Qarmatians
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The Qarmatians, Arabic qarāmita قرامطة (also spelled "Carmathians", "Qarmathians", "Karmathians" etc.) were an millenarian Ismā'īlī Muslim sect centered in eastern Arabia, where they established a utopian republic in 899 CE. They are most famed for their revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate, and particularly with their seizure of the Black Stone from Mecca and desecration of the Well of Zamzam with Muslim corpses during the Hajj season of 930 CE.
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[edit] History
The Qarmatians split off from the Fātimid Ismā'īlī when its founder, ˤAbdu l-Lāhu l-Mahdī bil-Lāh, claimed the Imāmate of the expected Sevener Mahdi, Ismā'īl ibn Jaˤfar. They take their name from Hamdan Qarmat, who followed the Sevener teachings of Husaynu l-Ahwāz, a missionary of Ahmad, son of the Persian Abdallah ibn Maimun. They were originally based in Kufa, but took over Bahrain where they established a republican government in the tenth century.
[edit] The Qarmatian Revolution
Bahrain, which at this period included much of eastern Arabia as well as the islands that comprise the present state, was under Abbasid control at the end of the ninth century, but a slave rebellion in Basra disrupted the power of Baghdad. The Qarmatians seized their opportunity under their leader Abu Sa'id al-Hasan al-Jannabi who captured Bahrain’s capital Hajr and al-Hasa in 899, which he made the capital of his republic and once in control of the state he sought to create a utopian society.
Even before taking over Bahrain, the Qarmatians had instigated what one western scholar termed a ‘century of terrorism’ in Kufa[1]. They considering the pilgrimage to Mecca a superstition, and once in control of the Bahraini state they launched raids along the pilgrim routes crossing Arabia: in 906 they ambushed the pilgrim caravan returning from Mecca and massacred 20,000 pilgrims[2]. Under Abu Tahir Al-Jannabi they came close to raiding Baghdad in 927 and sacked Mecca and Medina in 930. The assault on Islam's holiest sites saw the Qarmatians desecrate the Well of Zamzam with corpses of Hajj pilgrims and take the Black Stone from Mecca to Al-Hasa[3]. Holding the Black Stone to ransom they forced the Abbasids to pay a huge sum for its return in 952[4].
The revolution and desecration shocked the Muslim world and humiliated the Abbasids. But there was little that could be done; for much of the tenth century the Qarmatians were the most powerful force in the Persian Gulf and Middle East, controlling the coast of Oman and collected tribute from the caliph in Baghdad as well as from a rival Ismaili imam in Cairo, whom they did not recognize.
After their expulsion from Iraq by the Buyids in 985, a group of Qarmatians also settled in Multan.
[edit] Qarmatian Society
The Qarmatians' goal was to build a society based on reason and equality. The state was governed by a council of six with a chief who was a first among equals[5]. All property within the community was distributed evenly among all initiates. The Qarmatians were organized as an esoteric society but not as a secret one; their activities were public and openly propagated, but new members had to undergo an initiation ceremony involving seven stages. In an echo of cyclical Mazdean thought, the Qarmatian world view was one where every phenomenon repeated itself in cycles, where every incident was replayed over and over again.
The land they ruled over 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. Nasiri Khusru, 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[6] | ” |
It has been argued that the desecration of Mecca and the stealing of the Black Stone was to symbolise the ‘end of Islam’[7]. And one western scholar argues that “they may not have been Ismailis at all at the outset, and their conduct and customs gave plausibility to the belief that they were not merely heretics but bitter enemies of Islam.”[8].
The sack of Mecca followed millenarianism fervour among the Qarmatians (as well as in Persia) over the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 928 – an event which happens every 960 years. The date of the conjunction, 27 October 928 CE, was interpreted in light of Islamic revelation, which they saw as heralding a new period as a return of Persian dominance.
[edit] The Mahdi-Caliph
In 931 Abu Tahrir believed he had found the new Mahdi in a young Persian from Isfahan, and handed over the power of the state to him. The new Mahdi-Caliph immediately set about abolishing Sharīa law and changed the qibla of prayer from Mecca to that of fire, a specifically Zoroastrian practice. According to Isma’ili historian Farhad Daftary:
| “ | In 931, Abu Tahir turned over the reins of the state in Bahrain to a young Persian in who he had recognised the expected Mahdi. However this proved a disastrous decision for the Qarmati movement. Manifesting strong anti-Arab and antinomian sentiments, he cursed Muhammed and other prophets in addition to instituting a number of strange ceremonies that further shocked the Muslims. At any rate, after some 80 days, when the Persian Mahdi had begun to execute the notables of Bahrayn, Abu Tahir was obliged to admit that the Mahdi had been an imposter, and had him killed. The episode of the Persian Mahdi further damaged the image of the Qarmatis of Bahrain and weakened their influence over the Qarmati communities in the East.”[9] | ” |
After this episode the Qarmatians reverted to their former beliefs and Abu Tahrir was soon back to raiding southern Persia and Iraq.
[edit] Collapse
After 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 important repercussions 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 AD 1058 under the leadership of Abd al-Buhlul who re-established orthodox Islam on the islands. Similar revolts removed Qatif 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 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.[10] | ” |
In Bahrain and eastern Arabia the Qarmatian state was replaced by the Uyunid dynasty, whilst its believed that by the middle of the eleventh century Qarmatian communities in Iraq, Iran and Trasoxiana had either been won over by Fatamid proselytising or had disintegrated[11]. The last contemporary mention of the Qarmatians is that of Nasir ibn Khosrau, who visited them in 1050, although Ibn Battuta, visiting Qatif in 1331, found it inhabited by Arab tribes whom he described as "extremist Shi`is" (rafidiyya ghulat)[12], which historian Juan Cole has suggested is how a 14th Century Sunni would describe Ismailis[13].
[edit] References
- ^ I.M.N. Al-Jubouri, Jubūrī, History of Islamic Philosophy Authors Online Ltd 2004, p172
- ^ John Joseph Saunders, A History of Medieval Islam, Routledge 1978 p130
- ^ The Qarmatians in Bahrain, Ismaili Net
- ^ Qarmatiyyah. Overview of World Religions. St. Martin's College. Retrieved on 2007-05-04.
- ^ John Joseph Saunders, p130
- ^ Yitzhak Nakash, Reaching for Power: The Shi'a in the Modern Arab World, Princeton 2007
- ^ Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma’ilis, IB Tauris, 1994, p21
- ^ Saunders p130
- ^ Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma’ilis, IB Tauris, 1994, p21
- ^ Curtis E. Larsen. Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarchaeology of an Ancient Society University Of Chicago Press, 1984 p65
- ^ Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismaʻilis, IB Tauris, 1994, p20
- ^ Ibn Battuta, Rih1a Ibn Battuta Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1964 pp. 279-80
- ^ Juan Cole, Sacred Space and Holy War, IB Tauris, 2007
- Kathryn Babayan 2002: Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran, ISBN 0-932885-28-4
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] See also
- Shanga, in the Lamu Archipelago, Kenya
- History of Bahrain
[edit] External links
- Qarmatians in Bahrain, Ismaili Net
- Encyclopaedia of the Orient
