Ismailiyya History: Pre-Fatimid and Fatimid times

After the death of Ja'far al-Sadiq in 148/765 a group of his followers held fast to the imamate ofhis son Isma'il, who had been named by him as his successor but had predeceased him. Some of
them maintained that Isma'il had not died and would reappear as the qa'im or Mahdi. Others
recognized Isma'il's son Muhammad as their imam. Nothing is known about the history of the
Isma'ili movement developing out of this nucleus until after the middle of the 3rd/9th century,
when it appeared as a secret revolutionary organization carrying on intensive missionary efforts
in many regions of the Muslim world. In the area of al-Kufa its propaganda was spread from
about the year 264/877-8 by Hamdan qarmat [q.v.], who was later aided by his brother-in-law
'Abdan [q.v.]. Hamdan's followers were named after him qarmati, a name which came to be
applied derogatorily also to other sections of the movement. In the area of al-Rayy the mission
was started about the same time by Khalaf, whose followers became known as the Khalafiyya. In
Fars a brother of 'Abdan was active. In Khurasan Nishapur and later Marw al-Rudh became
centres of Isma'ili activity (see S. M. Stern, The early Isma'ili missionaries in North-West Persia and in
Khurasan and Transoxania, in BSOAS, xxiii (1960), 56-90). A convert of al-Nasafi [q.v.], one of the
da'is of Khurasan and Transoxania, was the first to carry the propaganda to Sidjistan, probably
in the early decades of the 4th/10th century. Presumably in the first half of the 4th/10th
century, the qufs tribe in Kirman was converted by da'is from Khurasan. In the Yemen two
missionaries, 'Ali b. al-Fadl and Ibn Hawshab, known as Mansur al-Yaman [q.v.], in 268/881
established themselves in the area of the Jabal Maswar and succeeded in gaining strong tribal
support. In 270/883 Ibn Hawshab sent his nephew al-Haytham as a missionary to Sind. Later he
sent Abu 'Abd Allah al-Shi'i [q.v.] to the Maghrib, where he arrived in 280/893 and won the
support of the Kutama Berber tribe in western Algeria, thus laying the foundation for Fatimid
rule. In 286/899 Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi [q.v.], a follower of Hamdan qarmat and 'Abdan, founded
a qarmati state in al-Bahrayn, from where he later conquered al-qatif, 'Uman and al-Yamama.
The whole movement was centrally directed, at first probably from al-Ahwaz and al-Basra and
later from Salamiyya in Syria. Muhammad b. Isma'il was acknowledged as the imam, who had
disappeared and was about to reappear as the qa'im and to rule the world. The leaders of the
movement in the absence of the imam claimed the rank of hudjdjas [q.v.].

In the year 286/899, after the succession of the future Fatimid Caliph 'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi to
the leadership in Salamiyya, a schism split the movement, provoked by the claim of 'Ubayd
Allah to theqimamate for himself and his ancestors. Hamdan qarmat and 'Abdan, who may have
previously drifted slightly away from the doctrine propagated by the leadership, broke off their
support. 'Abdan consequently was murdered by a subordinate da'i, Zikrawayh b. Mihrawayh
[q.v.], who at first pretended to be loyal to the leadership. Zikrawayh and his sons organized the
'qarmati' revolts among Syrian bedouin tribes from the year 289/902 until his capture
and execution in 294/907. Doubts concerning Zikrawayh's loyalty, which soon turned out to be
justified, induced 'Ubayd Allah to leave Salamiyya for the journey which ended with his
establishment as caliph in Raqqada in 297/910.

Though information concerning the attitude of the various Isma'ili groups following the split of
the movement is scanty, the results can be summarized with some degree of probability as
follows: The community in the Yemen at first remained faithful to 'Ubayd Allah. 'Ali b. al-Fadl,
however, in 299/913 renounced his allegiance to him and made war on Ibn Hawshab, who
remained loyal. After 'Ali's death in 303/915 his party disintegrated rapidly. The da'is in the
Maghrib and probably in Sind, having been sent by Ibn Hawshab, also remained loyal. There
are indications that the da'wa in Khurasan generally maintained its allegiance to 'Ubayd Allah,
who was able to appoint some da'is there, but there were probably also counter-currents. The
communities in 'Iraq, al-Bahrayn, and western Persia refused to recognize the Fatimid claim to
the imamate. Among the qarmatis of 'Iraq 'Isa b. Musa, a nephew of 'Abdan, continued the
latter's work propagating the imamate of Muhammad b. Isma'il, who would return as the qa'im.
After 320/932 he was active in Baghdad. He and other da'is in 'Iraq ascribed their writings to
'Abdan, thus stressing the doctrinal continuity. The da'is of al-Rayy were in close contact with
those in 'Iraq and with the qarmatis of al-Bahrayn and like them were expecting the
reappearance of the Mahdi-imam for the year 316/928. At least in the twenties of the 4th
century (1030-9) they controlled the missions in Mosul and Baghdad. They worked successfully
among the Daylamis and won at least the temporary allegiance of Daylami leaders like Asfar,
Mardawidj and later of some rulers of the Musafirid dynasty. The qarmatis of al-Bahrayn, led by
Abu Tahir al-Jannabi, were predicting the appearance of the Mahdi-imam for the year
316/928. In 319/931 they accepted a Persian prisoner of war as the Expected One, and Abu
Tahir turned the rule over to him. The early disastrous end of the affair weakened the
ideological vigour of the qarmatis of al-Bahrayn and their influence among the da'is in 'Iraq and
Persia, but did not generally lead to an expansion of Fatimid influence. Soon afterwards the
great revolt of the Kharidji Abu Yazid [q.v.] under the Fatimid Caliphs al-qa'im and al-Mansur
stifled any Fatimid activity among the eastern Isma'ili communities. Only the fourth Fatimid,
al-Mu'izz (341/953-365/975), was in a position to lead an intensive campaign to regain the
allegiance of the schismatic Isma'ilis. His efforts were partially successful, but failed in regard to
the qarmatis of al-Bahrayn, whose hostility erupted, after the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in
358/969, in open warfare against the Fatimid armies. After concluding a peace with the Fatimid
al-'Aziz in 369/979-80 and a severe defeat by a bedouin tribe in 378/988, the qarmatis of
al-Bahrayn were reduced to a local power unable to exert any ideological influence beyond its
boundaries. The movement still supporting the doctrine of the return of Muhammadqb. Isma'il
rapidly disintegrated about the same time. The qarmati state in al-Bahrayn survived until
470/1077-8. (See M. J. de Goeje, Memoire sur les Carmathes du Bahraien2, Leiden 1886; idem, La
fin de l'empire des Carmathes, in JA 9th ser. v (1895), 5-30; W. Madelung, Fatimiden und
Bahrainqarmaten, in Isl. xxxiv (1959), 34-88; S. M. Stern, Isma'ilis and Qarmatians, in l'Elaboration de
l'Islam, Paris 1961, 99-108).

In the time of al-Mu'izz a Fatimid vassal state was established in Multan in Sind. The Isma'ili da'i
there succeeded before 348/959 in converting a local ruler. Multan became an Isma'ili
stronghold where the

Ismailiyya History: The post-Fatimid period

Hafiziyya:
After the overthrow of the Fatimid caliphate in 567/1171 the Hafiziyya, no longer enjoying
official support, gradually disintegrated. Al-'Adid, the last Fatimid caliph, had appointed his son
Da'ud as his successor with the title al-Hamid li'llah. Da'ud was generally recognized by the
Hafizis as the imam after al-'Adid. He and all other members of the Fatimid family were
permanently detained as prisoners by the Ayyubids. As a result of a pro-Fatimid conspiracy in
Cairo in 568/1172-3 many of the supporters of the deposed dynasty were exiled to Upper Egypt,
which became a hotbed of pro-Fatimid activity. In 572/1176-7 a pretender claiming to be Da'ud
found wide support in qift. When the real Da'ud died as a prisoner in Cairo in 604/1207-8, the
Hafizis asked the Ayyubid al-Malik al-Kamil for permission to mourn him in public. Al-Kamil
granted them permission, but used the occasion to arrest their da'is and confiscate their
property. After Da'ud his son Sulayman mostly seems to have been recognized as the imam.
Sulayman died without child as a prisoner in 645/1248, but some of his partisans claimed that
he had a son who was hidden (see P. Casanova, Les derniers Fatimides, in MIFAO, vi (1897),
415-45). In 697/1298 a pretender appeared in Upper Egypt who claimed to be Da'ud b.
Sulayman b. Da'ud. Still later, about the year 723/1324, Isma'ilis are mentioned in 'Usfun in
Upper Egypt. In Syria a Hafizi community is mentioned at the same time in the Baqi'a
mountains near Safad. In the Yemen the Hafizi cause also lost all official backing with the
Ayyubid conquest. The Tayyibi da'imutlaq 'Ali b. Muhammad al-Walid (d. 612/1215) still composed
polemical treatises and poems against the 'Madjidiyya', but they were already
becoming a rare minority.

Tayyibiyya [q.v.]:

The insignificant Tayyibi communities in Egypt and Syria, known as Amiriyya, are only rarely
mentioned in the sources. Toward the end of the 6th/12th century there is a vague referenceqto
the presence of Amiriyya in Egypt. In Syria a community of Amiriyya is still mentioned about the
year 723/1324 in the Baqi'a and Zabud mountains near Safad. These isolated communities
probably did not survive much longer. Only in the Yemen and India could the Tayyibi da'wa,
under the undisputed leadership of the da'imutlaq, establish itself permanently. After Ibrahim
al-Hamidi the position of da'i mutlaq remained among his descendants until 605/1209, when it
passed to 'Ali b. Muhammad of the Banu 'l-Walid al-Anf family, which was named after his
ancestor Ibrahim al-Anf, who was a prominent supporter of the Salayhids and a descendant of
the Umayyad al-Walid b. 'Utba b. Abi Sufyan. It remained in this family, with only two
interruptions in the 7th/13th century, until 946/1539. The traditional stronghold of the Isma'ili
da'wa in the Yemen was in the Haraz [q.v.] mountains, though there were scattered communities
in other parts of the country. The da'is generally enjoyed the support, or at least protection, of
the Hamdanids [q.v.], who permitted them to reside in San'a' and later, in the 8th/14th century,
in the fortress of Dhu Marmar. Their relations with the Ayyubids and the Rasulids were fair, but
the Zaydi imams were mostly hostile. The Zaydi pretender al-Mansur 'Ali b. Salah al-Din expelled
them from Dhu Marmar in 829/1426 after a prolonged siege, and they established their
residence in the Haraz mountains. The Zaydi Imam al-Mutahhar b. Sharaf al-Din in the
10th/16th century relentlessly persecuted the Banu 'l-Anf and seems to have practically
extirpated the family. The relations with the da'wa in India remained close. There the Tayyibi
community grew mostly undisturbed, though in the first half of the 9th/15th century
persecution under the Sultanate of Gudjarat resulted in mass conversions to Sunnism. In
946/1539 the position of da'imutlaq passed to an Indian, and after his death in 947/1567 the
headquarters were transferred to Gudjarat in India.

After the death of Da'ud b. 'Adjabshah, the 26th da'imutlaq, in 999/1591, the succession was
disputed. While in India Da'ud Burhan al-Din was established, Da'ud b. Adjabshah's
representative in the Yemen, Sulayman b. al-Hasan al-Hindi, claimed to have been designated
successor by the deceased da'imutlaq. The dispute was not resolved and led to the permanent
schism between the Da'udi and Sulaymani factions which accepted separate lines of da'is. Among
the Sulaymanis, whose cause had only few adherents in India, the position of da'imutlaq in
1050/1640 passed to the Yemenite Ibrahim b. Muhammad b. Fahd of the Makrami [q.v.] family,
in which it has remained since with few interruptions. The Makrami da'is established themselves
in Nadjran [q.v.], where they were supported by the Banu Yam [q.v.]. Before 1131/1719 they
conquered the Haraz region in the Yemen and held it against all attempts of the Zaydi imams to
expel them. The Da'i al-Hasan b. Hibat Allah (d. 1189/1775) conquered Hadramawt and
unsuccessfully fought the rising Su'udi dynasty in Central Arabia. From Haraz the Makramis
were expelled in 1289/1872 by the Ottoman general Ahmad Mu

Ismailiyya Doctrine: Pre-Fatimid and Fatimid times

Nothing definite is known about the doctrine of the early supporters of the imamate of Isma'iland his son Muhammad. Imami sources maintain that the Khattabiyya [q.v.], the followers of the
extremist Shi'i Abu 'l-Khattab [q.v.], constituted the bulk of the early Isma'iliyya. Later Isma'ili
doctrine, however, generally condemns Abu 'l-Khattab and does not appear to be substantially
influenced by the heresies ascribed to him and his followers (see W. Ivanow, Ibn al-Qaddah,
Bombay 1957). The Umm al-kitab preserved by the Isma'ilis of Bada

Ismailiyya Doctrine: Post-Fatimid times

Tayyibi doctrine:
The Tayyibi community in the Yemen and India preserved a large part of the Fatimid religious
literature and retained the interest in the gnostic cosmology and cyclical history of the Fatimid
age. Tayyibi doctrine, however, from the beginning adopted the cosmological system of
al-Kirmani in place of the traditional Fatimid system, and modified it by introducing a mythical
'drama in heaven', first described by the second da'i mutlak Ibrahim al-Hamidi [q.v.], which
profoundly shaped the Tayyibi gnosis. According to this myth, the two emanations from the
First Intellect, the Second and Third Intellects, were rivals for the second rank after the First
Intellect. As the Second Intellect reached this position by his superior efforts, the Third Intellect
refused to recognize his superiority in rank. In punishment for this failure he fell from the third
rank behind the following seven intellects and, after repenting, became stabilized as the Tenth
Intellect and demiurge (mudabbir). The physical world was produced out of the spiritual forms
(suwar) which together with the Tenth Intellect refused to recognize the superiority of the
Second Intellect and out of the darkness generated by this sin. The Tenth Intellect, also called
the Spiritual Adam (Adam al-Ruhani), tries to regain his original rank by calling the fallen spiritual
forms to repentance. The first representative of his da'wa on earth was the First and Universal
Adam (Adam al-Awwal al-Kulli), owner of the body of the ibda' world (al-djuththa al-ibda'iyya), who
opened the first cycle of manifestation (dawr al-kashf) and is distinguished from the Partial Adam
(Adam al-Juz'i), who opened the present age of concealment (dawr al-satr). After his passing he
rose to the horizon of the Tenth (Intellect) and took his place, while the Tenth rose in rank.
Similarly the qa'im of each cycle after his passing rises and takes the place of the Tenth, who
thus gradually rises until he will join the Second Intellect. Countless cycles of manifestation and
concealment succeed each other until the Great Resurrection (qiyamat al-qiyamat) which
consummates the megacycle (al-kawr al-a'zam), sometimes specified to last 360,000 times 360,000
years.

The soul of each believer on his initiation is joined by a point of light, which grows as he
advances in knowledge. On his passing it rises to join the soul of the holder of the rank (hadd)
above him in the hierarchy. It continues to rise from hadd to hadd until it is gathered together
with the souls of all other believers in the light temple (haykal nurani) in the shape of a human
being which constitutes the form of the qa'im (sura qa'imiyya) of his cycle, which then rises to the
horizon of the Tenth. The souls of the unbelievers remain with their bodies, which are dissolved
into an organic matter which is consequently transformed into various harmful creatures and
substances in descending order. Depending on the gravity of their sins they may eventually rise
again through the ascending forms of life and as human beings may accept the da'wa or end up
in Sidjdjin in torment lasting as long as the megacycle.

Continuing the Fatimid tradition Tayyibi doctrineqmaintained the equal validity of the zahir and
the batin and repudiated antinomian trends. qadi al-Nu'man's Da'a'im al-Islam remained the
authoritative work of fiqh.

Nizari doctrine:

Owing to the upheavals in the political history of the Nizari communities, their wide dispersal,
the language barriers between them, and the repeated loss of large parts of their religious
literature, Nizari doctrine is marked by major shifts in time and nearly completely independent
local traditions.

Doctrine of Alamut:

The vigorous activism of the movement led by Hasan-i Sabbah even before its break with the
Fatimid caliphate was associated with a new preaching (da'wa djadida), most eloquently
formulated, though perhaps not originated, by Hasan-i Sabbah himself. The new preaching
entailed an apologetic reformulation of the old Shi'i doctrine of ta'lim, i.e., the authoritative
teaching in religion, which could be carried out only by a divinely chosen imam in every age
after the Prophet. Hasan-i Sabbah reaffirmed the need for such a teacher as a dictate of reason
and went on to prove that only the Isma'ili imam fulfilled this need. In his argumentation he
seems to have stressed the autonomous authority of each imam, independent of his predecessors,
thus unwittingly authorizing the later shifts of doctrine. The doctrine of ta'lim had a strong
impact in the Sunni world, as is reflected by its elaborate refutation by al-Ghazali [q.v.] and
others.

A religious revolution took place under the fourth lord of Alamut, Hasan 'ala dhikrihi al-salam
(557/1162-561/1166), who on 17 Ramadan 559/8 Aug. 1164 solemnly proclaimed the
resurrection (qiyama) in the name of the imam, whose hudjdja or deputy (

Ismailiyya Bibliography

in addition to the works cited in the article: Major aspects of early Isma'ili history anddoctrine are examined in: B. Lewis, The origins of Isma'ilism, Cambridge 1940

W. Ivanow, Ismaili tradition concerning the rise of the Fatimids, London 1942

idem, Studies in early Pesian Ismailism2, Bombay 1955

S. M. Stern, Heterodox Ismailism in the time of al-Mu'izz, in BSOAS, xvii (1955), 10-30. On Nizari
history and doctrine in the Alamut period: M. G. S. Hodgson, The order of Assassins, The
Hague 1955, (fundamental)

idem, The Isma'ili state, in The CambridgeqHistory of Iran, v, Cambridge 1968, 422-82

B. Lewis, The Assassins, London 1967. On the Syrian Nizaris in the time of the crusades: B.
Lewis, The Isma'ilis and the Assassins, in K. M. Setton (ed.), A history of the Crusades, i,
Philadelphia 1955, 99-132. On the history, doctrine, and present state of the Bohoras and
Khodjas: J. N. Hollister, The Shi'a of India, London 1953. Analysis of Isma'ili gnostic doctrine:
H. Corbin, De la gnose antique a la gnose ismaelienne, in Convegno di scienze morali storiche e filologiche
1956, Rome 1957, 105-46

idem, Histoire de la philosophie islamique, i, Paris 1964, 110-51. Analytical bibliography of
published and unpublished Isma'ili works: W. Ivanow, Ismaili Literature, Tehran 1963. General,
but unequal surveys of Isma'ili history and doctrine have been given by W. Ivanow, Brief survey
of the evolution of Ismailism, Leiden 1952

Source: from the Encyclopedia of Islam -- © 1999 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands