An ezoteric islamic society in central asia before and after the Mongol invasion: İsmailis of Badakhshan in 10th-15th centuries

There are two main intentions of this work. The first one is to open a new discussion area of the Ismaili sect and history which almost has never studied in both Turkish historiography and divinity studies until today. The second one is to elaborately illustrate the İsmaili effect on the Shia-effected societies in İran and Anatolia which was previously subject of the writer?s M.A. thesis. In this context, by adding the results of the investigations on Badakhshan region, it is tried to create an oppurtunity to collate historical progress of Ismaili sect in these three regions, and lastly to show effects of Ismaili thought on Turks if there is some.However, it is a hard task to achieve this as there is no survey on İsmaili sect in Turkey -except for one exception- until recent times. In addition to this, there is almost no writen sources concerning this subject. Besides, the history of Badakhshan hasn?t studied enough in the world literature until now. The most of the surveys on this subject conducted by Russion orientalists whose works usually ethnographic and fokloric.This work is composed of three main chapters. The first chapter is in fact an attempt to write a limited Central Asian history based on the historical progress in Badakhshan.In the second chapter, Nasir-i Khusraw and his mission (dawat) are taken in hand as a private chapter. The reason of this is that Nasir-i Khusraw is the main historical figure standing on the centre of their identity fot the Ismailis of Badkhshan. There are a good deal of surveys on Nasir-i Khusraw and his mission, and almost all of them were included in this research. However, this literature is not even enough for explaining Khusraw?s importance for the Ismailis of Badakhshan. In fact, to use only this inadequate literature has been seemed not enough to shed light on the problems named above. As a result of this, it has been needed that to support this data with field works, and another chapter was written in order to complete this gap.The third chapter, which mainly constitutes an anthropological approach, is named ?tradition?. In this chapter, along with the using many oral and written data represented their beliefs and doctrine, our observes and data which had been collected while our visits to Badakhshan several times have also been used.Keywords: Badakhshan, ?smailism, Nasir-i Khusraw, Dawat-i Nasir, Ahmed-i Yasawi, Panctani