This chapter, except for the section on the Hazaras in the early Ismaili literature, has already been published under the title of ‘The Shi‘a Ismaʿili Da‘wat in Khurasan: From Its Early Beginning to the Ghaznawid Era’, at the Journal of Shʿia Islamic Studies, 2015, Vol. VIII, No. 1, pp. 37-59. In several qaṣīdas of his dīwān (1956), Farrukhī praises Sulṭān Maḥmūd Ghaznawī as the King of Zāwulistān. For further details see, Baiza, Y. (2014) The Hazaras of Afghanistan and their Shiʿa Orientation. Morgan also states that Yaʿqūb Ṣaffār “incorporated the Kharijites into his forces on terms favourable to them and then extended his power both eastwards into modern Afghanistan and westwards into Persia” (Morgan, 1988:20). The land of ancient Sīstān included Kashmīr in the east, Sindh in the south, Kirmān in the west, and Asfzār or Aspzār (the Sabzwār or the Shīndand of modern-day Hirāt province of Afghanistan) in the north. The Ṭāhirids were natives of Bādghīs, a north-western province of modern-day Afghanistan. It is worth highlighting that the term dāʿī in the Ismaili history is widely connected with the Fatimid Ismaili daʿwa school.
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The Fatimid caliphs-imams developed the daʿwa into a highly organized system and disciplined school, in which the term dāʿī also referred to a specific rank in the Fatimid religious hierarchy. However, prior to the Fatimid caliphate, the term dāʿī was equally applicable to those who summoned people towards the Ismaili imams of the time. The ʿAbbāsids also used the term daʿwa and dāʿī during the Umayyad period, although they never developed a daʿwa system in the same way as the Fatimid imams-caliphs did it. According to al-Ṭabarī’s account, Yaḥyā ibn Zayd was killed in a village of Gūzgānān or Jūzjān of modern-day Afghanistan in 125/742 (al-Ṭabarī, 1996, Vol. X:4342). Farhad Daftary believes that Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl spent the final years of his life in Khūzistān, where he did around 179/795-6 (Daftary, EI2). However, Idrīs ʿImād al-Dīn locates Farghānah as the original burial place of Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl, whose corpse was then believed to have been taken to Cairo during the Fatimid caliphate (Idrīs ʿImad al-Dīn, 2007, Vol. IV:510). The ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Saffāḥ (r. 750-4) and his brother and successor Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr al-Dawānīqī (r. 754-75) both feared the power, charisma and bravery of Abū Muslim Khurāsānī, and wanted him to be killed at any price. It is believed that al-Saffāḥ sent his Arab assassin Sabāʿ ibn Abī Nuʿmān al-Azdī to kill Abū Muslim and instigate Ziyād ibn Ṣāliḥ, Abū Muslim’s governor of Sughd and Bukhara, to rebel against his master. Abū Muslim was informed about the plot, which he …show more content…
For further details see Tamīm Bagdādī, Al-Farq bayn al-Firaq, 195-98 Maʿrūfī Balkhī’s poem gives evidence to Rūdakī’s Ismaili faith. The former narrates in one of his poems that, “I heard from Rūdakī, the Sulṭān of poets, saying that do not pledge your [loyalty] to anyone other than the Fatimids” (Awfī, 1903, Vol. 2:6). For a list of converted Samanid dignitaries, see Stern, 1960, The Early Ismā 'īlī Missionaries. See Anṣūrī Balkhi, 1984, Dīwān; Farrukhī Sīstānī, 1956, Dīwān, qaṣīdas no. 132, 263-265. Farrukhī Sīstānī, qaṣīda no. 5, retrieved from Ganjoor. For further details on Abū Yaʿqūb’s life and death, see, Walker “Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī”, in: Internet Encyclopedia of
The Fatimid caliphs-imams developed the daʿwa into a highly organized system and disciplined school, in which the term dāʿī also referred to a specific rank in the Fatimid religious hierarchy. However, prior to the Fatimid caliphate, the term dāʿī was equally applicable to those who summoned people towards the Ismaili imams of the time. The ʿAbbāsids also used the term daʿwa and dāʿī during the Umayyad period, although they never developed a daʿwa system in the same way as the Fatimid imams-caliphs did it. According to al-Ṭabarī’s account, Yaḥyā ibn Zayd was killed in a village of Gūzgānān or Jūzjān of modern-day Afghanistan in 125/742 (al-Ṭabarī, 1996, Vol. X:4342). Farhad Daftary believes that Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl spent the final years of his life in Khūzistān, where he did around 179/795-6 (Daftary, EI2). However, Idrīs ʿImād al-Dīn locates Farghānah as the original burial place of Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl, whose corpse was then believed to have been taken to Cairo during the Fatimid caliphate (Idrīs ʿImad al-Dīn, 2007, Vol. IV:510). The ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Saffāḥ (r. 750-4) and his brother and successor Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr al-Dawānīqī (r. 754-75) both feared the power, charisma and bravery of Abū Muslim Khurāsānī, and wanted him to be killed at any price. It is believed that al-Saffāḥ sent his Arab assassin Sabāʿ ibn Abī Nuʿmān al-Azdī to kill Abū Muslim and instigate Ziyād ibn Ṣāliḥ, Abū Muslim’s governor of Sughd and Bukhara, to rebel against his master. Abū Muslim was informed about the plot, which he …show more content…
For further details see Tamīm Bagdādī, Al-Farq bayn al-Firaq, 195-98 Maʿrūfī Balkhī’s poem gives evidence to Rūdakī’s Ismaili faith. The former narrates in one of his poems that, “I heard from Rūdakī, the Sulṭān of poets, saying that do not pledge your [loyalty] to anyone other than the Fatimids” (Awfī, 1903, Vol. 2:6). For a list of converted Samanid dignitaries, see Stern, 1960, The Early Ismā 'īlī Missionaries. See Anṣūrī Balkhi, 1984, Dīwān; Farrukhī Sīstānī, 1956, Dīwān, qaṣīdas no. 132, 263-265. Farrukhī Sīstānī, qaṣīda no. 5, retrieved from Ganjoor. For further details on Abū Yaʿqūb’s life and death, see, Walker “Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī”, in: Internet Encyclopedia of