The Ismaili Da'wa

Ibn al-Nadim, in the Fihrist, records a separate branch of learning on the Ismaili doctrines, their missionaries and their writers. ²

Among them are al-Nasafi, author of "The Title of Religion" and "The Foundations of the Law", and Abu Hatim al-Razi, author of the large "Zina" and the "Jami'". Among them too are Banu Hammad al-Mawasila, the proponents of the mission in al-Jazira and its surroundings, on behalf of Abu Ya'qub, deputy of the resident Imam at al-Ray, and they wrote books and attributed them to Abdan. ²

Ibn al-Nadim reports the story of Ibn Nafis, to whom the court was passed as a successor to Abu Ya'qub, and who was resented for it. Men from among the non-Arabs were sent who killed him secretly in his house. He also mentions al-Daylami, who competed with him for leadership. ³

The Ismailis have seven stages, each for a class according to the length of time they have been in the doctrine: the first for the common people, then those who joined one year, then two years, three, four, and the seventh, which holds the outcome of the doctrine and the greatest unveiling. Ibn al-Nadim says that he read it and found in it what he described as permitting what is forbidden and abolishing the laws. ⁴

Ibn al-Nadim says that the affair of the doctrine had waned for about twenty years and the missionaries had dwindled, after it had been open in the days of Mu'izz al-Dawla. ⁴

He calls them the Ismailis, the Batiniyya, the Qaramita, the Harmiyya, the Babakiyya, the Muhammira, the Sab'iyya and the Ta'limiyya. ⁵