The Sulaymani branch of

Tayyibi Isma'ilism Tayyibi Isma'ilism is the only surviving sect of the Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism, the other being the extinct Hafizi branch. Followers of Tayyibi Isma'ilism are found in various Bohra communities: Dawoodi, Sulaymani, and Alavi. The Tayyibi ...

is an

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

ic community, of which around 70,000 members reside in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...

, while a few thousand Sulaymani Bohras can be found in India. The Sulaymanis are sometimes headed by a ''

Da'i al-Mutlaq The term Da'i al-Mutlaq ( ar, الداعي المطلق, al-Dā'ī al-Mutlaq; pl. , ) literally meaning 'the absolute, or unrestricted, missionary', is the most senior spiritual rank and office in Tayyibi Isma'ilism. The Da'i al-Mutlaq has hea ...

'' from the Makrami family. It is not correct that this branch is headed by one from the Makrami family always as the D'ai al Mutlaq could be from other families and communities. Examples: the first Da'i was Dhuayb Bin Mousa (Hamdan), Dawud Bin Ajab Shah(Indian), Sulayman Bin Al Hassan (Indian) and some of his brothers and sons were Indians. It is, however, true for the very recent Da'is have came from the Makrami family (Banu Yam), with exception of the late Da'i Abdullah bin Mohammad, who was not from the Makrami family.

History

Founded in 1592, the Sulaymanis are mostly concentrated in

but are also found in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The denomination is named after its 27th Daʻī,

Sulayman bin Hassan The 27th Da'i al-Mutlaq of Ismailism according to the Sulaymanis. His becoming a Dai' as per Nass-e-Shareef of Sayyidna, Dawood Bin Ajabshah led to a schism with a group who did not accept him primarily in India and elsewhere in Arab lands. Tho ...

. The total number of Sulaymanis currently are around 300,000, mainly living in the eastern district of

Jabal Haraz Jabal Haraz ( ar, جَبَل حَرَاز, Jabal Ḥarāz) is a mountainous region of Yemen, between Sanaa and Al-Hudaydah, which is considered to be within the Sarat range. In the 11th century, it was the stronghold of the Sulaihid dynasty, man ...

in northwest

and in

Najran Najran ( ar, نجران '), is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province. Designated as a new town, Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom; its population has risen ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

. Beside the

Banu Yam Banu Yam ( ar, بنو يام, ') is an Arabian tribe that belongs to the Qahtanite branch of Arabian tribes, specifically the group known as Banu Hamdan, and are, therefore, native to southwestern Arabia. Their traditional way of life was well ...

, the Sulaymanis are in Haraz, among the inhabitants of the Jabal Maghariba and in Hawzan, Lahab and Attara, as well as in the district of Hamadan and in the vicinity of Yarim. In India there are between 3000 and 5000 Sulaymanis living mainly in

Vadodara Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capita ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

and

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is ...

. In

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...

, there is a well-established Sulaymani community in Sind. Some ten thousand Sulaymanis live in rural areas of Punjab known to the Sulaymani as ''Jazeera-e Sind''; these Sulaymani communities have been in the Jazeera-e Sind from the time of Fatimid Imam-Caliph

Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah Abu Tamim Ma'ad al-Muizz li-Din Allah ( ar, ابو تميم معد المعزّ لدين الله, Abū Tamīm Maʿad al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh, Glorifier of the Religion of God; 26 September 932 – 19 December 975) was the fourth Fatimid calip ...

when he sent his Daʻīs to Jazeera-e Sind. There are also some 900–1000 Sulaymanis mainly from South Asia scattered around the world, in the Persian Gulf States,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The Sulaymanis split off from the Tayyibi community, following a succession dispute upon the death of

Dawood Bin Ajabshah Syedna Dawood Bin Maulai Ajab Shah Burhanuddin (died on 27 Rabi ul Aakhir 999 AH AH/1591 AD) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India was the 26th ''Da'i al-Mutlaq'' (Absolute Missionary) of the Dawoodi Bohra branch of Musta‘lī Islam. He succeeded the ...

in 1589. While most of the Tayyibis in India recognised

Dawood Bin Qutubshah Syedna Dawood Bin Qutubshah (born 23 Rabi-Ul-Awwal 946 AH/8 August 1539; died 15 Jumadil Akhir 1021 AH/1612 AD, Ahmedabad, India) was the 27th ''Da'i al-Mutlaq'' (Absolute Missionary) of the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Musta‘lī Islam. He succeed ...

as his successor and thus forming the

Dawoodi Bohra The Dawoodi Bohras are a religious denomination within the Ismā'īlī branch of Shia Islam. Their largest numbers reside in India, Pakistan, Yemen, East Africa, and the Middle East, with a growing presence across Europe, North America, South ...

s, the Yemeni community followed

. Starting from 1677, Sulayman's successors almost always came from the Makrami family. The ''

da'i A da'i ( ar, داعي, dāʿī, inviter, caller, ) is generally someone who engages in Dawah, the act of inviting people to Islam. See also * Dawah * Da'i al-Mutlaq, "the absolute (unrestricted) missionary" (Arabic: الداعي المطلق) * ...

''s made

their headquarters and ruled the area, supported by the

, until their power waned under the successive rules of the Ottomans and Saudis. The leadership of the Sulaymaniyah, whose Indian community was small, reverted to the Yemen with the succession of the thirtieth

, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Fahd Al-Makrami, in 1677. Since then the position of the dai al mutlaq has remained in various branches of the al Makrami family except for the time of the forty-sixth dai, an Indian. The Makrami da'is usually resided in Badr in

. With the backing of the tribe of the

they ruled Najran independently and at times extended their sway over other parts of the Yemen and Arabia until the incorporation of

into

in 1934. The peak of their power was in the time of the thirty-third

, Isma'il ibn Hibat Allah (1747–1770), who defeated the Wahhabiyah or

Wahhabism Wahhabism ( ar, ٱلْوَهَّابِيَةُ, translit=al-Wahhābiyyah) is a Sunni Islamic revivalist and fundamentalist movement associated with the reformist doctrines of the 18th-century Arabian Islamic scholar, theologian, preacher, and ...

Najd Najd ( ar, نَجْدٌ, ), or the Nejd, forms the geographic center of Saudi Arabia, accounting for about a third of the country's modern population and, since the Emirate of Diriyah, acting as the base for all unification campaigns by the ...

and invaded Hadramawt. He is also known as the author of an

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

Qur'an commentary, virtually the only religious work of a Sulaymani author published so far. Since

came under Saudi rule, the religious activity of the

s and their followers has been severely restricted. In the Yemen the Sulaymaniyah are found chiefly in the region of Manakha and the Haraz mountains. In India they live mainly in Baroda, Ahmadabad, and Hyderabad and are guided by a representative (mansub) of the

residing in Baroda.

Sulaymani ''da'i al-mutlaq''s

The following is a list of religious leaders (''

da'i al-mutlaq The term Da'i al-Mutlaq ( ar, الداعي المطلق, al-Dā'ī al-Mutlaq; pl. , ) literally meaning 'the absolute, or unrestricted, missionary', is the most senior spiritual rank and office in Tayyibi Isma'ilism. The Da'i al-Mutlaq has hea ...

'') of the Sulaymani Isma'ilis. For the 26 predecessors, see

List of Dai of Dawoodi Bohra Short history The Dua't al-Mutlaqin Al-Malika al-Sayyida (Hurratul-Malika) was instructed and prepared by Imām Mustansir and following Imāms for the second period of ''satr''. It was going to be on her hands that Imām Taiyab abi al-Qasi ...

. See

for more information. # Sulayman bin Hassan # Ali bin Sulayman # Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin al-Fahd al-Makrami # Muhammad bin Isma'il # Hibat-Allah bin Ibrahim # Isma'il bin Hibat-Allah # Hasan bin Hibat-Allah # Abd-al-Ali bin Hasan # Abd-Allah bin Ali # Yusuf bin Ali # Husayn bin Husayn # Isma'il bin Muhammad # Hasan bin Muhammad # Hasan bin Isma'il # Ahmad bin Isma'il # Abd-Allah bin Ali # Ali bin Hibat-Allah # Ali bin Muhsin # Husam-al-Din al-Hajj Ghulam Husayn # Sharaf-al-Din Husayn bin Ahmad al-Makrami # Jamal-al-Din Ali bin Sharaf-al-Din Husayn al-Makrami # Sharafi Hasan bin Husayn al-Makrami # Husayn bin Isma'il al-Makrami # Abdullah bin Mohammed

History of the Imāmī Sūlaymānīs

{, class="" style="float:; margin: 2ex 0 0.6em 0.5em; width: 8em; line-height:111%;" !The schematic history of the development of the

Imāmī Imāmah ( ar, إِمَامَة) means "leadership" and is a concept in Twelver theology. The Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, in the Twelver branch of Shia Islam. According to Twelver ...

- Mustā‘lī Sulaymanism from other

Shī‘ah Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

Muslim sects A sect is a subgroup of a religion, religious, politics, political, or philosophy, philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now ...

, - ,

History

Sulaymani ''da'i al-mutlaq''s

History of the Imāmī Sūlaymānīs

See also

Notes

Further reading