Beyond the Mosque by Rizwan Mawani

Author:Rizwan Mawani [Mawani, Rizwan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786726568
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

The Ismailis and the Jamatkhana

The Ismailis form the world’s second largest Shi‘i community. They came to prominence in the early 10th century, when al-Mahdi (909–934) proclaimed himself the first Fatimid Imam-caliph. The Fatimids (909–1171) ruled across North Africa and the southern Mediterranean, founding Cairo as their new capital. Theirs was the longest sustained Shi‘i empire, accepting of other faiths, and where intellectual and cultural endeavours flourished.

As Fatimid rule began to decline, a succession dispute led to a schism among the Ismailis. As a result, the Ismailis split into two branches which became known as the Musta‘lis and the Nizaris. The Musta‘lis continued to rule the Fatimid state but later established their strongholds in Yemen and the Indian subcontinent, where proselytizing activities have kept the community alive until today. The Nizari Ismailis, on the other hand, found their most committed supporters in Iran and Syria, where they established a state and a network of mountain fortresses centred at Alamut. They are the only Imami Shia community who claim to maintain a continuous line of living hereditary Imams since the demise of the Prophet.

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