Historical Dictionaries present essential information on a wide range of subjects, including peoples, countries, cultures, philosophies and religions. Written by experts, they contain highly informative introductory essays on a topic followed by brief A–Z entries describing the people, events, politics, and their social and cultural institutions. Previous volumes in this series have dealt with groups of people who are not well known in the annals of world history, such as the Druzes, Berbers, Tamils, Kurds and Gypsies. The book under review is a handy reference on the Ismailis, the second largest branch of Shia Islam, who rose to political power at the beginning of the tenth century by establishing the Fatimid dynasty in North Africa. Half a century later they conquered Egypt and extended their sway over Greater Syria, Ḥijāz and Yemen. Before their collapse in Egypt in 1171 the Ismailis had established strongholds in Iran and Yemen where they flourished for several centuries before moving to the west coast of India in Sindh and Gujarat. The Ismaili community of today consists of two main branches: the Khojas (or the Aga Khanis) and the Bohras. Both are scattered across the world and centrally organized under their respective religious leadership. The Bohras number around one million, the Aga Khanis almost ten times that number.

The book covers one-and-a-half millennia of Ismaili history and the Ismaili contribution to Islamic culture and civilization. The author is an eminent scholar of Ismaili studies with numerous works to his credit, and this work presents a summary of the findings of modern scholarship on the Ismailis. Brief alphabetical entries describe the Ismaili Imams, Fatimid caliphs, and major dāʿīs who played key roles in the establishment of Ismaili political power in Yemen, Iran, North Africa and elsewhere. The entries also cover prominent Ismaili thinkers, theologians, poets, literary figures, and their major works that significantly contributed to the development of Islamic thought and culture in general and Ismaili thought in particular. Additionally, it includes the foremost Fatimid viziers, commanders, and Sunni polemical works against the Ismailis and Western as well as modern Ismaili scholars who advanced our knowledge of Ismaili studies. It should be noted that until the middle of the last century, the Ismailis were considered heretics, and were almost exclusively studied and evaluated on the basis of Sunni polemical works. This work is, therefore, a welcome addition to the field of Ismaili studies.

Overall the dictionary is well executed; however it should be stated that it is not a comprehensive work, and a number of important authors and their works are absent. For example there is no mention of: Ghiyāth, Abū Muḥammad al-Murādī al-Nīsābūrī, or Khawj b. Malik Kapadwanjī. Similarly Majālis Abī al-Barakāt, Kitāb al-Zīna of Rāzī, and Adʿiyat al-ayyām al-sabʿa of al-Muʿizz are not listed. Given the format of brief entries it is a challenge to compress important information into a short paragraph; hence the references cited at the end of the entries are indispensable. The volume contains pertinent bibliographies and charts. However, major omissions should be acknowledged: among the maps at the beginning of the book and photos at the end, one observes that Yemen, from where the Ismaili political movement emerged on a historical stage, is neglected. Yemen has played a central and critical role in Ismaili history and one would expect to see some pictures of the mountain fortress and other relics, especially in the Ḥarāz area. It should also be noted under “Makramids” (p. 112) that they had a chequered history: they fought valiantly against the Zaydīs in the south and the Wahhābis in the north.

Some entries are not systematic. For example, only the Dīwān of Nāṣir-e Khusraw is listed, while the Dīwāns of other major poets, such as Ibn Hāni’ al-Andalusī and Amīr Tamīm are not enumerated. Hence, one might ask: what is the criterion for listing only the Dīwān of Nāṣir-e Khusraw? In the same manner Jāmiʿ al-ḥikmatayn of Abu ’l-Haytham is listed while that of Nāṣir-e Khusraw is recorded under the author's name. Page 107, under the entry “Literature”, should be corrected to read that the Ṭayyibī Mustaʿlian Ismailis have produced a significant literature of their own in Arabic not only during the Yemeni period but also during the Indian period of their history. To page 134, under the entry “Ottomans”, it should be added that the Ottoman conquest of Yemen and the hostile attitude towards the Ismailis was a cause for their shifting their headquarters to India. Without giving any specifics the author states (p. 120) that Muḥammad Burhān al-Dīn introduced a number of reforms. It should be argued here that, because of severe persecution of the reformist members of the community by the current dāʿī, two inquiry commissions were set up by the Citizens for Democracy. The report of the Nathwani Commission into the alleged infringement of human rights of reformist members of the Dawoodi Bohras was published in 1979. The report of the second commission entitled “Violations of the Human Rights of Dawoodi Bohras” was published in 1993. The list of taxes, under the entry “Tithe”, paid by the Ṭayyibī Ismailis (p. 168) is elaborated further in the aforementioned Commission reports. The treatment of Bohra women under the entry “Women” (p. 176) is brief and perfunctory. It should be stated that female circumcision is still practised among the Bohras. Even in North America this ritual is carried out clandestinely. The Bohras also confine their widows during the ʿidda to a room in a house, completely screened off from the outside world to such an extent that she is not allowed to gaze at the sky. She is permitted to see only close male relatives whom she cannot marry. She is, therefore, a virtual prisoner in a room or a house and is not permitted to wear anything other than white clothes. If she becomes ill she can only be attended by a female physician. All these practices are not in conformity with the teachings of the Quran and the sunna of the Prophet.

Finally, the following recently published works should be added to the bibliography. Al-Sijistānī's Kitāb al-Maqālīd al-malakūtiyya; al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān's Risāla dhāt al-bayān fiʾl radd ʿalā Ibn Qutayba; and the English translation of Nāṣir-e Khusraw's Kitāb-i Jāmiʿ al-ḥikmatayn.