Mustaali

Mustaali

The Musta‘lī (Arabic: مستعلي‎) Ismā'īlī Muslims are so named because they accept Al-Musta'li as the nineteenth Fatimid caliph and legitimate successor to his father, al-Mustansir. In contrast, the Nizāriyya Muslims – presently headed by the Aga Khan – believe the rightful nineteenth caliph was Musta‘lī's elder brother, Nizār.

The Musta‘liyyah are also referred to as the Taiyabi or Ṭayyibī (Arabic: طيبي‎) after the last Imām they recognized, Ṭayyib Abī l-Qāṣim. Originally, there was a distinction between Ṭayyibiyyah and the Ḥāfiziyyah, who recognized the Fatimid rulers of Egypt between 1130–1169 as legitimate Imāms, not Ṭayyib Abī l-Qāṣim. The Hafizi view lost all support after the downfall of the Fatimid dynasty; current-day Musta‘liyya are all Ṭayyibiyyah.

The largest Mustaali group is the Bohra, of whom the Dawoodi Bohra, primarily found in India, are the largest. The name is a reinterpretation of a Gujarati word, vahaurau, meaning “to trade.” The Bohrās include, in addition to this Shīʿī majority, often of the merchant class, a Sunnī minority who are usually peasant farmers. The Mustaʿlī sect (see Ismāʿīlīte), which originated in Egypt and later moved its religious centre to Yemen, gained a foothold in India through missionaries of the 11th century.