Nizarite Ismaelites: From Violence to Modernity

The Ismailites believed in the imamate of Ismail, son of Imam Ja’far Sadiq (pbuh). At first, they rose to power in Egypt and after that they established the Egyptian government of the Fatimid. After al‐Mustansir Billāh, the eighth Fatimid caliph died, his vizier stopped Nizar, his oldest son, from ascending to the throne, causing a deep division in the Isma’ilite. Al‐Mosta’la, the younger son of al‐Mustansir Billāh, and the husband of the vizier’s sister, could ascend to the throne with the help of the vizier. Following that, the Isma’ilites divided into the Nizarite and Mosta’valite. The Persians who believed in Nizar’s caliphate became known as the Persian Nazirites. In that sect, Hassan bin Sabah, a leading, complicated figure and a patriot as well, took a military stance to fight the Seljuk after the conquest of the Alamut castle, and adopted murdering as a method for meeting political and military goals. He had a particular perspective on the Islamic canon law and interpreted it in favor of his power interests.
The brutality by Hassan bin Sabah caused that period to be known as the violent era of the Isma’ilites. After that period and the annihilation of the Alamut castle by the Mongols, Aqa‐khani Isma’ilites, a branch of Nizarite Isma’ilites, took a different way and adopted modernity as a new strategy because they were defeated, from a political point of view, and even assassination could not help reach their wants. Hence, the period can be called the Isma’ilite era of modernity.
In that period, as a reformist politician, the third Aqa‐khan, the Isma’ilites’ imam, became an international figure, and the fourth Aqa‐khan, besides following on his father’s footsteps, strengthened his position with modernity by expanding networks of social, economic and cultural development. In fact, the Nizarite Isma’ilites took a violent strategy in order to gain power and fight the Arab and Turks’ religiopolitical domination; however, because they were defeated, a modernist strategy was pursued by their Aqa‐khani branch.
This claim is investigated with a descriptive‐analytic method and by means of library resources through analyzing the history of the movement of Nizarite Isma’ilites and explaining their strategies to gain power and fight the Arab and Turks’ religio‐political domination.