|
ISMAILISM, a major Shiite Muslim community. The Ismailis have had a long and eventful history dating back to the middle of the 2nd/8th century when the Emami Shiis split into several groups after the death of Imam Jafar al-Sadeq. The earliest Ismailis from amongst the Emami Shiis traced the imamate to the progeny of Esmail b. Jafar al-Sadeq, the eponym of the Esmailiya. Subsequently, the Ismailis themselves became subdivided into a number of major branches and minor groupings. Currently, the Ismailis are comprised of the Nezari and Tayyebi Mostalian branches, and they are scattered as religious minorities in over twenty-five countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America. Numbering in the several millions, the Ismailis represent a diversity of ethnic groups and literary traditions, and speak a variety of languages and dialects, including especially Arabic, Persian, as well as a number of Indic and European languages. Until the middle of the 20th century, the Ismailis were studied and judged almost exclusively on the basis of evidence collected or fabricated by their enemies. Consequently, a variety of myths and legends were circulated widely, both in Muslim societies and in the West, regarding their teachings and practices.
The breakthrough in Ismailis studies occurred with the recovery and study of genuine Ismaili texts on a large scale—Arabic and Persian manuscript sources which had been preserved in numerous private collections in the Yemen, Syria, Persia, Central Asia, and South Asia. As a result of the findings of modern scholarship in Ismaili studies, we now have a much better understanding of Ismaili history and thought.
This entry is divided into the following sections:
i. Ismaili Studies.
ii. Ismaili historiography.
iii. Ismaili history.
iv. Qarameta. See CARMATIANS.
v. Ismaili dawa and dynasty of Fatimid. See FATIMIDS.
vi. Ismaili ideas of time. See DAWR.
vii. Ismaili ideas of cosmology and cosmogony. See COSMOLOGY AND COSMOGONY vii.
viii. Free will in Ismailism. See FREE WILL ii.
ix. Ismaili Missionaries. See DAWA.
x. Ismaili Myths and Legends. See FEDAIS.
xi. Ismaili jurisprudence.
xii. Ismaili Hadith. See HADITH iii.
xiii. Ismailism in Arabic and Persian literature.
xiv. Ismailism in Ginan literature.
xv. Nezari Ismaili monuments.
xvi. Modern Ismaili communities.
xvii. The Imamate in Ismailism.
|
