Isma'ilis

The Isma'ilis or Ismailis - pronounced as four syllables, is-ma-EE-lis IPA: /ɪs ma ˈiː lɪz/ - are a branch of Shia Islam. Of the two possible spellings Isma'ilis, with an apostrophe between the 'a' and 'i', is more accurate - the apostrophe represents the letter ع ('ain') in the Arabic original of Isma'ili (اسماعيلي).

The origins of the Isma'ilis are obscure, but they seem to have begun as a secret movement in southern Iraq or southwest Iran around the middle of the eighth century CE. They broke away from the main body of Shias in 765 by rejecting the claims to the Imamate of Musa al-Kazim, a younger son of Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam. They believed Ja'far's eldest son, Isma'il ibn Ja'far, was the seventh Imam, and it is, of course, this belief that has given them their name. Isma'ilis therefore deny the legitimacy of the last six of the twelve Imams recognised as legitimate by the main body of Shias, who in virtue of their recognition of twelve Imams are sometimes referred to as 'Twelver Shias' or 'Twelvers' - in Arabic اثنا عشرية ithna 'ashariyyah, from اثني عشر ithna 'ashar, twelve.

Isma'ilism spread west across North Africa and into the Maghrib, and at the beginning of the tenth century the Isma'ilis gave their support to 'Ubaydullah, who in 910 declared himself caliph in Tunisia. 'Ubaydullah claimed descent from Fatima (the Prophet Muhammad's daughter) and Ali (Muhammad's cousin and Fatima's husband), and over the next half-century he and his descendants - referred to as Fatimids in view of 'Ubaydullah's claimed descent from Fatima - extended their power eastwards into Egypt. The Fatimids, who at the height of their power ruled over the Arabian Peninsula and Syria as well as North Africa, were responsible for the foundation of the city of Cairo (in Arabic القاهرة, alqahira, the conquering or victorious (city)), which they made their capital and promoted as a centre of learning: al-Azhar University (founded as a Shia madrasa in 970-972, but converted into a Sunni institution by Saladin on the overthrow of the Fatimids in 1171) and the Dar al'Ilm Libraray (دار العلم‎, dar al-'ilm, House of Knowledge, founded early in the eleventh century and one of the greatest libraries of the Islamic world) are both Fatimid foundations.

It was during the years of Fatimid rule (910-1171) that the Isma'ilis achieved their greatest influence and became for a time the largest branch of Shia Islam. It was also during this period, though in Iran and so outside the Fatimid caliphate, that a number of Isma'ili philosophers elaborated a distinctive cosmology which combined elements of Shia Islamic thought and Neoplatonism.

Nowadays Isma'ilis are a small minority among Shia Muslims, and are mostly to be found in parts of Yemen, Iran, and Syria.