ABSTRACT
The Isma‘ili movement is named after Isma‘il, the eldest son of the sixth Shi‘ite imam Ja‘far al-Sádiq (d. 765). Ja‘far, who believed that each new imam must be designated by the incumbent imam under divine command or inspiration,1 publicly declared Isma‘il to be his successor. It so happened that Isma‘il died before his father, throwing the pro-‘Alid party into confusion. How could an infallible and omniscient imam err in such a critical matter as designation?2 After a brief period of soul-searching, the majority of Shi‘ites turned to Ja‘far’s eldest surviving son, ‘Abdallah. Alas, he too died a few weeks after the nomination. As we have learned from the previous chapter, many, but not all, of the Shi‘ites then accepted Ja‘far’s other son, Músa al-Kázim, as the seventh imam. However, this solution turned out to be unacceptable to some members of the pro-‘Alid party, who believed in the infallibility of the nominating imam, that is, Ja‘far al-Sádiq. Seven being a magic number in the Islamic tradition, some of them decided that Isma‘il’s apparent demise was a ruse on the part of God to conceal him from the hostile attention of the ‘Abbásid authorities in order to prepare the grounds for his triumphal return as the divinely guided redeemer (máhdi), or the “riser” (al-qá’im)3, to redress the many wrongs of this world, and then to proceed to reward those who remained faithful to him and to punish the unfaithful.
