ˈIsmaelite, n. (a.)
Also (in sense c) ˈIsmailite.
[f. as prec. + -ite.]
a. Another form of Ishmaelite. b. A name formerly sometimes given (esp. by Jews) to the Arabs as descendants of Ishmael, and so to Muslims generally. c. spec. = Ismaelian.
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxiii. 1 Many y{supt} proudly pretend y⊇ name of (Israel) as though they were the cheef members of y⊇ Church, are but Ismaelites. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 163 Of the Kingdome of the Calipha,..the chiefe of the Ismaelite-Sect. Ibid. 164 The Jewes in Persia and Media make Vowes..in this place, to which also the Ismaelites resort to pray. 1625–6 ― Pilgrims ii. 1449 Ghamar-Ben-Alehetah hauing taken that Arke from the ridge of the mountain, fitted it for the vse of the Ismaelites Mosche. 1632 Lithgow Trav. iv. 145 Mahomet..whose father was Abdillas, an Ismaelite. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 46/2 The Assassins of Persia and Syria were a fanatical sect of Ismaelites. 1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 722/2 Abdallah..was a free-thinker, and he succeeded in establishing among the Ismaelites a faith, or, rather a philosophy, wholly opposed to the doctrines of Islam. |
Hence Ismaeˈlitic, Ismaeˈlitical, ˈIsmaelitish adjs.; also ˈIsmaelism, the doctrinal system of the Ismaelians (formerly, sometimes used as = Islamism, Muhammadanism).
| 1604 Hieron Wks. I. 502 Little to esteeme the schoffes of Ismalitish papists. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 338 Benjamen Tudelensis telleth that one..had taken..the remainder of the Arke, and therewith built an Ismaeliticall Meschit. 1750 Warburton Doctr. Grace iii. iii. Wks. 1811 VIII. 451 What now has..[he] to oppose to this modest Apology for Ismaelism? 1799 Ann. Reg., Hist. Europe i. (1813) 10/2 He [Buonaparte] was careful to pay homage, on every occasion, to the prophet... The whole army took the tone of outward respect for Ismaulism. 1852 Th. Ross Humboldt's Trav. II. xx. 249 Polygamy..sanctioned by Ismaelism, does not prevent the people of the east from loving their children with tenderness. 1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 722/2 Ismaelism thus secured a firm footing in the west, and its doctrines were propagated there with great success. 1883 Ibid. XVI. 594/1 Under the Fáṭimite Caliph Ḥákim, a new religion sprang out of Ismailism, that of the Druses. 1884 Ibid. XVII. 238/1 The eminent men who revealed to the poet in Cairo the secrets of the Isma{nfasper}ilitic faith. |