would be heir to the Imamate . However, Ismā‘īl predeceased his father. Some of the Shī‘ah claimed Ismā‘īl had not died, but rather gone into occultation , but the proto-Ismā‘īlī group accepted his death and therefore that his eldest son, Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl , was now Imām. Muḥammad remained in contact