Hamza ibn Ali

Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmed was an 11th-century Persian Isma'ili missionary and the founding leader of the Druze. Born in Zuzan in Greater Khorasan, he preached a heterodox strand of Isma'ilism in Cairo under the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, teaching from a mosque on the Raydan Canal that God had become incarnate in al-Hakim. Despite opposition from the Isma'ili clergy he set up a parallel hierarchy of missionaries in Egypt and Syria. After al-Hakim's disappearance, most likely his assassination, in February 1021, Hamza's followers were persecuted and he disappeared; his disciple Baha al-Din al-Muqtana resumed the mission in 1027–1042 and finalized the doctrines of the Druze faith.