khurassan and moved to Egypt in 1014 AD. After the disappearance of the Caliph, Hamza declared himself to be the true manifestation of the Divine reality of al-Hakim. He was particularly successful in Greater Syria and Druze communities flourished in the region of Mount Lebanon.

Another copy of this work was sold at Christie's South Kensington, 23 April 2012, lot 11.

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