FOUNDING THE FATIMID STATE: THE RISE OF AN EARLY ISLAMIC EMPIRE

Covering a major work of one of the most important thinkers of early Islam, this is a fresh translation of a text of inestimable importance to our understanding of Fatimid rule that will appeal to all serious students of early Islamic history and culture. This book, the "Iftitah al-Da'wa", is the most important primary source for the emergence of the Fatimid state in the early years of the tenth century. Its author, Qadi al-Nu'man, was an official historian of the Fatimids and an eminent exponent of Ismaili jurisprudence - as well as being perhaps the most distinguished and creative of all the Fatimid thinkers. The "Iftitah" is al-Nu'man's major historical work, and records in detail the background to the establishment of the Fatimid state, first in Yemen and then in north Africa.