Ali ibn Hanzala

A member of the Banu Hamdan tribe,[1] Ali ibn Hanzala had been active within the Tayyibi daʿwa, already during the tenure of the third Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq, Hatim ibn Ibrahim (1162–1199).[2] Under the fifth Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq, Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid (1209–1215), he served as his senior deputy (maʾdhūn) and succeeded him when the latter died in 1215.[1][2] The position of Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq ("absolute/unrestricted missionary") was the supreme authority of the Tayyibi community in their capacity as vicegerents of the absent Imam, the eponymous at-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim, who remained in occultation.[2][3]

Like most of his predecessors and successors, Ali enjoyed good relations with the Hamdanid dynasty ruling Sanaa and their Ayyubid overlords, which allowed him to reside both in Sanaa and in the Hatimid Hamdanid stronghold of Dhu Marmar.[1][2] He sent junior dāʿīs to assist the growing Isma'ili community in western India.[1][2] At the same time, he confronted the attempts of the rival Hafizi Isma'ili daʿwa and the Zaydi imams to expand their influence in his territories.[2]

His own chief aides (maʾdhūn) were both relatives of his predecessor, Ali ibn Muhammad: Ahmad ibn Mubarak, Ali's nephew, and Ali's son al-Husayn. Both would succeed him as Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq after his death on 8 February 1229.[1][2]

Ali ibn Hanzala was very well educated, with a particular interest in astrology and natural sciences.[2] He wrote two theological works on Tayyibi esoteric doctrine (ḥaqāʾiq):[2][4]

• the Simṭ al-ḥaqaʾiq ("Banquet of reality"), a work on Tayyibi concepts on tawḥīd, cosmology and eschatology, written as a poem of 663 verses. It has been edited and published in Damascus in 1953 by Abbas al-Azzawi at the Institut Français de Damas.
• the Risālat ḍiyāʾ al-ʿulūm wa-miṣbāʿ al-ʿulūm ("Treatise on the radiance of reason and the light of knowledge"), divided into four chapters, it also deals with matters of tawḥīd, cosmology and eschatology, as well as other theological questions.

• Daftary, Farhad (2004). Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and Studies. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0-8577-1386-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Daftary, Farhad (2007). The Ismāʿı̄lı̄s: Their History and Doctrines (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-61636-2.
• Poonawala, Ismail K. (2008). "ʿAlī b. Ḥanẓala b. Abī Sālim". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.