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ABSTRACT
The pre-Fāṭimid or early period in Ismāʿīlī history is one of the most obscure major phases in the entire history of Ismāʿīlism. This is mainly because we do not have any reliable sources written by the Ismāʿīlīs of that period, and our knowledge of that phase is primarily based on non- Ismāʿīlī sources. As a result, many aspects of early Ismāʿīlism have continue to be shrouded in mystery, causing differences of opinion among the scholars in the field. Using a wide range of sources, including new ones, Samuel Stern was perhaps the earliest modern scholar who correctly identified the nature of early Ismāʿīlism and its evolution from the middle of the second/eight century to the foundation of the Fāṭimid caliphate in North Africa in 297/909. This article focuses on Stern's original views on the opening phase of Ismāʿīlism as well as the circumstances leading to the division of the early Ismāʿīlis into the loyal Ismāʿīlīs and the dissident Qarmaṭīs. Stern also shed light on the cosmological doctrine propounded by the early Ismāʿīlīs.
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Notes
1 See Latham and Mitchell, “The Bibliography of S.M. Stern.”
2 Stern, Studies in Early Ismā‘īlism.
3 [These two dates, and other dates mentioned in this article, represent respectively the Islamic and Christian/Common Era calendars.]
4 See Ivanow, Ismaili Literature; Poonawala, Biobibliography of Ismā‘īlī Literature, 31ff.
5 Jaʿfar b. Manṣūr al-Yaman, Kitāb al-kashf.
6 ‘Imād al-Dīn, ‘Uyūn al-akhbār wa-funūn al-āthār.
7 al-Nawbakhtī, Kitāb firaq al-Shī‘a, 57–61; al-Qummī, Kitāb al-maqālāt wa’l-firaq, 80–81, 83. See also Madelung, “Some Remarks.”
8 See Stern, “The Account of the Ismā‘īlīs.”
9 See Daftary, “Sunni Perceptions of the Ismailis.”
10 A.I. Silvestre de Sacy maintained a lifelong interest in the Druze religion and as background material he collected much information on the early Ismā‘īlīs, to which he devoted a long introduction in his magnum opus; see his Exposé de la religion des Druzes, introduction, especially 64–164, where he also discusses the seven stages of initiation as alleged in the Kitāb al-siyāsa, based on Akhū Muḥsin’s polemical work, and as preserved by al-Nuwayrī. For the full Arabic text of this anti-Ismā‘īlī travesty, now see al-Nuwayrī, Nihāyat al-arab, 187–317.
11 Ivanow, The Alleged Founder of Ismailism.
12 The Arabic text of the forged Kitāb al-siyāsa, together with its English translation, was partially reconstructed by S.M. Stern, on the basis of fragments preserved by the heresiographer al-Baghdādī (d. 429/1037) as well as al-Nuwayrī, amongst others; see Stern, “The ‘Book of the Highest Initiation’.”
13 See de Goeje, Mémoire sur les Carmathes; de Goeje, “La fin de l’empire des Carmathes.”
14 Massignon, “Esquisse d’une bibliographie Qarmaṭe.”
15 See Daftary, “Waldimir Ivanow and Modern Ismaili Studies”; Daftary, “Modern Ismaili Studies and W. Ivanow’s Contributions.”
16 Lewis, The Origins of Ismā‘īlism, especially 76–89.
17 See especially Ivanow, Ismaili Tradition, 27–156.
18 See Ivanow, “Ismailis and Qarmatians.”
19 Stern, “Ismā‘īlīs and Qarmaṭians.”
20 S.M. Stern, “Heterodox Ismā‘īlism.”
21 For the Arabic text and English translation of this letter, see al-Hamdānī, On the Genealogy. See also Hamdani and de Blois, “A Re-examination of al-Mahdī’s Letter.”
22 Stern, “Ismā‘īlīs and Qarmaṭians,” 103; also in Stern, Studies in Early Ismā‘īlism, 293; Kohlberg, Shīʿism, 271.
23 See al-Nawbakhtī, Firaq al-Shī‘a, 57–58, and al-Qummī, al-Maqālāt, 80–81.
24 Stern, “Ismāʿīlīs and Qarmaṭians,” 100–101; also in Stern, Studies in Early Ismāʿīlism, 290–291; Kohlberg, Shīʿism, 268–269.
25 Ibid.
26 Madelung, “Fāṭimiden und Baḥrainqarmaṭen”; Madelung, “Das Imamat in der frühen ismailitischen Lehre.”
27 Madelung, “Ismā‘īliyya”; Madelung, “Ķarmaṭī.”
28 Stern, “The Earliest Cosmological Doctrines.”
29 See Halm, Kosmologie und Heilslehre, 18–127; Halm, “The Cosmology,” 75–83.
30 See Stern, Studies in Early Ismā‘īlism, 30 ff., 53-55. See also Daftary, “Cyclical Time and Sacred History.”
31 On these conversions, see Stern, “Fāṭimid Propaganda Among Jews.”
32 See Stern, “The Early Ismā‘īlī Missionaries.”
33 For the Persian text of this lecture, with its English translation, see Stern, “Avvalīn ẓuhūr-i Ismā‘īliyya.”
34 See Daftary, “The Earliest Ismā‘īlīs”; Daftary, “A Major Schism”; See also Daftary, The Ismā‘īlīs, 91–143; Daftary, “Carmatians.”
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Farhad Daftary
Farhad Daftary received his early education in Iran and Europe and then undertook his university studies during 1958–1971 in the United States. He received his PhD in 1971 from the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1988, he has been affiliated with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, where he is currently the Director. Dr Daftary is co-editor (with W. Madelung) of the Encyclopaedia Islamica as well as general editor of several series of publications. An authority on Ismaili studies, he has written and edited more than 20 books, including The Ismāʿīlīs (1990; 2nd ed., 2007), The Assassin Legends (1994) and A History of Shi‘i Islam (2013). Dr Daftary’s books have been translated into some twenty languages.