Editing Ismailism (section)

====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}}