Background

A 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…