Seerah al-Shahrastani — Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Shahrastani (1086-1153 CE): The Khorasan Theologian Who Wrote Kitab al-Milal wal-Nihal (Book of Religious and Philosophical Sects), the First Systematic Comparative Religion in Islamic History, Classifying Every Known Religious and Philosophical School With Their Arguments, and Who Had Controversial Associations With Ismaili Thought

Seerah al-Shahrastani (سِيرَةُ الشَّهرَسْتَانِيّ; full name: Abu al-Fath Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Karim ibn Abi Bakr Ahmad al-Shahrastani; born 479 AH / 1086 CE in Shahrastan [near Tus] in Khurasan; died 548 AH / 1153 CE in Shahrastan; Shafi'i in fiqh, Ash'ari in kalam [officially]; his context: he lived in the Seljuk period and spent time in Baghdad; he was involved in the intellectual life of the period of al-Ghazali's influence; the major work: Kitab al-Milal wal-Nihal [Book of Religious and Philosophical Sects]: a systematic classification of all known religious and philosophical positions; organized into: [1] the ahl al-qibla [people of the Islamic prayer direction] — Islamic sects classified and described with their arguments: Mu'tazila, Ash'ariyya, Karramiyya, Shi'a [Imami, Ismaili, Zaydi, etc.], Sufis; [2] non-Islamic Abrahamic groups: Jews, Christians, and their sects; [3] non-Abrahamic religions: Zoroastrians, Sabians, Brahmins, Manichaeans; [4] Greek and Islamic philosophers: Plato, Aristotle, and their schools; the methodology: al-Shahrastani's method is remarkably fair for its time; he presents each position with its best arguments, not just its weaknesses; his goal is to understand what each group actually believes and why, not merely to refute them; this makes the Milal wal-Nihal an invaluable primary source for the positions of groups that left few independent texts; the Ismaili controversy: al-Shahrastani's treatment of the Ismaili position in the Milal wal-Nihal is unusually sympathetic and detailed; he later wrote Majlis-ha [Seances], a Persian philosophical text in which the depth of Ismaili influence is evident; modern scholars have debated whether al-Shahrastani had secret Ismaili sympathies or was simply a scholar who engaged deeply with Ismaili thought; the philosophical section: al-Shahrastani's treatment of Greek philosophy — particularly his presentation of the pre-Socratic philosophers [using the term 'philosophers of ancient wisdom'] — is sophisticated; his Nihayat al-Aqdam fi 'Ilm al-Kalam [The Furthest Steps in Kalam] is a major kalam text; the methodology in comparative religion: three centuries before European scholars began systematic comparative religious studies, al-Shahrastani had produced a text that: [1] identified distinct religious and philosophical traditions; [2] presented each tradition's self-understanding and best arguments; [3] organized them into a coherent taxonomy; [4] noted internal divisions and major sub-groups; legacy: the Milal wal-Nihal remained the standard reference for comparative religious information in the Islamic world for centuries; it was consulted by scholars from Morocco to India; its treatment of the Ismaili tradition, especially, provides information that other hostile sources do not) is Islam's founding comparativist.