Machine summary:
Preoccupation with the historical origin and development of the Fatimid-Ismaili da'wa has precluded any theoretical studies of the Fa timid concept of the state and political authority.
An ideally theocratic concept of the state was evolved in conjunction with the formulation of dogma, rendering the Fatimid creed, especially its aspect r , See, I vanow's edition and translation of Fatimid excerpts concerning the religious-political mission of the Imams in Rise of the Fatimids.
s In the Fatimid da'wa, apocalypse is crystallized into the propagation of a messianic idea centring around the "hidden imam" who will arise imminently as the saviour Mahdi.
w · The universal claims of the Fa timid State, then, are best exhibited in the Mahdi idea, a concept that has recurred in Muslim history until very recently.
In the absence of Qur'anic allusion to "Mahdism," Ibn-Khaldun-is-justified in basing his statement of the Mahdi idea upon the history of traditions woven around the concept.
The Imam Mahdis, as ideal theocratic rulers with a universal religious mission, had the very mystical political objective and aspiration of uniting Islam and the world under a universal state.
Both state and religion become universal, because the "faith will be all that of God," that is, Ismaili.
Khadduri, "The Juridical Theory of the Islamic State," The Muslim World, (July, 1951), 181-185.
w The theocracy in· the Fatimid State is therefore vicarious under successive Mahdis culminating in the seventh dawr, which is the "[ami' al-aduiar," Every theocratic ruler is a representative of God by virtue of his being a representative of the Prophet.