Qarmatians

The Qarmatians (Arabic: قرامطة, romanized: Qarāmiṭa; Persian: قرمطیان, romanized: Qarmatiyān)^[a] were a militant^[5][6] Isma'ili Shia movement centred in al-Hasa in Eastern Arabia, where they established a religious—and, as some scholars have claimed, proto-socialist or utopian socialist^[7][8][9]—state in 899 CE. Its members were part of a movement that adhered to a syncretic branch of Sevener Ismaili Shia Islam,^[4] and were ruled by a dynasty founded by Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, a Persian from Jannaba in coastal Fars.^[10][11] They rejected the claim of Fatimid Caliph Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah to imamate and clung to their belief in the coming of the Mahdi, and they revolted against the Fatimid and Abbasid Caliphates.^[12][4]

Qarmatians قرامطة
899–1077
Qarmatians under Abu Tahir al-Jannabi
Capital	al-Hasa
Religion	Isma'ilism
Demonym(s)	Qarmatian
Government	Theocracy
Ruler
• 894–914	Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi
• 914–944	Abu Tahir al-Jannabi
• 944–970	Ahmad Abu Tahir
• 968–977	Al-Hasan al-A'sam
• 970–972	Abul Kassim Sa'id
• 972–977	Abu Yaqub Yousuf
Historical era	Islamic Golden Age (4th Islamic century)
• Ismāʿīlī schism	765
• Established	899
• Sack of Mecca	930
• al-Isfahani proclaimed to be the Mahdi	931
• Black Stone returned	952
• Defeated by the Abbasids	976
• Disestablished	1077
Preceded by Succeeded by Abbasid Caliphate Uyunid Emirate

Qarmatians
قرامطة
Founder	Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi
Dates of operation	899–1077
Active regions	Bahrayn, Mesopotamia, Najd, Hejaz, Levant, Egypt
Ideology	Isma'ilism Extremism Socialism^[citation needed] Terrorism^[1]^[2]^[3]
Opponents	Abbasid Caliphate Fatimid Caliphate Uyunid Emirate Seljuk Empire
Battles and wars	Capture of Bahrayn (899) Battle of Hama (903) Sack of Basra (923) Hajj caravan raid (924) Invasion of Iraq (928) Sack of Mecca (930) Invasions of Egypt (971) Overthrowing of the Qarmatians (1058–1077)

Mecca was sacked by a Qarmatian leader, Abu Tahir al-Jannabi,^[13] outraging the Muslim world, particularly with their theft of the Black Stone and desecration of the Zamzam Well with corpses during the Hajj season of 930 CE.^[14]

Name

The origin of the name "Qarmatian" is uncertain.^[15] According to some sources, the name derives from the surname of the sect's founder, Hamdan Qarmat.^[16][17] The name qarmat probably comes from the Aramaic for "short-legged", "red-eyed" or "secret teacher".^[18][19][20] Other sources, however, say that the name comes from the Arabic verb قرمط (qarmaṭ), which means "to make the lines close together in writing" or "to walk with short steps".^[14][21] The word "Qarmatian" can also refer to a type of Arabic script.^[22]

The Qarāmiṭah in Sawad (southern Iraq) were also known as "the Greengrocers" (al-Baqliyyah) because they followed the teachings of Abū Hātim al-Zutti, who in 908 forbade animal slaughter. He also forbade radishes and alliums such as garlic, onions, and leeks. By 928, it is uncertain whether the people still held on to those teachings.^[23]

History

Early developments

Under the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 CE), various Shiite groups organised in secret opposition to their rule. Among them were the supporters of the proto-Ismā‘īlī community, of whom the most prominent group were called the Mubārakiyyah.

According to the Ismaili school of thought, Imām Ja'far al-Sadiq (702–765) designated his second son, Isma'il ibn Ja'far (ca. 721–755), as heir to the Imamate. However, Ismā‘īl predeceased his father. Some claimed he had gone into hiding, but the proto-Ismā‘īlī group accepted his death and therefore accordingly recognized Ismā‘īl's eldest son, Muhammad ibn Isma'il (746–809), as Imām. He remained in contact with the Mubārakiyyah group, most of whom resided in Kufa.

The split among the Mubārakiyyah came with the death of Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl (ca. 813 CE). The majority of the group denied his death; they recognized him as the Mahdi. The minority believed in his death and would eventually emerge in later times as the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate, the precursors to all modern groups.

The majority Ismā‘īlī missionary movement settled in Salamiyah (now in Syria) and had great success in Khuzestan (southwestern Iran), where the Ismā‘īlī leader al-Husayn al-Ahwāzī converted the Kūfan man Ḥamdān in 874 CE, who took the name Qarmaṭ after his new faith.^[14] Qarmaṭ and his theologian brother-in-law ‘Abdān prepared southern Iraq for the coming of the Mahdi by creating a military and religious stronghold. Other such locations grew up in Yemen, in Eastern Arabia (Arabic Bahrayn) in 899, and in North Africa. They attracted many new Shi'i followers because of their activist and messianic teachings. The new proto-Qarmaṭī movement continued to spread into Greater Iran and then into Transoxiana.

Qarmatian Revolution

 

Gold dinar minted by the Qarmatians during their occupation of Palestine in the 970s

A change in leadership in Salamiyah in 899 led to a split in the movement. The minority Ismā‘īlīs, whose leader had taken control of the Salamiyah centre, began to proclaim their teachings that Imām Muḥammad had died and that the new leader in Salamiyah (Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah) was in fact his descendant come out of hiding and was the Mahdi (a Messianic figure who will appear on Earth before the Day of Judgment and rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny). Qarmaṭ and his brother-in-law opposed this and openly broke with the Salamiyids; when ‘Abdān was assassinated, he went into hiding and subsequently repented. Qarmaṭ became a missionary of the new Imām, Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah (873–934), who founded the Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa in 909.

Nonetheless, the dissident group retained the name Qarmaṭī. Its greatest stronghold remained in Bahrain, which then included much of eastern Arabia as well as the islands that comprise the present state. It was under Abbasid control at the end of the ninth century, but the Zanj Rebellion in Basra disrupted the power of Baghdad. The Qarmaṭians seized their opportunity under their leader, Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, a Persian who hailed from Jannaba in coastal Fars.^[10][11] Eventually, from Qatar, he captured Bahrain's capital Hajr and al-Hasa in 899, which he made the capital of his state and once in control of the state he sought to set up a utopian society.

The Qarmaṭians instigated what one scholar termed a "century of terror" in Kufa.^[24] They considered the pilgrimage to Mecca a superstition, and once in control of the Bahrayni state, they launched raids along the pilgrim routes crossing the Arabian Peninsula. In 906, they ambushed the pilgrim caravan returning from Mecca and massacred 20,000 pilgrims.^[25]

Under al-Jannabi (ruled 923–944), the Qarmaṭians came close to capturing Baghdad in 927, and sacked Mecca in 930. In their attack on Islam's holiest sites, the Qarmatians desecrated the Zamzam Well with corpses of Hajj pilgrims and took the Black Stone from Mecca to Ain Al Kuayba^[26] in Qatif.^[27][28] Holding the Black Stone to ransom, they forced the Abbasids to pay a huge sum for its return in 952.^[29]

The revolution and desecration shocked the Muslim world and humiliated the Abbasids, but little could be done. For much of the tenth century the Qarmatians were the most powerful force in the Persian Gulf and Middle East and controlled the coast of Oman and collecting tribute from the caliph in Baghdad as well as from a rival Isma'ili imam in Cairo, the head of the Fatimid Caliphate, whose power they did not recognize.

Qarmatian society

The land over which they ruled was extremely wealthy with a huge slave-based economy according to academic Yitzhak Nakash:

The Qarmatian state had vast fruit and grain estates both on the islands and in Hasa and Qatif. Nasir Khusraw, who visited Hasa in 1051, recounted that these estates were cultivated by some thirty thousand Ethiopian slaves. He mentions that the people of Hasa were exempt from taxes. Those impoverished or in debt could obtain a loan until they put their affairs in order. No interest was taken on loans, and token lead money was used for all local transactions. The Qarmathian state had a powerful and long-lasting legacy. This is evidenced by a coin known as Tawila, minted around 920 by one of the Qarmathian rulers, and which was still in circulation in Hasa early in the twentieth century.^[30]

Collapse

Main article: Overthrowing of the Qarmatians

According to Farhad Daftary, the catalyst of the collapse of Qarmatian movement as a whole happened in the year 931, when Abu Tahir al-Janabi, the Qarmatian leader in Bahrain, handed over the reins of the state in Bahrain to Abu'l-Fadl al-Isfahani, a young Persian man who had been believed by the Qarmatians to be the Mahdi. However, Abu Tahir soon realized al-Isfahani's appointment was a disastrous mistake, after the "Mahdi" executed some nobles and insulted Muhammad and the other prophets.^[31] The incident shocked the Qarmatians and the Islamic community as a whole, and Abu Tahir ordered the youth's execution.^[31]

Al-Isfahani lasted as leader only 80 days before his execution but greatly weakened the credibility of Qarmatians within the Muslim community in general and heralded the beginning of the end of their revolutionary movements.^[31]

After their defeat by the Abbasids in 976, the Qarmatians began to look inwards and their status was reduced to that of a local power. This had severe consequences for the Qarmatians' ability to extract tribute from the region; according to Arabist historian Curtis Larsen:

As tribute payments were progressively cut off, either by the subsequent government in Iraq or by rival Arab tribes, the Carmathian state shrank to local dimensions. Bahrain broke away in CE 1058 under the leadership of Abu al-Bahlul al-Awwam who re-established orthodox Islam on the islands. Similar revolts removed from Carmathian control at about the same time. Deprived of all outside income and control of the coasts, the Carmathians retreated to their stronghold at the Hofuf Oasis. Their dynasty was finally dealt a final blow in 1067 by the combined forces of Abdullah bin Ali Al Uyuni, who with the help of Seljuk army contingents from Iraq, laid siege to Hofuf for seven years and finally forced the Carmathians to surrender.^[32]

In Bahrain and eastern Arabia, the Qarmatian state was replaced by the Uyunid dynasty, and it is believed that by the mid-11th century, Qarmatian communities in Iraq, Iran, and Transoxiana had either been integrated by Fatimid proselytism or disintegrated.^[33]

By the mid-10th century, persecution forced the Qarmatians to leave what is now Egypt and Iraq and move to the city of Multan, now in Pakistan.^[34] However, prejudice against the Qarmatians did not dwindle, as Mahmud of Ghazni led an expedition against Multan's Qarmatian ruler Abdul Fateh Daud in 1005. The city was surrendered, and Fateh Daud was permitted to retain control over the city with the condition that he adhere to Sunnism.^[35]

According to the maritime historian Dionisius A. Agius, the Qarmatians finally disappeared in 1067, after they lost their fleet at Bahrain Island and were expelled from Hasa near the Arabian coast by the chief of Banu, Murra ibn Amir.^[36]

Imamate of Seven Imams

According to Qarmatians, the number of imams was fixed, with Seven Imāms preordained by God. These groups considers Muhammad ibn Isma'il to be the messenger – prophet (Rasūl), Imām al-Qā'im and Mahdi to be preserved in hiding, which is referred to as Occultation.^[37]

Imām	Personage	Period
1	Ali ibn Abi Talib:^[38] Imām	(632–661)
2	Hasan ibn Ali	(661–669)
3	Husayn ibn Ali	(669–680)
4	Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin	(680–713)
5	Muhammad al-Baqir	(713–733)
6	Ja'far al-Sadiq	(733–765)
7	Muhammad ibn Isma'il:^[38]^[37] Imām al-Qā'im al-Mahdi also a messenger - prophet (Rasūl)	(775–813)

Ismaili imams not accepted as legitimate by Qarmatians

In addition, the following Ismaili imams after Muhammad ibn Isma'il had been considered heretics of dubious origins by certain Qarmatian groups,^[39] who refused to acknowledge the imamate of the Fatimids and clung to their belief in the coming of the Mahdi.

• Isma'il ibn Ja'far (765–775)
• Abadullah ibn Muhammad (Ahmad al-Wafi) (813–829)
• Ahmad ibn Abadullah (Muhammad at-Taqi) (829–840)
• Husayn ibn Ahmad (Radi Abdullah) (840–881)
• Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah (881–934) (Founder of Fatimid Caliphate)

Qarmatian rulers in Eastern Arabia

• Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi (894–914)
• Abu Tahir al-Jannabi (914–944)
• Ahmad Abu Tahir (944–970) ^[40]
• Abul Kassim Sa'id (970–972)
• Abu Yaqub Yousuf (972–977)
• Descendants of Abu Yaqub Yousuf ruled until 1077

Substitution after Abu Tahir al-Jannabi

Farhad Daftary writes about the fate of the successors of Abu Tahir al-Jannabi:

It may be noted that at the time the Qarmaṭī state was still being ruled jointly by Abū Ṭāhir’s brothers. Abū Ṭāhir’s eldest son Sābūr (Shāpūr), who aspired to a ruling position and the command of the army, rebelled against his uncles in 358/969, but he was captured and executed in the same year. But the ruling sons of Abū Sa'īd al-Jannābī themselves did not survive much longer. Abū Manṣūr Aḥmad died in 359/970, probably of poisoning, and his eldest brother Abu’l-Qāsim Sa'īd died two years later. By 361/972, there remained of Abū Ṭāhir’s brothers only Abū Ya'qūb Yūsuf, who retained a position of pre-eminence in the Qarmaṭī state. Henceforth, the grandsons of Abū Sa'īd were also admitted to the ruling council. After the death of Abū Ya'qūb in 366/977, the Qarmaṭī state came to be ruled jointly by six of Abū Sa'īd’s grandsons, known collectively as al-sāda al-ru'asā'. Meanwhile, al-Ḥasan al-A'ṣam, son of Abū Manṣūr Aḥmad and a nephew of Abū Ṭāhir, had become the commander of the Qarmaṭī forces. He was usually selected for leading the Qarmaṭīs in military campaigns outside Baḥrayn, including their entanglements with the Fāṭimids.^[41]

See also

• al-Hasa
• Khurramites
• Mazdakism

References

1. Also transliterated Carmathians, Qarmathians, Karmathians, Karmatian, or Kalmati, Karmathian, Qarmatī, Qarāmiṭah^[4]

1. Goitein, S. D. (1967). A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, Vol. V: The Individual. University of California Press. p. 403. ISBN 978-0-520-22162-8.
2. Nadvi, Syed Habibul Haq (1982). The Dynamics of Islam: An Analysis of Islamic Dynamism which Has Been Operating in the Structure of Islamic Belief, Its Religio-political, Socio-economic Framework and Cultural Legacies. Acad.: The Centre for Islamic, Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Planning and Publ. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-620-05712-7.
3. Rahman, Fazlur (2020). Islam. University of Chicago Press. p. 176. ISBN 9780226773377.
4. "Qarmatian | Meaning, Attack, Beliefs, & History". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
5. Mumayiz, Ibrahim A. (2006). Arabesques: Selections of Biography and Poetry from Classical Arabic Literature. Coronet Books Incorporated. p. 39. ISBN 978-90-441-1888-9.
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7. Clark, Malcolm (9 August 2019). Islam For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-64304-3.
8. Thompson, Andrew David (31 October 2019). Christianity in Oman: Ibadism, Religious Freedom, and the Church. Springer Nature. p. 47. ISBN 978-3-030-30398-3.
9. Corm, Georges (2020). Arab Political Thought: Past and Present. Oxford University Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-84904-816-3.
10. Carra de Vaux & Hodgson 1965, p. 452.
11. Madelung 1983.
12. de Blois, François (1986). "THE 'ABU SAʿIDIS OR SO-CALLED "QARMATIANS" OF BAHRAYN". Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. 16: 13–21. ISSN 0308-8421. JSTOR 41223231.
13. Mecca's History, from Encyclopædia Britannica.
14. Glassé, Cyril. 2008. The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Walnut Creek CA: AltaMira Press p. 369
15. Akbar, Faiza. "The secular roots of religious dissidence in early Islam: the case of the Qaramita of Sawad Al‐Kūfa", Journal Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, 12.2 (1991): 376–390.
16. Madelung, Wilferd. "Ḥamdān Qarmat". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
17. Madelung 1978.
18. Dadoyan, Seta B. (2013). The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World, Volume Three: Medieval Cosmopolitanism and Images of Islam. Transaction Publishers. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4128-5189-3.
19. Daftary 1990, p. 116.
20. Heinz Halm (1996). Der Nahe und Mittlere Osten. Brill. p. 27. ISBN 978-90-04-10056-5.
21. Edward William Lane. Arabic-English Lexicon. p. 2519.
22. Josef W. Meri (2005). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-135-45596-5.
23. Madelung 1996, p. 71.
24. Al-Jubūrī, I M N (2004), History of Islamic Philosophy, Authors Online Ltd, p. 172
25. John Joseph Saunders, A History of Medieval Islam, Routledge 1978 p. 130
26. mod1111222@, محمد العبدالله (القطيف) (23 June 2019). "القطيف: إعادة رونق عين "الكعيبة" الأثري". Okaz (in Arabic). Retrieved 4 August 2021.
27. Houari Touati, Islam and Travel in the Middle Ages, transl. Lydia G. Cochrane, (University of Chicago Press, 2010), p. 60.
28. The Qarmatians in Bahrain, Ismaili Net
29. . Overview of World Religions. St. Martin's College. Archived from the original on 28 April 2007. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
30. Yitzhak Nakash, Reaching for Power: The Shi'a in the Modern Arab World, Princeton 2007, p. 24.
31. Daftary 1995, p. 43.
32. Larsen, Curtis E (1984), Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarchaeology of an Ancient Society, University of Chicago Press, p. 65
33. Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis, IB Tauris, 1994, p. 20
34. Glassé, Cyril. 2008. The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Walnut Creek CA: AltaMira Press p. 369
35. Mehta, Jaswant Lal (1980). Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India, Volume 1. Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd. ISBN 9788120706170.
36. Agius 2008, p. 251.
37. "Muhammad bin Ismail (158–197/775–813)". www.ismaili.net.
38. Daftary 1990, p. 97.
39. . Archived from the original on 16 May 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
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• Daftary, Farhad (1995). The Assassin Legends Myths of the Isma'ilis. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1850439509. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
• Daftary, Farhad (1990). The Ismāʿı̄lı̄s: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-37019-6.
• Madelung, Wilferd (1978). "Ḳarmaṭī". In van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Bosworth, C. E. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume IV: Iran–Kha (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 660–665. OCLC 758278456.
• Madelung, Wilferd (1983). "ABŪ SAʿĪD JANNĀBĪ". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume I/4: Abū Manṣūr Heravı̄–Adat. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 380–381. ISBN 978-0-71009-093-5.
• Madelung, Wilferd (1996). "The Fatimids and the Qarmatīs of Bahrayn". In Daftary, Farhad (ed.). Mediaeval Isma'ili History and Thought. Cambridge University Press. pp. 21–73. ISBN 978-0521003100.
• Kathryn Babayan 2002: Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran, ISBN 0932885284

External links

• Ismaili Net, The origin of the Qarmatians
• Ismaili Net, Qarmatians in Bahrain
• Encyclopædia Iranica, Carmatians
• Encyclopædia Iranica, Ḥamdān Qarmat
• Women and the Fatimids in the world of Islam
• Encyclopaedia of the Orient
• Maymūn’āl-Qaddāh