The Ismailis: A Misrepresented Shiʿi Muslim Community

The Ismailis represent the second largest Shiʿi Muslim community, after the Twelver or Ithnaʿashari Shiʿis. They have had an eventful and complex history dating back to the formative period of Islam. In the course of their long history, the Ismailis became subdivided into a number of major branches and minor groupings. However, since the end of the 5th/11th century, they have existed in terms of two main branches, the Nizaris and the Mustaʿli-Tayyibis, designated respectively as Khojas and Bohras in South Asia. Currently, the Ismailis are scattered as religious minorities in some thirty countries of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America.