Development of the Zoroastrian Concept of Farrah-Holding Human into the Ismaili Notion of the Perfect Human

In Zoroastrian scriptures, the transfer of the divine (īzadī) farrah from one king to another created a chain of farrah-holding humans who, through this farrah, undertook the guardianship of the people, the administration of their affairs, and the establishment of light throughout the universe. When Muslims conquered Iran, the divine farrah retained its discursive formulation but found new expressions in various texts. In Ismailism, given the unique temporal and spatial circumstances, a chain of perfect humans emerged with responsibilities similar to those of farrah-holding humans, namely protecting people against misguidance. Considering the theological elements in the discourse of divine farrah—where rulers, confirmed by Ahura Mazda, exercised a kind of guardianship (wilāya) and ritualistic character, transferring Ahura Mazda’s grace to the people—this issue represents a major commonality between the farrah discourse and the concepts of guardianship and perfect humans in Islamic literature. Thus, there was a gradual conceptual development of the theory of guardianship and the perfect human, connecting the ancient Persian (Khusruwānī) wisdom and Iranian mystics up to the seventh century AH regarding political rule in Iran. Using the comparative method, this article analyzes the Iranian and Islamic religious-mystical strands to unveil their similarities and differences