Is Qaramite/Karmatians an earlier branch of Ismailis?

The book I am currently reading was published a hundred years ago. A lot of information is outdated and may no longer be very accurate. I'm definitely interested to read something new about all the sects that have been written so far.

But as of now, I am just going to simply read and not make a judgement about the content.


Is Qaramite/Karmatians an earlier branch of Ismailis?

Here's a quote from the book, given by D'Herbelot (in Article on Karmatians, Bib. Orient) about Hamdan Karmat (founder of the sect).

"Their founder taught his disciples to make fifty prayers a day and allowed them to eat things forbidden by Mussulmans. He allegorized the precepts of the Koran, giving
out prayer to be the symbol of obedience to the Imaum; fasting to be merely the symbol of silence and secrecy with respect to strangers who were not of their sect ; and that fidelity to the Imaum was figured by the precept which forbids fornication, so that those who reveal the precepts of their religion, and who do not obey their Sheikh blindly fall into the crime called ' zinah/ Instead of the tenth part of their property which Mussulmans gave to the poor, they were to set apart the fifth part for the Imaum."

Another quote from the book about Hamdan Karmat, this one by Von Hammer (History of the Assassins)

"His doctrine, in addition to the circumstances of its forbidding nothing, and declaring everything allowable and indifferent, meriting neither reward nor punishment, undermined more particularly the basis of Mohammedanism, by declaring that all its commands were allegorical, and merely a disguise of political precepts and maxims. Moreover, all was to be referred to the blameless and irreproachable Imaum Maassum, (preserved from error) as the model of a prince whom, though he had occupied no existing throne, they pretended to seek, and declared war against bad and good princes, without distinction, in order that, under the pretext of contending for a better, they might be able to unravel at once the thickly interwoven web of religion and government. The injunction of prayer meant nothing but obedience to the Imaum Maassum ; alms, the tithes to be given to him ; fasting, the preservation of the political secret regarding the Imaum of the family of Ismael. Everything depended on the interpretation 'Terwil' without which the whole word of the Koran, ' Tensil,' had neither meaning nor value. Religion did not consist in external observances, ' Iz-Zahir,' but in the internal feeling,' il-Batin/"