Satr

Satr, “concealment”, a term used in a variety of senses, particularly by the Isma‘iliyya.

The Isma‘ilis originally used it in reference to a period in their early history, called dawr al-satr, stretching from soon after the death of Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq in 148/765 CE to the establishment of the Fatimid state in 297/909 CE. 

The Isma‘ili imam, recognised as the qa’im or mahdi by the majority of the early Isma‘ilis, was out of the public domain (mastur) during this period of concealment; in his absence, he was represented by hudjdjas (see Ja‘far b. Mansur al-Yaman, Kitab al-Kahf, ed. R. Strothmann, London 1952, 98-9; al-Shahrastani, 146). Later, the Isma‘ilis of the Fatimid period, who allowed for continuity in their imamate, recognised a series of three such imams between Imam Muhammad b. Isma‘il b. Ja‘far, their seventh imam, and Imam ‘Abd Allah al-Mahdi, founder of the Fatimid dynasty (see H.F. al-Hamdani, On the genealogy of Fatimid caliphs, Cairo 1958, text 11-14).