Keys to the Arcana: Shahrastānī's esoteric commentary on the Qur'an - A translation of the commentary on Sūrat al-fātiḥa from Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahrastānī's Mafātīḥ al-asrār wa-maṣābīḥ al-abrār, by Toby Mayer
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Keys to the Arcana: Shahrastānī's esoteric commentary on the Qur'an - A translation of the commentary on Sūrat al-fātiḥa from Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahrastānī's Mafātīḥ al-asrār wa-maṣābīḥ al-abrār, by Toby Mayer, with the Arabic text reproduced from the edition by M. A. Adharshab (Quranic Studies Series: 6) (London & New York: Oxford University Press, in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2009), xvi + 267 (English text) + 122 (Arabic text) pp., ISBN: 978-0-19-953365-7, $110.00 (hb) First paragraph) Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahrastānī (c. 1086-1153) is the well-known heresiographer, author of the Kitāb al-milal wa-l-niḥal, one of the most important sources for the knowledge of the religious sects in Medieval Islam. Perhaps, he is less studied as a theologian, although his Nihāyat al-iqdām has a distinguished position in the history of philosophical kalām. As a theologian, al-Shahrastānī wrote a Qurʾānic commentary whose title is Mafātīḥ al-asrār wa-maṣābīḥ al-abrār (Keys of the Secrets or Arcana), virtually an unknown work. This book provides the edition and the English translation of a section of the Commentary by Toby Mayer.