Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid

Extremely well-educated, he was held in high regard by both contemporaries and later Tayyibi scholars: Hatim ibn Ibrahim reportedly stated that in Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid were to be found all the qualifications required of a by the 10th-century Isma'ili missionary Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Nisaburi. He was a "prolific author", writing a series of important works on Tayyibi doctrine (haqa'iq). Due to the high regard in which they were held by the Tayyibis, most have survived to the present day. Eight have been published in modern times, while the manuscripts of another eight have not yet been published. The works are: • Kitāb al-dhakhīra fī l-ḥaqīqa, in 33 chapters, dealing with tawḥīd, cosmology and eschatology, the hierarchy of the daʿwa, the imams and prophets, and a discussion on rewards and punishments for the faithful and their opponents. A modern edition was published by Muhammad Hasan al-A'zami, Beirut 1971. • Risālat jalāʾ al-ʿuqūl wa-zubdat al-maḥṣūl, also dealing with tawḥīd, cosmological and eschatological issues; edited by Adil al-Awwa in Muntakhabāt Ismāʿīliyya, Damascus 1958, pp. 80–153. • Risālat al-īḍāḥ wa-l-tabyīn, a short treatise on Tayyibi doctrines on the Creation, Isma'ili hierarchy, eschatology, and on the last Tayyibi imam, at-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim. It was edited by Rudolf Strothmann and published in his Gnosis-Texte der Ismailiten. Arabische Handschrift Ambrosiana H 75, Göttingen 1943, pp. 138–158. • Risālat tuḥfat al-murtād wa-ghuṣṣat al-aḍdād, a refutation of the rival Hafizi Isma'ili claims on the imamate, edited by Rudolf Strothmann in Gnosis-Texte der Ismailiten. Arabische Handschrift Ambrosiana H 75, Göttingen 1943, pp. 159–170. • Risāla [fī maʿnā] al-ism al-aʿẓam, edited by Rudolf Strothmann and published in his Gnosis-Texte der Ismailiten. Arabische Handschrift Ambrosiana H 75, Göttingen 1943, pp. 171–177. The authorship of this treatise was unknown to Strothmann, and was identified as Ali ibn Muhammad by Ismail Poonawala. • Tāj al-ʿaqāʾid wa-maʿdin al-fawāʾid, edited by Arif Tamir, Beirut, 1st edition 1967 and 2nd edition 1982. A summarized translation was published by Wladimir Ivanow, A Creed of the Fatimids, Bombay, Qayyima Press, 1936. • Dāmigh al-bāṭil wa-ḥatf al-munāḍil, a two-volume refutation of al-Ghazali's anti-Isma'ili work Kitab al-Mustazhiri, edited by Mustafa Ghalib, Beirut 1982. • Al-Risāla al-mufīda fī sharḥ mulghaz al-qaṣīda, a commentary on Avicenna's Qaṣīdat al-nafs ("qasidas on the soul"), edited by al-Habib al-Faqi, in Ḥawliyyāt al-Jāmiʿa al-Tūnusiyya, Vol. 17 (1979), pp. 117–182. • Dīwān Sayyidnā ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Walīd, a collection (diwan) of over 100 poems, including eulogies of his teachers, as well as dealing with doctrinal matters and contemporary historical events. Excerpts have been published by Rudolf Strothmann in "Kleinere Ismailitische Schriften", Islamic Research Association Miscellany, Vol. 1 (1948), pp. 145–146 & 153–163, and in Rabab Hamiduddin's PhD thesis The Qasidah of the Tayyibi Da'wah and the Diwan of Syedna Ali B. Muhammad Al-Walid at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), 2001. • Ḍiyạ̄ʾ al-albāb, unpublished manuscript. • Lubb al-maʿārif, unpublished manuscript. • Lubāb al-fawāʾid, unpublished manuscript. • Risālat mulḥiqat al-adhhān, unpublished manuscript. • Mukhtaṣar al-uṣūl, a refutation of the doctrines of the Sunnis, Mu'tazilis, Zaydis, and the philosophers "who deny God all attributes", still unpublished. • Risālat al-bayān wa-mudḥiḍat al-buhtān, a refutation of Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Ahwari, a rival of Hatim ibn Ibrahim for the position of Dā'ī al-Mutlaq. Unpublished manuscript. • Majālis al-nuṣḥ wa-l-bayān, unpublished manuscript.