Partaw-i Shah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hubb-i 'Ali Hunzai (17 May 1917 – 15 January 2017), known also as 'Allamah (lit. learned) Hunzai, 'Allamah Sahib, or by his epithets, Baba-yi Burushaski (lit. The Father of Burushaski), Lisan al-Qawm (lit. The Nation's Spokesman) and Hakim al-Qalam (lit. The Sage of the Pen), was a 20th and 21st century theologian, philosopher, Isma'ili scholar, poet and linguist known for his work on Islamic theology, metaphysics, hermeneutics, poetry and the Burushaski language. His one-hundred-and-twenty-five works of theological and philosophical prose thoroughly repurpose and build extensively upon classical Isma'ili thought, setting forth original theological, metaphysical and teleological expositions, based on the historically unprecedented philosophical injunctions of the 48th Isma'ili Imam, Sultan Muhammad Shah. These works also constitute a vast corpus of original Isma'ili esoteric exegesis, which reflects a deeper engagement with the process of ta'wil (lit. to bring a thing back to its origin) than can be found in previous Isma'ili hermeneutical works. He was also an engaged socio-political activist, advocating for female education and women's rights, cultural pluralism and language preservation. Early life Though the rural context to which he was born offered him little in the way of formal education, 'Allamah Hunzai's zeal for self-study earnt him proficiency in Burushaski, Urdu, Arabic and Classical Persian, which allowed him to study manuscripts collected by his father and other local scholars, including, among others, Khusraw's Wajh-i Din (which he later translated into Urdu), Jami' al-Hikmatayn and Zad al-Musafirin, and Ja'far b. Mansur's Sara'ir wa-Asrar al-Nutaqa - some of the most complex in their genre. As a result, he became well-versed in classical Isma'ili Neoplatonic philosophy and hermeneutics before having even reached the end of puberty. This early phase of inquisition also saw him take to poetry, with Sa'di's Bustan, Gulistan and Karima, as well as Hafiz-i Shirazi's Divan and Rumi's Kulliyat-i Shams included in his father's collection of manuscripts. During this early phase, 'Allamah Hunzai was forced to take-up shepherding in order to sustain his family. He would later recall how he used to carry his herding-stick in one hand, and the Qur'an in the other, which he studied with great avidity, and began to develop original theological and hermeneutical positions over its injunctions. Military life 'Allamah Hunzai was recruited into the Gilgit Scouts on the 8th of April, 1939, aged 21. He recalls having become "habituated" to seeking knowledge as a result of nurturing the