The Nizari-Ismailis in modernity

This thesis will explore the challenges and negotiations towards an articulation of important constituent elements, of the personal and community, that shape identity in the space between two "social imaginaries" (Taylor 2004), the Shia-Imami-Nizari-Ismaili Muslim and the "modernw-Western. The dissertation includes the following approaches; autobiographical narration, intermingled with the voices of social theorists Charles Taylor, Selya Benhabib and the Ismaili community leadership (the Ismaili Imamat), towards rendering a historical philosophical lens that provides common ground, for analysis of the tensions and accommodations towards personal and communal identity construction within the Nizari-Ismaili Muslim community, and its evolution of a social imaginary and the role of education. However, the overarching theme of the thesis relates to the challenge that secular society and globalization pose to a traditional religious worldview.