Sabiya

Sabiya ( Arabic: سبعية ), the “ septenaries ” is a Shiite sect, which was formed at the end of the 8th - beginning of the 9th centuries. as a result of the problem of the inheritance of imams in ismailism. They recognized a series of seven imams ending in Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Jafar, who did not leave a successor, whose return was expected as al-Mahdi. Unlike the term isnaasharya (“ double-faced ”), the term sabiyya (“septenary”) is not found in medieval Arabic texts. Apparently, it was coined by modern scholars by analogy with the first term.

The term is often used to refer to Ismailism , but this is not true, since neither Bohor nor Khoja Ismaili count seven imams. This term can only be applied to the very early stage of the development of Ismailism, during which the Ismaili propaganda proclaimed a line of seven imams, starting with al-Hassan and ending with Muhammad ibn Ismail. The unity of the Ismaili movement was broken899 , when the leader of the "call" ( da'wa ), the future Fatimid caliph al-Mahdi, made a claim to be considered an imam and al-Mahdi. His claims were rejected by the communities of Iraq and Bahrain, which adhered to the original doctrine. Thus, only these so-called Karmat communities ( karmitis ) retained their original faith in a series of seven imams, while the Fatimid branch of Ismailism continued the line of the seventh imam. In 830, Sabiya (Karmatians) attacked Mecca and took the Black Stone . In the X century, they formed an aggressive state on the territory of modern Bahrain. Towards the end of the 11th century, they gradually disappeared into other Shiite sects. The actual leader of the Khoja branch of Ismailism, Aga Khan IV, is considered the 49th imam ^[1] .