Muhammad ibn Isma'il

Muhammad ibn Isma'il
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar al-Maktūm, was the eldest son of Isma'il ibn Ja'far and the seventh Imam in Isma'ili Shia Islam. When Isma’il died, his son Muhammad continued to live in Medina under the care of his grandfather Ja'far al-Sadiq until the latter's death in 148/765. After the death of Abdullah al-Aftah, Muhammad was the senior most member of this Fatimid branch of al-Husayn’s descendants. However, due to the rival group that recognized Musa al-Kazim and the Abbasid persecution of all Fatimids, Muhammad ibn Isma'il fled Medina with his sons for the east. For this reason, he was known as al-Maktum. He had two sons when living in Medina and then four more sons after his emigration, among whom was his successor Ahmad al-Wafi. Muhammad's descendants further founded the Fatimid dynasty, later called the Nizari and Musta'li.
Life
Muhammad was the eldest of Isma'il ibn Ja'far. His mother was a slave-wife (umm al-walad) called Umm Farwa. 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. 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.
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. As such, he enjoyed a certain degree ofesteem and seniority in this Fatimid branch of the Alid family. 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. 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').
The Sunni historian al-Tabari (d. 923) refers to Muhammad as a rāwī, a title he must earned before his concealment.
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. Muhammad left Medina to escape Abbasid espionage and thereafter lived incognito, his whereabouts being known to only a few of his most responsible followers. 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. 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).
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.
Death
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.
Family
Muhammad had two sons who were apparently born to him before his migration to the East,—Isma'il and Ja'far. 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. After his emigration, he had four more sons, including Abdullah, who, according to the later Isma'ilis, was his rightful successor.
See also
Family tree of Muhammad
List of Isma'ili imams
Imamate in Nizari doctrine
Footnotes
References
Sources
Ismaili imams
740s births
809 deaths
8th-century Arab people
9th-century Arab people