Ismaili Hero Summaries

Summary Descriptions of the Great Heroes in Ismaili History

Ismaili Hero - Abd al-Malik ibn Attash

Abd al-Malik ibn Attash was one of the greatest Ismaili Da'is and possessed remarkable knowledge of religion and philosophy. His exact date of birth is unknown but it is certain that he came in Ramadan 484/1091 to Ray, where he met the Da'is Abu Nazm, Abu Mu'min and Hasan al-Sabah who were able, with his help, to spread the Ismaili beliefs in the various Persian regions and other countries.
Besides his skill in propaganda, he was a great military leader and was able to capture many important places in Adharbayjan and Syria. He also seized the castle of al-Firdaws in Quhistan where he founded a school for the Ismailis from which more than 30 000 are said to have graduated; this castle had been built be one of the Saljuq Sultans. In the early years of the sixth century A.H., his Da'is took possession of a number of castles in Syria, among them al-Qadmus and Banyas, and in Persia Shirkuh, Qa'in and others. During his life, many Persian princes embraces Ismailism and when the Saljuq Malik Shah saw that Ismailism had spread through the 'length and breadth' of the country, he feared for his sovereignty and began warring against the Ismailis. The war continued under Malik Shah's successors and in the course of it Abd al-Malik ibn Attash met his death.

Ismaili Hero - Abu Abdullah Rodaki

Le renommé poète et intellectuel, Abu Abdullah bin Ja-fer Bin Muhammad Rodaki, est né il y a 1100 ans à RODAK près de Samarkand. Ses poèmes sont si connus dans le monde qu'il a été nommé 'Bawa Adam' ce qui signifie une autorité distinguée en poésie persane.
L'époque dans laquelle Hakim Rodaki est né, a été d'une énorme importance dans l'histoire ismailie. Ce fut durant cette époque que, d'après le Saint Prophète, Hazrat Imam Mahdi devient visible dans l'occident et que les Da'is Ismaili par des efforts infatigables et avec rapidité propagaient les concepts Ismailis dans chaque coin et recoin de la terre.

Poésie de Rodaki

Tel que mentionné ci-dessus, Rodaki a été dénommé 'Bawa Adam' en poésie persane, on a dit qu'il avait composé 1 300 000 vers. C'est un tel record en composition de vers, qu'il ne semble pas avoir existé un nombre si élevé de vers composés par aucun autre poète, que ce soit persane ou autre langue sur la terre, et l'effet que produit ses compositions était tel qu'un jour, après avoir écouté ses vers, Nasr bin Ahmed Samani, entré dans une telle transe qu'il parti pieds nus sur cheval sans selle vers Bukhara.

Ismaili Hero - Abu Ali Sina

The most famous exponent of the idea of universalism and the most famous figure in Ismaili learning was Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Within the brief span of 58 years, he was able to produce an astounding number of works on mathematics, music, geology and problems of light, gravity, heat, motion, philosophy, medicine and on different subjects, an achievement that can only be accounted for by his unequalled ability of mind and a power of assimilation of which history offers few such striking examples.
At Isfahan, he completed his great work 'Shifa', and also concluded his works on Ethics and al-Magest, while prior to that he had published the extracts of works on Geometry, Arithmetic and Music, and had worked out new problems in the books on Mathematics wherever he considered necessary. He added ten different figures to the al-Magest and worked out other problems hitherto unknown in Astronomy.

About his rare intellect, knowledge and wisdom, extraordinary details have come down to us. The fact that at the age of 18 he had mastered so many diverse subjects and sciences can only be attributed to his exceptional gift of intellect. Notwithstanding his remarkable intellectual capacity for understanding, he often went through the text repeatedly to have better knowledge, as he himself says in his book 'Mantiq-I-Mashriqi' that at times he ponders over the new subject 200 times before he would give the final shape to it.

Ismaili Hero - Hassan Bin Sabbah

ll historians and biographers are unanimous that Sayyidna Hasan was an outstanding, highly qualified authority on sciences of politics and mathematics. He was also an expert in the skills of administration and his organization was very precise and up to the mark.
Due to these qualities, the ruler Malik Shah was highly impressed by him and used to take his counsel on matters of administration.

During his life time, he achieved his aims like freedom of Ismaili territory, freedom to practice the Ismaili faith and the establishing of peace between him and his opponents.

Ismaili Hero - Ibn Al-Haytham

Ibn al-Haitham laid the foundation of modern optics; the determination of the velocity of light by Michelson, the Michelson-Morley experiment, the quantum theory and sophisticated photographic techniques, all the current ideas about ophthalmology, refraction of light, twilight, camera, obscura, light and optics, are all based on his observations and findings. Here, his mathematical ability outshone that of Euclid and Ptolemy.
Optics was developed to its highest degree by Ibn al-Haitham and he is often referred to as the 'Father of Optics.' Real and lasting advances stand to his credit in this department of science.

His greatest work is the 'Book of Optics' or the 'Kitab-ul-Manazir'. The original Arabic is lost, but the book survives in Latin. In it, Ibn Haitham explodes the theory of Euclid and Ptolemy that the eye sends out visual rays to the object of vision. He states, 'It is not a ray that leaves the eye and meets the object that gives rise to vision, rather the form of the perceived object passes into the eye and is transmitted by its transparent body, i.e., the lens.'

Although a man of science, Ibn Haitham was also profoundly religious and brought a unique synthesis of these two realms in his interpretation of the Universe.

A man of many facets; astronomer, mathematician, physicist and physician, he had a 20th century mind in a 10th century world and left a legacy for all times and all nations.

Ismaili Hero - Jawhar B. Abdullah

Abu al-Hasan Jawhar B. Abdullah, commonly known as Jawhar as-Siqilli tracing his origin from his country of birth, Sicily in Italy.
By his able suppression of revolts in North Africa, he became the most influential man in the Empire. He was not only a good soldier but also an able administrator; for he ruled Egypt, completely, for many years before Imam al-Muizz came there. After that, he withdrew only to his military duties and remained the commander-in-chief throughout his life. He died in 381 A.H. in the time of Imam al-Aziz.

Ismaili Hero - Nasir Khusraw

Abu Mu'in Nasir B. Khusraw was born in the year 394 A.H. in the small town of Qubadiyan, situated not far from the city of Balkh in the province of Khurasan.
A well-known poet, traveller and philosopher, his works in prose included 'Provision for the Travellers', 'The Feast of the Brethren', 'The Face of Religion', 'Release and Deliverance' and 'Harmonisation of the Two Wisdoms'. The most well-known prose-work of Nasir-I-Khusraw is the SAFAR-NAMA or the 'Book of Travels', which is regarded as a model of classical Persian prose.

Ismaili Hero - Pir Shahbuddin Shah

Pir Shahbuddin Shah was a learned scholar, a great philosopher and was well-known for his piety and knowledge.
The thing which made Pir Shahbuddin famous in history was his renowned treatise entitled 'Risala dar Haqiqat-i-Din' or 'The True Meaning of Religion.'

He was appointed as 'Pir' by Imam Aga Ali Shah in 1299 A.H. (1882 C.E.) at the age of 30 years. The Imam was reported to have assigned him to set and shorten the daily old prayers of Ismailis. This leads us to believe that he also had good knowledge of Indian languages. He was also competent and talented in Persian and Arabic studies.