The Empire of the Mahdi: The Rise of the Fatimids.

• Author: Daftary, Farhad

By HEINZ HALM. Translated from the German by MICHAEL BONNER. Handbook of Oriental Studies, the Near and Middle East, vol. 26. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1996. Pp. xiii + 452. HFI 260, $167.75.

After almost a century of clandestine activity by a number of obscure splinter groups, early Ismailism appeared on the historical stage around the middle of the third/ninth century as a dynamic and revolutionary religio-political movement. A large number of da is or missionaries propagated the doctrines of this Shi i movement, which aimed to uproot the Abbasid regime and install the Ismaili Imam al-Mahdi to the actual leadership of the Muslim community. At the time, the Ismaili da wa or mission was secretly and centrally directed from Salamiyya in Syria. In order to safeguard themselves against Abbasid persecutions, the principal leaders of the early Ismaili movement, who were members of the same Fatimid Alid family in the progeny of the Imam Ja far al-Sadiq (d. 148/765), adopted different guises to hide their true identity, which was initially known only to a handful of trusted associates. It was only in 286/899, shortly after the accession of Abd Allah (Ubayd Allah) al-Mahdi to the central leadership of the movement, that the identity of the early Ismaili leaders was divulged. In that year, Abd Allah al-Mahdi openly claimed the imamate of the Isma iliyya for himself and his ancestors, the same individuals who had actually organized and led the movement on a hereditary basis.

Abd Allah al-Mahdi's claims, and his imamate, were accepted by a faction of the Ismaili community, including those living in Yemen and north Africa, while the Ismailis of Iraq and Bahrayn and the bulk of those living in the Iranian lands refused to acknowledge al-Mahdi as well as his predecessors as their imams. As a result, the then unified Ismaili da wa and community was split into two rival factions, later designated as loyal Fatimid Ismallis and dissident Qarmatis, who never recognized the imamate of al-Mahdi and his successors in the Fatimid dynasty.

The Fatimid Ismaili camp soon achieved its greatest success in north Africa through the efforts of the da i Abu Abd Allah al-Shi i, who had been spreading the Ismaili message among the Kutama Berbers of the region for some two decades. In fact, the da i al-Shi i managed to organize the converted Berbers into a formidable fighting force, who readily overran Ifriqiya (modern-day Tunisia), preparing the ground for the establishment of...