Keywords: Da‘wa in Yemen, Da‘wa in Maghrib, Fatimid caliphateThe Muslim political institution or state centred around the caliph, which came to an end, historically, in 1924 with the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire., al-Mahdi
The writer argues that imam al-Mahdi intended Yemen to be the seat of the imamat, giving political as well as topographical reasons for this preference. But certain unforseen developments in Yemen at that time caused a change in plans, and instead of going to Yemen, al-Mahdi proceeded to the Maghrib. The factors behind this change and the effects of this change are discussed in the article as well as the key role of imam al-Mahdi, and his predecessors at SalamiyyaA city in central Syria, which was the residence of several early Ismaili imams in the pre-Fatimid period., in Syria, in driving the Ismaili da’wa of the period.
Author
Dr Shainool Jiwa
Head of Constituency Studies Research Unit and Associate Professor
Dr Shainool Jiwa is a specialist in Fatimid studies, and an Associate Professor at ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¸£Àû¹ú²ú. Dr Jiwa’s latest publication, The FatimidsMajor Muslim dynasty of Ismaili caliphs in North Africa (from 909) and later in Egypt (973–1171) More 2: The Rule from Egypt (2023), is a World of Islam series title, for which she also serves as the series General Editor. She is the author of The Fatimids: The Rise of a Muslim Empire (2018), and co-editor of The Shi‘i World: Pathways in Tradition and Modernity (2015), and The Fatimid Caliphate: Diversity of TraditionsÌý(2017).
