Hafizi Isma'ilism (Arabic: حافظية, romanized: Ḥāfiẓiyya or مجيدية, Majīdiyya) was a branch of Musta'li Isma'ilism that emerged as a result of a split in 1132. The Hafizis accepted the Fatimid caliph Abd al-Majid al-Hafiz li-Din Allah (r. 1132–1149) and his successors as imams, while the rival Tayyibi branch rejected them as usurpers, favouring the succession of the imamate along the line of al-Hafiz's nephew, al-Tayyib.

The Hafizi sect lost state backing and gradually disappeared after the abolishment of the Fatimid Caliphate in 1171 and the conquest of the Fatimid-aligned dynasties of Yemen by the Ayyubid dynasty shortly after. The last remnants of the Hafizi branch are attested in the 14th century in Egypt and Syria, but had died out by the 15th century.

The Hafizi branch of Isma'ilism has its origin in the assassination of the tenth Fatimid caliph, and twentieth Musta'li Isma'ili imam, al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah (r. 1101–1130) on 7 October 1130. Al-Amir left only a six-month-old son, al-Tayyib, to succeed him, with no designated regent or a serving vizier who could assume that role.^[1][2][3] As a result, Abd al-Majid, a cousin of al-Amir and then the oldest surviving male of the dynasty,^[1] was proclaimed regent with the backing of a few of al-Amir's senior officials.^[4][5]

It is unclear, however, whether that regency was in the name of the infant al-Tayyib, who disappears completely from the record at this point.^[6] Modern scholars speculate that al-Tayyib may have died in infancy, possibly even before his father; but at least one contemporary anonymous Syrian source maintains that he was murdered on Abd al-Majid's orders.^[7][8][9] Instead of al-Tayyib, the new regime maintained that al-Amir had left a pregnant concubine, and that the caliph, having dreamed of his impending death, had declared this unborn child to be a son and his designated (naṣṣ) successor, thus effectively bypassing al-Tayyib.^[5][10] What came of this pregnancy is likewise unclear, as different sources report that the concubine either bore a daughter or that the fetus could not be found.^[11] In the event, this concern proved moot, for within a fortnight of al-Amir's death, a military coup brought the strongman Kutayfat to power. Kutayfat all but abolished the Fatimid regime, and began dismantling Isma'ilism as the official doctrine of the state.^[12][13][14] At this point, at the latest, al-Tayyib was eliminated.^[15][16] Kutayfat's regime was overthrown when he was assassinated by Fatimid loyalists on 8 December 1131. Abd al-Majid was released from his prison and restored as regent.^[17][18]

Whether Abd al-Majid had previously harboured designs on the caliphate or not, the lack of an heir to al-Amir meant that the continuation of the Fatimid dynasty and the Isma'ili imamate required that he succeed as imam and caliph, since according to Isma'ili doctrine, "God does not leave the Moslem Community without an Imam to lead them on the right path".^[19] This was done in a decree (sijill) on 23 January 1132, whereby Abd al-Majid assumed the title al-Ḥāfiz li-Dīn Allāh ("Keeper of God's Religion").^[17][20] For the first time in the Fatimid dynasty, power was not passed from father to son. This radical departure from established practice had to be addressed and justified. Thus the sijill proclaimed al-Hafiz's right to the imamate, likening it to the sun, which had been briefly eclipsed by al-Amir's death and Kutayfat's usurpation, but had now reappeared in accordance with the divine purpose. No reference to any son of al-Amir was made. Al-Hafiz claimed that he had secretly received the designation (naṣṣ) as successor by al-Amir, and that Caliph al-Mustansir had foreseen this event. Earlier examples of breaks in the direct succession of the imamate, chiefly the designation by Muhammad of his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib, were brought up to buttress his claim.^{[18][21][22][23]}

Al-Hafiz's accession produced a major schism in the Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism, between the adherents of the imamate of al-Tayyib (the "Tayyibis"), pitted against supporters of al-Hafiz and his successors (the "Hafizis").^[24][25] Al-Hafiz was largely accepted by the Isma'ili faithful in the Fatimid-ruled domains in Egypt, Nubia, and the Levant, but rebuffed by some of the Isma'ili communities abroad. Most notably, this was the case in the only other major Isma'ili-ruled region, Yemen, where the hitherto staunchly pro-Fatimid Sulayhid dynasty broke up. The Sulayhid queen, Arwa, upheld the rights of al-Tayyib, whose birth had been announced to her in a letter by al-Amir, while the regional dynasties of the Hamdanids and the Zurayids recognized al-Hafiz's claims.^[26][24] The issue was not merely political, but, given the pivotal role of the imam in the Isma'ili faith, also intensely religious. In the words of Stern, "on it depended the continuity of institutional religion as well as the personal salvation of the believer".^[27] As Stern emphasizes, the issue was "not so much the person of the claimant that weighed with his followers [...] (this is, of course, obvious in the case of the infant al-Tayyib) — it was the divine right personified in the legitimate heir that counted".^[27]

Inextricably bound to the Fatimid regime, the Hafizi sect survived until the fall of the Fatimid Caliphate in 1171, but declined and disappeared quickly after, unlike its two rival branches, the Nizaris and Tayyibis, which survive to the present day.^[28]

1. Hasan ibn Ali (661–669)
2. Husayn ibn Ali (669–680)
3. Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin (680–713)
4. Muhammad al-Baqir (713–733)
5. Ja'far al-Sadiq (733–765)
6. Isma'il ibn Ja'far (765–775)
7. Muhammad ibn Isma'il (775–813)
8. Abadullah ibn Muhammad (Ahmad al-Wafi), died 829, Da'i and "hidden Imam", son of Muhammad ibn Isma'il according to Fatimid Isma'ili tradition
9. Ahmad ibn Abadullah (Muhammad at-Taqi), died 840, Da'i and "hidden Imam"
10. Husayn ibn Ahmad (Radi Abdullah), died 909, Da'i and "hidden Iman"
11. Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah, died 934, Da'i who openly declared himself as Imam, 1st Fatimid Caliph
12. Al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, died 946, 2nd Fatimid Caliph
13. Al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah, died 953, 3rd Fatimid Caliph
14. Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, died 975, 4th Fatimid Caliph
15. Al-Aziz Billah, died 996, 5th Fatimid Caliph
16. Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, 6th Fatimid Caliph, disappeared 1021
17. Al-Zahir li-i'zaz Din Allah, died 1036, 7th Fatimid Caliph
18. Al-Mustansir Billah, died 1094, 8th Fatimid Caliph
19. Al-Musta'li Billah, died 1101, 9th Fatimid Caliph, son of Al-Mustansir Billah
20. Al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah, died 1130, 10th Fatimid Caliph
21. Al-Hafiz li-Din Allah, died 1149, 11th Fatimid Caliph
22. Al-Zafir bi-Amr Allah, died 1154, 12th Fatimid Caliph
23. Al-Fa'iz bi-Nasr Allah, died 1160, 13th Fatimid Caliph
24. Al-Adid li-Din Allah, died 1171, 14th and last Fatimid Caliph; at his death, Saladin abolished the Fatimid regime
25. Dawud al-Hamid li-'llah, died in prison under the Ayyubid dynasty in 1208
26. Sulayman Badr al-Din, died in prison under the Ayyubid dynasty in 1248, without issue, ending the line of Hafizi imams

• List of extinct Shia sects