HISTORY OF ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY
of Karachi (formerly of Bombay), there is no longer any excuse for these fantasies. The following is a significant example. We saw that the Ismaili da'wah is designated the 'potential paradise', and the Ismaili exegesis of the 'hadith of the tomb' {see p. 78 above) gives us to understand how entry into the da'wah is in fact entry into the 'potential paradise' (jinnah, paradise or garden). This was all that was needed for the propaganda of the opposition to imagine 'orgies' in the 'gardens of Alamut'. For the rest, it is a question of an anti-Turkish phenomenon of resistance, and of a struggle carried on by the Ismailis in tragic circumstances. But the philosophy and the spiritual doctrine of Ismailism have no connection with the 'stories of the assassins'. 2. We have already given a brief account of how al-Mustansir bi-Allah, the Fatimid caliph of Cairo, transferred the investiture of the Imamate from his elder son Nizar to his younger son al-Musta'li. On the death of the caliph in 487/1094, some people gave allegiance to al-Musta'li— they are those who continued the Fatimid da'wah and who are also known as the Musta'liyan—whereas others remained faithful to the Imam Nizar, who was assassinated, together with his son, in Cairo in 489/1096. The latter are known as nizari, and are the 'Oriental' Ismailis of Iran. Here again, beneath external history and the concern with personages, lie the essential themes and the spiritual issues. Ultimately, the political triumph represented by the coming of the Fatimid dynasty of Cairo seems something of a paradox. To what degree was an esoteric fellowship compatible with the official organization of a state? The same issue which had divided the Qarmatis from the beginning reappears in the promulgation of the reform of Alamut. As far as we can judge from the texts available to us, this reform was inspired by the spirit of primitive Ismailism after the Fatimid political interlude. There was, on the other hand, the powerful personality of al-Hasan ibn al-Sabbah (d. 518/1124), knowledge of which must be acquired through the Ismaili texts themselves, since it has been so distorted elsewhere. He played a leading part in the organization of the Ismaili 'commands' in Iran. We are not attempting here to resolve the question as to whether or not some devoted disciples succeeded in leading the Imam Nizar's grandson to safety in the fortress of Alamut (in the mountains south-west of the Caspian Sea). For whatever may have occurred, one fact remains, and it is of great spiritual significance. 94
SHIISM AND PROPHETIC PHILOSOPHY
3. This all-important fact was the initiative taken by the Imam Hasan 'ala dhikrihi al-salam (distinguished by having this greeting after his name), the new grand master (khudavand) of Alamut (b. 520/1126, grand master in 557/1162, d. 561 /1166). On the 17th day of Ramadan in 559/8th August 1164, the Imam proclaimed the Great Resurrection (qiyamat al-qiyamat) before all the initiates assembled on the high terrace of Alamut. The protocol of the occasion has been preserved. What the proclamation implied was nothing less than the coming of a pure spiritual Islam, freed from all spirit of legalism and of all enslavement to the Law, a personal religion of the Resurrection which is spiritual birth, in that it makes possible the discovery and the living realization of the spiritual meaning of the prophetic Revelations. The fortress of Alamut, like the other Ismaili command-posts in Iran, was destroyed by the Mongols in 654/1256. In no sense did this event mark the end of the reformed Ismailism of Alamut, which simply retreated into hiding by donning the mantle (the khirqah) of Sufism. Its effect on Sufism and on Iranian spirituality in general presupposes some fundamental affinities which throw new light on the problem of the meaning and even the origins of Sufism. Furthermore, the Ismailis regard a good number of Sufi masters as their own, beginning with al-Sana'i (d. ca. 545/1151) and 'Attar (d. ca. 627/1230); Jalal al-Din al-Rumi (d. 672/1273), in relation to whom Shams al-Din al-Tabrizi assumed the role of hujjah; 'Aziz al-Nasafi (seventh/twelfth century), Qasim al-AnWari (d. 837/1434), and so on. One hesitates at times in deciding whether a text is written by a Sufi steeped in Ismailism, or by an Ismaili steeped in Sufism. Even this is not going far enough, for the famous Persian poem by Mahmud Shabistari (d. 720/1320), the 'Rosary of Mystery' (gulshan-i raz), the vade-mecum of Iranian Sufism, was commentated and expanded by Ismaili teaching. The questions thus propounded are very recent, and are a consequence of the bringing to light, thanks mainly to the labours of W. Ivanow, of what has survived of Alamuti literature, all of which is in Persian. (We know that Alamut's library was completely destroyed by the Mongols.) We should, however, add to this literature the Arabic literature of the Ismailis of Syria, who under the powerful personality of their head, Rashid al-Din Sinan (1140-92 AD), had a direct link with Alamut. (We also know that a tragic misunderstanding on the part of the Templars wrecked an agreement that had already been 95