خلاصه ماشینی:
ESEARCHES into the history of Isma'ilism and its literature, first initiated by Griffini, Goldziher, Massignon and other masters, are carried on in our own times by such scholars as Ivan ow, Zahid 'Ali, Hasan Ibrahim Hasan, Fyzee and Paul Kraus, with the result that a huge mass of literature, which was once relegated to obli• vion, is being gradually brought to light for the benefit of Islamic scholarship.
As in Manichaeism,' the development of the world takes place as if in a circle: it begins with the First Intelligence, reaches its lowest point in the origin of Evil and Matter.
Every Imam, either for reasons of minority or political contin• gency, has the right to appoint for his son a regent or trustee {mustawda'} who attends to the functions of the lmamah: At the later stage of the development of the Isma'Ili doctrine the teaching of the world history comprising six N atiqs and the Seventh Qa'im is widely enlarged.
Thus the Imam combines in his person both the lower and higher worlds; he corresponds to the highest Intelligence, and the human dignitaries below him correspond to the dignitaries of the Intelligible World, This arrangement of rhc dignitaries seems to have been different in the different periods of Isma'ili history.
. In the Rasa'il lkhwan a~-~afa these two terms occur several times, but not in the developed form that we find in the later Isma'Ili works.