seven periods of human sacred history from the isma‘īlīs' point of view

in the second half of the 2nd/8th century, the ismā‘īlī sect, who believed in the imamate of ismā‘īl, the second son of imam ja‘far al-ṣādiq (a.s.), was formed. the ismā‘īlīs brought up specific views concerning imamate. from their point of view, the world of being can not survive a moment without the existence of an imam and that mankind is always in need of a teacher, leader, and infallible imam. the ismā‘īlīs made great efforts to trace the existence of imamate back to the beginning of creation. to this end, they presented special theories and interpretations of history and prophethood. according to one of these theories human sacred history consists of seven periods during which mankind achieves perfection. every period is formed by the emergence of a prophet who is also called nāṭiq along with his waṣī (legatee) who is also called ṣāmit (silent) or asās (base). after them, seven imams appear who attain imamate one after another. undoubtedly, neo-platonism has been influential in the formation of this idea. nāṭiq is the medium for the revelation of ordinances from god to people; asās is the authority for interpretation of the ordinances; and imam expresses the interior and the exterior of sharī‘a (law). in the first six periods, adam (a.s.), noah (a.s.), abraham (a.s.), moses (a.s.), jesus (a.s.), and muḥammad (s.a.w.) were the law giving prophets and with the coming of every new nāṭiq the previous sharī‘a would have been abrogated. of course, the ancient ismā‘īlī sources were of divergent opinions on this issue. in order to better elucidate this issue, the ismā‘īlīs have made specific esoteric interpretations of imamate and the popularity of the number seven. this period of time, which is dedicated to each nāṭiq, may be a period of manifestation or a period of concealment; moreover, it may be a greater period or a lesser period, each one of which is explained in detail in this article. the present article addresses this issue with the use of the ancient theological and historical sources of ismā‘īlīs.