Ikhwān al-ṣafāʾ

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Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (Arab., ‘Brotherhood of Purity’). A secret movement founded c.951 (AH 340) in Iraq. It had strong Ismāʿīlī connections and views, which were summarized in the fifty-one (or fifty-two) letters, Rasāʿil ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, which deal, in encyclopaedic fashion, with sciences, theology, metaphysics, cosmology, etc., showing their relation to each other.