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Known as the “granary” of Rome in Pre-Islamic times, Egypt’s fertile agrarian base also enabled it to be the pre-eminent grower of flax in pre-modern times. In the Mediterranean and beyond, the country was by far the largest producer of linen, a commodity so vital that it not merely underpinned the textile industry but was also the linchpin of the whole economy.1 Most surviving Egyptian textiles are made of linen, twenty-two varieties of which are known from the Geniza docu ments.2 Linen,

Scholarship on the history and doctrines of Shi‘i Ismaili Muslims has progressed at a dizzying pace over the last few decades. Most publications in the field to date are historical studies of particular periods of Ismaili history analysing Ismailism’s socio-political activities, such as the famed Fatimid era or the Nizari state of Alamut. Relatively speaking, the study of Ismaili doctrine – theology, cosmology, hermeneutics and soteriology – remains in the early stages.

This essay explores the architectural history of Jerusalem in the Abbasid (751– 970) and Fatimid (970– 1036) periods. Compared to the time of the Umayyads (661– 750), Abbasid-era Jerusalem was characterized by a caliphal disinterest in the monuments of the holy city. However, it also saw growth in the identification between local populations and their respective religious monuments. This contest over sacred space culminated under the Fatimid dynasty, in the cataclysmic reign of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r.

This paper tries to investigate the Fatimid educational administration experience in Egypt. It starts by reviewing the historical conditions that paved the way for the establishment of this Ismā’īli state, as well as the principal foundations of their ideology. This is significant, because in medieval Islam administration of educational activities was part of an interconnected bureaucracy, in which education, religious sectarian preferences and politics were inseparable.

The Fatimid era is ubiquitous today in the discourse of the Nizari Ismaili imamate.1 Yet this was not always the case. As with other societies and religious communities the world over, the arrangement and presentation of history in the Ismaili tradition has evolved in the course of time, with new historiographical agendas and subjects of emphasis emerging or receding in response to changes in the political and social contexts. In this chapter the place of the Fatimids in the cultural memory of the Nizari Ismailis in the post-Mongol era will be explored.

The Khōjā are an Indic Muslim caste whose origins lie in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Punjab and Kashmir. Over the following centuries a section of the community began a migration down the Indus valley and eastward into Kutch and Kathiawar, located in present-day Gujarat. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century the community began to migrate as traders throughout the western Indian Ocean littoral, establishing trading networks from Zanzibar to China (Nānjiāṇī 1–40, 256).

As a key primary source for the history of the eleventh-century Isma‘ili majlis, the Fatimid chief missionary al-Mu’ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi’s autobiographical Sira offers a prime opportunity to consider the application of centralizing features of the Fatimid state in eleventh-century Buyid Shiraz. Previous studies on the Fatimid majlis have raised questions about an Isma‘ili core curriculum as well as the intended audience/s of Fatimid da‘wa teachings.

This extraordinary narrative account vividly depicts a declaration proclaimed on 8th August 11642, during the Islamic month of Ramaḍān just after noon in the mountain fortresses of Alamūt. The orator of this quite unprecedented address was none other than the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī Imām Ḥasan II, designated by the Ismāʿīlīs with the honorific title of ʿalā dhikrihi al-salām („upon whose remembrance be peace‟).

The Ismailis are one of the largest Muslim minority populations of Central Asia, and they make up the second largest Shiʿi Muslim community globally. First emerging in the second half of the 8th century, the Ismaili missionary movement spread into many areas of the Islamic world in the 10th century, under the leadership of the Ismaili Fatimids caliphs in Egypt. The movement achieved astounding success in Central Asia in the 10th century, when many of the political and cultural elites of the region were converted.

The Ismailis are one of the largest Muslim minority populations of Central Asia, and they make up the second largest Shiʿi Muslim community globally. First emerging in the second half of the 8th century, the Ismaili missionary movement spread into many areas of the Islamic world in the 10th century, under the leadership of the Ismaili Fatimids caliphs in Egypt. The movement achieved astounding success in Central Asia in the 10th century, when many of the political and cultural elites of the region were converted.

The disputes amongst the Khojas regarding the payment of dues, the use of common property, the management of the community came under the jurisdiction of the civil courts. This treatment of Khojas under the civil court has two genealogies, (1) the conception of colonial religious groups and (2) the secularization of state rule. I shall discuss these briefly below and then we will go on to the manner in which the Ginan were employed in this discussion

The disputes amongst the Khojas regarding the payment of dues, the use of common property, the management of the community came under the jurisdiction of the civil courts. This treatment of Khojas under the civil court has two genealogies, (1) the conception of colonial religious groups and (2) the secularization of state rule. I shall discuss these briefly below and then we will go on to the manner in which the Ginan were employed in this discussion

In 1090, Hasan-i Sabbah (1050s –1124), the mysterious leader of the Nizari Ismaʿilis in Persia, obtained control of Alamut Castle, one of the major existing castles in the northern part of Iran, and reinforced it as the headquarters of his activities against the Seljuq government. The Nizari Ismaʿilis gradually became a very influential community within the political and intellectual history of the Islamic world until the fall of Alamut in 1256.

The Khojki script is an Indian script whose origins are in Sindh (now southern Pakistan), a region that has witnessed the conflict between Islam and Hinduism for more than 1,200 years. After the gradual occupation of the region by Muslims from the 8th century onwards, the region underwent significant cultural changes.

Ginans are devotional songs rooted in the musical and poetic matrix of Indian culture. The term "ginan" carries a double significance: on the one hand, it means "religious knowledge" or "wisdom," analogous to the Sanskrit word jnana
(knowledge).2 On the other hand, it means "song" or "recitation," suggesting a link to the Arabic ghanna and the Urdu/Hindi ghana, both verbs meaning "to sing."3 For the past seven hundred years, Ismailis from the Indian subcontinent

Since ancient times in the East lots of religio-philosophical and mystical sects have been established, but most of them collapsed and disappeared during the centuries. The Islamic era was not an exception. Despite the fact that orthodox Islam was fighting with all “heretics” in every way, many religio-philosophical orders were established in the Islamic world and they suggested their own interpretations of Islam to society

Attendance at the Second International Ismaili Studies Conference was an act of courage for some of its participants. They had been concerned that they would be breaking an unwritten rule by being present at an event on Ismaili Studies that was organized independently of established Ismāʿīlī (Nizārī, Mustaʿlī, Druze etc.) institutions. Some institutional employees who were interested in attending had found themselves considering whether the conference was an “approved” gathering.

In the history of Muslim India, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century formed a period that
witnessed intense public contestation over the role of women in society. Against that background, this article
explores the writings and institutional initiatives of the forty-eighth Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili
Muslims, Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III, with reference to women’s education. It compares and contrasts his
thinking with the foundational texts on women’s education written by four other prominent Muslim leaders of that

Local governors in Central Asia persecuted Ismaʿili missionaries (dāʿis) since the early years of Ismaʿili activity there. The rise of the Fatimid State, from the tenth century onwards, encouraged the activity of those missionaries who were receiving support from the Fatimids, leading to increased persecutions of Ismaʿilis in Iraq and the eastern provinces of the Abbasid Caliphate.This study will deal with the activity of those missionaries and the difficulties and persecutions that they faced, with a focus on the case of the dāʿi Nāser Khosrow (1004–1088/394–481) in Central Asia.