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The Ismailis represent an important Shiʻī Muslim community with rich intellectual and literary traditions. The complex history of the Ismailis dates back to the 2nd/8th century when they separated from other Shiʻī groups under the leadership of their own imams. Soon afterwards, the Ismailis organised a dynamic, revolutionary movement, known as the daʻwa or mission, for uprooting the Sunni regime of the Abbasids and establishing a new Shiʻī caliphate headed by the Ismaili imam. By the end of the 3rd/9th century, the Ismaili daʻiş, operating secretly on behalf of the movement, were active in almost every region of the Muslim world, from Central Asia and Persia to Yemen, Egypt and the Maghrib. This book brings together a collection of the best works from Farhad Daftary, one of the foremost authorities in the field. The studies cover a range of specialised topics related to Ismaili history, historiography, institutions, theology, law and philosophy, amongst other intellectual traditions elaborated by the Ismailis. The collation of these invaluable studies into one book would be of great interest to the Ismaili community, as well to anyone studying Islam in general, or Shiʻī Islam in particular Shiʻi communities in history -- The study of the Ismailis : phases and issues -- Ismaili history and literary traditions -- Idris ʻImad al-Din and medieval Ismaili historiography -- A major schism in the early Ismaʻili movement -- The Ismaili daʻwa under the Fatimids -- The concept of ujja in Ismaili thought -- Cyclical time and sacred history in medieval Ismaili thought -- ʻAli in classical Ismaili theology -- Al-qadi al-nuʻman, Ismaʻili law and Imami shiʻism -- The Iranian school of philosophical Ismailism -- The medieval Ismaʻilis of the Iranian lands -- The "order of the assassins" : J. von Hammer and the Orientalist misrepresentations of the Nizari Ismailis -- Ismaili-Seljuq relations : conflict and stalemate -- Sinan and the Nizari Ismailis of Syria -- Hidden Imams and Mahdis in Ismaili history -- Religious identity, dissimulation and assimilation : the Ismaili experience
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