Editing Ismailism (section)

===Ascension of the Dais===
{{Main|Da'i}}
For some partisans of Isma'il, the Imamate ended with Isma'il ibn Ja'far. Most Ismailis recognized Muhammad ibn Ismaʻil as the next Imam and some saw him as the expected [[Mahdi]] that Ja'far al-Sadiq had preached about. However, at this point the Isma'ili Imams according to the [[Nizari Isma'ilism|Nizari]] and [[Mustaʽli Ismailism|Mustaali]] found areas where they would be able to be safe from the recently founded [[Abbasid Caliphate]], which had defeated and seized control from the Umayyads in 750 CE.<ref name="DaftaryIsmailis1990p104">{{cite book |first=Farhad |last=Daftary |title=The Ismāʿīlīs: Their history and doctrines |location=Cambridge, England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-521-42974-9 |page=104}}</ref>

At this point, some of the Isma'ili community believed that Muhammad ibn Isma'il had gone into [[the Occultation]] and that he would one day return. A small group traced the Imamate among Muhammad ibn Isma'il's lineal descendants. With the status and location of the Imams not known to the community, the concealed Isma'ili Imams began to propagate the faith through [[Caller to Islam|Da'iyyun]] from its base in Syria. This was the start of the spiritual beginnings of the Daʿwah that would later play important parts in the all Ismaili branches, especially the Nizaris and the Musta'lis.<ref name="DaftaryShort1998p36">{{cite book |last=Daftary |first=Farhad |title=A Short History of the Ismailis |year=1998 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=0-7486-0687-4 |pages=36–50}}</ref>

The Da'i was not a missionary in the typical sense, and he was responsible for both the conversion of his student as well as the mental and spiritual well-being. The Da'i was a guide and light to the Imam. The teacher-student relationship of the Da'i and his student was much like the one that would develop in [[Sufism]]. The student desired God, and the Da'i could bring him to God by making him recognize the Imam, who possesses the knowledge of the Oneness of God. The Da'i and Imam were respectively the spiritual mother and spiritual father of the Isma'ili believers.<ref>{{cite book |first=James |last=Morris |title=The Master and the Disciple: An Early Islamic Spiritual Dialogue on Conversion Kitab al-'alim wa'l-ghulam |publisher=Institute for Ismaili Studies |year=2002 |isbn=1-86064-781-2 |page=256}}</ref>

Ja'far bin Mansur al-Yaman's ''[[The Book of the Sage and Disciple]]'' is a classic of early [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]] literature, documenting important aspects of the development of the Isma'ili da'wa in tenth-century Yemen. The book is also of considerable historical value for modern scholars of Arabic prose literature as well as those interested in the relationship of esoteric Shia with early Islamic mysticism. Likewise is the book an important source of information regarding the various movements within tenth-century Shīa leading to the spread of the Fatimid-Isma'ili da'wa throughout the medieval Islamicate world and the religious and philosophical history of post-Fatimid Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism in Yemen and India.{{cn|date=May 2022}}