The Ismaili-Sufi Sage of Pamir: Mubarak-i Wakhani and the Esoteri ...

The most popular nickname for the later scribe in the manuscript is Gulzār-Khān, a Khwāja fellow from Suchān (a district in Shughnān). It may be assumed that it was he who copied the manuscript in Jurm and then later somebody brought it to Shughnān. The prologue of the manuscript clearly presents its thematic content, which includes stories about the creation, the prophets, the eighteen branches (fariqa’) of Shīism and the genealogy of the Ismāīlī Imams up to Shāh-i Dīn asan, who seems to be the first Aga Khan, asan Alī Shāh (1804–1881). This manuscript demonstrates a local tradition of continuous contributions to a particular story, where the scribes update certain stories about the later religious developments and genealogical tables of the Imams and the local Khwājas. For instance, the latest addition to the manuscript was made on June 28, 1988, by a member of the same family, Shāh Khurtik the son of Shāh Banda, who also updated the genealogical line of the Ismāīlī Imams and his family tree up to his time.

The manuscript narrates several legends and stories of Shīī nature in both poetic and prose styles. It consists of sixteen chapters (referred to as Gawhar-dāna) dealing with the stories of creation, the six law-giving prophets (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad), the Shīī Imams (both Ismāīlis and the Twelver Shīīs), Nāir-i Khusraw and his disciples in Badakhshan. One of the most interesting features of this manuscript is its centrist position concerning the genealogy of the Shīī Imams of the Imamī (the Twelver Shīīs) and Ismāīlī (including late schism) branches. It does not make a sectarian judgment concerning the genealogy of the Shīī Imams. On the contrary, it attempts to reconcile those two lines of Imams, first the Imamis and the Ismāīlīs, then the Ismāīlī branches of the Qāsim-Shāhī (the present followers of the Aga Khan) and the Muammad-Shāhī.²¹ This reconciliation is made on the basis of the classic Ismāīlī concept that justifies the break in the line of the Imamate by classifying the Imams into mustawda (lit. trustworthy) and mustaqarr (lit. established) types, of equal religious importance.²²