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
4 - The Fāṭimid period until 487/1094: dawla and daʿwa
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
This chapter will present a survey of Ismāʿīlī history during what is known as the classical Fāṭimid period, from the establishment of the Fāṭimid state in Ifrīqiya in 297/909 until the death of the eighth Fāṭimid caliph-imam al-Mustanṣir in 487/1094. This period is often referred to as the ‘golden age’ of Ismāʿīlism, when the Ismāʿīlīs achieved a prosperous state of their own and Ismāʿīlī literature and intellectual activities reached an apogee.
The foundation of the Fāṭimid caliphate in 297/909 marked the crowning success of the early Ismāʿīlīs. The religio-political daʿwa of the Ismāʿīliyya had finally led to the establishment of a state or dawla headed by the Ismāʿīlī imam. This represented not only a great success for the Ismāʿīlīs, but for the entire Shīʿa as well. Since the days of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, this was the first time that an ʿAlid imam from the ahl al-bayt had succeeded to the leadership of a major Muslim state. By acquiring political power, and then transforming the nascent Fāṭimid dawla into a vast empire, the Ismāʿīlī imam had at the same time presented his Shīʿī challenge to ʿAbbāsid hegemony and Sunnī interpretations of Islam. Henceforth, the Ismāʿīlī Fāṭimid caliph-imam could readily and openly act as the spiritual spokesman of Shīʿī Islam in general, much in the same way that the ʿAbbāsid caliph was the mouthpiece of Sunnī Islam.
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- Information
- The Isma'ilisTheir History and Doctrines, pp. 137 - 237Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007