History, Scripture, and Practice in the Indo-Ismā‘īlī Tradition

Abstract

To date, the study of the Fāṭimid and Alamūt – Arabic and Persian – periods of the Shī‘ah Imāmī Ismā‘īlī Muslims has taken precedence over the study of the Indo-Ismā‘īlī period. For this reason, the present thesis will consider the ‘Indian’ phase of the tradition by focusing on their history, scripture, and practice. Throughout the thesis, several gināns (Indo-Ismā‘īlī devotional literature) orated by the Ismā‘īlī pīrs (Persian sing.: پير ‘preacher-saint’) will be used to illustrate the devotional aspects of the tradition. By examining the ginānic corpus, it will be argued that the pīrs consciously merged Indian (e.g., avatāra: incarnation) and Ismā‘īlī (e.g., Mahdī: “Lord of the Resurrection”) concepts to create a distinctive tradition (Satpanth: “the true path”) in the Indian milieu.