The Early Ismā'Īlī Missionaries in North-West Persia and in Khurāsān and Transoxania

Abstract

In a book to be entitled Early Ismā'īlism I shall argue in some detail that the Ismā'īlī movement began about the middle of the third/ninth century. It was at that date that the missionaries sent out by the leaders of the movement appeared in various parts of the Islamic world; soon afterwards their successful preaching, the increasing number of their followers, and various armed conflicts with the authorities, brought the movement to the knowledge of the outside world and secured for it the first entries in the pages of the chroniclers.