Muhammad ibn Isma'il

Muhammad was the eldest of Isma'il ibn Ja'far. His mother was a slave-wife (umm al-walad) called Umm Farwa.[lower-alpha 1] He was also the eldest grandson of Ja'far al-Sadiq and, according to the records of Idris Imad al-Din (d. 1468), he was twenty-six years old when al-Sadiq died, which means that his birth date was 122/740.[1] The Dastūr al-Munajjimīn, in fact, places his birth in Dhu al-Hijja 121/November 739. Muhammad passed his early life with his grandfather for 24 years and 10 years with his family in Medina.[2]

He was the Imam of the Mubarakiyya and the eldest male member of al-Sadiq's family, after the death of his uncle Abdullah al-Aftah; furthermore, all sources agree that he was older than his uncle Musa al-Kazim by about eight years.[3] As such, he enjoyed a certain degree ofesteem and seniority in this Fatimid branch of the Alid family.[3] However, after the recognition of the Imamate of Musa al-Kazim by the majority of al-Sadiq's followers, Muhammad's position became untenable in his native Hejaz where his uncle and chief rival Musa also lived.[3][4] It was probably then, not long after al-Sadiq's death, that Muhammad left Medina for the east and went into hiding, henceforth acquiring the epithet al-Maktum (lit. 'the hidden one').[3]

The Sunni historian al-Tabari (d. 923) refers to Muhammad as a rāwī, a title he must earned before his concealment.[2][5]

He was in Medina when he rose to the protection of the religion of God, despatched his da'is, spread his doctrine, and ordered his missionaries to scarch for the 'land of refuge' (dar hijra) in which to seek safety.[5]

— Idrid Imad al-Din, ʿUyūn al-Akhbār

Juvayni (d. 1283) records that, during the Abbasid persecution carried out against Isma'il ibn Ja'far, Muhammad and his brother Ali were in hiding in Medina.[1] Muhammad left Medina to escape Abbasid espionage and thereafter lived incognito, his whereabouts being known to only a few of his most responsible followers.[5] Different sources mention various localities and regions as his final destination, but it is certain that he first went to southern Iraq and then to Persia.[3][6] According to the later Isma'ilis, this emigration marks the beginning of the period of concealment (dawr al-satr) in early Isma'ilism, the concealment ending with the establishment of the Fatimid caliphate (r. 909–1171).[7]

Muhammad ibn Isma'il seems to have spent the latter part of his life in Khuzestan, in southwestern Persia, where he had a certain number of supporters and from where he despatched his own da'is to adjoining areas.[8]

The exact date of Muhammad's death remains unknown. But it is almost certain that he died during the caliphate of the celebrated Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), perhaps soon after 179/795–796, the year in which al-Rashid, continuing the anti-Alid policy of his predecessors, arrested Musa al-Kazim in Medina and banished him to Iraq as a prisoner. The Twelver sources, which are hostile to Muhammad ibn Isma'il, maintain that it was he who betrayed Musa to the Abbasids, though they also relate the story of a reconciliation between these two Fatimids prior to Muhammad's departure for Iraq.[8]

Muhammad had two sons who were apparently born to him before his migration to the East,—Isma'il and Ja'far.[9][8] They seem to be quite historical, left large posterity, are very rarely referred to in Isma'ili works, and apparently played no part in sectarian life.[9] After his emigration, he had four more sons, including Abdullah, who, according to the later Isma'ilis, was his rightful successor.[8][10]

• Family tree of Muhammad
• List of Isma'ili imams
• Imamate in Nizari doctrine