Member of a sect of the
It came into existence after the death of the sixth imam , Jafar ibn Muhammad , in 765. His son Ismāʽīl was accepted as successor only by a minority, who became known as Ismāʽīlītes. Their doctrine, formulated in the late 8th and early 9th century, made a distinction between ordinary Muslim believers and the elect, who shared a secret wisdom. The Qarāmitāh subsect was popular in Iraq, Yemen, and Bahrain in the 9th–11th centuries, and the Fāṭimid subsect conquered Egypt in 969 and established the Fātimid dynasty . A subgroup of the Fāṭimids was the Nizārīs, who gained control of fortresses in Iran and Syria in the late 11th century and were known as {{link=Assassin">Assassin s. The major Nizārī line survived into modern times under the leadership of the Aga Khan , moving from Iran to India in 1840. The Druze separated from the Ismāʽīlīs early in the 11th century and formed a closed society of their own.