Dr DaryoushMohammad Poor delivered a paper as part of the lecture series,organised by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) at Leiden University, Netherlands, on 19thSeptember 2014.The paper, entitledImaginative Anachronistic Leaps and Secular/Religious Myths of Terrorism: The case of Nizari IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 765), as his successor. of theAlamutʱǻ,addresses the legends of the assassins, which are still part of academic writings (in the field of political science) legitimising narratives of violence. In this way, violence is still portrayed as an inherent part of religion, despite the assassin legends having been deconstructed to a great extent by scholars such as Marshal Hodgson (1955) and Farhad Daftary (1994).
Such imaginative narratives, which are often almost entirely unaware of modern academic developments or disinclined towards further investigations, serve to enhance the religious-secular dichotomies of violence and terrorism. This paper, which is part of a book due for publication in 2015, serves to bridge the gap between Ismaili studies, Ismaili historiography, political theories and modern narratives of violence.
Dr DaryoushMohammad Poor also participated in theheld in Montreal, Canada, on 9 August 2014. He presented a paper entitledPrecedents to Rethinking Models of Authority among Nizari Ismailis: The Case ofTusi, on the contribution of Nasiral-Dinal-Tusi to the notions of authority and the doctrine ofimamateamong Nizari Ismailis. The paper specifically dealt with howTusi played a critical role in the articulation of the doctrine ofٲ‘land its connection withtawhid,and the subsequent articulation of the doctrine ofqiyamatin the lateAlamutperiod, all of which are centrally connected with the doctrine ofimamate.
The paper also addressed how the doctrine ofqiyamatwas perceived in different periods with various degrees of elaboration by the Imams, the scholars in the community, and the岹ʿɲLit. ‘summons’, ‘mission’ or invitation to Islam. Amongst Shi’i Muslims, it was the invitation to adopt the cause of the Imamat. It also refers more specifically to the hierarchy of…system. Articulations of this theme during the lateAlamutperiod appear to build on Tusi’s writings in his major works, namelySayr wa suluk,Rawday-i taslim,Matlub al-muʾmininandAghaz wa anjam.All of these texts are available in translation under the titles ofContemplation and Action(IIS 1998),Paradise of Submission(IIS 2005), andShi’i Interpretations of Islam(IIS 2010).
Dr Poor’s presentation utilised quotations from fragments of rare, unpublished manuscripts (from the collection of the IIS-ISMC Joint Library) of theAlamutperiod, elaborating how the doctrine ofqiyamatwas understood during that time.
Dr Daryoush Mohammad Poor has also recently published a book entitled.
