Abstract:
Ismailis have experienced several schisms in their religious history. The most important of these separations occurred in 487 AH over the succession of al-Mustansir Billah (427-487 AH), the eighth Fatimid Caliph, whereby one group of Ismailis accepted the imamate and caliphate of Ahmad and became known as Mustali (Mustaliyya), while another group supported the imamate of Nizar and became known as Nizari. The Mustali Ismailis, who were supported by the Fatimid Caliphate after this separation, again faced disagreement in 524 AH over the succession of al-Amir (495-524 AH). One group believed in the imamate of Abd al-Majid al-Hafiz (526-544 AH), the cousin of al-Amir, and considered the Fatimid Caliphs as Imams from that time until the end of the Fatimid rule, earning the title Hafizi; another group believed in the imamate and occultation of al-Amir's young son, known as Tayyib, and gained fame as Tayyibi. This latter sect, which no longer had a place in Egypt due to the official Fatimid Da'wah apparatus accepting the imamate of Abd al-Majid al-Hafiz, was able to survive with the support of the Sulayhid government of Yemen, especially Queen Sayyida al-Arwa, who had been active in southern Arabia as a Fatimid proxy for a long time. They even remained in this land for some time after the fall of the Sulayhid state in Yemen and eventually moved to India when conditions allowed. In this context, Tayyib assumed an important role and position as the last Imam and Mahdi of the Ismailis, which this article examines through his life.
Machine summary:
This latter sect, which no longer had a place in Egypt due to the official Fatimid Da'wa apparatus accepting the imamate of Abd al-Majid al-Hafiz, was able to survive with the support of the Sulayhid government of Yemen, especially Queen Sayyida al-Arwa, who had been active in southern Arabia as a Fatimid proxy for a long time.
Nizar, who had received the designation of imamate from al-Mustansir and was expected to ascend the throne of imamate after him, was about fifty years old at the time of his father's death; however, Abul Qasim Shahanshah, who is better known by his title Afdal al-Jumali, had become the powerful minister and commander-in-chief (Amir al-Juyush) of the Fatimid state a few months earlier instead of his father Badr al-Jamali, and at the moment of Caliph al-Mustansir's death, he was completely in control of all matters that were in his father's hands, had another plan in mind.
The oldest and most important of these sources is the book "Tarikh Misr" (History of Egypt) by Abu Abd Allah Taj al-Din Muhammad bin Ali bin Yusuf bin Shahanshah, known as Ibn Muyassar, an Egyptian historian of the seventh century AH, who passed away in the year 677 AH.
This crisis caused the Musta'lis to split into two groups, Hafizi and Tayyibi, and thus the Yemeni Da'wa, under the high leadership of Queen Sayyida and her Da'i al-Du'at, Zhu'ayb ibn Musa, separated from the Fatimid Da'wa in Egypt, which was then supporting the Imamate of al-Hafiz, and began a new era, a Da'wa that continued even after the fall of the Sulayhid state.
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