Ismaili, Nizari

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Additional information may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.

Introduction

Arjun Sengupta, February 6, 2025: The Indian Express

Who was the Aga Khan IV? And who are the Nizari Ismailis, the community he led?

Twelver, Sevener, Fiver Shias

By the time of the Prophet’s death in 632 CE, Islam had taken hold over much of Arabia. His demise sparked a battle of succession, and split the community.

Some argued that leadership should be awarded only to qualified individuals, while others insisted that it be passed solely through Muhammad’s bloodline. The former group went on to become the Sunnis, while the latter became the Shias.

The two main branches of Islam differ fundamentally on matters of doctrine, law, ritual, and religious organisations. However, neither branch is a monolith.

Among the Shias, for instance, there are three main denominations: the Twelvers, the Ismailis, and the Zaydis. All three trace the descent of Muhammad through a chain of Imams or religious teachers, but they differ in the specifics of what the line of descent comprises.

Twelver Shias, the largest of these denominations comprising 90% of the total Shia population, follow a line of 12 divinely-ordained Imams, with the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, believed to be alive and in occultation.

The Ismailis or Sevener Shias concur with the Twelvers till the sixth Imam, after which the two lines split.

The Zaydis or Fiver Shias split from the other lines after the first four Imams.

Nizari Ismailis & the Aga Khan

Among the Ismailis, there are two more subsects — the Nizari Ismailis and the Dawoodi Bohras. The fundamental difference between the two communities is that while the Nizaris trace the Prophet’s hereditary descent all the way to the Aga Khans, the Dawoodi Bohras recognise direct descent only till the 18th Imam, and follow today a line of Dais who are representatives of the concealed Imam.

The title of Aga Khan was bestowed on Hasan Ali Shah, the 46th Imam of Nizari Ismailis by the Iranian king Fath-Ali Shah Qajar in the 19th century.

Today, the Nizari Ismailis are spread out across more than 30 countries, although most trace their origin to Persia or the Indian subcontinent. They are not a majority community in any location.

Following a deal with the Portuguese government in 2015, the Aga Khan IV declared Lisbon as the global seat of the Nizari Imamate.