Hassan II (Imam)

Hassan II ( Arabic حسن على ذكره السلام, DMG Ḥasan ʿalā ḏikrihī s-salām ; † January 9, 1166 ), was the 23rd Imam of the Shia of the Nizari-Ismailis and fourth ruler of Alamut .

The Ismaili state of Alamut in northern Persia.

According to the doctrine still valid today in his Shia, Hassan II was the biological son of the 22nd Imam al-Qahir († before 1164). So his genealogy was " ibn al-Qahir ibn al-Muhtadi ibn al-Hadi ibn Nizar ", which made him a direct descendant of the 19th Imam Nizar († 1095), to whom the Ismailite Shia appealed to him . However, the oldest surviving records of this genealogy date from the 15th and 16th centuries, which is why it is considered obscure.

Because according to the tradition of Ata al-Mulk Juwaini , Hassan II was actually the biological son of Muhammad ibn Buzurg-Umid († 1162), the third ruler of Alamut, who represented the Ismaili state outwardly, while the Imams in secret ( ġaiba ) lived. It should be noted, however, that the Sunni and follower of the Mongols Juwaini reported extremely biased and partisan in his descriptions of the Ismaili sect from his point of view, which is heretical, which also applies to Sunni historiography in general. He reports that the son of Muhammad ibn Buzurg-Ummid was already venerated by the community as a coming imam during his lifetime, which angered the father extremely and led to the imposition of severe punishments up to death against those who spread such views. Hassan II believed these stories and acted as a coming imam. Dschuwaini handed several scattered by the Ismailis stories to which Imam Hassan II. One of the Muhammad bin Buzurg-Umid Under Pushed , but in fact the son of the hidden Imam al-Qahir was whose proper name also Hassan (I) have gelautet.

When Muhammad ibn Buzurg-Umid died in 1162, Hassan II succeeded him in ruling Alamut. Two years later he revealed himself to his Shia as the deputy ( īalīfa ) of the hidden Imam and in his name announced the dawn of “Judgment Day” . To this end, Hassan II celebrated the messianic festival of the “resurrection of the resurrection” (qijāmat al-qijāmah) on the seventeenth day of Ramadan 559 AH (August 8, 1164) in Alamut and announced the associated abolition of the Sharia . This is heresy by representatives of the orthodox Islam of the Sunna and therefore their followers were condemned as heretical apostates ( malāḥida ) . His devoted followers, however, have given him the honorary title of "peace upon his mention" and accepted his preaching as a valid dogma.

On the sixth day of the month of Rabi I 561 AH (January 9, 1166) Hassan II was murdered in Lamassar Castle ( Qazvin province ) by a brother-in-law from the Buyid dynasty . He was succeeded by his son Nur ad-Din Muhammad .

Hassan II himself did not claim the imamate for himself, but his followers and his son believed they recognized him as such. The son finally made the emergence of the imamate official by recognizing his father as the actual imam who had stepped out of hiding. The genealogical descent of the 23rd Imam from the 19th Imam Nizar is still considered a historical fact in the Shia of the Nizarites / Ismailites.

literature

• Vladimir Ivanow , Alamut and Lamasar, Two mediaeval ismaili strongholds in Iran: an archaeological study. Tehran, 1960.
• Farhad Daftary , The Ismāʿīlīs: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge University Press 1990.
• Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismaʿilis. London 1994.
• Farhad Daftary, Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and Studies. London 2004.
• Heinz Halm, Caliphs and Assassins: Egypt and the Near East at the Time of the First Crusades 1074–1171. Munich 2014, pp. 336–346.

swell

• Abū Isḥāq Quhistānī († after 1498), "Seven Chapters" (Haft bāb) , ed. and translated into English by Wladimir Ivanow (1959), p. 23.
• Khayrkhwāh-i Harātī († after 1553), “Wise Speeches” (Kalām-i pīr) , ed. and translated into English by Vladimir Ivanov (1935), p. 44.
• Ata al-Mulk Dschuwaini , "History of the World Conqueror" ( Ta'rīkh-i Jahāngushāy ) : ed. as a translation into English by John Andrew Boyle, Genghis Khan, the history of the world conqueror (1958), pp. 686-697.
• Hamd Allah Mustawfi , "Selected Story" (Ta'rīkh-i-guzīda) : ed. as a translation into English by Edward G. Browne, The Ta'ríkh-i-guzída or "Select history" of Hamdulláh Mustawfí-i-Qazwíní, part 2 (1913), p. 129.

predecessor	Office	successor
Muhammad ibn Buzurg-Umid	Ruler of Alamut 1162–1166	Only ad-Din Muhammad (II.)
(Hassan I.) al-Qahir	23. Imam of the Nizari-Ismailis 1164–1166	Only ad-Din Muhammad (II.)