"The book offers a discerning and sensitive portrayal of the struggle for survival and the spiritual life of a religious community that endured severe persecution and extreme defamation during much of its history. The author in particular succeeds in bringing to light the esoteric spirituality and profound devotion to the living Imam prevalent in the centuries of concealment following the catastrophic Mongol attempt to annihilate Nizari Ismailism, relying onthe evidence of fragmentary source material that has only recently been recovered." -- Wilferd Madelung, author of The Succession to Muhammad"Drawing on an exhaustive array of Arabic, Persian and South Asian sources as well as the scattered results of modern scholarship on the Ismailis, Virani has produced a comprehensive and readable account of the complex, and often obscure, medieval history of the Nizari Ismailis. This book represents a major contribution to modern Ismaili studies." --Farhad Daftary, author of The Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines"In order to show how the Ismaili Shi''is survived the Mongol onslaught of the thirteenth century, Shafique Virani employs a wide variety of sources in many different South-and South west-Asian languages. Some of these sources provide historically useful information only in the most oblique ways, and Virani''s great achievement is to tease out meaning from what appear to be intractable materials. The resulting reconstruction of medieval Ismaili history is bothscholarly and tender, subtle as well as moving." --Robert Wisnovsky, Director, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University"This is a masterful reconstruction of the history of the Ismailis of Iran, a minority Shi''i community that was forced underground in the thirteenth century by intense persecution.

Reliable data on the Ismailis has been hard to come by-their libraries were destroyed and their reputations besmirched by hostile propaganda. Through painstaking archival research and careful readings of previously unknown sources, Shafique Virani has significantly revised thetraditional accounts of this community''s history." --Ali Asani, author of Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literatures of South Asia"The book offers a discerning and sensitive portrayal of the struggle for survival and the spiritual life of a religious community that endured severe persecution and extreme defamation during much of its history. The author in particular succeeds in bringing to light the esoteric spirituality and profound devotion to the living Imam prevalent in the centuries of concealment following the catastrophic Mongol attempt to annihilate Nizari Ismailism, relying onthe evidence of fragmentary source material that has only recently been recovered." -- Wilferd Madelung, author of The Succession to Muhammad"Drawing on an exhaustive array of Arabic, Persian and South Asian sources as well as the scattered results of modern scholarship on the Ismailis, Virani has produced a comprehensive and readable account of the complex, and often obscure, medieval history of the Nizari Ismailis. This book represents a major contribution to modern Ismaili studies." --Farhad Daftary, author of The Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines"In order to show how the Ismaili Shi''is survived the Mongol onslaught of the thirteenth century, Shafique Virani employs a wide variety of sources in many different South-and South west-Asian languages. Some of these sources provide historically useful information only in the most oblique ways, and Virani''s great achievement is to tease out meaning from what appear to be intractable materials.

The resulting reconstruction of medieval Ismaili history is bothscholarly and tender, subtle as well as moving." --Robert Wisnovsky, Director, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University"This is a masterful reconstruction of the history of the Ismailis of Iran, a minority Shi''i community that was forced underground in the thirteenth century by intense persecution. Reliable data on the Ismailis has been hard to come by-their libraries were destroyed and their reputations besmirched by hostile propaganda. Through painstaking archival research and careful readings of previously unknown sources, Shafique Virani has significantly revised thetraditional accounts of this community''s history." --Ali Asani, author of Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literatures of South Asia.