Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan, or ʿAlī, surnamed Al-Hādī (Arabic: علي الهادي بن نزار) (470 AH/1076 CE – 530 AH/1136 CE) was the 20th Ismaili Nizari Imam. Born in Cairo, he was about 17 years old when his predecessor, Imam al-Mustansir, died, and 20 years old during the assumption of his Imamate in 490 AH/1097 CE. Henceforward, the seat of Ismaili Imamate was transferred from Egypt to Persia owing to the division among the Ismailis, where Hasan bin Sabbah had founded the Nizari Ismaili state.
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Name
Abu Ali Al-Hasan son of Nizar son of Al-Mustansir Billah. Syrian resources mention his name as Ali Al-Hadi ibn Nizar, علي الهادي بن نزار commonly referred to by the title al-Hadi الهادي meaning The Guide. According to a copy of a letter from the 21st Imam Al-Muhtadi to the Syrian Ismaili, the proper name was Al-Hadi Ali. A careful reading of this important letter composed by his son the 21st Ismaili Nizari Imam Al-Muhtadi may imply that he had a compound name Ali Hassan, because Al-Muhtadi mentioned his father's name both as Ali and Hassan in the same letter.
Birth and early life in Egypt
According to reliable reports he was born in Cairo in 470 AH/1076 CE. Al-Hadi (The Guide) was the son of the Fatimid Ismaili Imam Nizar (died 1095), the eldest son of the Imam al-Mustansir (died 1094) whom he succeeded to the throne.
Origins of Nizari Isma'ilism in Persia
Isma'ilism had deep roots in Persia, with many Persians becoming notable da'is, like Mohamed b. Ahmed al-Nasafi (died 943), Abu Hatim al-Razi (died 934), Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani, Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani and many others.
Hassan-i Sabbah later took control of the mountain fortress of Alamut in Northern Persia, laying the foundation of what was to become the Nizari Ismaili state of Persia and Syria. At the same time the Ismailis of Persia had started an armed revolt against the Saljuq Turks.
In 1094, a conflict broke out between the Nizar ibn al-Mustansir, the oldest son and heir presumptive of the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir, and the vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah, who succeeded in raising to the throne al-Musta'li, the younger son of al-Mustansir, instead of Nizar. After a brief conflict, during which Nizar proclaimed himself caliph at Alexandria, he was captured and executed in Cairo.
Al-Hadi the Concealed Imam (الهادي الإمام المستور)
According to the Ismail Nizari tradition Imam al-Hadi was the designated (Nass) as the successor to Nizar.
The period under review denotes the second concealment period Dawr-i Satr دور الستر of the Ismaili history (490-559 AH/1097–1164 CE), wherein three Imams lived in concealment during about 70 years:
The 20th Nizari Ismaili Imam al-Hadi الهادي
The 21st Nizari Ismaili Imam al-Muhtadi المهتدي
The 22nd Nizari Ismaili Imam al-Qahir القاهر
During this period of concealement, three Ismaili hujjats governed the Nizari state:
Hassan-i Sabbah (1090–1124)
Kiya Buzrug Ummid (1124–1138)
Muhammad bin Kiya (1138–1162)
Numismatic evidence from the early Alamut period in Nizari Ismaili history reveals that Nizar's name and the caliphate title (al- Mustafa li-Din Allah) continued to appear on coins minted at Alamut for about seventy years (during the concealment period of the Nizari Imams). The Nizari coins have referred to Alamut as kursī ad-Daylam (كرسي الديلم, literally "Capital of Daylam" in Arabic (Chair of Daylam).
There are many narrations about the detention of Imam Nizar or his murder. One of them mentioned by Hafiz Abru states, "Only one of al-Nizar’s sons was arrested with him, and the other son disappeared in Alexandria, who was neither arrested nor recognised." This seems an erroneous account, as the arrested sons were Abu Abdullah al-Hasan and Abu Abdullah al-Hussain, who were prominent faces in the Fatimid court. Under concealment, the third son was Imam Ali al-Hadi, who had managed to escape from Alexandria.
Challenges during Al-Hadi Imamat
Under the leadership of Hassan-i Sabbah and the following Alamut Lords, the strategy of covert capture was replicated across Persia, Syria and beyond. The Nizari Ismaili developed a unique state of scattered fortresses, surrounded by large areas of enemy territory. They created a power structure that proved more effective than that of Fatimid Cairo or the Seljuk Bagdad, both of which underwent political instability, mainly during the leadership transition. These periods of internal political conflict in Cairo and Baghdad offered the Ismaili state respite from attacks, and even to have such sovereignty as to have minted their own coinage.
Death
Imam al-Hadi died in 530/1136 at the age of 60 in Lambsar (Persian: لمبسر, also pronounced Lamsar) Castle, after bequeathing the office of the Imamate to his son, al-Muhtadi, when Kiya Buzrug was governing the Ismaili state in Alamut.