The Dustūr al-munajjimīn is one of the few surviving Ismaili books dating back to the period of Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ, the founder of the Ismaili state in Iran. Mostly comprising an astronomical and chronological anthology, it was completed in the fortress of Alamūt in 506/1113 before the demise of Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ in 518/1124. It is not known whether or not it was one of the works retrieved by the historian Juwaynī when the library was burned by the Mongols at the taking of Alamūt in 654/1256.
The unknown author of Dustūr al-munajjimīn provides an account in Arabic of books and treatises held at the Alamūt library as well as the sciences practised by the Persian Nizārī 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. during the time of Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāh. It includes an array of sciences from mathematics, astronomy and astrology, to political theory, hadith and history. In particular it covers Ismaili history up to the time of Nizār b. al-Mustanṣir (d. 488/1095), progenitor of the Nizari Ismaili Imams.
This invaluable work, referenced often by scholars of Ismaili studies and previously available only in terms of its unique manuscript (MS arabe 5968, Bibliothèque nationale de France), is here published in facsimile for the first time.