ABSTRACT
At this juncture, a few words are in order concerning the name al-lsma'fliyya, which apparently was never used by the early lsma'Tiis themselves. This designation, as we shall see, owes its origins to the heresiographical works, notably those of al-Nawbab.ti and al-Qummi. The early Isma'ilis, when not referred to abusively as the Malabida, were normally denominated as Qarmatis or Batinis by their contemporaries. They themselves, however, seem to have designated their movement simply as al-da'wa, «the mission>>, or more formally as al-da'wa al-hadiya, «the rightly-guiding mission>>. 5
Such expressions, stressing the attitude of the sectarians towards their movement, continued to be utilized by the Isma<llis through the Fatimid and later times.
