The second largest Shi‘i Muslim community after the Ithna‘ashari or Twelvers, the Ismailis have had a long and complex history dating back to the formative period of Islam. Subsequently, they became subdivided into a number of major branches and minor groups. However, since the beginning of the 12th century CE, the Ismailis have existed in…
Tag: Ismaili history
Video: Book launch – Memoirs of the 46th Ismaili Imam | The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) launched their newest publication
The First Aga Khan: Memoirs of the 46th Ismaili Imam was recently launched by the Institute of Ismaili Studies. Part of the Ismaili Texts and Translations Series, the book was published in honour of Mawlana Hazar Imam’s Diamond Jubilee. It is the first English translation of the original Persian manuscript, ‘Ibrat-afza, which was composed by…
The first Aga Khan: Memoirs of the 46th Ismaili Imam | The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) launched their newest publication
On a spring evening last month in London, The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) launched their newest publication, entitled The First Aga Khan: Memoirs of the 46th Ismaili Imam. The book covers a significant period of Ismaili history and sheds light on the remarkable life and career of the 46th Ismaili Imam – Mawlana Hasan…
Prince Amyn attends The World of the Fatimids exhibition opening at the Aga Khan Museum — By Khaleel Meghji on the Ismaili
The World of the Fatimids, the newest exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum, launched on 12 March in Toronto. Prince Amyn delivered the keynote address for the opening of the exhibition, which explores the Fatimid period through artefacts and objects from the 10th and 11th centuries. Curator, Dr. Assadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, shows an artefact to…
The Fatimid Caliphate: Diversity of Tradition — Book by Farhad Daftary, Shainool Jiwa
SYNOPSIS The Fatimids ruled much of the Mediterranean world for over two centuries. From the conquest of Qayrawan in 909 to defeat at the hands of Saladin in 1171, the Fatimid caliphate governed a vast area stretching, at its peak, from the Red Sea in the East to the Atlantic Ocean in the West. Their…
Ismaili History: The Marco Polo Myth of the Assassins|Photos, Graphics and video
Simerg com: Ismaili History – The Marco Polo Myth of the Assassins (…) PULLING BACK THE SILK CURTAIN “The Nizari [Ismailis] excelled in the fields of theology, philosophy, architecture and science, but their opponents demonized them as bloodthirsty extremist religious murderers…The returning Crusaders brought back the legend of the pothead assassins, partly because they loved…
Book: The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma’ilis, By Farhad Daftary
ISBN-13: 978-1850439509 ISBN-10: 1850439508 For hundreds of years Westerners have been fascinated by stories of the Assassins, their mysterious leader and their remote mountain stronghold at Alamut in Northern Iran. The legends first emerged in the 12th and 13th centuries, when Crusaders in Syria came into contact with the Nazari Isma’ilis, one of the communities…
Muslims, Martyrs and Misconceptions — By Farhad Daftary on Fair Observer com
Legends based on polemic and fantasy distorted the image of medieval Nizari Ismaili Muslims, turning them into drug-crazed “assassins.” Legends of the Assassins first appeared in medieval times and circulated widely in both the Middle East and Europe. Arising from the mysterious practices of the Nizari Ismailis and their unwavering devotion to their chief—the so-called…
Who Succeeded Imam Jafar al-Sadiq? Seven Proofs for the Imamat of Imam Ismail ibn Jafar — Ismaili Gnosis com
(…) Imam Shah Karim al-Husayni Aga Khan IV visiting his Ismaili followers in Tajikistan, 2008 In the case of the Shia Muslims, the Shia branch of Islam split and one branch of the Shia Muslims accepted the concept of the Imam in hiding, the invisible Imam, because the twelfth Imam disappeared as a very young…
Ismaili Historical Insights: (I) 1925: Mahatma Gandhi on the Meritorious Deed of a Khoja Ismaili — by Abdulmalik J. Merchant on Simerg com
Letter From Publisher Simerg’s Merchant For the first episode, we go to a massive work called The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi and reveal a story that appears in Volume 33, which is dedicated to the period from September 1925 to February 1926 in Gandhi’s life. During his visit to Mundra in Gujarat, the father…
Triumphal Moments in Ismaili History: Jawhar’s Conquest of Egypt and Imam al-Muizz’s Resplendent Darbar in Cairo — by Mansoor Ladha
“I WISH I’D BEEN THERE” 1970: Mansoor Ladha, veteran award winning journalist, writer and author, interviewing His Highness the Aga Khan for Tanzania’s daily, The Standard (now Daily News). Photo: Mansoor Ladha Collection. Copyright. BY MANSOOR LADHA As a journalist, a writer and an author, what better time to be than reporting milestones and…
Triumphal Moments in Ismaili History: The Unveiling of the 11th Imam, al-Mahdi, in North Africa — By Aleem Karmali on Simerg com
Triumphal Moments in Ismaili History: The Unveiling of the 11th Imam, al-Mahdi, in North Africa — the Realization of a Dream 1100 Hundred Years Ago that Became the Fatimid Caliphate “I WISH I’D BEEN THERE” “To witness that moment of unveiling when Imam al-Mahdi rode out to meet his followers stands for me above…
