Articles, Updates and News on, for and from the Ismaili jamaat
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Jerusalem
Eid al-Adha, (known elsewhere as Eidi Korbon and meaning the 'Festival of Sacrifice') commemorates the story of Abraham's test of faith and the substitution of a ram in place of Abraham's son as a sacrifice to God.
The Qur'an offers a summary of the story in Surah as-Saffat:
The following is the story of Eid al-Adha, as told to the prophet Musa and recorded in the first book of the Tawrat, Genesis. You can also read an esoteric interpretation *here*
Genesis 22:1-19
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Muhammad II now ruled as Imam over all Nizari Ismailis from his castle in Alamut, Persia whilst the Syrian Ismaili faction operated under the delegated leadership of the legendary Old Man of the Mountain. Feared by Crusaders and Saladin alike for his devoted assassins who wreaked havoc and terror in the Holy Land, he even had the King of Jerusalem assassinated in 1192.
In 1210, Muhammad II died and was succeeded by his son, Hassan III who immediately ordered his followers to embrace Sunni Islam.
Hasan-i Sabbah was an exceptional and charismatic leader. Under him and his appointed successor the Nizari-Ismaili mini-state, headquartered in Alamut, enjoyed relative success, making raids as far as Jerusalem and the Caucuses and even encroaching on Templar territory.
However, the military successes soon began to dwindle and, with the Imam still hidden somewhere, the Nizari Ismailis (who by the mid-12th century numbered about 60 000), became increasingly disillusioned.
