Spiritual Hierarchy and Gender Hierarchy in Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī Interpretations of the Qur'an

Abstract

This article describes the relationship between gender hierarchy and spiritual hierarchy in the writings of three Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī authors: al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān (d. 363/974), Jaʿfar b. Manṣūr al-Yaman (d. 380/990) and al-Muʾayyad fī’l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 470/1078). These authors interpreted references to males and females in the Qur'an as references to spiritual teachers and their students: verses that on the outward (ẓāhir) level speak of the gender hierarchy refer, on the inner (bāṭin) level, to the spiritual hierarchy. We show that, for them, physical gender matters in the physical realm, and a worldly gender hierarchy exists, but physical gender is not always a defining factor in spiritual rankings. We shed light on the way in which these prominent Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī thinkers view the base physical realm as a symbolic reference to higher spiritual truths, and give examples of the ways in which specific Qur'anic stories, such as that of Adam and Eve, or Joseph and Zulaykha, are interpreted as referring to the male/teacher and female/student relationship in the spiritual hierarchy. We then compare these writings to the specific defence of a female spiritual leader put forth in the Ghayāt al-mawālīd by a slightly later author, al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 533/1138–9).