[11] After the death of Muhammad ibn Isma'il in the 8th century CE, the teachings of Ismailism further transformed into the belief system as it is known today, with an explicit concentration on the deeper, esoteric meaning (batin) of the Islamic religion.

With the eventual development of Usulism and Akhbarism into the more literalistic (zahir) oriented, Shia Islam developed into two separate directions: the metaphorical Ismaili, Alevi, Bektashi, Alian, and Alawite groups focusing on the mystical path and nature of God, along with the "Imam of the Time" representing the manifestation of esoteric truth and intelligible divine reality, with the more literalistic Usuli and Akhbari groups focusing on divine law (sharia) and the deeds and sayings (sunnah) of Muhammad and the Twelve Imams who were guides and a light to God.

The community with the highest percentage of Ismailis is Gorno-Badakhshan,[15] but Isma'ilis can be found in Central Asia, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon, Malaysia, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, East Africa, Angola, Bangladesh, and South Africa, and have in recent years emigrated to Europe, Russia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Amidst this turmoil in 680, Husayn along with the women and children of his family, upon receiving invitational letters and gestures of support by Kufis, wished to go to Kufa and confront Yazid as an intercessor on part of the citizens of the empire.

[citation needed] In contrast to his predecessors, Muhammad al-Baqir focused on academic Islamic scholarship in Medina, where he promulgated his teachings to many Muslims, both Shia and non-Shia, in an extremely organized form of Daʿwah.

[39] Ja'far bin Mansur al-Yaman's The Book of the Sage and Disciple is a classic of early Fatimid literature, documenting important aspects of the development of the Isma'ili da'wa in tenth-century Yemen.

The book is also of considerable historical value for modern scholars of Arabic prose literature as well as those interested in the relationship of esoteric Shia with early Islamic mysticism.

Likewise is the book an important source of information regarding the various movements within tenth-century Shīa leading to the spread of the Fatimid-Isma'ili da'wa throughout the medieval Islamicate world and the religious and philosophical history of post-Fatimid Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism in Yemen and India.

[45] The political asceticism practiced by the Imāms during the period after Muhammad ibn Ismail was to be short-lived and finally concluded with the Imāmate of Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah, who was born in 873.

However, this was not without controversy, and recognizing the extent that Ismāʿīlī doctrine had spread, the Abbasid Caliphate assigned Sunni and Twelver scholars the task to disprove the lineage of the new dynasty.

[52] The Musta'li line split again between the Taiyabi and the Hafizi, the former claiming that the 21st Imam and son of al-Amir bi-Ahkami'l-Lah went into occultation and appointed a Da'i al-Mutlaq to guide the community, in a similar manner as the Isma'ili had lived after the death of Muhammad ibn Isma'il.

[citation needed] According to Taiyabi Ismaili tradition, after the death of Imam al-Amir, his infant son, at-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim, about 2 years old, was protected by the most important woman in Musta'li history after Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah.

[citation needed] In the 1040s, the Zirid dynasty (governors of the Maghreb under the Fatimids) declared their independence and their conversion to Sunni Islam, which led to the devastating Banu Hilal invasions.

[53] After the decay of the Fatimid political system in the 1160s, the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo had his general, Saladin, seize Egypt in 1169, forming the Sunni Ayyubid dynasty.

[citation needed] Surrounded by the Abbasids and other hostile powers and low in numbers, Hassan-i Sabbah devised a way to attack the Isma'ili enemies with minimal losses.

[54] When an assassination was actually carried out, the Hashasheen would not be allowed to run away; instead, to strike further fear into the enemy, they would stand near the victim without showing any emotion and departed only when the body was discovered.

Given Juwayni's polemical aims, and the fact that he burned the Isma'ili libraries which may have offered much more reliable testimony about the history, scholars have been dubious about his narrative but are forced to rely on it given the absence of alternative sources.

[57] This is due to Isma'ili scholar Nasir Khusraw, who spent as a hermit the last decades of his life in Badakhshan, gathering a considerable number of devoted adherents, who have handed down his doctrines to succeeding generations.

Even so, the Isma'ilis agree with most other Islamic schools of thought that the Quran is a miracle that is beyond imitation and without equal (mu'jiz), for its external linguistic form and presentiment of spiritual meanings transcends the limits of eminence of Arabic poetry, prose, and rhyming speech.

The Isma'ilis believe that besides prophets, God's Speech also illuminates the souls of the Legatees and Imams, through the medium of the Holy Spirit, which allows them to perform many of the spiritual functions of Muhammad.

As a result of being divinely inspired (muʾayyad), the Prophets, Legatees, and Imams can perform taʾwīl and disclose it as instruction (taʿlīm) to the lower ranks of the Ismaili da'wa, including regular people.

[67] Classical Ismāʿīlī doctrine holds that divine revelation had been given in six periods (daur) entrusted to six prophets, who they also call Natiq (Speaker), who were commissioned to preach a religion of law to their respective communities.

[68] Just as the Imām is seen by Ismailis as the manifestation of the first-created Light, during the period between the Imāmates of Muhammad ibn Ismail and al-Madhi Billah, the relationship between the teacher and the student became a sacred one, and Dai became a position much beyond a normal missionary.

[citation needed] Many Ismaili sects do not ascribe to mainstream Islamic beliefs regarding the Hajj, considering it instead to metaphorically mean visiting the Imam himself, that being the greatest and most spiritual of all pilgrimages.

Another central act of worship for Ismailis is walayah, which translates from Arabic as "guardianship" and denotes "Love and devotion for God, the Prophets, the Aimmat and Imām uz Zaman, and Dai."

[74] The Aga Khan responded to this critique by claiming that: "While the words of the Koran remain the same, every generation, every century, every period must have a new and different interpretation of the past, otherwise Islam will die and will not survive the competition of some healthy less rigid competitors".

Beings Ismaʻili-Taiyebis they follow strictly Fatimid spiritual hierarchical set-up, law, dress code, customs, beliefs, eating habits, lifestyle, ethics and customary traditions, etc.

[citation needed] The Atba-i Malak jamaat (community) are a branch of Mustaali Ismaili Shia Islam that broke off from the mainstream Dawoodi Bohra after the death of the 46th Da'i al-Mutlaq, under the leadership of Abdul Hussain Jivaji.

[89][90] The Druze faith further split from Isma'ilism as it developed its own unique doctrines, and finally separated from both Ismāʿīlīsm and Islam altogether; these include the belief that the Imam Al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh was God incarnate.

[citation needed] The Amman Message, which was issued on 9 November 2004 (27th of Ramadan 1425 AH) by King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, called for tolerance and unity in the Muslim world.