Ismaili
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The Ismā'īlī (Arabic: الإسماعيليون; Persian: اسماعیلیان Esma'iliyan) branch of Islam is the second largest Shīˤa community after the Ithna 'ashariyah, who are dominant in Iran. Though there are several sub-groupings within the Ismailis, the term in today's vernacular generally refers to the Nizar Ismailis, who are followers of the Aga Khan, and are the only Shi'a community with a continuing line of Imamat. Note that the concept of Imamat in the Shi'a sense, differs greatly with the Sunni understanding.
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Location
The Ismā'īlī are found primarily in the South Asia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and East Africa, but have in recent years emigrated to Europe and North America. The Ismā'īliyya and the Twelvers both accept the same initial Imams from the descendants of Muħammad through his daughter Fātima az-Zahra and therefore share much of their early history. However, a dispute arose on the succession of the Sixth Imam, Jaˤfar as-Sadiq. The Ismā'īlī became those who accepted Jaˤfar's eldest son Ismā'īl as the next Imam, whereas the Twelvers accepted a younger son, Mūsā l-Kāzim.
A branch of the Ismā'īlī known as the Sabaˤiyyīn "Seveners" hold that Ismā'īl's son, Muħammad, was the seventh Imām and, after Muħammad ibn Ismā'īl, the spiritual authority of Imāms continues until the present day. A small Sevener community remains in parts of Saudi Arabia.
In the face of persecution, the bulk of the Ismā'īlī continued to recognize Imāms who secretly propagated their faith through Dāˤiyyūn "Callers to Islām" from their bases in Syria. However, by the 10th century, an Ismā'īlī Imām, ˤUbaydu l-Lāhu l-Mahdī Billa, correctly known as ˤAbdullāhu l-Mahdi, had emigrated to North Africa and successfully established the new Fatimid state in Tunisia. His successors subsequently succeeded in conquering much of North Africa (including highly-prized Egypt) and parts of Arabia.
The capital for the Fatimid state hence shifted to the newly founded city of Cairo, from which the Fatimid Caliph-Imāms ruled for several generations.
A group of followers of the 16th Imam, Ħakīm bi-ˤAmr-Allāh, broke away from the mainstream Ismā'īlī to form the Druze religion.
A more fundamental split amongst the Ismā'īlī occurred on the dispute of which son should succeed the 18th Imam, Mustansir. Aħmadu l-Mustaˤlī, his younger son, was installed as Imam in Cairo with the help of Vizier Badr al-Jamali. However, Imam Mustansir's elder son, Nizar, contested this claim and was imprisoned; he gained support from an Ismā'īlī dāˤī based in Iran, Hassan as-Sabba. As-Sabba is noted by Western writers to be the leader of the legendary "Assassins" (see Nizarī).
The Fatimid state eventually collapsed after Imām al-Mustaˤlī's successor Amīr was assassinated, but Imām al-Mustaˤlī held that Amīr had left a son named Tāyyib who had gone into seclusion and that the imamate continued in his progeny during this time. They also regarded a succeeding chain of Yemeni Dāˤiyyūn as representatives of the Imām.
In time, the seat for one chain of Dāˤiyyūn was transferred to South Asia as the community split several times, each recognizing a different Dāˤī. Today, the Dawoodi Bohras, which constitute the majority of the "Mustaˤliyya" Ismā'īliyya accept Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin as the 52nd Dāˤī. The Dawoodi Bohras are based in India. While lesser known and smallest in number, Alavi Bohras accept as the 44th Dāˤī al-Mutlaq, H.H. Saiyedna Abu Haatim Taiyeb Ziyauddin Saheb.
There has been, in recent years, a rapprochement between the Yemeni Mustaˤliyya and the followers of the Dāˤiyyūn based out of Mumbai. The Bohra are noted to be the more traditional of the two main groups of Ismā'īlī, maintaining rituals such as prayer and fasting more consistently with the practices of other Shīˤa sects, although a reformist movement led by Asghar Ali Engineer (Progressive Dawoodi Bohras) has emerged within the sect, challenging the authoritarian Dawoodi Bohra clergy in India.
The largest part of the Nizari Ismā'īlī community today accepts Prince Karim Aga Khan IV as their 49th Imam. The 46th Imam, Aga Hassan Ali Shah, fled Iran to South Asia in the 1840s after a failed coup against the Shah of the Qajar dynasty. Aga Hassan Ali Shah settled in Mumbai in 1848. The "Aga Khan" was recognized as the legitimate Imam over Shīˤa Ismā'īlī Muslims in Mumbai through a legal case at the Bombay high Court in 1866. The Judge in this case, Sir Joseph Arnold, ruled that the Khoja Muslim community was Ismā'īlī (and not Sunni), that the "Aga Khan" was its leader, he was due the traditional tithes of the community and that community property belonged to his Imamate.
The Aga Khans have been in contact with various Nizarī Ismā'īlī communities around the world and have accepted them as their "Hazar Imām" or "Present Imām". Deputations came to Mumbai to receive the Imām's guidance from as far afield as Kashgar in China, Bokhara in Central Asia, and all parts of Iran and the Middle East.
Sub-sects
The Shia Ismaili are divided into two major sects:
- Qarmatians sect still exist in parts of Syria, Iraq etc
Mustaˤliyya groups: Dawoodi Bohras, Alavi Bohras and Sulaimani Bohra
- See main articles at Dawoodi Bohras, Alavi Bohras, Sulaimani Bohra.
Druze
- See main primary article at Druze.
History of the Nizarī Ismā'īlī community in the 20th century
Under the leadership of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, the first half of the twentieth century was a period of significant development for the Ismā'īlī community. Numerous institutions for social and economic development were established on the South Asia and in East Africa. Ismailis have marked the Jubilees of their Imāms with public celebrations, which are symbolic affirmations of the ties that link the Ismā'īlī Imām and his followers. Although the Jubilees have no real religious significance, they serve to reaffirm the Imamat's world-wide commitment to the improvement of the quality of human life, especially in the developing countries.
The Jubilees of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, are well remembered. During his 72 years of Imamat (1885-1957), the community celebrated his Golden (1937), Diamond (1946) and Platinum (1954) Jubilees. To show their appreciation and affection, the Ismā'īliyya weighed their Imam in gold, diamonds and, symbolically, in platinum, respectively, the proceeds of which were used to further develop major social welfare and development institutions in Asia and Africa.
In India and Pakistan, social development institutions were established, in the words of the late Aga Khan, "for the relief of humanity". They included institutions such as the Diamond Jubilee Trust and the Platinum Jubilee Investments Limited which in turn assisted the growth of various types of cooperative societies. Diamond Jubilee Schools for girls were established throughout the remote Northern Areas of what is now Pakistan. In addition, scholarship programmes, established at the time of the Golden Jubilee to give assistance to needy students, were progressively expanded. In East Africa, major social welfare and economic development institutions were established. Those involved in social welfare included the accelerated development of schools and community centres, and a modern, fully-equipped hospital in Nairobi. Among the economic development institutions established in East Africa were companies such as the Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust (now Diamond Trust of Kenya) and the Jubilee Insurance Company, which are quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and have become major players in national development.
Sir Sultan Mohammad Shah also introduced organisational forms that gave Ismā'īlī communities the means to structure and regulate their own affairs. These were built on the Muslim tradition of a communitarian ethic on the one hand, and responsible individual conscience with freedom to negotiate one's own moral commitment and destiny on the other. In 1905 he ordained the first Ismaili Constitution for the social governance of the community in East Africa. The new administration for the Community's affairs was organised into a hierarchy of councils at the local, national, and regional levels. The constitution also set out rules in such matters as marriage, divorce and inheritance, guidelines for mutual cooperation and support among Ismailis, and their interface with other communities. Similar constitutions were promulgated in the South Asia, and all were periodically revised to address emerging needs and circumstances in diverse settings.
Following the Second World War, far-reaching social, economic and political changes profoundly affected a number of areas where Ismā'īliyyūn resided. In 1947, British rule in the South Asia was replaced by the two sovereign, independent nations of India and Pakistan, resulting in the migration of at least a million people and significant loss of life and property. In the Middle East, the Suez crisis of 1956 as well as the preceding crisis in Iran, demonstrated the sharp upsurge of nationalism, which was as assertive of the region's social and economic aspirations as of its political independence. Africa was also set on its course to decolonisation, swept by what Mr. Harold MacMillan, the then British Prime Minister, aptly termed the "wind of change". By the early 1960s, most of East and Central Africa, where the majority of the Ismā'īlī population on the continent resided (including Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Malagasy, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire), had attained their political independence.
This was the world in which the present Aga Khan acceded to the Imāmat in 1957. The period following his accession can be characterised as one of rapid political and economic change. Planning of programmes and institutions became increasingly difficult due to the rapid changes in newly-emerging nations. Upon becoming Imām, the present Aga Khan's immediate concern was the preparation of his followers, wherever they lived, for the changes that lay ahead. This rapidly evolving situation called for bold initiatives and new programmes to reflect developing national aspirations.
In Africa, Asia and the Middle East, a major objective of the Community's social welfare and economic programmes, until the mid-fifties, had been to create a broad base of businessmen, agriculturists, and professionals. The educational facilities of the Community tended to emphasise secondary-level education. With the coming of independence, each nation's economic aspirations took on new dimensions, focusing on industrialisation and modernisation of agriculture. The Community's educational priorities had to be reassessed in the context of new national goals, and new institutions had to be created to respond to the growing complexity of the development process.
In 1972, under the regime of the then President Idi Amin, Ismā'īliyyūn and other Asians were expelled despite being citizens of the country and having lived there for generations. The Aga Khan had to take urgent steps to facilitate the resettlement of Ismā'īliyyūn displaced from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and also from Burma. Owing to his personal efforts most found homes, not only in Asia, but also in Europe and North America. Most of the basic resettlement problems were overcome remarkably rapidly. This was due to the adaptability of the Ismailis themselves and in particular to their educational background and their linguistic abilities, as well as the efforts of the host countries and the moral and material support from Ismā'īlī community programmes.
Spiritual allegiance to the Imām and adherence to the Shīˤa Imāmī Ismā'īlī tariqat (persuasion) of Islām according to the guidance of the Imām of the time, have engendered in the Ismaili community an ethos of self-reliance, unity, and a common identity. The present Aga Khan continued the practice of his predecessor and extended constitutions to Ismā'īlī communities in the US, Canada, several European countries, the Gulf, Syria and Iran following a process of consultation within each constituency. In 1986, he promulgated a Constitution that, for the first time, brought the social governance of the world-wide Ismā'īlī community into a single structure with built-in flexibility to account for diverse circumstances of different regions. Served by volunteers appointed by and accountable to the Imam, the Constitution functions as an enabler to harness the best in individual creativity in an ethos of group responsibility to promote the common well-being.
The Nizarī Ismā'īlī community today
Like its predecessors, the present constitution is founded on each Ismā'īlī's spiritual allegiance to the Imam of the time, which is separate from the secular allegiance that all Ismā'īliyyūn owe as citizens to their national entities. The guidance of the present Imam and his predecessor emphasised the Ismā'īliyya's allegiance to his or her country as a fundamental obligation. These obligations discharged not by passive affirmation but through responsible engagement and active commitment to uphold national integrity and contribute to peaceful development.
In view of the importance that Islām places on maintaining a balance between the spiritual well-being of the individual and the quality of his life, the Imām's guidance deals with both aspects of the life of his followers. The Aga Khan has encouraged Ismaili Muslims, settled in the industrialised world, to contribute towards the progress of communities in the developing world through various development programmes. In recent years, Ismā'īlī Muslims, who have come to the US, Canada and Europe, mostly as refugees from Asia and Africa, have readily settled into the social, educational and economic fabric of urban and rural centres across the two continents. As in the developing world, the Ismā'īlī Muslim Community's settlement in the industrial world has involved the establishment of community institutions characterised by an ethos of self-reliance, an emphasis on education, and a pervasive spirit of philanthropy.
From July 1982 to July 1983, to celebrate the present Aga Khan's Silver Jubilee, marking the 25th anniversary of his accession to the Imāmat, many new social and economic development projects were launched, although there were no weighing ceremonies. These range from the establishment of the US$300 million international Aga Khan University with its Faculty of Health Sciences and teaching hospital based in Karachi, the expansion of schools for girls and medical centres in the Hunza region, one of the remote parts of Northern Pakistan bordering on China and Afghanistan, to the establishment of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Gujarat, India, and the extension of existing urban hospitals and primary health care centres in Tanzania and Kenya.
These initiatives form part of an international network of institutions involved in fields that range from education, health and rural development, to architecture and the promotion of private sector enterprise and together make up the Aga Khan Development Network.
It is this commitment to man's dignity and relief of humanity that inspires the Ismaili Imamat's philanthropic institutions. Giving of one's competence, sharing one's time, material or intellectual wherewithal with those among whom one lives, for the relief of hardship, pain or ignorance is a deeply ingrained tradition which shapes the social conscience of the Ismā'īlī Muslim community.
The "Hashishin" issue
Since the 12th century fantastical tales of the Assassins, their mysterious leader and their remote mountain strongholds in Syria and northern Iran have captured the European imagination. These legends first emerged when European Crusaders in the Levant came into contact with the Syrian branch of the Nizari Ismā'īliyyūn, who at the behest of their leader were sent on dangerous missions to kill their enemies. Elaborated over the years, the legends culminated in Marco Polo’s account according to which the Nizari leader, described as the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’, was said to have controlled the behaviour of his devotees through the use of hashish and a secret garden of paradise. So influential were these tales that the word ‘assassin’ entered European languages as a common noun for murderer, and the Nizari Ismā'īliyya were depicted not only in popular mythology but also in Western scholarship as a sinister order of "assassins".
In recent decades new scholarship on the history of the Ismā'īliyyūn has established the extent to which older Western accounts have confused fact and fantasy. In view of the very different picture of Ismaili history that has now emerged, Farhad Daftary’s book considers the origins of the mediaeval Assassin legends and explores the historical context in which they were fabricated and transmitted. How did they persist for so long, and in what form did they come to exert such a profound influence on European scholarship? Daftary’s fascinating account ultimately reveals the extent to which the emergence of such legends was symptomatic of both the complex political and cultural structures of the mediaeval Muslim world and of Europeans’ ignorance of that world. The book will be of great interest to all those concerned with Ismā'īlī studies, the history of Islām and the Middle East, as well as the mediaeval history of Europe. Also included as an appendix is the first English translation of the French orientalist Silvestre de Sacy’s famous early 19th century “Memoir on the Assassins and the Etymology of their Name”.
See also
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Al-Hasan+ibn+al-Sabah
External links
- Graphical illustration of the sects of Shi'a Islam
- History of Imams from the Nizarī point of view.
- Institute of Ismaili Studies
- Dawoodi Bohras
- Aga Khan Development Network
- First Ismaili Electronic Library and Database
- Alavi Bohra: The Smallest Sect of Ismā'īlī Mustaˤlī Faith
- Ismā'īlī Connect: Ismā'īlī Information / Discussion / Community Site
References
- The Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines; Farhad Daftary; Cambridge University Press, 1990
- A Short History of the Ismailis: Traditions of a Muslim Community; Farhad Daftary; Edinburgh University Press, 1998ar:إسماعيلية (طائفة)
de:Ismailiten (Schia) et:Ismailiidid es:Ismailismo eo:Sepimamismo fa:اسماعیلیان در ایران fr:Ismaélisme it:Ismailismo he:איסמאעיליה nl:Isma'ilisme ja:イスマーイール派 no:Ismailitter pl:Isma'ilizm fi:Ismailiitit