Читать книгу A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate онлайн

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In the teaching of most of the Shiʿites it is believed that some deceased Imam was an incarnation of deity, and it is he who, not really dead as men suppose, has passed into concealment, to return again in the fulness of time, when this evil age in which the true Khalifate no longer exists has passed away. Meanwhile there is no valid Khalif or Imam upon earth, but only some Shah or king who acts as vicegerent of the hidden Imam until his return.

This digression serves to show us how strongly Persian thought always has inclined towards the idea of a divine incarnation in the honoured religious teacher, and towards that of transmigration of the soul from one such teacher to his successor. In the 3rd century A.H. probably no sect which did not hold such theories could have obtained a favourable hearing amongst the Persians who found Islam of the Arab type unsatisfying, and every radical religious movement was necessarily compelled to assume at least the externals of Shiʿism.

The Shiʿite party organised by ʿAbdullah is known by various names. It is called Ismaʿilian as representing the party adhering to Ismaʿil, the son of Jaʿfar as-Sadiq, and his son Muhammad, as against those who continued the succession of the Imamate through Musa; but the name is not strictly accurate as it seems that there was an Ismaʿilian sect proper existing before ʿAbdullah, and that his re-organisation was so drastic that we may regard the continuity as being severed; and it seems certain that some part of the earlier sect continued to exist independent of his reforms. It was, no doubt, its attachment to a deceased or “hidden” Imam which made it a more promising field for the advocates of a speculative philosophy than any sect whose Imam was living and might dissociate himself from the doctrines held. It was also called the Sabʿiya or “Seveners” because it accepted seven Imams, and also because it attached a sacred significance to the numeral seven; there were seven prophets, seven Imams, seven Mahdis, seven grades of initiation (afterwards changed to nine), etc. In many respects Sabʿiya is the most accurate name, but it is open to the same objection as Ismaʿilian. More commonly its members are called Fatimites as recognising Fatimid Imams who claimed descent from ʿAli and Fatima: but this, although convenient because of its frequent use amongst mediaeval Arabic writers, is peculiarly inaccurate. The Ithna ʿashariya or sect of “Twelvers” was equally Fatimite, and so were the Zaydites, indeed these last were the true Fatimites as holding that any person descended from ʿAli and Fatima might be a valid Imam: but common usage allows the use of “Fatimites” for the sect organised by ʿAbdullah. Another name is Batinites or advocates of an allegorical interpretation, but this also applies to other Shiʿite groups. Sometimes they are called Qarmatians, but this name is only applicable to one branch of the sect which originated in the district of Sawad between Basra and Kufa, and should be reserved for that branch which at a later period became alienated from the main Ismaʿilian body.