Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations and maps
- Foreword by Wilfred Madelung
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Note on the text and abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: progress in the study of the Ismāʿīlīs
- 2 Origins and early development of Shīʿism
- 3 Early Ismāʿīlism
- 4 The Fāṭimid period until 487/1094: dawla and daʿwa
- 5 The later Fāṭimids and Mustaʿlian Ismāʿīlism
- 6 Nizārī Ismāʿīlī history during the Alamūt period
- 7 The post-Alamūt centuries and modern developments in Nizārī Ismāʿīlī history
- Genealogical tables and lists
- Glossary
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
1 - Introduction: progress in the study of the Ismāʿīlīs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations and maps
- Foreword by Wilfred Madelung
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Note on the text and abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: progress in the study of the Ismāʿīlīs
- 2 Origins and early development of Shīʿism
- 3 Early Ismāʿīlism
- 4 The Fāṭimid period until 487/1094: dawla and daʿwa
- 5 The later Fāṭimids and Mustaʿlian Ismāʿīlism
- 6 Nizārī Ismāʿīlī history during the Alamūt period
- 7 The post-Alamūt centuries and modern developments in Nizārī Ismāʿīlī history
- Genealogical tables and lists
- Glossary
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
A major Shīʿī Muslim community, the Ismāʿīlīs have had a long and eventful history dating back to the formative period of Islam, when different communities of interpretation were developing their doctrinal positions. The varying viewpoints of the then nascent Muslim community (umma) on certain central theological issues and the question of leadership after the Prophet Muḥammad were eventually elaborated in terms of what became known as the Sunnī and Shīʿī interpretations of the Islamic message. The Shīʿa themselves, upholding a particular conception of leadership and religious authority in the community, were further subdivided into a number of communities and smaller groups or sects. This was not only because they disagreed over who was to be their rightful spiritual leader or imam from amongst the Prophet's family, the ahl al-bayt, but also because divergent trends of thought and policy were involved.
By the time of the ʿAbbāsid revolution in 132/750, Imāmī Shīʿism, the common heritage of the major Shīʿī communities of the Ithnāʿashariyya (or Twelvers) and the Ismāʿīliyya, had acquired a special prominence under the leadership of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, their ʿAlid imam. The Imāmī Shīʿīs, who like other Shīʿī groups upheld the rights of the ahl al-bayt to the leadership of the Muslims, propounded a particular conception of divinely instituted religious authority, also recognizing certain descendants of the Prophet's family from amongst the ʿAlids, the progeny of the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, as their imams possessing the required religious authority.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Isma'ilisTheir History and Doctrines, pp. 1 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007