The largest of the Shiite sects, the Ismaili sect, occupies a special place in the socio-political life of the peoples of the East. The Ismaili doctrine originated in the eighth century in the Arab Caliphate, during the reign of the Abbasid dynasty. By that time, there were many trends, sects and interpretations in Islam, the watershed between which ran along two main lines:" orthodox "Sunnism (from the word" sunnah " - a sacred tradition, a set of stories about the actions and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and Shiism (from the word Shi'a - "Ali's party"). The Ismaili doctrine emerged in the context of an ongoing power struggle between various feudal groups in Iran, Iraq, and other countries, as well as movements of peasants, artisans, and the urban poor against the oppression of Abbasid and other feudal rulers. The reason for the emergence of Ismailism was a dispute over the succession of Imamate 1 under the sixth Shiite Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, who deprived his eldest son Ismail of the right to inherit allegedly because of the latter's addiction to wine. Some of the followers of Ja'far did not agree with this and, declaring Ismail the legitimate seventh Imam, refused to honor the official imams who followed Ja'far. The name of the sect, the Ismailis, is also derived from Imam Ismaili2 . Since the religion of the Abbasid caliphs was Sunni Islam, and supporters of Shiism were punished as heretics and apostates, the Ismaili sect, having begun to act as a secret religious and political organization, was in opposition to the authorities, which attracted the oppressed masses. A group of feudal lords who opposed the Abbasids and needed a more flexible religious teaching for the ideological justification of their struggle, adopted Ismailism, which outwardly corresponded to the anti-feudal aspirations of the masses, and used these aspirations to achieve their political goals. Thus, from the moment of their birth, the Ismailis united in their ranks the most active and opposi ... Read more