Ali ibn Hanzala ibn Abi Salim al-Mahfuzi al-Wadi'i al-Hamdani () was the sixth Tayyibi Isma'ili in

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

, from 1215 to his death in 1229.

Life

A member of the

Banu Hamdan Banu Hamdan (; Ancient South Arabian script, Musnad: 𐩠𐩣𐩵𐩬) is an ancient, large, and prominent Arab tribe in northern Yemen. Origins and location The Hamdan stemmed from the eponymous progenitor Awsala (nickname Hamdan) whose descent ...

tribe, Ali ibn Hanzala had been active within the Tayyibi already during the tenure of the third ,

Hatim ibn Ibrahim Hatim ibn Ibrahim al-Hamidi () (died 16 Muharram 596 AH, 6 November 1199 AD), Al-Hutaib, Yemen) was the third Tayyibi Isma'ili '' Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'' (Absolute Missionary). He was of the Banu Hamdan tribe of Yemen and succeeded his father, th ...

(1162–1199). Under the fifth ,

Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn Ibrahim ibn Abi Salama ibn al-Walid al-Abshami al-Qurashi (; 21 December 1215) was the 5th Tayyibi Isma'ilism, Tayyibi Isma'ili in Yemen from 1209 to his death in 1215. Descended from a noble lineage of the Qurays ...

(1209–1215), he served as his senior deputy () and succeeded him when the latter died in 1215. The position of () signified their position as the ''de facto'' leaders of the Tayyibi community in their capacity as vicegerents of the hidden

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

. Like most of his predecessors and successors, Ali enjoyed good relations with the

Hamdanid dynasty The Hamdanid dynasty () was a Shia Muslim Arab dynasty that ruled modern day Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib tribe of Mesopotamia and Arabia. History Origin The Hamdanids hailed ...

ruling Sanaa and their

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...

overlords, which allowed him to reside both in Sanaa and in the Hatimid Hamdanid stronghold of Dhu Marmar. He also sent junior missionaries to assist the growing Isma'ili community in western

India India, officially the Republic of India, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. At the same time, he confronted the attempts of the rival Hafizi Isma'ili , and the

Zaydi Zaydism () is a branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali's unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. Zaydism is one of the three main branches of Shi'ism, with the other two being Twelverism ...

imams Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, and provide relig ...

, to expand their influence in his territories. His own s were both relatives of his predecessor, Ali ibn Muhammad: Ahmad ibn Mubarak, Ali's nephew, and Ali's son

al-Husayn Husayn ibn Ali (; 11 January 626 – 10 October 680 CE) was a social, political and religious leader in early medieval Arabia. The grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and an Alid (the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muhammad's daughter ...

. Both would succeed him as after his death on 8 February 1229.

Writings

Ali ibn Hanzala was very well educated, with a particular interest in

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

and natural sciences. He wrote two theological works on Tayyibi esoteric doctrine (''ḥaqāʾiq''): * the ''Simṭ al-ḥaqaʾiq'' ("Banquet of reality"), a work on Tayyibi concepts on ''

tawḥīd ''Tawhid'' () is the concept of monotheism in Islam, it is the religion's central and single most important concept upon which a Muslim's entire religious adherence rests. It unequivocally holds that God is indivisibly one (''ahad'') and si ...

'',

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

and

eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of Contemporary era, present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic and non-Abrah ...

, written as a poem of 663 verses. It has been edited and published in Damascus in 1953 by Abbas al-Azzawi at the ''Institut Français de Damas''. * the ''Risālat ḍiyāʾ al-ʿulūm wa-miṣbāʿ al-ʿulūm'' ("Treatise on the radiance of reason and the light of knowledge"), divided into four chapters, it also deals with matters of ''tawḥīd'', cosmology and eschatology, as well as other theological questions.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ali ibn Hanzala Yemeni Ismailis Tayyibi da'is Year of birth unknown 1229 deaths Banu Hamdan Ismaili theologians 13th century in Yemen 13th-century Arab people 13th-century Ismailis 13th-century Islamic religious leaders