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Ismailism: Traditions and the Present Day
Saidanwar SHOKHUMOROV
Saidanwar Shokhumorov, Learned Secretary, Institute of Oriental Studies and Written Sources, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan
Ismailism is one of the largest trends in Islam today with over 20 million followers scattered all over the world and concentrated in larger numbers in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Kenya, the Persian Gulf countries, Iran, the Lebanon, Syria, the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, France, and other countries. One of largest Ismailite communities is found in Tajikistan, in Gorny Badakhshan.
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Ismailism appeared in the eighth century when Caliph Ali and his supporters, together with Fatima, daughter of the Prophet, and followers of Imam Ismail spoke against the violation of the principle of inheritance of the Imamat. Ismail died before his father Imam Jafar al-Sadiq. Upon the latter’s death his younger brother Qasim, rather than his son Muhammad, was recognized an Imam.
The movement which started as a group of support soon developed into a powerful religious, political, social and philosophical trend. It influenced Islam and contributed to the traditions of free thinking in it. In its turn it gave rise to new trends, philosophies, and political movements.
Late in the tenth century the Ismailites spread into the Near East and Andalusia in Spain. They captured political power in Maghreb and set up a powerful state, the Fatimid Caliphate with the capital in Cairo which was destined to remain on map for 200 years.
In the tenth and eleventh centuries Ismailism came to the Middle East and Central Asia as a religion and philosophy which offered new explanations to many key questions of being and spirit. It differed from other Islamic trends. This attracted the most educated groups, prominent thinkers and state figures who little by little developed a system of rationalist ideas, sophisticated religious philosophy, dogmas, rites, etc.
Still, throughout its history Ismailism concentrated on the question of Imamat, total obedience to the Imam as the source of religious and philosophical knowledge.
This proposition caused repeated splits among the Ismailites, the largest of them occurred when al-Mustansir billah (1039-1094) died. He was the most powerful ruler of Egypt and Caliph and Ismailitic Imam from the Fatimid dynasty. His sons Nizar and Mustali fought over succession. Old Nizar lost and had to flee the country. Mustali took over the country and the post yet many of his Ismailite subjects refused to recognize him over the head of Nizar. The fight between the brothers’ supporters grew bitter; the Nizarites lost once more, had to leave the Fatimid state and found Imamates of their own. In Iran, in particular, Nizar supporters headed by an Ismailitic preacher Hasan Sabbah founded a small Ismailitic state with the capital in Alamut.
These squabbles damaged the Ismailitic cause and toppled down the Fatimid State. In 1130, Mustali’s descendants lost power in fratricidal fight. Part of their supporters fled to Yemen where large influential Mustali communities had been in existence. There a new spiritual Mustali center was established.
As soon as the Imamat was moved to Iran the Ismailitic community there became Nizaritic—in this way the Iranian factor came to the fore. There a vast and varied religious and philosophical literature appeared on all apsects of the Ismailitic teaching and dogmas.
The Iranian period can be divided into the Alamut (1090-1256) and post-Alamut stretch which extended well into the mid-nineteenth century. The Alamut period coincided with increasing feudal disintegration in Iran which allowed the Ismailitic Nizarites to successfully fight for an independent Ismalitic state. The Alamut state united independent possessions and fortresses scattered across Iran. There were also smaller independent Ismailitic states between Syria and Badakhshan.
The Nizarites of Iran actively contributed to the struggle against the Mongols. It was only in the 1250s that the latter overcame the Ismailitic resistance and destroyed their fortresses. The conquerors set the task of exterminating Ismailites and uprooting their centuries-old culture. A rich Alamut library of precious manuscripts on Ismailitic philosophy and theology was plundered and burned down.
The post-Alamut period which covered the second half of the thirteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries abounded in dramatic events and difficult situations. The Ismailitic community was split, the ties between the Imam and his followers became lax with the principle of Takia (prudential concealment of faith) gaining prominence.
Following the death of Imam Rukniddin Hurshah in 1257 the Nizaritic imams fearful of Mongols had to live in secrecy, their homes being known only to the chosen few. The ties with the Ismailitic communities, especially in far-away places were severed. The Nizaritic Ismailites of Badakhshan, India, Afghanistan, Syria and other places knew nothing about where their imams lived throughout the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. An absence of a single ideological center caused ideological dissent inside the community. New trends appeared and early in the fourteenth century the Nizarites split into Muminshahs and Kasimshahs.
In 1501, the Safavides came to power in Iran. The country was reunited and the Ismailitic movement began to revive. Under Shah Tahmasp I Ismailitic Imam Abuzar Ali (1496-1509) married the shah’s sister thus establishing close contacts with the court.
Later the Nizaritic imams restored the center in Anjidan, then moved it to Mahallat (at the city of Qum). They managed to restore the ties with the Nizaritic communities of India, Badakhshan, Afghanistan, Syria, and elsewhere. Under the Zands (1760-1794) and Qajars (1794-1925) the imams were active on the Iranian political scene. Imam Shah Halilullah (1780-1817) was rather friendly with………………………
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