The Da’wa Before the Fatimid State
The Ismaili da’wa began operating clandestinely in the 9th century CE, when the Ismaili Imams were in satr (concealment) following the death of Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (765 CE) and the contested succession. The da’i network:
- Was deployed across the Abbasid caliphate territory
- Used taqiyya (precautionary concealment) to protect missionaries in hostile political environments
- Operated through a graded hierarchy: the Imam → Bab → Hujja → Da’i al-Balagh → Da’i al-Mahdud → Ma’dhun → Mustaijd
Abu Abdullah al-Shi’i was the da’i who prepared the Berber Kutama tribe in North Africa for the Imam’s arrival — his years of preaching preceded and enabled the Fatimid revolution.
The Fatimid Da’wa Structure
Under the Fatimid caliphate (909-1171 CE), the da’wa became a formal institution:
Chief Da’i (Da’i al-Du’at): the head of the da’wa organization, based in Cairo, responsible for all missionary activity worldwide. This position’s structural successors are the Da’i al-Mutlaq in the Bohra tradition.
The Majalis al-Hikma (Sessions of Wisdom): formal teaching sessions in Cairo where the Imam’s esoteric knowledge (hikma) was transmitted to initiates. These sessions were the Ismaili alternative to public Friday khutbas — invitation-only, graded by the initiate’s level, combining theology, philosophy, and esoteric tafsir.
The Da’wa in Yemen: al-Qa’im al-Mansur sent da’is to Yemen as early as the Fatimid period. The Yemeni da’wa became the institutional linchpin for the transmission of the da’wa to the Indian subcontinent, eventually establishing the Bohra community.
The Intellectual Heritage
The Fatimid da’wa produced some of Islamic civilization’s most original thinkers:
- al-Nu’man ibn Muhammad (d. 974 CE): chief qadi under three Fatimid caliphs, author of Da’a’im al-Islam (the foundational Ismaili legal text still used by Bohras) and Asas al-Ta’wil
- Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani (d. after 1020 CE): the hujja of Iraq, whose philosophical synthesis rivaled al-Farabi
- Nasir-i Khusraw (d. 1088 CE): da’i-poet of Persia/Khorasan, author of Wajh-i Din and the Divan
See also: Fatimid Caliphate, Bohra History, Dai Al Mutlaq Institution, Nass, Tawil Esoteric Interpretation, Mithaq, Isnad