Isma'ili

Abu Abdallah al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Zakariyya, better known as Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i (Arabic: ابو عبد الله الشيعي, romanized: Abū ʿAbd Allāh ash-Shīʿī), was an Isma'ili missionary (dāʿī) active in Yemen and North Africa. He was successful in converting and unifying a large part of the Kutama Berber tribe, leading them on the conquest of Ifriqiya from 902 to 909 and the overthrowing of the Aghlabid dynasty. This ultimately led to the establishment of the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya under the Imam–caliph Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah. However, Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah quickly fell out with Abu Abdallah and had Abu Abdallah executed on 18 February 911.

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn (Arabic: أبو محمد عبد الله بن الحسين; 31 July 874 – 4 March 934), better known by his regnal name al-Mahdī biʾllāh (Arabic: المهدي بالله, "The Rightly Guided by God"), was the founder of the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate, the only major Shi'a caliphate in Islamic history, and the eleventh Imam of the Isma'ili branch of Shi'ism.

He was born as Saʿīd ibn al-Ḥusayn (سعيد بن الحسين) in Askar Mukram to a family that led the secret Isma'ili missionary network (da'wa), propagating on behalf of the hidden imam, Muhammad ibn Isma'il, who would return as the prophesied Islamic messiah (mahdi). Orphaned at a young age, he moved to Salamiya, the family's base of operations, where he was adopted by his uncle. In the mid-890s Sa'id succeeded to the leadership of the expanding da'wa, which had expanded and gained adherents across the then Muslim world. However, his claims of not merely being a trustee of the hidden imam, but of him and his ancestors holding the imamate itself, led in 899 to a schism in the Isma'ili movement: those who did not recognise his claims split off to become the Qarmatians. The schism was followed by uprisings of pro-Isma'ili Bedouin in Syria in 902–903, launched without his consent by over-eager supporters, who aimed to force him to come forward as the mahdi. The Bedouin uprising was suppressed by the Abbasids, but drew the attention of the Abbasid Caliphate's authorities to him, forcing him to abandon Salamiya, and flee first to Ramla, then Fustat in Egypt, and finally Sijilmasa in what is now Morocco. There he remained, living as a merchant, until one of his missionaries, Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i, at the head of the Kutama Berbers overthrew the Aghlabid dynasty of Ifriqiya in 909.

Nass (Arabic: نَصّ, romanized: naṣṣ) is an Arabic word variously translated as "a known, clear legal injunction," a "divine decree", a "designation", "written law" as opposed to unwritten law, "canonical text" that forbids or requires,a "textual proof".

In Shia Islam (Twelver and Isma'ili), nass refers specifically to the designation of an infallible Imam by a previous infallible Imam.

Idris Imad al-Din ibn al-Hasan al-Qurashi (Arabic: إدريس عماد الدين بن الحسن القرشي, romanized: ʾIdrīs ʿImād al-Dīn ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qurashī; 1392 – 10 June 1468) was the 19th Da'i al-Mutlaq of Tayyibi Isma'ilis from 1428 to 1468. A major religious and political leader in 15th-century Yemen, as well as a notable theologian, Idris was also an important medieval Isma'ili historian whose work is fundamental for the history of the Fatimid Caliphate and the Isma'ili communities in Yemen.

Satr (Arabic: ستر, lit. 'concealment') is a term used by the Isma'ili Shi'a for various periods in their history where the true imam was hidden (mastur) and represented through agents. These periods of concealment (dawr al-satr) might end with the renewed public manifestation of the imam, or continue until the present day. Entering into concealment did not mean that the line of imams stopped with the hidden imam; the Isma'ili concept is thus different from the concept of occultation (ghayba) as conceived by the Twelver Shi'a.

The Battle of Hama was fought some 24 km (15 mi) from the city of Hama in Syria on 29 November 903 between the forces of the Abbasid Caliphate and pro-Isma'ili Bedouin (called "Fatimids" or "Qarmatians"). The Abbasids were victorious, resulting in the capture and execution of the Isma'ili leadership. This removed the Isma'ili presence in northern Syria, and was followed by the suppression of another revolt in Iraq in 906. More importantly, it paved the way for the Abbasid attack on the autonomous Tulunid dynasty and the reincorporation of the Tulunid domains in southern Syria and Egypt into the Abbasid Caliphate.

Ja'far ibn Mansur al-Yaman (Arabic: جعفر بن منصور اليمن) was an Isma'ili missionary (dāʿī) and theological writer of the 10th century. Originally born and raised in Yemen, where his father Ibn Hawshab had established the Isma'ili daʿwa in the late 9th century, he fled the country to the court of the Fatimid caliphs in Ifriqiya, where he remained until his death. He composed poems in praise of the Fatimids' victory over the uprising of Abu Yazid, a biography of his father, and authored or compiled a number of important theological treatises.

Fatimid coinage comes from the Fatimid Caliphate, an Isma'ili Shi'a empire that ruled large parts of North Africa, western Arabia, and the Levant, first from Tunisia (Ifriqiya) and then from Egypt. The coinage was minted after the typical pattern of Islamic coinage. The Fatimids were particularly known for the consistently high quality of their gold dinars, which proved a potent political tool in their conquest of Egypt and led to them being widely imitated by the Crusader states in the 12th century. Fatimid silver coinage (dirhams) on the other hand, although widely issued, declined in quality with the weakening of the Fatimid state, and has been mostly ignored in modern times. The Fatimids minted almost no copper coinage. Starting from designs imitating Abbasid coinage, adapted merely with slogans befitting the new regime and the names of the Fatimid caliphs, from the reign of Caliph al-Mu'izz on, Fatimid coinage included overtly Shi'a formulas and achieved a distinctive look, with concentric inscribed bands, that was maintained until the end of the dynasty.

Abu Sa'id Hasan ibn Bahram al-Jannabi (Arabic: أبو سعيد حسن بن بهرام الجنابي, romanized: Abū Saʿīd Ḥasan ibn Bahrām al-Jannābī; 845/855–913/914) was a Persian Shia and the founder of the Qarmatian state in Bahrayn (an area comprising the eastern parts of modern Saudi Arabia as well as the Persian Gulf). By 899, his followers controlled large parts of the region, and in 900, he scored a major victory over an Abbasid army sent to subdue him. He captured the local capital, Hajar, in 903, and extended his rule south and east into Oman. He was assassinated in 913, and succeeded by his eldest son Sa'id.

His religious teachings and political activities are somewhat unclear, as they are reported by later and usually hostile sources, but he seems to have shared the millennialist Isma'ili belief about the imminent return of the mahdī, hostility to conventional Islamic rites and rituals, and to have based the Qarmatian society on the principles of communal ownership and egalitarianism, with a system of production and distribution overseen by appointed agents. The Qarmatian "republic" he founded would last until the late 11th century.

The Sack of Mecca occurred on 11 January 930, when the Qarmatians of Bahrayn sacked the Muslim holy city amidst the rituals of the Hajj pilgrimage.

The Qarmatians, a radical Isma'ili sect established in Bahrayn since the turn of the 9th century, had previously attacked the caravans of Hajj pilgrims and even invaded and raided Iraq, the heartland of the Abbasid Caliphate, in 927–928. In 928, the Qarmatian leader Abu Tahir al-Jannabi became convinced that the long-awaited mahdi, the messiah who would usher in the end times and nullify existing religious law, had arrived in the person of a young Persian man, Abu'l-Fadl al-Isfahani. As a result, al-Jannabi led his men against Mecca in the Hajj season of winter 929–930.

This is a list of an Arab dynasty, the Shi'ite caliphs of the Fatimid dynasty (909–1171). The Shi'ite caliphs were also regarded at the same time as the imams of the Isma'ili branch of Shi'a Islam.

Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (Arabic: أبو القاسم محمد ابن عبد الله; March/April 893 – 17 May 946), better known by his regnal name al-Qāʾim (القائم) or al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allāh (Arabic: القائم بأمر الله, lit. 'He who carries out God's orders'), was the twelfth Isma'ili Imam and second caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, ruling in Ifriqiya from 934 to 946, succeeding his father Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah (r. 909–934).

Born in March or April 893 in the Syrian town of Salamiyah, where his father, under the guise of a wealthy merchant, was leading the clandestine Isma'ili missionary network. Al-Qa'im and his father had to flee Salamiyah in 903 to avoid Abbasid persecution under the impact of a pro-Isma'ili revolt in Syria. Aided by sympathizers, the small group found refuge in to Ramla in Palestine and Fustat in Egypt, before turning west and making for the remote oasis town of Sijilmasa in what is now Morocco. While there, the Isma'ili missionary (da'i) Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i, who had converted the Kutama Berbers, overthrew the Aghlabid dynasty ruling in Ifriqiya and established the Fatimid Caliphate on behalf of al-Mahdi. After al-Mahdi's accession, al-Qa'im was officially made the designated successor and played a significant role during his father's reign as a military commander. He suppressed a Kutama revolt that broke out after the murder of Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i, captured Barqa, and led two invasions of Egypt, in 914–915 and 919–921. The Fatimids were able to capture Alexandria and threaten the capital, Fustat, but ultimately failed due to strong Abbasid resistance, logistical challenges, and the indiscipline of their troops. In 927, al-Qa'im led a campaign to suppress the Zenata Berbers in what is now central Algeria. He secured Fatimid control of Tahert, received the submission of the Sanhaja Berbers, and founded the city of al-Muhammadiya (modern Msila) as a stronghold to control the region.

Abu'l-Najm Badr ibn Abdallah al-Jamali al-Mustansiri, better known as Badr al-Jamali (Arabic: بدر الجمالى) or by his eventual title as Amir al-Juyush (أمير الجيوش, lit. 'Commander of the Armies'), was a military commander and statesman for the Fatimid Caliphate under Caliph al-Mustansir. Of Armenian origin but a convert to Islam, Badr had been brought up as a military slave (mamluk) by the ruler of Tripoli, Jamal al-Dawla ibn Ammar. In the 1060s, he was appointed twice as governor of Damascus in Syria, at a time when Fatimid authority there was disintegrating, and the central government in Egypt was on the verge of collapse as a result of the Mustansirite Hardship. Badr was unable to prevent the loss of most of Syria to local potentates and Turkoman warlords, but managed to hold on to the coastal cities, making Acre his base.

As the sole major military commander outside Egypt, he was called upon by al-Mustansir to help rescue the dynasty. Badr landed in Egypt in late 1073, rapidly eliminated his rivals, and was appointed vizier with plenipotentiary powers, making him a quasi-sultan or military dictator, with the caliph relegated to his religious duties as Isma'ili imam. Control over the state was solidified with the marriage of one of his daughters to al-Mustansir, and the appointment of his own son, al-Afdal Shahanshah, as his successor in 1085. Badr managed to restore order in Egypt and initiated major administrative reforms, defeated Turkoman attempts to invade Egypt, and recovered control over Palestine and the Hejaz. He initiated a series of new constructions, including the Juyushi Mosque and the new city wall of Cairo, some of whose gates stand to this day. Badr's tenure saved the Fatimid regime, but also began a period where the vizierate was dominated by military strongmen who held power on their own, rather than through caliphal appointment, and who increasingly sidelined the caliphs to puppet rulers. Badr also initiated a wave of Armenian migration into Egypt, and was the first of a series of viziers of Armenian origin, who played a major role in the fortunes of the Fatimid Caliphate over the subsequent century.