Muhammad al-Taqi
Abu al-Husayn Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Isma'il (Arabic: أَبُو ٱلْحُسَيْن أَحْمَد ٱبْن عَبْد ٱللَّٰه ٱبْن مُحَمَّد ٱبْن إسْماعِيل, romanized: Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl; c. 790–840), commonly known as Muhammad al-Taqi (Arabic: مُحَمَّد ٱلْتَقِيّ, romanized: Muḥammad al-Taqī, lit. 'Muhammad the pious'), was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ninth of the Isma'ili Imams, succeeding his father, Ahmad al-Wafi (d. 828). Like his father, he lived primarily in Salamiyah, and Abd Allah ibn Maymun al-Qaddah, the chief missionary (da'i), continued to serve as the hijab (lit. 'cover') for him. Known by the title Ṣāḥib al-Rasāʾil (lit. 'lord of the epistles'), al-Taqi is said to have prepared with his followers an encyclopedic text called the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-ṣafā). He died in 840 in Salamiyah and was succeeded by his son al-Husayn.
Not to be confused with the 9th Twelver Imam, Muhammad al-Jawad.
Muhammad al-TaqiNinth Imam of Isma'ilism
- al-Taqi (lit. 'the pious')
- Sahib al-Rasa'il(lit. 'lord of the epistles')
212 AH
(approximately 839/840)
- Abd Allah al-Radi
- Sa'id al-Khayr
- Ahmad al-Wafi (father)
Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh
With the death of Ja'far al-Sadiq in 148/765, Isma'il (d. 158/775) and Muhammad (d. 197/813), the gravity of persecutions of the Abbasids had considerably increased. The Isma'ili Imams were impelled to thicken their hiding, therefore, the first dawr al-satr came into force from 197/813 to 268/882, wherein the Imams were known as al-a'imma al-masturin (lit. 'the concealed Imams'). The concealment ended with the establishment of the Fatimid caliphate (r. 909–1171).
Historical background[edit]
With the death of Ja'far al-Sadiq in 148/765, Isma'il (d. 158/775) and Muhammad (d. 197/813), the gravity of persecutions of the Abbasids had considerably increased.[1][2] The Isma'ili Imams were impelled to thicken their hiding, therefore, the first dawr al-satr ('period of concealment')[a] came into force from 197/813 to 268/882, wherein the Imams were known as al-a'imma al-masturin (lit. 'the concealed Imams').[1][4][5] During this time, the living Imam's identity was hidden for protection and the community continued to operate under the authority of Muhammad ibn Isma'il.[6] According to later tradition, these were Abd Allah (the 8th Imam), Ahmad (the 9th Imam) and al-Husayn (the 10th Imam).[7][8] Among the later Isma'ili historians, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Naysaburi, the author of Istitār al-Imām, compiled under the Fatimid Imam–Caliph al-Aziz Billah (r. 975–995) seems first to have mentioned the names of the three 'hidden' Imams.[8]
Modern historian of the Fatimid period, Shainool Jiwa, explains that during dawr al-satr (765–909 CE) Isma'ili doctrine had spread as far as from Yemen to Ifriqiya (modern-day Tunisia and eastern Algeria), with its most prominent adherents being the Kutama Berbers of North Africa.[9]