Keywords: Ismaili,听Shi鈥榓,听taqiyyaPrecautionary dissimulation of one’s religious beliefs, especially in time of persecution or danger, a practice especially adopted by the Shi’i Muslims.,听Imamah,听Imam聽鈥楢li,听Caliphate, Fatimid, Abbasid, Ahl alBayt,听da鈥榳a,听shari鈥榓,听dawr al-satrLit. 鈥榩eriod of concealment鈥. Al-Q膩岣嵞 al-Nu士m膩n (d. 974) uses the term dawr al-satr to refer to the period of around 150 years in which the Isma鈥榠li imams were hidden from…,听AlamutFortress of the Nizari Ismailis in northern Iran, which fell to the Mongols in 654 AH/1256 CE., Nizari, Musta鈥榣i, Zaydi,听tawhid,听ta鈥檞il,听hadith,听batin,听zahir,听haqa鈥檌q, 鈥榠lm,听al-AzharA major mosque and institution of learning founded in Cairo by the Fatimid Imam-caliph al-Mu士izz (d. 975).,听wazier, alQahira,听mahdi,听IfriqiyaMediaeval Muslim name for modern-day Tunisia; also the area where the Fatimids founded their state in the early tenth century.,听da鈥榠,听Imam聽Ja鈥榝ar al-Sadiq,听Pir, Nasir-i Khusraw,听ginan, Safavid,听Aga KhanA title granted by the Shah of Persia to the then Ismaili Imam in 1818 and inherited by each of his successors to the Imamate.,听nur, qiyamah, ta鈥榣im, 鈥榰lama.
The history of Ismailism is best understood as the embodiment of one response, among others, to the message contained in the Islamic revelation.
Author
Professor Azim Nanji
Azim Nanji is currently Special Advisor to the Provost of the聽, and a member of the Board of Directors of the聽聽in Ottawa, a joint partnership between His Highness the Aga Khan and the Government of Canada. He has held many prestigious academic and administrative appointments, most recently as Senior Associate Director of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at聽, where he was also lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies. From 1998 to 2008, Professor Nanji served as Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London.
Professor Nanji has published numerous books and articles on religion, Islam and Ismailism, including:聽The Nizari Ismaili Tradition聽(1976),听The Muslim Almanac聽(1996),听Mapping Islamic Studies聽(1997) and聽The Historical Atlas of Islam聽(with M. Ruthven) (2004) and聽The Dictionary of Islam聽(with Razia Nanji), Penguin 2008. In addition, he has contributed numerous shorter studies and articles in journals and collective volumes including聽The Encyclopaedia of Islam,听Encyclopaedia Iranica,听Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, and聽A Companion to Ethics. He was the Associate Editor for the revised Second Edition of聽The Encyclopaedia of Religion.
Within the聽, he has served as a member of the task force for the聽聽(AKU-ISMC) and Vice Chair of the Madrasa-based Early Childhood Education Programme in East Africa. He served as a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1998, 2001 and 2016.鈥嬧