ABSTRACT
The early success of the Ismaili movement culminated in the foundation of the Fatimid caliphate in 297/909. The religio-political da'wa of the Ismailis had finally led to the establishment of a state or dawla headed by the Ismaili imam of the time. The Ismaili da'wa flourished in many parts of Persia when the Sunni Seljuqs succeeded the Shi'i Buyids as the overlords of the Abbasids. Hasan also founded an Ismaili state in the very midst of the Seljuq sultanate. The death of the Great Seljuq Sultan Mohammad Tapar was followed by another period of internal strife and dynastic disputes in the Seljuq camp. By the final years of Hasan-e Sabbah, who died after a brief illness in 518/1124, the Ismaili-Seljuq relations, as observed by Marshall Hodgson, had in effect entered a new phase of 'stalemate'. The great Seljuq offensives against the Ismailis had clearly ended on Mohammad Tapar's death.
