Early Druze manuscript of the Epistles of Wisdom

Hamza ibn Ali / Muhammad b. Ismail al-Tamimi / et al. Rasa'il al-Hikmah (Epistles of Wisdom), volume II.

€ 65,000.00

A rare surviving volume of the Druze holy writings, copied for use in the Levant and preserving twenty-six epistles from the community’s core scripture. This manuscript represents an exceptionally early and important witness to the secretive faith of the Druze, a small but enduring religious community rooted in the mountains of Syria and Lebanon. Their teachings, centered on the pursuit of divine unity and knowledge, were long kept hidden from outsiders, transmitted only through trusted initiates. The foundational work of the tradition, the Epistles of Wisdom, was arranged in six books by the scholar-leader al-Tannukhi in the fifteenth century, who codified and preserved the theological, ethical, and philosophical essence of the movement after the close of its missionary era.

This particular manuscript contains the second Tannukhi volume, comprising epistles fifteen to forty. Within its pages are letters of pastoral guidance written for the Druze faithful, administrative and disciplinary communications to community leaders, and eloquent arguments defending the faith against rival sects. The text also includes profound meditations on the nature of reason and soul, alongside hymns of devotion to the Fatimid ruler al-Hakim, venerated as the manifestation of divine wisdom. It concludes with a lengthy poetic composition by al-Tamimi, addressed to the mountain congregations and reflecting on themes of divine judgment, renewal, and eternal truth. The structure and content of the manuscript follow the canonical six-book sequence fixed by al-Tannukhi, allowing for confident attribution and dating to the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.

Further testimony to this manuscript's continuity within the Druze tradition is found in the numerous marginalia and flyleaf notes: a dated purchase record 27 Safar 1344H (2 September 1925 CE), devotional invocations to al-Haqq and Hamza ibn Ali, protective charms against sorcery, and family entries of the al-Aqabani of Jabal al-Druze noting births and small payments in gold and qurush between 1919 and 1927. These additions reveal a manuscript that remained a living object of faith, reverence, and instruction within the community for centuries.

A sound fifteenth to sixteenth century volume of the Epistles of Wisdom, preserved within the Druze community into the modern period, this work offers not only a rare survival of their sacred scripture but also a tangible record of the endurance and transmission of a closed religious tradition. A direct link to one of the most enigmatic and resilient spiritual lineages of the Near East.