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==Origin== ===Background: early Shi'ism=== Since the death of [[Caliph]] [[Ali]] ({{Reign|656|661}}) in 661, which led to the establishment of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]], a part of the [[Muslim community]] rejected the Umayyads as usurpers and called for the establishment of a regime led by a member of the {{Transliteration|ar|[[ahl al-bayt]]}}, the family of Muhammad. The [[Abbasid dynasty|Abbasids]], who claimed descent from Muhammad's paternal uncle [[Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib]] and thus claimed membership of the wider family, profited from this during their [[Abbasid Revolution|rise to power]] against the Umayyads; but their claim was rejected by the [[Shia Islam|Shia]], who insisted on the exclusive right of the descendants of [[Hasan ibn Ali|Hasan]] ({{Died in|670}}) and [[Husayn ibn Ali|Husayn]] ({{Died in|680}}), Ali's sons by Muhammad's daughter [[Fatimah|Fatima]].{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=18}} A line of [[Imamate in Shia doctrine|imams]] emerged from the offspring of Husayn, who did not openly lay claim to the caliphate, but were considered by their followers as the true representatives of God on earth.{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=18}} This doctrine was founded on the designation ({{Transliteration|ar|[[nass (Islam)|nass]]}}) of Ali by Muhammad at [[Ghadir Khumm]], and later pro-Fatimid scholars held that an unbroken chain of designated imams would follow until the end of the world; indeed, these scholars argued that the imams' existence was an inevitable necessity.{{sfn|Brett|2001|p=31}} The sixth of these imams, [[Ja'far al-Sadiq]], appointed ({{transliteration|ar|[[nass (Islam)|nass]]}}) his son [[Isma'il al-Mubarak]] as his successor, but Isma'il died before his father, and when al-Sadiq himself died in 765, the succession was left open. One faction of al-Sadiq's followers held that he had designated another son, [[Musa al-Kazim]], as his heir. Others followed other sons, [[Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq|Muhammad al-Dibaj]] and [[Abdallah al-Aftah|Abd Allah al-Aftah]]—as the latter died soon after, his followers went over to Musa's camp—or even refused to believe that al-Sadiq had died, and expected his return as a [[messiah]].{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=88–89}} Musa's adherents, who constituted the majority of al-Sadiq's followers, followed his line down to a twelfth imam who supposedly [[Occultation (Islam)|vanished]] in 874. Adherents of this line are known as the [[Twelver Shi'ism|Twelvers]].{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=18}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=89}} Another branch believed that Ja'far al-Sadiq was followed by a seventh imam, who also had gone into hiding; hence this party is known as the Seveners. The exact identity of that seventh imam was disputed, but by the late ninth century had commonly been identified with [[Muhammad ibn Isma'il|Muhammad]], son of Isma'il and grandson of al-Sadiq. From Muhammad's father, Isma'il, the sect receives its name of 'Isma'ili'.{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=18}}{{sfn|Halm|1991|pp=27–28}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=89–90}} Neither Isma'il's nor Muhammad's lives are well known, and after Muhammad's reported death during the reign of [[Harun al-Rashid]] ({{reign|786|809}}), the history of the early Isma'ili movement becomes obscure.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=90–96}} ===<span class="anchor" id="Maymun al-Qaddah"></span>Fatimid genealogies and controversies===<!-- [[Maymun al-Qaddah]] and [[Abd Allah ibn Maymun al-Qaddah]] redirect here; when one of them gets an article the other should be redirected to it and this anchor removed --> Official Fatimid doctrine claimed an uninterrupted line of succession between the first Fatimid caliph, [[Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah|Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah]] ({{reign|909|934}}), and Ali and Fatima, via Muhammad ibn Isma'il.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=850}} This descent was both accepted and challenged already in the Middle Ages, and remains a topic of debate among scholars today.<ref>cf. {{harvnb|Andani|2016|pp=199–200}} for a summary.</ref> As the historian of Shi'a Islam [[Heinz Halm]] comments, "The alleged descent of the dynasty from Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muhammad's daughter Fatima has been called into question by contemporaries from the very beginning and cannot be proven",{{sfn|Halm|2014}} while Michael Brett, an expert on the Fatimids, asserts that "a factual answer to the question of their identity is impossible".{{sfn|Brett|2001|p=29}} The main problem arises with the succession linking al-Mahdi with Ja'far al-Sadiq. According to Isma'ili doctrine, the imams that followed Muhammad ibn Isma'il were in concealment ({{transliteration|ar|satr}}), but early Isma'ili sources do not mention them, and even later, official Isma'ili genealogies diverge on the number, names and identities of these 'hidden imams' ({{transliteration|ar|al-a'imma al-masturin}}), a problem complicated by the Isma'ili claims that the hidden imams assumed various aliases for safety.{{sfn|Canard|1965|pp=850–851}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=99–100, 104}} Thus the pro-Isma'ili Prince Peter Hagop Mamour, in his 1934 apologetic work ''Polemics on the Origin of the Fatimi Caliphs'', lists no fewer than fifty variations of the line of the four hidden imams between Isma'il ibn Ja'far and al-Mahdi, claiming that the various names represent pseudonyms.{{sfn|Brett|2001|p=34}} Early Isma'ili sources tend to be silent on the matter, from a mixture of both religious imperative—since God has decreed his imams to be hidden, they should remain so—and apparent ignorance.{{sfn|Brett|2001|p=35}} Al-Mahdi himself, in a letter sent to the Isma'ili community in Yemen, even claimed not to be descended from Isma'il ibn Ja'far, but from his older brother Abdallah al-Aftah, who is generally held to not have had any descendants at all. Notably, later official Fatimid genealogies rejected this version.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=851}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=101}}{{sfn|Halm|1991|pp=146–147}} In addition, it appears that the first known ancestor of the Fatimid line, [[Ahmad al-Wafi|Abdallah al-Akbar]], the great-grandfather of the first Fatimid caliph, initially claimed descent not from Ali at all, but from his brother [[Aqil ibn Abi Talib]], and was accepted as such by the Aqilids of Basra.{{sfn|Halm|1991|pp=19–20}} According to Brett, the line of descent claimed by the Fatimid between Ja'far al-Sadiq and al-Mahdi reflects "historical beliefs rather than historical figures, for which there is little or no independent confirmation",{{sfn|Brett|2001|p=29}} as even Isma'il ibn Ja'far is an obscure figure, let alone his supposed hidden successors.{{sfn|Brett|2001|p=30}} While pro-Fatimid sources emphasize their [[Alid]] descent—the dynasty named itself simply as the 'Alid dynasty' ({{transliteration|ar|al-dawla al-alawiyya}})—many [[Sunni]] sources instead refer to them as the 'Ubaydids' ({{langx|ar|بنو عبيد|Banu Ubayd}}), after the diminutive form Ubayd Allah for al-Mahdi's name, commonly used in Sunni sources with an apparently pejorative intent.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=852}}{{sfn|Halm|2014}} Medieval anti-Fatimid polemicists, starting with [[Ibn Rizam]] and [[Akhu Muhsin]], were keen to discredit Isma'ilism as an [[antinomian]] heresy and generally considered Fatimid claims to Alid descent fraudulent. Instead, they put forth a counter claim that al-Mahdi descended from Abdallah, the son of a certain [[Maymun al-Qaddah]] from [[Khuzistan]],{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=8, 101–103}} that al-Mahdi's real name was Sa'id, or that al-Mahdi's father was in reality a Jew (a common antisemitic trope among medieval Arab authors).{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=850}} While several medieval Sunni authors and contemporary potentates—including the impeccably Alid [[sharif]]s of [[Mecca]] and [[Medina]]—accepted or appeared to accept Fatimid claims at face value,{{sfn|Andani|2016|pp=199–200}} this anti-Isma'ili 'black legend', as the modern scholar [[Farhad Daftary]] calls it, influenced Sunni historiographers throughout the following centuries, and became official doctrine with the [[Baghdad Manifesto]] of 1011.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=8–9, 24–25}} Due to the paucity of actual Isma'ili material until Isma'ili sources started to become available and undergo scholarly examination during the 20th century, the Sunni version was adopted even by some early modern [[Orientalists]].{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=101–103}} Early Isma'ili sources ignore the existence of Maymun al-Qaddah, but later, Fatimid-era sources were forced to confront their opponents' claims about his person, and tried to reconcile the conflicting genealogies accordingly.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=851}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=105}} Some sectarian Isma'ili—especially [[Druze]]—sources even claimed that during the period of concealment of the Isma'ili imams, the Isma'ili movement was actually led by the descendants of Maymun al-Qaddah, until the restoration of the true line with the Fatimid caliphs.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=105}} Later [[Tayyibi]] Isma'ili authors also used the figures of Maymun al-Qaddah and his son Abdallah to argue for the legality of there being a substitute or representative of the imam, whenever the latter was underage.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=105–106}} A further controversy that emerged already in medieval times is whether the second Fatimid caliph, [[Al-Qa'im (Fatimid caliph)|Muhammad al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah]], was the son of al-Mahdi, or whether the latter was merely usurping the position of a still-hidden imam; that would mean that al-Qa'im was the first true Fatimid imam-caliph.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=851}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=105}} Modern authors have tried to reconcile the genealogies. In ''Origins of Ismāʿı̄lism'', the Arabist [[Bernard Lewis]] suggested the existence of two parallel series of imams: trustee ({{transliteration|ar|mustawda'}}) imams, descended from Maymun al-Qaddah, whose task was to hide and protect the existence of the real ({{transliteration|ar|mustakarr}}, {{lit.|permanent}}) imams. Lewis posited that al-Mahdi was the last of that line, and that al-Qa'im was the first of the {{transliteration|ar|mustakarr}} imams to sit on the throne.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=851}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=107}} Research by [[Vladimir Ivanov (orientalist)|Vladimir Ivanov]], on the other hand, has conclusively shown that the supposed Qaddahite descent of the Fatimids is a legend, likely invented by Ibn Rizam himself: the historical Maymun al-Qaddah is now known to have been a disciple of [[Muhammad al-Baqir]] (recognized by both Isma'ilis and Twelvers as an imam), and both he and his son Abdallah hailed from the [[Hejaz]]. For reasons of chronology alone, Ibn Rizam's version is thus proven to be untenable.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=103}} Access to more sources has furthermore led to the partial reconciliation of the conflicting accounts by positing that some of the variant names in the genealogies were indeed cover names for the Isma'ili imams: thus Maymun ('the Fortunate One') is suggested as the sobriquet for Muhammad ibn Isma'il, especially since a source connects him with a sect known as the Maymuniyya. This explanation is also present in an epistle by the fourth Fatimid caliph, [[al-Mu'izz]], in 965. This would make the claim of al-Mahdi's descent from an 'Abdallah ibn Maymun' actually correct, and lead hostile sources to confuse him with the earlier Shi'a figure.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=104–105}} Another suggestion, by Abbas Hamdani and F. de Blois, is that the officially published genealogies represent a compromise between two different lines of descent from Ja'far al-Sadiq, one from Isma'il and another (per al-Mahdi's letter to the Yemenis) from Abdallah al-Aftah.{{sfn|Brett|2001|p=36}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=107}} Other scholars, such as Halm, remain skeptical, while Omert Schrier and Michael Brett dismiss the Fatimid claims of Alid descent entirely as a pious fiction.{{sfn|Andani|2016|p=200}} ===The Fatimids and the early Isma'ili {{transliteration|ar|da'wa}}=== {{Ismailism|collapsed=1}} Both the Twelvers and the Seveners held that their final imams were not dead, but had simply gone into concealment, and that they would soon return as a messiah, the {{transliteration|ar|[[mahdi]]}} ('the Rightly Guided One') or {{transliteration|ar|[[Qa'im Al Muhammad|qa'im]]}} ('He Who Arises'), to [[Islamic eschatology|usher in the end times]].{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=18}}{{sfn|Halm|1991|p=28}} The {{transliteration|ar|mahdi}} would rapidly overthrow the usurping Abbasids and destroy their capital [[Baghdad]], restore the unity of the Muslims, conquer [[Constantinople]], ensure the final triumph of Islam and establish a reign of peace and justice.{{sfn|Halm|1991|pp=28–29}} The Isma'ilis in particular believed that the {{transliteration|ar|mahdi}} would reveal the true, 'inner' ({{transliteration|ar|[[Batin (Islam)|batin]]}}) meaning of religion, which was until then reserved for a few select initiates. The {{transliteration|ar|mahdi}} would abolish the 'outer' ({{Transliteration|ar|[[Zahir (Islam)|zahir]]}}) forms and strictures of Islam, since henceforth the true religion, the religion of [[Adam in Islam|Adam]], would be manifested without the need for symbols and other mediating devices.{{sfn|Halm|1991|p=29}} While the {{transliteration|ar|mahdi}} Muhammad ibn Isma'il remained hidden, however, he would need to be represented by agents, who would gather the faithful, spread the word ({{transliteration|ar|[[Dawah|da'wa]]}}, 'invitation, calling'), and prepare his return. The head of this secret network was the living proof of the imam's existence, the {{transliteration|ar|[[hujja]]}} ({{lit.|seal}}).{{sfn|Halm|1991|pp=29–30}} The first known {{transliteration|ar|hujja}} was Abdallah al-Akbar, a wealthy merchant from [[Askar Mukram]], in what is now southwestern [[Iran]]. Apart from improbable stories circulated by later anti-Isma'ili polemicists, his exact origin is unknown.{{sfn|Halm|1991|pp=16–18}} His teachings led to his being forced to flee his native city to escape persecution by the Abbasid authorities, and seek refuge in [[Basra]]. Once again, his teachings attracted the attention of the authorities, and he moved on to the small town of [[Salamiyah]] on the western edge of the [[Syrian Desert]].{{sfn|Halm|1991|pp=17–20}} There he settled as a merchant from Basra, and had two sons, [[Muhammad al-Taqi (Isma'ili)|Ahmad]] and Ibrahim. When Abdallah died {{circa|827/8}}, Ahmad succeeded his father as the head of the Isma'ili movement, and was in turn succeeded by his younger son, Muhammad, known as Abu'l-Shalaghlagh.{{sfn|Halm|1991|pp=22–24}} In later Fatimid doctrine, Abdallah al-Akbar was presented as the eldest son of Muhammad ibn Isma'il, and his successor as imam, followed by Ahmad.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=99–100}} While Muhammad Abu'l-Shalaghlagh was the head of the {{transliteration|ar|da'wa}}, however, the imamate passed to another son, [[Radi Abdullah|al-Husayn]] (d. 881/2), and thence to al-Husayn's son, Abdallah or Sa'id, the future Caliph al-Mahdi, who was born in 873/4.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=100}} Isma'ili texts suggest that Abu'l-Shalaghlagh was the guardian and tutor of al-Mahdi, but also that he tried to usurp the succession for his own sons but failed, as the latter all died prematurely.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=100}} During the late ninth century, [[Millenarianism|millennialist]] expectations increased in the Muslim world, coinciding with a deep crisis of the Abbasid Caliphate during the decade-long [[Anarchy at Samarra]], the rise of breakaway and autonomous regimes in the provinces, and the large-scale [[Zanj Rebellion]], whose leader claimed Alid descent and proclaimed himself as the {{transliteration|ar|mahdi}}.{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=17}} In this chaotic atmosphere, and with the Abbasids preoccupied with suppressing the Zanj uprising, the Isma'ili {{transliteration|ar|da'wa}} spread rapidly, aided by dissatisfaction among Twelver adherents with the [[Political quietism in Islam|political quietism]] of their leadership and the recent disappearance of their twelfth imam.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=108}} Missionaries ({{transliteration|ar|[[da'i]]}}s) like [[Hamdan Qarmat]] and his brother-in-law [[Abu Muhammad Abdan]] spread the network of agents to the area round [[Kufa]] in the late 870s, and from there to [[Yemen]] ([[Ibn Hawshab]], 882) and thence India (884), [[Eastern Arabia|Bahrayn]] ([[Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi]], 899), [[Persia]], and [[Ifriqiya]] ([[Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i]], 893).{{sfn|Halm|1991|p=47}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=108–110}} The real leadership of the movement remained hidden at Salamiyah, and only the chief {{transliteration|ar|da'i}}s of each region, such as Hamdan Qarmat, knew and corresponded with it.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=116}} The true head of the movement remained hidden even from the senior missionaries, however, and a certain Fayruz functioned as chief missionary ({{transliteration|ar|[[da'i al-du'at]]}}) and 'gateway' ({{transliteration|ar|[[bab (Shia Islam)|bab]]}}) to the hidden leader.{{sfn|Halm|1991|p=61}} ===Qarmatian schism and flight to the Maghreb=== In about 899, Abdallah ibn al-Husayn assumed the leadership of the {{transliteration|ar|da'wa}}. Soon, he began making alterations to the doctrine, which worried Hamdan Qarmat. Abdan went to Salamiyah to investigate the matter, and learned that Abdallah claimed that the expected {{transliteration|ar|mahdi}} was not Muhammad ibn Isma'il, as commonly propagated, but Abdallah himself, and that Abdallah's ancestors, far from being simply the {{transliteration|ar|hujja}}s of the imams, were actually the imams themselves. In a letter to the Yemeni community, Abdallah claimed that 'Muhammad ibn Isma'il' was actually a cover name assumed by each incumbent imam, and denied any particular role of Muhammad ibn Isma'il as the expected {{transliteration|ar|mahdi}} who was to usher in the end times.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=116–119}} These doctrinal innovations caused a major rift in the movement, as Hamdan denounced the leadership in Salamiyah, gathered the Iraqi {{transliteration|ar|da'i}}s and ordered them to cease the missionary effort. Shortly after this Hamdan "disappeared" from his headquarters, and Abdan was assassinated by [[Zakarawayh ibn Mihrawayh]], who had remained loyal to Salamiyah.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=117}} The schism left the early Isma'ili {{transliteration|ar|da'wa}} divided into two factions: those who accepted Abdallah's claims, and continued to follow him, and became the Isma'ilis proper, and those who rejected them and continued to believe in the return of Muhammad ibn Isma'il as {{transliteration|ar|mahdi}}, who became known as the [[Qarmatians]] (although anti-Fatimid sources also used the label for the Fatimids themselves).{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=120}} In Iraq and Persia, the community was split between the two factions, but in Bahrayn, the local {{transliteration|ar|da'i}}s split off from Salamiyah and established an independent Qarmatian state that lasted into the 1070s.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=120}} On the other hand, Zakarawayh and his loyalists now began a series of anti-Abbasid uprisings in Iraq and Syria in 902–907, with the support of the [[Bedouin]] tribes. Calling themselves the {{transliteration|ar|Fatimiyyun}}, the uprisings enjoyed some ephemeral success, but were eventually suppressed by the still potent Abbasid army. Zakarawayh apparently moved without Abdallah's authorization or prior knowledge, and thus placed him in danger: the Abbasid authorities began a crackdown on the {{transliteration|ar|da'wa}}, and Zakarawayh's sons unwittingly revealed the location and identity of Abdallah to the Abbasids, who launched a man-hunt against him.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=122–124}} Already in 902, Abdallah with his household left Salamiyah for [[Ramla]]. As the revolts instigated by Zakarawayh were suppressed, Abdallah moved to [[Tulunid]] Egypt in early 904. As the Abbasids recovered control of Egypt in the next year, the small party fled again. While his companions expected to head to Yemen, where the Isma'ili {{transliteration|ar|da'wa}} had enjoyed great success, Abdallah turned westward, and established himself at the oasis town of [[Sijilmasa]], in what is now southwestern [[Morocco]], in August 905.{{sfn|Canard|1965|p=852}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=123, 125}}
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