The Role of Shu'ubiyya in Transmitting Zindiqi Legacy to Ismailia

Mohammad Ali Chelongar[1]

Zamane Hasannejad[2]

Abstract

The socio-political movements faced by the Iranian world during the early Islamic centuries maintain continuity of the intellectual legacy of the ancient Iran. Such trends strived to revive themselves during this period by means of previous intellectual legacy and texts and through relying on political transformations caused by gradual decline of Zoroastrian religious system. Unceasing social and literary movements of Zindiq and Shu'ubiyya are the most outstanding examples of such trends. They strived for continuing and disseminating rational and materialistic issues in the Islamic world via relying on and reinterpreting Greek philosophical texts. Translation of Greek and Zindiqi religious and philosophical texts,  supported by elites of the era, played an influential role in transmitting rational and philosophical legacy of the ancient Iran—with Manichaeism as its most outstanding discourse. With Zindiqi being suppressed and weakened, this trend exploited the religious face of Islam for conveying its doctrine.  Fundamental commonalities between Zindiqi and Ismailia strengthen the hypothesis that the intellectual doctrine of Zindiqi has been transmitted to Ismailia Shias via Shu'ubiyya literary movement.