Kahak
Kahak is a village located about 35 km northeast of Anjudan and northwest of Mahallat in central Iran, with the ruins of a fairly large caravanserai. Kahak was an important locality in the late medieval period for the Qasemshahi Nizari Ismaili community in Iran, but now it is a small and isolated village with a Twelver Shi‘i population of about 500 persons.
Kahak evidently enjoyed greater importance in Safavid times as a stage between Qum and Arak (former Sultanabad), as attested by the ruins of a fairly large caravanserai there. By the end of the Anjudan revival in Nizari Ismailism, which lasted some two centuries from the middle of the 15th century, the Nizari imams had established deep roots in central Persia around Qum, especially in Anjudan and Kahak.
Author
Dr Farhad Daftary
Co-Director and Head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications
An authority in Shi'i studies, with special reference to its Ismaili tradition, Dr. Daftary has published and lectured widely in these fields of Islamic studies. In 2011 a Festschrift entitled Fortresses of the Intellect was produced to honour Dr. Daftary by a number of his colleagues and peers.
