Hafizi Isma'ilism ( ar, حافظية, Ḥāfiẓiyya or , ) was a branch of
Musta'li Isma'ilism
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-S ...
that emerged as a result of a split in 1132. The Hafizis accepted the
Fatimid caliph
This is a list of an Arab dynasty, the Shi'ite caliphs of the Fatimid dynasty (909–1171). The Shi'ite caliphs were also regarded at the same time as the imams of the Isma'ili branch of Shi'a Islam.
Family tree of Fatimid caliphs
...
Abd al-Majid al-Hafiz li-Din Allah () and his successors as
imams
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, serve ...
, while the rival
Tayyibi
Tayyibi Isma'ilism is the only surviving sect of the Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism, the other being the extinct Hafizi branch. Followers of Tayyibi Isma'ilism are found in various Bohra communities: Dawoodi, Sulaymani, and Alavi.
The Tayyibi ...
branch rejected them as usurpers, favouring the succession of the imamate along the line of al-Hafiz's nephew,
al-Tayyib.
The Hafizi sect lost state backing and gradually disappeared after the fall of the
Fatimid Caliphate in 1171 and the conquest of the Fatimid-aligned dynasties of
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
by the
Sunni Ayyubid dynasty shortly after. The last remnants of the Hafizi branch are attested in the 14th century in Egypt and Syria, but had died out by the 15th century.
Origin: the Hafizi–Tayyibi schism
![Nizari-Hafizi-Tayyibi schism family tree](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Nizari-Hafizi-Tayyibi_schism_family_tree.svg)
The Hafizi branch of
Isma'ilism
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-S ...
has its origin in the assassination of the tenth
Fatimid
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...
caliph, and twentieth
Musta'li Isma'ili
imam,
al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah () on 7 October 1130. Al-Amir left only a six-month-old son,
al-Tayyib, to succeed him, with no designated regent or a serving
vizier
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...
who could assume that role. As a result, Abd al-Majid, a cousin of al-Amir and then the oldest surviving male of the dynasty, was proclaimed regent with the backing of a few of al-Amir's senior officials.
It is unclear, however, whether that regency was in the name of the infant al-Tayyib, who disappears completely from the record at this point. Modern scholars speculate that al-Tayyib may have died in infancy, possibly even before his father; but at least one contemporary anonymous Syrian source maintains that he was murdered on Abd al-Majid's orders. Instead of al-Tayyib, the new regime maintained that al-Amir had left a pregnant concubine, and that the caliph, having dreamed of his impending death, had declared this unborn child to be a son and his designated () successor, thus effectively bypassing al-Tayyib. What came of this pregnancy is likewise unclear, as different sources report that the concubine either bore a daughter or that the fetus could not be found. In the event, this concern proved moot, for within a fortnight of al-Amir's death, a military coup brought the strongman
Kutayfat to power. Kutayfat all but abolished the Fatimid regime, and began dismantling Isma'ilism as the official doctrine of the state. At this point, at the latest, al-Tayyib was eliminated. Kutayfat's regime was overthrown when he was assassinated by Fatimid loyalists on 8 December 1131. Abd al-Majid was released from his prison and restored as regent.
![Gold dinar of al-Hafiz li-Din Allah, AH 544](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Gold_dinar_of_al-Hafiz_li-Din_Allah%2C_AH_544.jpg)
Whether Abd al-Majid had previously harboured designs on the caliphate or not, the lack of an heir to al-Amir meant that the continuation of the Fatimid dynasty and the Isma'ili imamate required that he succeed as imam and caliph, since according to Isma'ili doctrine, "God does not leave the Moslem Community without an Imam to lead them on the right path". This was done in a decree () on 23 January 1132, whereby Abd al-Majid assumed the title ("Keeper of God's Religion"). For the first time in the Fatimid dynasty, power was not passed from father to son. This radical departure from established practice had to be addressed and justified. Thus the proclaimed al-Hafiz's right to the imamate, likening it to the sun, which had been briefly eclipsed by al-Amir's death and Kutayfat's usurpation, but had now reappeared in accordance with the divine purpose. No reference to any son of al-Amir was made. Al-Hafiz claimed that he had secretly received the designation () as successor by al-Amir, and that Caliph al-Mustansir had foreseen this event. Earlier examples of breaks in the direct succession of the imamate, chiefly the designation by
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
of his son-in-law
Ali ibn Abi Talib, were brought up to buttress his claim.
Al-Hafiz's accession produced a major schism in the Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism, between the adherents of the imamate of al-Tayyib (the "
Tayyibi
Tayyibi Isma'ilism is the only surviving sect of the Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism, the other being the extinct Hafizi branch. Followers of Tayyibi Isma'ilism are found in various Bohra communities: Dawoodi, Sulaymani, and Alavi.
The Tayyibi ...
s"), pitted against supporters of al-Hafiz and his successors (the "Hafizis"). Al-Hafiz was largely accepted by the Isma'ili faithful in the Fatimid-ruled domains in Egypt, Nubia, and the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
, but rebuffed by some of the Isma'ili communities abroad. Most notably, this was the case in the only other major Isma'ili-ruled region,
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
, where the hitherto staunchly pro-Fatimid
Sulayhid dynasty
The Sulayhid dynasty ( ar, بَنُو صُلَيْح, Banū Ṣulayḥ, lit=Children of Sulayh) was an Ismaili Shi'ite Arab dynasty established in 1047 by Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sulayhi that ruled most of historical Yemen at its peak. The Sulayh ...
broke up. The Sulayhid queen,
Arwa, upheld the rights of al-Tayyib, whose birth had been announced to her in a letter by al-Amir, while the regional dynasties of the
Hamdanids
The Hamdanid dynasty ( ar, الحمدانيون, al-Ḥamdāniyyūn) was a Twelver Shia Arab dynasty of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib Christian tribe of Mesopotamia and Eastern A ...
and the
Zurayids
The Zurayids (بنو زريع, Banū Zuraiʿ), were a Yamite Hamdani dynasty based in Yemen in the time between 1083 and 1174. The centre of its power was Aden. The Zurayids suffered the same fate as the Hamdanid sultans, the Sulaymanids and ...
recognized al-Hafiz's claims. The issue was not merely political, but, given the pivotal role of the imam in the Isma'ili faith, also intensely religious. In the words of Stern, "on it depended the continuity of institutional religion as well as the personal salvation of the believer". As Stern emphasizes, the issue was "not so much the person of the claimant that weighed with his followers
..(this is, of course, obvious in the case of the infant al-Tayyib) — it was the divine right personified in the legitimate heir that counted".
History
Inextricably bound to the Fatimid regime, the Hafizi sect survived until the
fall of the Fatimid Caliphate
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...
in 1171, but declined and disappeared quickly after, unlike its two rival branches, the Nizaris and Tayyibis, which survive to the present day.
Egypt
Hafizi Isma'ilism remained the state religion in Egypt until
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
proclaimed the suzerainty of the
Abbasid caliphs
The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib.
The family came to ...
over Egypt in September 1171. Upon the death of the imam–caliph
al-Adid
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ( ar, أبو محمد عبد الله بن يوسف; 1151–1171), better known by his regnal name al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh ( ar, العاضد لدين الله, , Strengthener of God's Faith), was th ...
shortly after, the members of the Fatimid family were placed under effective house arrest in the palace. Al-Adid's eldest son and designated heir,
Dawud, was recognized by the Hafizi faithful as the rightful imam, but he, like his own son and successor
Sulayman Badr al-Din, lived and died in captivity.
The mostly Hafizi Egyptian Isma'ilis were persecuted by the new
Ayyubid regime, with many fleeing to
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient E ...
. A series of abortive conspiracies and uprisings under pro-Fatimid sympathizers or Fatimid pretenders erupted in the 1170s and continued sporadically, with much diminished impact, until the end of the century. As a result of a pro-Fatimid conspiracy, which included several of the last Fatimid officials and the poet
Umara ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Yamani
Umāra ibn Abī al-Ḥasan al-Yamanī ( ar, عمارة بن ابي الحسن اليمني) was a historian, jurist and poet of Yemen of great repute who was closely associated with the late Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. He was executed by order of S ...
, in Cairo in 1174, many of the supporters of the deposed dynasty were exiled to Upper Egypt, which became a hotbed of pro-Fatimid activity. A rebellion erupted there in late summer 1174, under
Kanz al-Dawla, but was suppressed. In 1176/7 a pretender claiming to be Dawud found wide support in
Qift
Qift ( arz, قفط ; cop, Ⲕⲉϥⲧ, link=no ''Keft'' or ''Kebto''; Egyptian Gebtu; grc, Κόπτος, link=no ''Coptos'' / ''Koptos''; Roman Justinianopolis) is a small town in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about north of Luxor, situated un ...
in northern Egypt. By 1188, however, an attempted uprising by a small group who called out the Shi'a cry 'Family of Ali' during the night, found no response from the people of Cairo. When the real Dawud died as a prisoner in Cairo in 1207/8, the Hafizis asked the Ayyubid sultan
al-Adil I
Al-Adil I ( ar, العادل, in full al-Malik al-Adil Sayf ad-Din Abu-Bakr Ahmed ibn Najm ad-Din Ayyub, ar, الملك العادل سيف الدين أبو بكر بن أيوب, "Ahmed, son of Najm ad-Din Ayyub, father of Bakr, the Just ...
for permission to mourn him in public. The sultan granted them permission, but used the occasion to arrest their ''
da'is'' and confiscate their property.
Despite the separation of male and female prisoners, Dawud apparently managed to beget two sons in secret, the eldest of whom, Sulayman, was recognized by the Hafizi faithful as his successor. Sulayman ibn Dawud died in 1248, apparently childless, but some of his partisans claimed that he had a son who was hidden. As late as 1298, a pretender claiming to be the son of Sulayman ibn Dawud appeared in Upper Egypt, but by this time the Hafizis—and Isma'ilism in general—had been reduced to small isolated enclaves. Still later, about the year 1324, an Isma'ili (and likely Hafizi) community is recorded in Usfun in Upper Egypt, and in Syria a Hafizi community is mentioned at the same time in the Baqi'a mountains near Safad. The last traces of these Hafizi communities are lost towards the end of the
Mamluk period.
Yemen
![Yemen_1160_AD](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Yemen_1160_AD.jpg)
Soon after the split, the Zurayid ruler
Saba ibn Abu'l-Su'ud declared himself as the Hafizi ''
dāʿī'' in Yemen, thus becoming the head of the Hafizi community there. By the time of his death in 1138, he had eliminated the rival branches of his family and established his rule over the city and hinterland of
Aden. His successors were officially recognized as ''dāʿī''s by Cairo and invested with honorific titles by al-Hafiz. The Zurayid dynasty lasted until the Ayyubid invasion of 1173. The last members of the clan held out in the fortress of Dumluwa until 1188, but they finally sold it to the Ayyubids and left Yemen for
Abyssinia
The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...
.
Further north, Hafizi Isma'ilism was also adopted by some of the Hamdanids of
Sana'a
Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Gover ...
.
Himas ibn al-Qubayb
In Greek mythology, Himas or Himantes was the father of Plouto and grandfather of Tantalus.Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 155
Note
References
* Gaius Julius Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the schola ...
and his son Hatim were the first Hamdanid rulers to declare for the Hafiziyya. After Hatim ibn Himas' death in 1138, the dynasty collapsed in internal feuds, but was reunited by
Hatim ibn Ahmad ibn Imran and his son
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
. Both engaged in warfare with the
Zaydi
Zaydism (''h'') is a unique branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali‘s unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. In contrast to other Shia Muslims of Twelver Shi'ism and Isma'ilism, Zaydis, ...
imamate of
Saada
Saada ( ar, صَعْدَة, translit=Ṣaʿda), a city and ancient capital in the northwest of Yemen, is the capital and largest city of the province of the same name, and the county seat of the county of the same name. The city is located in the ...
, while Ali also attacked the Tayyibis under
Hatim ibn Ibrahim al-Hamidi in 1166–1169, pushing them out from
Shibam Kawkaban
Shibam Kawkaban ( ar, شبام كَوْكَبَان, Shibām Kawkabān)
is a double town in Shibam Kawkaban District, Al Mahwit Governorate, Yemen, located 38 km west-northwest of Sanaa, the national capital. It consists of two distinct adjoin ...
into
Haraz. In 1173, Ali assisted the Zurayids in defeating the
Kharijite ruler of
Zabid
Zabid ( ar, زَبِيد) (also spelled Zabīd, Zabeed and Zebid) is a town with an urban population of around 52,590 people on Yemen's western coastal plain. It is one of the oldest towns in Yemen, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since ...
,
Abd al-Nabi. Soon after his return, he confronted the Ayyubid invasion of Yemen. He lost Sana'a in 1174, but soon recovered it and held it until 1189. Ali and his brothers continued to contest control over the northern part of the country around Sana'a until the early 13th century.
The slow and gradual Ayyubid conquest allowed Hafizi Isma'ilism to survive for some time in Yemen, as related by Ali's grandson, Badr al-Din Muhammad
Ibn Hatim Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥātim al-Hamdānī, commonly known simply as Ibn Hatim, was a 13th-century official and historian in Yemen, under the Rasulid dynasty.
Very little is known about Ibn Hatim's life, all of which is gleaned from his chie ...
, who died . For a while it remained prominent enough that the fifth leader of the Yemeni Tayyibis,
Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid (died 1215), composed a treatise attacking them and their doctrines. Unlike the Tayyibis, the Yemeni Hafizis apparently did not extend their activities to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
List of Hafizi imams
#
Hasan ibn Ali
Hasan ibn Ali ( ar, الحسن بن علي, translit=Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī; ) was a prominent early Islamic figure. He was the eldest son of Ali and Fatima and a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He briefly ruled as caliph from Jan ...
(661–669)
#
Husayn ibn Ali (669–680)
#
Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin
ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn ( ar, علي بن الحسين زين العابدين), also known as al-Sajjād (, ) or simply as Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (), , was an Imam in Shiʻi Islam after his father Husayn ibn Ali, his uncle Hasan ...
(680–713)
#
Muhammad al-Baqir
Muḥammad al-Bāqir ( ar, مُحَمَّد ٱلْبَاقِر), with the full name Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, also known as Abū Jaʿfar or simply al-Bāqir () was the fifth Imam in Shia Islam, succee ...
(713–733)
#
Ja'far al-Sadiq
Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣādiq ( ar, جعفر بن محمد الصادق; 702 – 765 CE), commonly known as Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (), was an 8th-century Shia Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian.. He was the founder of th ...
(733–765)
#
Isma'il ibn Ja'far
Abū Muḥammad Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar al-Mubārak ( ar, إسماعيل بن جعفر; c.719 AD – c.762 AD) was the eldest son of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq. He is also known as Isma'il al-Ãraj ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq (اسماعيل الاعرج ...
(765–775)
#
Muhammad ibn Isma'il
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl (), also known in his own time as al-Maymūn and hence sometimes incorrectly identified as Maymūn al-Qaddāḥ, was the son of Isma'il ibn Ja'far; he was an Ismāʿīlī Imam. The majority of Ism ...
(775–813)
#
Abadullah ibn Muhammad (Ahmad al-Wafi), died 829, ''Da'i'' and "hidden Imam", son of Muhammad ibn Isma'il according to Fatimid Isma'ili tradition
#
Ahmad ibn Abadullah (Muhammad at-Taqi), died 840, ''Da'i'' and "hidden Imam"
#
Husayn ibn Ahmad (Radi Abdullah), died 909, ''Da'i'' and "hidden Iman"
#
Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah, died 934, ''Da'i'' who openly declared himself as Imam, 1st Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, died 946, 2nd Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah
Abu Tahir Isma'il ( ar, أبو طاهر إسماعيل, Abū Ṭāhir ʾIsmāʿīl; January 914 – 18 March 953), better known by his regnal name al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah (), was the third caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya, ruling from ...
, died 953, 3rd Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, died 975, 4th Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Aziz Billah, died 996, 5th Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, 6th Fatimid Caliph, disappeared 1021
#
Al-Zahir li-i'zaz Din Allah
Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥākim ( ar, أبو الحسن علي ابن الحاكم; 20 June 1005 – 13 June 1036), better known with his regnal name al-Ẓāhir li-iʿzāz Dīn Allāh ( ar, الظاهر لإعزاز دين الله, ...
, died 1036, 7th Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Mustansir Billah, died 1094, 8th Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Musta'li Billah, died 1101, 9th Fatimid Caliph, son of Al-Mustansir Billah
#
Al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah, died 1130, 10th Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Hafiz li-Din Allah, died 1149, 11th Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Zafir bi-Amr Allah, died 1154, 12th Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Fa'iz bi-Nasr Allah
Abūʾl-Qāsim ʿĪsā ibn al-Ẓāfir ( ar, أبو القاسم عيسى بن الظافر; 1149–1160), better known by his regnal name al-Fāʾiz bi-Naṣr Allāh (), was the thirteenth and penultimate Fatimid caliph, reigning in Egypt from 1 ...
, died 1160, 13th Fatimid Caliph
#
Al-Adid li-Din Allah, died 1171, 14th and last Fatimid Caliph; at his death,
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
abolished the Fatimid regime
#
Dawud al-Hamid li-'llah, died in prison under the
Ayyubid dynasty in 1208
#
Sulayman Badr al-Din, died in prison under the
Ayyubid dynasty in 1248, without issue, ending the line of Hafizi imams
See also
*
List of extinct Shia sects
The following is a list of extinct unorthodox movements within Shia Islam. These are movements that no longer have any living followers or practitioners. These movements were created around certain beliefs that were unorthodox and not held by th ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
{{Portal bar, Islam, Fatimid Caliphate, Egypt
Islam in the Fatimid Caliphate
Egypt under the Fatimid Caliphate
Islamic history of Yemen