From Satpanthi to Ismaili Muslim: The Articulation of Ismaili Khoja Identity in South Asia

The historian Bernard Lewis writes that in the course of its evolution, Ismailism ‘has
meant different things at different times and places’.1 A principal reason for the
multivalent significance of the tradition has been its remarkable ability to adapt to
different contexts and circumstances. Depending on the historical period and
geographical/cultural location, Ismaili intellectuals, poets and preachers have expressed
the central doctrines of their faith within a variety of theologies and philosophical
systems