Editing Ismailism (section)

==History==
{{Further|Musta'li Ismailism|Tayyibi Isma'ilism|Nizari Isma'ilism|History of Nizari Isma'ilism|Isma'ili Constitution}}

===Succession crisis===
{{Main|Succession to Muhammad}}
Ismailism shares its beginnings with other early Shia sects that emerged during the succession crisis that spread throughout the early Muslim community. From the beginning, the Shia asserted the right of [[Ali]], cousin of [[Muhammad]], to have both political and spiritual control over the community. This also included his two sons, who were the grandsons of Muhammad through his daughter [[Fatima]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nOM9Cv7Ro80C&q=succession+crisis+in+islam&pg=PA194 |title=Islam: The Basics |last=Turner |first=Colin |date=2006 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-34105-9 |language=en}}</ref>

The conflict remained relatively peaceful between the partisans of Ali and those who asserted a semi-democratic system of electing caliphs, until the third [[Rashidun caliph]] ([[Uthman]]) was killed and Ali ascended to the caliphate with popular support.<ref name="najulblaagha">{{cite book |first=Ali |last=ibn Abu Talib |title=Najul'Balagha}}</ref>

Soon after his ascendancy, [[Aisha]], the third of Muhammad's wives, claimed along with Uthman's tribe, the [[Umayyad dynasty|Umayyads]], that Ali should take {{transliteration|ar|qisas}} (blood for blood) from the people responsible for Uthman's death. Ali voted against it, as he believed that the situation at the time demanded a peaceful resolution of the matter. Though both parties could rightfully defend their claims, due to escalated misunderstandings, the [[Battle of the Camel]] was fought and Aisha was defeated, but was respectfully escorted to Medina by Ali.{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}}

Following this battle, [[Mu'awiya I]], the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad governor]] of Syria, also staged a revolt under the same pretences. Ali led his forces against Mu'awiya until the side of Mu'awiya held copies of the [[Quran]] against their spears and demanded that the issue be decided by Islam's holy book. Ali accepted this, and an arbitration was done which ended in his favor.<ref name="al-islam.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.al-islam.org/kaaba14/4.htm |title=Imam Ali |access-date=2007-04-24 |archive-date=20 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070420085730/http://www.al-islam.org/kaaba14/4.htm }}</ref>

A group among Ali's army believed that subjecting his legitimate authority to arbitration was tantamount to apostasy, and abandoned his forces. This group was known as the [[Khawarij]] and Ali wished to defeat their forces before they reached the cities, where they would be able to blend in with the rest of the population. While he was unable to do this, he nonetheless defeated their forces in subsequent battles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sunnah.org/aqida/kharijites1.htm |title=The Kharijites and their impact on Contemporary Islam |access-date=2007-04-24 |archive-date=2 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102193334/http://www.sunnah.org/aqida/kharijites1.htm }}</ref>

Regardless of these defeats, the Kharijites survived and became a violently problematic group in Islamic history. After plotting assassinations against Ali, Mu'awiya, and the arbitrator of their conflict, a Kharijite successfully assassinated Ali in 661 CE.  The Imāmate then passed on to his son [[Hasan ibn Ali|Hasan]] and then later his son [[Husayn ibn Ali|Husayn]]. According to the Nizari Isma'ili tradition, Hasan  was "an Entrusted Imam" ({{langx|ar|الإمام المستودع|al-imām al-mustawdaʿ}}) Husayn was the "Permanent Imam" ({{langx|ar|الإمام المستقر|al-imām al-mustaqar}}).

The Entrusted Imam is an Imam in the full sense except that the lineage of the Imamate must continue through the Permanent Imam.<ref>{{cite book |last=Virani |first=Shafique |author-link=Shafique Virani |title=The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, a Search for Salvation: A History of Survival, a Search for Salvation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sXk8DLJ5kyEC&pg=PA84 |year=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-804259-4}}</ref> However, the political Caliphate was soon taken over by Mu'awiya, the only leader in the empire at that time with an army large enough to seize control.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history03/history336.html |title=Ali bin Abu Talib |access-date=2007-04-24}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=May 2022}}

Even some of Ali's early followers regarded him as "an absolute and divinely guided leader", whose demands of his followers were "the same kind of loyalty that would have been expected for the Prophet".<ref>Maria Masse Dakake, ''The Charismatic Community'', 57</ref> For example, one of Ali's supporters who also was devoted to Muhammad said to him: "our opinion is your opinion and we are in the palm of your right hand."<ref>Maria Masse Dakake, ''The Charismatic Community'', 58</ref> The early followers of Ali seem to have taken his guidance as "right guidance" deriving from Divine support. In other words, Ali's guidance was seen to be the expression of God's will and the Quranic message. This spiritual and absolute authority of Ali was known as {{transliteration|ar|walayah}}, and it was inherited by his successors, the Imams.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In the 1st century after Muhammad, the term {{transliteration|ar|'sunnah'}} was not specifically defined as "{{transliteration|ar|Sunnah}} of the Prophet", but was used in connection to Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and some Umayyad Caliphs. The idea of {{transliteration|ar|[[hadith]]}}, or traditions ascribed to Muhammad, was not mainstream, nor was {{transliteration|ar|hadith}} criticised. Even the earliest legal texts by Malik b. Anas and Abu Hanifa employ many methods including analogical reasoning and opinion and do not rely exclusively on {{transliteration|ar|hadith}}. Only in the 2nd century does the Sunni jurist al-Shafi'i first argue that only the sunnah of Muhammad should be a source of law, and that this {{transliteration|ar|sunnah}} is embodied in {{transliteration|ar|hadith}}s. It would take another one hundred years after al-Shafi'i for Sunni Muslim jurists to fully base their methodologies on prophetic {{transliteration|ar|hadith}}s.<ref>Adis Duderija, "Evolution in the Concept of Sunnah during the First Four Generations of Muslims in Relation to the Development of the Concept of an Authentic Ḥadīth as based on Recent Western Scholarship", Arab Law Quarterly 26 (2012) 393–437</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://repository.um.edu.my/28465/1/ALQ_026_04_01-Duderija%20(5).pdf |title=Arab Law Quarterly 26 (2012) 393–437 |access-date=10 April 2016 |archive-date=24 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424090417/http://repository.um.edu.my/28465/1/ALQ_026_04_01-Duderija%20(5).pdf }}</ref> Meanwhile, Imami Shia Muslims followed the Imams' interpretations of Islam as normative without any need for {{transliteration|ar|hadith}}s and other sources of Sunni law such as analogy and opinion.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

===Karbala and afterward===

====The Battle of Karbala====
{{Main|Battle of Karbala}}
After the death of Imam Hasan, Imam Husayn and his family were increasingly worried about the religious and political persecution that was becoming commonplace under the reign of Mu'awiya's son, [[Yazid I|Yazid]]. Amidst this turmoil in 680, Husayn along with the women and children of his family, upon receiving invitational letters and gestures of support by Kufis, wished to go to [[Kufa]] and confront Yazid as an intercessor on part of the citizens of the empire. However, he was stopped by Yazid's army in [[Karbala]] during the month of [[Muharram]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Karbala |title=Battle of Karbala' {{!}} Islamic history|work=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=2017-09-18|language=en}}</ref> His family was starved and deprived of water and supplies, until eventually the army came in on the tenth day and martyred Husayn and his companions, and enslaved the rest of the women and family, taking them to Kufa.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history03/history348.html |title=Hussain bin Ali |access-date=2007-04-24}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=May 2022}}

This battle would become extremely important to the Shia psyche. The [[Twelvers]] as well as [[Musta'li]] Isma'ili still mourn this event during an occasion known as [[Ashura]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2014/11/ashura-sunni-shiite-jurisprudence.html |title=Ashoura through the eyes of Sunnis |date=2014-11-09 |work=Al-Monitor|access-date=2017-09-18 |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://ajammc.com/2014/11/03/turkish-ashura-zeynebiye/ |title=Karbala in Istanbul: Scenes from the Ashura Commemorations of Zeynebiye – Ajam Media Collective |date=2014-11-03 |work=Ajam Media Collective|access-date=2017-09-18 |language=en-US}}</ref>

The Nizari Isma'ili, however, do not mourn this in the same way because of the belief that the light of the Imam never dies but rather passes on to the succeeding Imām, making mourning arbitrary. However, during commemoration they do not have any celebrations in [[Jama'at Khana]] during Muharram and may have announcements or sessions regarding the tragic events of [[Karbala]]. Also, individuals may observe Muharram in a wide variety of ways. This respect for Muharram does not include self-flagellation and beating because they feel that harming one's body is harming a gift from God.{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}}
[[Image:Ambigram - Muhammad and Ali2.svg|thumb|[[Ambigram]] depicting Muhammad and Ali written in a single word. The 180 degrees inverted form shows both words.]]

====The beginnings of Ismāʿīlī Daʿwah====
{{Main|Zaidiyyah}}
After being set free by Yazid, [[Zaynab bint Ali]], the daughter of [[Fatimah]] and [[Ali]] and the sister of Hasan and Husayn, started to spread the word of Karbala to the Muslim world, making speeches regarding the event. This was the first organized [[dawah|daʿwah]] of the Shia, which would later develop into an extremely spiritual institution for the Ismāʿīlīs.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

After the poisoning of [[Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin]] by [[Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik]] in 713, the first succession crisis of the Shia arose with [[Zayd ibn Ali|Zayd ibn ʻAlī]]'s companions and the [[Zaidiyyah|Zaydī]]s who claimed [[Zayd ibn Ali|Zayd ibn ʻAlī]] as the Imām, whilst the rest of the Shia upheld [[Muhammad al-Baqir]] as the Imām. The Zaidis argued that any [[sayyid]] or "descendant of Muhammad through Hasan or Husayn" who rebelled against tyranny and the injustice of his age could be the Imām. The Zaidis created the first Shia states in Iran, Iraq, and Yemen.{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}}

In contrast to his predecessors, Muhammad al-Baqir focused on academic Islamic scholarship in [[Medina]], where he promulgated his teachings to many Muslims, both Shia and non-Shia, in an extremely organized form of Daʿwah.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.al-islam.org/kaaba14/8.htm |title=Imam Baqir |access-date=2007-04-24}}</ref> In fact, the earliest text of the Ismaili school of thought is said to be the ''[[Umm al-Kitab (Ismaili book)|Umm al-kitab]]'' (The Archetypal Book), a conversation between Muhammad al-Baqir and three of his disciples.<ref>[[Seyyed Hossein Nasr|S.H. Nasr]] (2006), ''[[Islamic Philosophy from its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy|Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy]]'', State University of New York Press, p. 146</ref>

This tradition would pass on to his son, [[Ja'far al-Sadiq]], who inherited the Imāmate on his father's death in 743. Ja'far al-Sadiq excelled in the scholarship of the day and had many pupils, including three of the four founders of the Sunni [[madhhab]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://al-islam.org/masoom/bios/6thimam.html |title=Imam Ja'far b. Muhammad al Sadi'q |access-date=2007-04-24}}</ref>

However, following al-Sadiq's poisoning in 765, a fundamental split occurred in the community. [[Isma'il ibn Ja'far|Ismaʻil ibn Jafar]], who at one point was appointed by his father as the next Imam, appeared to have predeceased his father in 755. While Twelvers argue that either he was never heir apparent or he truly predeceased his father and hence [[Musa al-Kadhim]] was the true heir to the Imamate, the Ismāʿīlīs argue that either the death of Ismaʻil was staged in order to protect him from Abbasid persecution or that the Imamate passed to Muhammad ibn Ismaʻil in lineal descent.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Shaykh 'Abd al-Hakeem Seth|first=Carney|date=2 October 2014|title=Succession of Ismail ibn Jafar|url=https://ismailignosis.com/2014/10/02/who-succeeded-imam-jafar-al-sadiq-seven-proofs-for-the-imamat-of-imam-ismail-ibn-jafar/|website=Ismaili Gnosis}}</ref>

===Ascension of the Dais===
{{Main|Da'i}}
For some partisans of Isma'il, the Imamate ended with Isma'il ibn Ja'far. Most Ismailis recognized Muhammad ibn Ismaʻil as the next Imam and some saw him as the expected [[Mahdi]] that Ja'far al-Sadiq had preached about. However, at this point the Isma'ili Imams according to the [[Nizari Isma'ilism|Nizari]] and [[Mustaʽli Ismailism|Mustaali]] found areas where they would be able to be safe from the recently founded [[Abbasid Caliphate]], which had defeated and seized control from the Umayyads in 750 CE.<ref name="DaftaryIsmailis1990p104">{{cite book |first=Farhad |last=Daftary |title=The Ismāʿīlīs: Their history and doctrines |location=Cambridge, England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-521-42974-9 |page=104}}</ref>

At this point, some of the Isma'ili community believed that Muhammad ibn Isma'il had gone into [[the Occultation]] and that he would one day return. A small group traced the Imamate among Muhammad ibn Isma'il's lineal descendants. With the status and location of the Imams not known to the community, the concealed Isma'ili Imams began to propagate the faith through [[Caller to Islam|Da'iyyun]] from its base in Syria. This was the start of the spiritual beginnings of the Daʿwah that would later play important parts in the all Ismaili branches, especially the Nizaris and the Musta'lis.<ref name="DaftaryShort1998p36">{{cite book |last=Daftary |first=Farhad |title=A Short History of the Ismailis |year=1998 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=0-7486-0687-4 |pages=36–50}}</ref>

The Da'i was not a missionary in the typical sense, and he was responsible for both the conversion of his student as well as the mental and spiritual well-being. The Da'i was a guide and light to the Imam. The teacher-student relationship of the Da'i and his student was much like the one that would develop in [[Sufism]]. The student desired God, and the Da'i could bring him to God by making him recognize the Imam, who possesses the knowledge of the Oneness of God. The Da'i and Imam were respectively the spiritual mother and spiritual father of the Isma'ili believers.<ref>{{cite book |first=James |last=Morris |title=The Master and the Disciple: An Early Islamic Spiritual Dialogue on Conversion Kitab al-'alim wa'l-ghulam |publisher=Institute for Ismaili Studies |year=2002 |isbn=1-86064-781-2 |page=256}}</ref>

Ja'far bin Mansur al-Yaman's ''[[The Book of the Sage and Disciple]]'' is a classic of early [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]] literature, documenting important aspects of the development of the Isma'ili da'wa in tenth-century Yemen. The book is also of considerable historical value for modern scholars of Arabic prose literature as well as those interested in the relationship of esoteric Shia with early Islamic mysticism. Likewise is the book an important source of information regarding the various movements within tenth-century Shīa leading to the spread of the Fatimid-Isma'ili da'wa throughout the medieval Islamicate world and the religious and philosophical history of post-Fatimid Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism in Yemen and India.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

===The Qarmatians===
{{Main|Qarmatians}}
While many of the Isma'ili were content with the Da'i teachings, a group that mingled Persian nationalism and [[Zoroastrianism]] surfaced known as the Qarmatians. With their headquarters in [[Bahrain]], they accepted a young Persian former prisoner by the name of [[Abu'l-Fadl al-Isfahani]], who claimed to be the descendant of the Persian kings<ref name="autogenerated123">{{cite book |title=Imagining the End: Visions of Apocalypse |author=Abbas Amanat, Magnus Thorkell |page=123}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Women and the Fatimids in the World of Islam |page=26 |author=Delia Cortese, Simonetta Calderini}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Early Philosophical Shiism: The Ismaili Neoplatonism |author=Abū Yaʻqūb Al-Sijistānī |page=161}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite book |title=The Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresy |author=Yuri Stoyanov}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Classical Islam: A History, 600–1258 |page=113 |author=Gustave Edmund Von Grunebaum}}</ref> as their Mahdi, and rampaged across the Middle-East in the tenth century, climaxing their violent campaign by stealing the [[Black Stone]] from the [[Kaaba]] in [[Mecca]] in 930 under [[Abu Tahir al-Jannabi]]. Following the arrival of the Al-Isfahani, they changed their [[qibla]] from the [[Kaaba]] in [[Mecca]] to the Zoroastrian-influenced fire. After their return of the Black Stone in 951 and a defeat by the Abbasids in 976 the group slowly dwindled off and no longer has any adherents.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/islam/shia/qarma.html |title=Qarmatiyyah |access-date=2007-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428055134/http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/islam/shia/qarma.html |archive-date=28 April 2007 }}</ref>

===The Fatimid Caliphate===
{{Main|Fatimid Caliphate}}

====Rise of the Fatimid Caliphate====
{{Main|Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah}}

The political asceticism practiced by the Imāms during the period after Muhammad ibn Ismail was to be short-lived and finally concluded with the Imāmate of Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah, who was born in 873. After decades of Ismāʿīlīs believing that Muhammad ibn Ismail was in the Occultation and would return to bring an age of justice, al-Mahdi taught that the Imāms had not been literally secluded, but rather had remained hidden to protect themselves and had been organizing the Da'i, and even acted as Da'i themselves.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

After raising an army and successfully defeating the [[Aghlabids]] in North Africa and a number of other victories, al-Mahdi Billah successfully established a Shia political state ruled by the Imāmate in 910.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history05/history501.html |title=Muhammad Al-Mahdi (386–411/996–1021) |access-date=2008-12-17}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=May 2022}} This was the only time in history where the Shia Imamate and Caliphate were united after the first Imam, Ali ibn Abi Talib.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In parallel with the dynasty's claim of descent from ʻAlī and [[Fatimah|Fāṭimah]], the empire was named "Fatimid". However, this was not without controversy, and recognizing the extent that Ismāʿīlī doctrine had spread, the [[Abbasid Caliphate]] assigned [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] and [[Twelver]] scholars the task to disprove the lineage of the new dynasty. This became known as the [[Baghdad Manifesto]], which tries to trace the lineage of the Fatimids to an alleged [[Jews|Jewish]] [[blacksmith]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

====The Middle East under Fatimid rule====
[[Image:Fatimid Caliphate.PNG|thumb|The Fatimid Caliphate at its peak.]]
The Fatimid Caliphate expanded quickly under the subsequent Imams. Under the Fatimids, [[Egypt]] became the center of an [[empire]] that included at its peak [[North Africa]], [[Sicily]], [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], [[Syria]], the [[Red Sea]] coast of Africa, [[Yemen]], [[Hejaz]] and the [[Tihamah]]. Under the Fatimids, Egypt flourished and developed an extensive trade network in both the [[Mediterranean Sea]] and the [[Indian Ocean]], which eventually determined the economic course of Egypt during the [[High Middle Ages]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}
[[File:The beauty of Al-Azhar Mosque.jpg|thumb|[[Al-Azhar Mosque]] in Cairo was originally built as the official mosque of a new [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]] capital between 970 and 972 and became an educational institution that disseminated Isma'ili doctrine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Raymond |first=André |author-link=André Raymond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdLALt9AbQQC |title=Cairo |date= |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-674-00316-3 |pages=38, 44, 58 |language=en |translator-last=Wood |translator-first=Willard |orig-date=1993}}</ref><ref name=":4532">{{Cite book |last=Daftary |first=Farhad |title=The World of the Fatimids |publisher=Aga Khan Museum; The Institute of Ismaili Studies; Hirmer |year=2018 |isbn=978-1926473123 |editor-last=Melikian-Chirvani |editor-first=Assadullah Souren |location=Toronto; Munich |page=27 |chapter=The Fatimid Caliphs: Rise and Fall}}</ref>]]
The Fatimids promoted ideas that were radical for that time. One was a promotion by merit rather than genealogy.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Also during this period, the three contemporary branches of Isma'ilism formed. The first branch ([[Druze]]) occurred with the [[al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah]]. Born in 985, he ascended as ruler at the age of eleven. A religious group that began forming in his lifetime broke off from mainstream Ismailism and refused to acknowledge his successor. Later to be known as the Druze, they believe Al-Hakim to be the manifestation of God and the prophesied Mahdi, who would one day return and bring justice to the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://baheyeldin.com/history/al-hakim-bi-amr-allah-fatimid-caliph-of-egypt.html |title=al-Hakim bi Amr Allah: Fatimid Caliph of Egypt |access-date=2007-04-24}}</ref> The faith further split from Ismailism as it developed unique doctrines which often class it separately from both Ismailism and Islam.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

[[Arwa al-Sulayhi]] was the Hujjah in Yemen from the time of Imam al Mustansir. She appointed Da'i in Yemen to run religious affairs. Ismaili missionaries Ahmed and [[Abdullah (Ismaili Mustaali Missionary)|Abadullah]] (in about 1067 CE (460 AH))<ref>{{cite book |title=The Tribes and Castes of Bombay |volume=1 |first=R. E. |last=Enthoven |page=199 |year=1922 |isbn=81-206-0630-2 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FoT6gPrbTp8C&pg=PA199}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Engineer|first=Asghar Ali|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2duQAAAAMAAJ|title=The Bohras|date=1993|publisher=Vikas Publishing House|isbn=978-0-7069-6921-4|language=en}}</ref> were also sent to India in that time. They sent [[Syedi Nuruddin]] to Dongaon to look after southern part and [[Syedi Fakhruddin]] to East [[Rajasthan]], India.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blank |first=Jonah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_FExBRnC3YC |title=Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity Among the Daudi Bohras |date=2001 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-05676-0 |page=139 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Farhad Daftary|title=The Ismaʻilis: Their History and Doctrines|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kQGlyZAy134C|access-date=2023-07-06|page=299|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-42974-9|date=1992}}</ref>

The second split occurred following the death of [[al-Mustansir Billah]] in 1094 CE. His rule was the longest of any caliph in both the Fatimid and other Islamic empires. After he died, his sons [[Nizar (Fatimid Imam)|Nizar]], the older, and [[al-Musta'li]], the younger, fought for political and spiritual control of the dynasty. Nizar was defeated and jailed, but according to [[Nizari]] sources his son escaped to [[Alamut Castle|Alamut]], where the [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] Isma'ilis had accepted his claim.<ref name="DaftaryShort1998p106">{{cite book |last=Daftary |first=Farhad |title=A Short History of the Ismailis |year=1998 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh|isbn=0-7486-0687-4 |pages=106–108}}</ref>

The Musta'li line split again between the [[Taiyabi Ismaili|Taiyabi]] and the [[Hafizi]], the former claiming that the 21st Imam and son of [[al-Amir bi-Ahkami'l-Lah]] went into occultation and appointed a Da'i al-Mutlaq to guide the community, in a similar manner as the Isma'ili had lived after the death of Muhammad ibn Isma'il. The latter claimed that the ruling Fatimid caliph was the Imām.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

However, in the Mustaali branch, Dai came to have a similar but more important task. The term ''Da'i al-Mutlaq'' ({{langx|ar|الداعي المطلق|al-dāʿī al-muṭlaq}}) literally means "the absolute or unrestricted [[dawah|missionary]]". This da'i was the only source of the Imam's knowledge after the occultation of al-Qasim in Musta'li thought.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

According to [[Taiyabi Ismaili]] tradition, after the death of Imam al-Amir, his infant son, [[at-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim]], about 2 years old, was protected by the most important woman in Musta'li history after Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah. She was [[Arwa al-Sulayhi]], a queen in Yemen. She was promoted to the post of hujjah long before by Imām Mustansir at the death of her husband. She ran the da'wat from Yemen in the name of Imaam Tayyib. She was instructed and prepared by Imam Mustansir and ran the dawat from Yemen in the name of Imaam Tayyib, following Imams for the second period of Satr. It was going to be on her hands, that Imam Tayyib would go into seclusion, and she would institute the office of the Da'i al-Mutlaq. [[Zoeb bin Moosa]] was first to be instituted to this office. The office of da'i continued in Yemen up to 24th da'i [[Yusuf Najmuddin ibn Sulaiman|Yusuf]] who shifted da'wat to India. . Before the shift of da'wat in India, the da'i's representative were known as Wali-ul-Hind. [[Syedi Hasan Feer]] was one of the prominent Isma'ili wali of 14th century. The line of Tayyib Da'is that began in 1132 is still continuing under the main sect known as [[Dawoodi Bohra]] (see [[list of Dai of Dawoodi Bohra]]).{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

The Musta'li split several times over disputes regarding who was the rightful Da'i al-Mutlaq, the leader of the community within [[The Occultation]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

After the 27th Da'i, Syedna Dawood bin Qutub Shah, there was another split; the ones following Syedna Dawood came to be called Dawoodi Bohra, and followers of Suleman were then called Sulaimani. Dawoodi Bohra's present Da'i al Mutlaq, the 53rd, is Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, and he and his devout followers tread the same path, following the same tradition of the Aimmat Fatimiyyeen. The [[Sulaymani]] are mostly concentrated in Yemen and Saudi Arabia with some communities in the [[South Asia]]. The [[Dawoodi Bohra]] and [[Alavi Bohra]] are mostly exclusive to South Asia, after the migration of the da'wah from Yemen to India. Other groups include [[Atba-i-Malak]] and [[Hebtiahs Bohra]]. Mustaali beliefs and practices, unlike those of the Nizari and Druze, are regarded as compatible with mainstream Islam, representing a continuation of Fatimid tradition and [[fiqh]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

====Decline of the Caliphate====
In the 1040s, the [[Zirid dynasty]] (governors of the [[Maghreb]] under the Fatimids) declared their independence and their conversion to [[Sunni Islam]], which led to the devastating [[Banu Hilal]] invasions. After about 1070, the Fatimid hold on the [[Levant]] coast and parts of Syria was challenged by first [[Turkic peoples|Turkish]] invasions, then the [[First Crusade]], so that Fatimid territory shrunk until it consisted only of Egypt. Damascus fell to the [[Seljuk Empire]] in 1076, leaving the Fatimids only in charge of Egypt and the Levantine coast up to [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] and [[Sidon]]. Because of the vehement opposition to the Fatimids from the Seljuks, the Ismaili movement was only able to operate as a terrorist underground movement, much like the [[Order of Assassins|Assassins]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Saunder |first=J.J. |title=A History of Medieval Islam |year=1978 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-05914-3 |page=151}}</ref>

After the decay of the Fatimid political system in the 1160s, the [[Zengid dynasty|Zengid]] ruler [[Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo]] had his general, [[Saladin]], seize Egypt in 1169, forming the Sunni [[Ayyubid dynasty]]. This signaled the end of the Hafizi Mustaali branch of Ismailism as well as the Fatimid Caliphate.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

===Alamut===
{{Main|Nizari Ismaili state}}

====Hassan-i Sabbah====
{{Main|Hassan-i Sabbah|Alamut Castle}}
Very early in the empire's life, the Fatimids sought to spread the Isma'ili faith, which in turn would spread loyalty to the Imamate in Egypt. One of their earliest attempts was taken by a missionary by the name of [[Hassan-i Sabbah]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Hassan-i Sabbah was born into a [[Twelver]] family living in the scholarly Persian city of [[Qom]] in 1056 CE. His family later relocated to the city of Tehran, which was an area with an extremely active Isma'ili Da'wah. He immersed himself in Ismāʿīlī thought; however, he did not choose to convert until he was overcome with an almost fatal illness and feared dying without knowing the Imām of his time.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Afterward, Hassan-i Sabbah became one of the most influential Da'is in Isma'ili history; he became important to the survival of the Nizari branch of Ismailism, which today is its largest branch.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Legend holds that he met with Imam [[al-Mustansir Billah]] and asked him who his successor would be, to which he responded that it would be his eldest son [[Nizar (Fatimid Imam)]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Hassan-i Sabbah continued his missionary activities, which climaxed with his taking of the famous [[Alamut Castle|citadel of Alamut]]. Over the next two years, he converted most of the surrounding villages to Isma'ilism. Afterward, he converted most of the staff to Ismailism, took over the fortress, and presented Alamut's king with payment for his fortress, which he had no choice but to accept. The king reluctantly abdicated his throne, and Hassan-i Sabbah turned [[Alamut]] into an outpost of Fatimid rule within Abbasid territory.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

====The Hashasheen / Assassiyoon====
{{Main|Order of Assassins}}

Surrounded by the Abbasids and other hostile powers and low in numbers, Hassan-i Sabbah devised a way to attack the Isma'ili enemies with minimal losses. Using the method of assassination, he ordered the murders of Sunni scholars and politicians who he felt threatened the Isma'ilis. Knives and daggers were used to kill, and sometimes as a warning, a knife would be placed on the pillow of a Sunni, who understood the message to mean that he was marked for death.<ref name="Alamut">{{cite book |first=Anthony |last=Campbell |title=The Assassins of Alamut |year=2004 |page=84}}</ref> When an assassination was actually carried out, the Hashasheen would not be allowed to run away; instead, to strike further fear into the enemy, they would stand near the victim without showing any emotion and departed only when the body was discovered. This further increased the ruthless reputation of the Hashasheen throughout Sunni-controlled lands.<ref name="Alamut" />

The English word ''assassins'' is said to have been derived from the Arabic word ''Hasaseen'' meaning annihilators as mentioned in Quran 3:152 or [[Hashasheen]] meaning both "those who use hashish" and "throat slitters" in [[Egyptian Arabic]] dialect, and one of the Shia Ismaili sects in the Syria of the eleventh century.<ref name="cleiden">{{cite journal |last=Leiden |first=Carl |title=Assassination in the Middle East |journal=Transaction |date=May 1969 |volume=6 |issue=7 |pages=20–23 }}</ref>

====Threshold of the Imāmate====
{{Main|Nizar (Fatimid Imam)}}
[[Image:A28alamut.jpg|thumb|View of [[Alamut]] besieged.]]
After the imprisonment of Nizar by his younger brother Ahmad al Mustaali, various sources indicate that Nizar's son Ali Al-Hadi ibn Nizari survived and fled to Alamut. He was offered a safe place in Alamut, where Hassan-Al-Sabbah welcomed him. However, it is believed this was not announced to the public and the lineage was hidden until a few Imāms later to avoid further attacks hostility.<ref name="Alamut" />

It was announced with the advent of Imam Hassan II. In a show of his Imamate and to emphasize the interior meaning (the [[Batin (Islam)|batin]]) over the exterior meaning (the [[Zahir (Islam)|zahir]]), only two years after his accession, the Imām Hasan 'Ala Zikrihi al-Salam conducted a ceremony known as ''qiyama'' (resurrection) at the grounds of the [[Alamut Castle]], whereby the Imam would once again become visible to his community of followers in and outside of the [[Nizārī Ismā'īlī state]]. Given [[Ata al-Mulk Juvayni|Juwayni]]'s polemical aims, and the fact that he burned the Isma'ili libraries which may have offered much more reliable testimony about the history, scholars have been dubious about his narrative but are forced to rely on it given the absence of alternative sources. Fortunately, descriptions of this event are also preserved in [[Rashid-al-Din Hamadani|Rashid al-Din]]'s narrative and recounted in the Haft Bab Baba-yi Sayyidna, written 60 years after the event, and the later Haft Bab-i Abi Ishaq, an Ismaili book of the 15th century AD. However, Rashid al-Din's narrative is based on [[Ata al-Mulk Juvayni|Juwayni]],<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Daftary|first=Farhad|title=Nizārī Ismāʿīlī history during the Alamūt period|work=The Ismā῾īlīs|year=2007|pages=301–402|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511497551.009|isbn=978-0-511-49755-1}}</ref> and the Nizari sources do not go into specific details. Since very few contemporary Nizari Ismaili accounts of the events have survived, and it is likely that scholars will never know the exact details of this event. However, there was no total abrogation of all law; only certain exoteric rituals like the Salah/Namaz, Fasting in Ramadan, Hajj to Makkah, and facing Makkah in prayer were abrogated; however, the Nizaris continued to perform rituals of worship, except these rituals were more esoteric and spiritually oriented. For example, the true prayer is to remember God at every moment; true fasting is to keep all of the body's organs away from whatever is unethical and forbidden. Ethical conduct is enjoined at all times.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Afterward, his descendants ruled as the Imams at Alamut until its destruction by the Mongols.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

====Destruction by the Mongols====
{{Main|Mongol campaign against the Nizaris}}
Through the 12th century, the Isma'ili continued to successfully ward off Sunni attempts to take Alamut, including by [[Saladin]]. The stronghold 
eventually met its destruction at the hands of the Khans in 1256. [[Hulagu Khan]], a grandson of [[Genghis Khan]] led the devastating attack personally. As he would later do to the [[House of Wisdom]] in Baghdad, Hulagu destroyed Isma'ili as well as Islamic sacred and religious texts. The Imamate that was located in Alamut along with its few followers were forced to flee and take refuge elsewhere.

===Aftermath===
After the fall of the Fatimid Caliphate and its bases in Iran and Syria, the three currently living branches of Isma'ili generally developed geographically isolated from each other, with the exception of [[Syria]] (which has both Druze and Nizari) and [[Pakistan]] and the rest of South Asia (which had both Mustaali and Nizari).{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

The [[Musta'li]] progressed mainly under the Isma'ili-adhering Yemeni ruling class well into the 12th century, until the fall of the last [[Sulayhid dynasty]], [[Hamdanids (Yemen)]] and [[Zurayids]] [[rump state]] in 1197 AD, then they shifted their da'wat to India under the Da'i al-Mutlaq, working on behalf of their last Imam, Taiyyab, and are known as Bohra. From India, various groups spread mainly to south Asia and eventually to the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and America.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

The [[Nizari]] have maintained large populations in [[Syria]], [[Uzbekistan]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Pakistan]], [[India]], and they have smaller populations in [[China]] and [[Iran]]. This community is the only one with a living Imam, whose title is the [[Aga Khan]]. [[Badakhshan]], which includes parts of northeastern [[Afghanistan]] and southeastern [[Tajikistan]], is the only part of the world where Ismailis make up the majority of the population.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.30-days.net/muslims/muslims-in/asia-south-central/badakshan-ismaili/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303042803/http://www.30-days.net/muslims/muslims-in/asia-south-central/badakshan-ismaili/|title=Ismaili Muslims in the remote Pamir mountains|archive-date=3 March 2011}}</ref> This is due to Isma'ili scholar [[Nasir Khusraw]], who spent as a hermit the last decades of his life in Badakhshan, gathering a considerable number of devoted adherents, who have handed down his doctrines to succeeding generations.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Nāsir Khosrau |volume=19 |page=248 |first=Karl Hermann |last=Ethé |inline=1}}</ref>

The [[Druze]] mainly settled in Syria and [[Lebanon]] and developed a community based upon the principles of [[reincarnation]] through their own descendants. Their leadership is based on community scholars, who are the only individuals allowed to read their holy texts. There is controversy over whether this group falls under the classification of Isma'ilism or Islam because of its unique beliefs.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

The [[Tajiks in China|Tajiks of Xinjiang]], being Isma'ili, were not subjected to being [[slavery in China|enslaved in China]] by Sunni Muslim Turkic peoples because the two peoples did not share a common geographical region.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA20 |title=Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia |author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann |year=2007 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd |isbn=978-0-7546-7041-4 |page=20 |access-date=2010-07-30}}</ref> The [[Burusho people]] of [[Pakistan]] are also Nizaris. However, due to their isolation from the rest of the world, Islam reached the Hunza about 350 years ago. Ismailism has been practiced by the Hunza for the last 300 years. The Hunza have been ruled by the same family of kings for over 900 years. They were called Kanjuts. Sunni Islam never took root in this part of central Asia so even now, there are less than a few dozen Sunnis living among the Hunza.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JxwPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA56 |title=Report of a mission to Yarkund in 1873, under command of Sir T. D. Forsyth: with historical and geographical information regarding the possessions of the ameer of Yarkund |author=[[Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth]] |year=1875 |publisher=Printed at the Foreign department press |page=56 |access-date=2011-01-23}}</ref>

===Ismaili historiography===
One of the most important texts in Ismaili historiography is the ''ʿUyun al-Akhbar'', which is a reference source on the history of Ismailism that was composed in 7 books by the Tayyibi Mustaʻlian Ismaili ''daʻi''-scholar, [[Idris Imad al-Din]] (born ca. 1392). This text presents the most comprehensive history of the Ismaili Imams and ''daʻwa'', from the earliest period of Muslim history until the late Fatimid era. The author, Idris Imad al-Din, descended from the prominent al-Walid family of the Quraysh in Yemen, who led the Tayyibi Mustaʻlian Ismaili ''daʻwa'' for more than three centuries. This gave him access to the literary heritage of the Ismailis, including the majority of the extant Fatimid manuscripts transferred to Yemen. The ''ʻUyun al-Akhbar'' is being published in 7 volumes of annotated Arabic critical editions as part of an institutional collaboration between the Institut Français du Proche Orient (IFPO) in Damascus and The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) in London. This voluminous text has been critically edited based on several old manuscripts from The Institute of Ismaili Studies' vast collection. These academic editions have been prepared by a team of Syrian and Egyptian scholars, including Dr Ayman F&shy; Sayyid, and this major publication project has been coordinated by Dr [[Nader El-Bizri]] (IIS) and Dr Sarab Atassi-Khattab (IFPO).<ref name="The Institute of Ismaili Studies publications news">{{cite web |url=http://iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=111168 |title=The Institute of Ismaili Studies publications news |access-date=2010-09-09 |archive-date=10 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101010111504/http://iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=111168 }}</ref>