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al-Ḥusayn b. Zikrawayh, Abū al-ʿAbbās (264–291/878–904), one of the leaders of the Qarmaṭī movement in Syria. He also became known as Ṣāḥib al-Shāma or Ṣāḥib al-Khāl which referred to his having a birthmark on his face (Thābit, 19; Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughya, 2/926; al-Nuwayrī, 25/249). His name and lineage have also been recorded as Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl b. Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughya, 2/926; cf. al-Maqrīzī, al-Muqaffā, 3/292), which is said to have been forged by him in order to gain notoriety and respectability by claiming descent fro…

Ḥujja is one of the highest ranks in the religious hierarchy of the Ismaili daʿwa or the ḥudūd al-dīn. Before the Fāṭimid era, the Ismailis believed (in a fashion similar to the Ithnāʿasharīs) that in every age God appointed a ḥujja upon the earth in the form of a prophet, messenger or Imam (Jaʿfar, al-Kashf, 31; al-Nīsābūrī, 33; Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī, Kashf, 77–79; idem, Iftikhār, 167–169). However, especially after Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl, the term increasingly came to be used as a rank within the Ismaili religious hierarchy to denote an individual w…

al-Ḥāmidī, Ibrāhīm b. al-Ḥusayn b. Abī al-Suʿūd (d. Shaʿbān 557/July 1162), was the second dāʿī muṭlaq (see q.v dāʿī) of the Ṭayyibī Ismailis in Yemen. He provided the Ṭayyibī esoteric metaphysical system of thought ( ḥaqāʾiq) with a philosophical foundation that was largely grounded in the Rasāʾil of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, in particular al-Risāla al-jāmiʿa and the works of Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī (d. after 411/1020), together with a variety of gnostic teachings. In doing so, he propounded a new framework for Ismaili philosophical theology and set…

al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī Ṣāḥib Fakhkh (d. 169/785), Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan (known as al-Ḥasan al-Muthallath) b. al-Ḥasan (known as al-Ḥasan al-Muthannā) b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, known as Ṣāḥib Fakhkh (‘He of the Battle of Fakhkh’) and Qatīl Fakhkh (‘The One Slain at the Battle of Fakhkh’). He was a descendant of Imam al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī and led a failed uprising during the reign of the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Hādī (r. 169–170/785–786).His father was known as ʿAlī al-ʿĀbid (lit. ʿAlī the Worshipper), and ʿAlī al-Khayr (ʿAlī the Good), while his mother Z…

Ḥamza b. ʿAlī b. Aḥmad al-Zūzanī (d. first half of the 5th/11th century), regarded as the founder of the Druze (q.v.) religion. According to Druze sources, Ḥamza was born on the eve of 23 Rabīʿ I 375/13 August 985, on the birthday of al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh (see Ibn al-Qalānisī, 80), the sixth Fāṭimid imam-caliph, in Zūzan (today a dependency of Khwāf County, Khurāsān, Iran) (see Yāqūt, 2/958). Before he began to preach, he was a feltmaker known as ‘al-Labbād’ (the feltmaker) (ʿAnnān, 197; Surūr, 96). It is very likely that he was raised in his hometow…

BackgroundA cyclical view of history is found in the teachings of many religious traditions, but the Ismaili notion of adwār probably goes back to similar doctrines held by the early Shiʿi ghulāt of the 2nd–3rd/8th–9th centuries (see al-Juʿfī, 39–40; Asatryan, 28, 30–31, 33, 41–42; Daftary, The Assassin, 12). The earliest mention of such ideas is found among the teachings of ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥarb (Ḥārith) al-Kindī, founder of the extremist group known as the Ḥarbiyya (or Ḥārithiyya) in the first half of the 2nd/8th century. The Mukhammisa and …

Ḥammawayh, Abū Jaʿfar Ḥammawayh b. ʿAlī, known as Ḥammawayh Kūsih (‘the Shark’), was a notable military commander of the Sāmānid dynasty (204–395/819–1005) and the military governor of Khurāsān during the reign of the Sāmānid Naṣr II (r. 301–31/913–42). While Ḥammawayh played a pivotal role in consolidating Naṣr II’s power, relatively little information survives concerning the details of his early life, other than the fact that he was originally from the village of Farīmān in Isfarāyin (see Khalīfa Nīsābūrī, 216; al-Thaʿālabī, 4/437).Ḥammawayh first appears in the historica…

Ḥasan ʿalā dhikrihi al-salām (r. 557–561/1162–1166) was the fourth leader of the Nizārī Ismaili state. Ḥasan, who may also be referred to as Ḥasan II, but to whom the Nizārīs themselves referred with the expression ʿalā dhikrihī al-salām (on his mention be peace), was born in Alamūt. According to non-Ismaili historical accounts, he was originally believed to be the son of Muḥammad b. Buzurg-Umīd (r. 532–557/1138–1162), the third lord of Alamūt (Juwaynī, 3/222; Rashīd al-Dīn, 162; Kāshānī, 199; Mīrkhwānd, 643). However, the Nizārīs do not accept this as his lineage and in…

Ḥamza b. Ādharak al-Khārijī (d. 206/821 or 213/828), also known as Ḥamza al-Shārī, was one of the leaders of the Khārijī rebellion in Sīstān and established the Ḥamziyya branch of the Khārijī movement. He united the various Khārijī groups in eastern Iran under a single banner and killed several ʿAbbāsid officials, disrupting the flow of tax from the region to the ʿAbbāsid treasury.Al-Jāḥiẓ gives Ḥamza’s name as Abū Khuzayma (4/24). Ḥamza was the son of a farmer whose name is recorded in various sources as either Atarak, Akarak, or Adarak (see al-Ṭabarī,…