Isma'ili Islam Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Shi'ite sect

Like other Shi'ites, Isma'ilis believe that Ali, cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, was his rightful successor as leader of the nascent Muslim community; Sunnis recognize three caliphs who served as leaders of the community between the death of Muhammad and the election of Ali, whom Sunnis believe to be the last of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs. To Shi'ites, Ali was the first of a series of divinely chosen Imams -- but different Shi'ite sects disagree on how many of these there were.

Sufism, meanwhile, is marked by a mystical approach to the divine, while the Druze are usually classified as an offshoot of the Isma'ilis.

Answer: Al-Sadiq's son Isma'il was his true heir, despite having died before his father -- so the Imamate passed to Isma'il's son.

Imam Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq, acknowledged by Shi'ite Muslims as a successor to the Prophet Muhammad, was a consummate scholar; he was well versed in all the sciences available in the eighth century of the Common Era, and was a founding father of the Shi'ite tradition of religious law. But when he was poisoned (supposedly by the Abbasid Caliphs) in 765 C.E., the resulting succession dispute divided his followers into two groups, just as another succession dispute had divided Muslims into Sunni and Shi'ite factions just a century before.

The problem was that al-Sadiq was thought to have designated his son Isma'il as his successor -- but Isma'il had died about a decade before his father. To the people who were to become Isma'ilis, this didn't matter: Isma'il had a divine mandate to be his father's successor, and so he was, whether he was in heaven or on earth. Isma'il was the next Imam after al-Sadiq, and Isma'il's son Muhammad was the next Imam after Isma'il. To the people who would become Twelvers (now the largest Shi'ite sect), however, Isma'il's early death proved that he was never meant to succeed his father; the Imamate therefore passed to his younger brother, Musa.

Answer: Cairo

The Fatimid dynasty was founded in 909 C.E. by Ubayd Allah, a general who claimed descent from Muhammad's daughter Fatima. (Hence the name of the dynasty.) Initially based in what is now Tunisia, the empire soon expanded across North Africa, conquering Egypt in 969. The caliphs soon founded the city of al-Manṣūriyyah, now known as Cairo, to serve as their capital. At its height, their Empire was a center of learning, art, and religious tolerance, but by 1171 it had collapsed in civil strife and rebellion, and the torch passed to others.

In a fascinating coincidence, Tahrir Square - the main site of the protests that brought down Hosni Mubarak's dictatorship in the spring of 2011 - was named Isma'ilia Square until 1919. It's only a coincidence, though: the square was named after Khedive Isma'il, a 19th-century Egyptian king who was, as it happens, a Sunni Muslim. (The square informally got its new name, meaning "Liberation," after a widespread rebellion against British rule.)

Answer: Brothers

Abū Manṣūr Nizār was the eldest son of the Caliph who died in 1094, but it was his younger brother Aḥmad al-Musta'lī who was crowned by the regent. The resulting succession struggle was long and bloody; in fact, Nizār and many of his sons died in prison. That didn't end the struggle, though: one of his sons, al-Hādī ibn Nizār, escaped to an Isma'ili community in Alamūt, where they were happy to recognize him as the rightful Imam. From this point forward, there were two parallel Isma'ili Imamates: one for the Musta'lī and one for the Nizārī. The sects are distinct to this day.

You can find similar schisms in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, by the way; at the same time the Isma'ilis were splitting, there was both a pope and an antipope in Italy, with substantial factions of bishops and believers behind each. Of course, that schism eventually ended with a reunion of the two groups under one leader; this never happened for this dispute.

Answer: Assassin

Members of Sabbāh's order were known as the Assassins. Until they were crushed by the invading Mongols in the 13th century, they manipulated politics and theology in the region by murdering scholars, politicians, generals, and others. Assassin agents - the Fida'i - would infiltrate their targets' entourages, publicly carry out the murders in accordance with the hierarchy's master plan, and then sacrifice themselves to the inevitable retribution.

The reason they were known as the Assassins is disputed. The traditional Western explanation is that the Fida'i derived their bravery by smoking hasish - thus, they were "Hashashin," a name which soon morphed into "assassin." Modern scholars dispute this claim. Instead, they argue that the Assassins called themselves "Asasiyun," which perhaps translates best to "fundamentalists": people "faithful... to the foundation of the faith," as the writer Amin Maalouf puts it.

Answer: Seven

The first difference appears before the Isma'ilis even start counting pillars. To Sunni Muslims, the Shahadah - or declaration of faith - is the first and most important pillar of Islam; to Isma'ilis, the Shahadah is not a pillar at all, but is the strong foundation on which the pillars are built.

The first pillar of Isma'ilism is Walayah, or guardianship, in which each believer maintains a loyal and intimate relationship with God and with the prophets and Imams, who are seen as divine guardians. Next is Taharah, or purity, both physical and spiritual. Salah (prayer) is a pillar shared with Sunnis, although ritual Isma'ili prayer usually differs in kind and in frequency. Zakah (charity), Sawm (ritual fasting) and Hajj (a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in each lifetime) are also shared with Sunni Islam. To these, Isma'ilis also add Jihad, the struggle to improve society and to free oneself from sin and vice. The use of force is not supposed to be a part of Jihad, except as a last resort.

Answer: As having both surface and hidden meanings

In this view, some of the Quran's teachings are visible and apparent on the surface; these are called "zahir." But there are also layers of hidden meanings - "batin" - that inform and illuminate faith and practice. Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali, is widely quoted as having said that each part of the Quran bears witness to the others, and each part makes the others more clear. Zahir and batin can thus be seen as complementary parts.

Isma'ilis see their present leadership as being uniquely qualified to interpret the batin. This leader - the Quran e Naatiq, or Speaking Quran - provides a way for a 1300-year-old revelation to maintain life and relevance for generations of believers.

Answer: Aga Khan

The title of "Aga Khan" was bestowed on the Nizārī Imam in the 1830s, by the Shah of Persia. The first Aga Khan provided military support to the Afghan War and in the conquest of India, picking up British nobility (and a pension) in the process. The British government has referred to the Aga Khan as "His Highness" since 1957.

Aga Khan IV (Prince Karim Al Husseini, who succeeded to the title in 1957) has devoted considerable resources to charitable and cultural efforts. The Aga Khan Development Network, with an annual budget of over $600 million, operates in poor Asian and African countries with the stated goal of "improving living conditions and opportunities for the poor, without regard to their faith, origin or gender." The network also includes cultural elements, such as the preservation of traditional Central Asian music and the study of Islamic architecture.

Answer: Occultation

Twelvers and Musta'līs agree that the rightful Imam is in occultation, but they disagree on who that rightful Imam is! To Musta'līs, it's Aṭ-Ṭayyib Abī-l-Qāsim, the son of the tenth Fatimid Caliph. Before that Caliph died in 1130, he is reported to have told his wife that his son, the next Imam, would be going into occultation, and that a viceroy would need to be appointed in order to lead the community of believers. This viceroy is known as the Dai. Multiple generations of Dais are seen to serve one Imam: Tayyib is believed to remain the current Imam for all time, or at least until he comes out of occultation and passes the mantle to someone else.

Over time, there were further schisms among the Musta'līs over just who was the rightful Dai. The community split into branches (called Bohra), each taking a different side in the succession disputes. Today, the largest Musta'lī group is the Dawoodi Bohra, who number about one million people.

Answer: Believers may conceal their true faith to survive persecution.

If a person is tortured or threatened, Taqiya says he or she may deny the faith, commit sacrilege or say blasphemous things, without peril to his or her soul. It's based on a line from the Quran (chapter 16, verse 106), which promises doom to Muslims who renounce their faith - except "him who is forced thereto and whose heart is still content with the Faith." In practice, this has seldom been necessary for mainstream Sunnis, but Taqiya has been a significant element of Isma'ili history for centuries.