The Ismaili-Sufi Sage of Pamir: Mubarak-i Wakhani and the Esoteri ...

The history of the expansion of the Ismāīlī da wa (mission) in Pamir and Badakhshan remains obscure. It is not known when exactly Ismāīlism arrived in the region and whether it was the first Islamic branch to accommodate the variety of indigenous beliefs and practices (veneration of the sun and the moon, cult of spirits, and elements of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Shamanism) of the pre-Islamic period in its doctrinal framework. Nevertheless, it is a matter of historic fact that in the eleventh century an Ismāīlī dā ī (missionary) and famous Persian poet-traveller, Nāir-i Khusraw (d.1080), arrived in Badakhshan and spent the rest of his life there preaching the Fāimid Ismāīlī dawa.¹⁰ Moreover, it is with his name that the local Ismāīlī tradition identifies itself, regarding him as the Pīr (the religious guide) of Kuhistān (i.e., Badakhshan and Pamir). It is, therefore, argued in this study that, although unique cases of conversion (usually that of the rulers) to either Islam or Ismāīlism could have occurred before Nāir-i Khusraw’s trip to the region, the actual course of Islamisation, as a long and continuous process of shifting identities, started with his dawa in the eleventh century and was continued into the post-Alamut period (thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries) through other missionaries.

This study presents a brief historical account of the religious development in the mountain regions of Pamir from Nāir-i Khusraw’s mission until the nineteenth century. More specifically, it examines the historical development of Ismāīlism in Pamir during its two main periods, which are identified here as the period of Dawat-i Nāir (Nāir’s mission) and the period of Panj-Tanī (the Fivers) faith. It should be pointed out that this terminological application has an empirical rather than a theoretical implication. Although these two historical periods witnessed substantial doctrinal differences, the religious significance of the terms always remained the same. The term Panj-Tanī is derived from a common Shīī perception of ‘the five pure persons’ (panj tan-i pāk), including Muhammad, Alī, Fāima, asan and usayn, whose names feature in the Ismāīlī hierarchy of sanctity. These names were, of course, the key elements in Nāir-i Khusraw’s mission itself and remained the sacred codes of religious conduct henceforward.