The Bohras as Neo-Fāṭimids: Documentary Remains of a Fāṭimid Past in Gujarat

Abstract

Abstract This article traces the remains of Fāṭimid chancery documents, and the writing practices that surround them, among the Bohras of Gujarat. As Shiʿi Ismaʿilis, the Bohras consider themselves heirs of the Fāṭimid Imāmate (909–1171). Whereas other Ismaʿili communities, such as the Nizārīs, claim their genealogical link to the Fāṭimids through the presence of a living Imam, the Bohras legitimize their “Neo-Fāṭimid” identity through a living Arabic Ismaʿili manuscript culture. While the philological link between the Bohras and the Fāṭimids has hitherto been acknowledged through the mobility and preservation of these manuscripts, their use of documents, however, and its potential Fāṭimid influences, has remained unexplored. Based on ethnographic observations and archival research among the ʿAlawi Bohras of Baroda, I suggest that practices from the Fāṭimid chancery continued in Yemen and Gujarat in the post-Fāṭimid world, and continue to survive today in the Bohra community’s documentary culture.