Abu Tahir al-Jannabi
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2020) |
Abu Tahir al-Jannabi | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ruler of the Bahrayn | |||||
| |||||
Dynasty | Qarmatian Emirate |
Part of a series on Islam Isma'ilism |
---|
Islam portal |
Abu Tahir Sulayman al-Jannabi (
A younger son of
In 930, he led the Qarmatians' most notorious attack when he attacked and pillaged Mecca and desecrated Islam's most sacred sites. Unable to gain entry to the city initially, Abu Tahir called upon the right of all Muslims to enter the city and gave his oath that he came in peace. Once inside the city walls the Qarmatian army set about massacring the pilgrims, taunting them with verses of the Quran as they did so.[5] The bodies of the pilgrims were left to rot in the streets.
Early life
Abu Tahir's father Abu Sa'id was a tribal leader who had initiated the militarization of the Qarmatians.[6] Abu Sa'id began preaching against Sunni Islam around 890[7] after being taught by his mentor Hamdan Qarmat, a native of Kufa, from whose name the Qarmatian sect is derived.[7]
Abu Sa'id started off plundering caravans, traders and Persian
Rise to power
Most Arabic sources agree that Abu Sa'id appointed his oldest son, Abu'l-Qasim Sa'id, as his heir, and that Abu Tahir led a revolt against him and usurped his power.[8] Another tradition, by the Kufan anti-Isma'ili polemicist Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Rizam al-Ta'i, on the other hand reports that Abu Sa'id always intended for Abu Tahir to succeed him, and had named Sa'id only as regent. According to this view, Sa'id handed over power to his younger brother (who was then barely ten years old) in 917/918. This report chimes with the story in Ibn Hawqal that Abu Sa'id had instructed his other sons to obey the youngest.[8] Indeed, it is likely that power was nominally invested among all of Abu Sa'id's sons, with Abu Tahir being the dominant among them.[9] Whatever the true events, Abu'l-Qasim was not executed, but lived until his death in 972.[8]
Early reign
Soon after succeeding al-Muktafi, Caliph al-Muqtadir recaptured Basra and ordered the re-fortification of the city. Abu Tahir successfully laid siege to the city once more, defeating the Abbasid army. After capturing Basra the Qarmatians proceeded to loot it and then withdrew.[6] Abu Tahir returned again and ravaged it totally, destroying the grand mosque and reducing the marketplace to ashes.[6] He ruled Bahrayn successfully during this time and corresponded with local and foreign rulers as far as north Africa, but continued successfully fighting off assaults from the Persians, who were allied with the Caliph in Baghdad.[6]
Conquests
Abu Tahir began to frequently raid Muslim pilgrims, reaching as far as the Hijaz region. On one of his raids he succeeded in capturing the Abbasid commander Abu'l-Haija ibn Hamdun. In 926 he led his army deep into Abbasid Iraq, reaching as far north as Kufa, forcing the Abbasids to pay large sums of money in for him to leave the city in peace. On his way home he ravaged the outskirts of Kufa anyway.[6] On his return, Abu Tahir began building palaces in the city of Ahsa, not only for himself but for his fellows, and declared the city his permanent capital.[6] In 928 Caliph al-Muqtadir felt confident enough to once again confront Abu Tahir, calling in his generals Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj from Azerbaijan, Mu'nis al-Muzaffar and Harun.[6] After a heavy battle all were beaten and driven back to Baghdad.[6] Abu Tahir destroyed Jazirah Province as a final warning to the Abbasids and returned to Ahsa.[6]
Abu Tahir thought that he had identified the
Sack of Mecca
Before Abu Tahrir's rule, the Qarmatians had launched several raids along the pilgrim routes crossing Arabia. In 906, Qarmatians ambushed the pilgrim caravan returning from Mecca and massacred 20,000 pilgrims.[20] During the Hajj of 930 CE, Abu Tahir led the Qarmatians' most infamous attack when he pillaged Mecca and desecrated Islam's most sacred sites. Unable to gain entry to the city initially, he called upon the right of all Muslims to enter the city and gave his oath that he came in peace. Once inside the city walls the Qarmatian army set about massacring the pilgrims, riding their horses into Masjid al-Haram and charging the praying pilgrims, they set the Kaaba on fire and smeared it with the blood of dead pilgrims. While killing pilgrims, he taunted them with verses of the Koran[5] and verses of poetry: "I am by God, and by God I am ... he creates creation, and I destroy them".
The attack on Mecca symbolized the Qarmatians' break with the Islamic world; it was believed to have been aimed to prompt the appearance of the Mahdi who would bring about the final cycle of the world and end the era of Islam.[19]
The Qarmatians defiled the Zamzam Well with the bodies of pilgrims and the black stone was stolen and taken to the oasis in Eastern Arabia known as al-Aḥsāʾ, where it remained until the Abbasids ransomed it in 952 CE. According to historian al-Juwayni, the stone was returned 22 years later in 951 under mysterious circumstances. Wrapped in a sack, it was thrown into the Great Mosque of Kufa in Iraq, accompanied by a note saying "By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back." The theft and removal of the Black Stone caused it to break into seven pieces.[21][22][23] The basic shape and structure of the Kaaba have not changed since then[24][25]
The sack of Mecca followed millenarian excitement among the Qarmatians (and in Persia) over the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 928. Bahrain became the seat of the Qarmatian Mahdi-Caliph from Isfahan who abolished Sharīa law. The new Mahdi also changed the qibla of prayer from Mecca to that of fire, a specifically Zoroastrian practice. Some scholars take the view that "they may not have been Isamailis 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."[26][27]
Final years and death
Abu Tahir resumed the reins of the Qarmatian state and again began attacks on pilgrims crossing Arabia. Attempts by the Abbasids and Fatimids to persuade him to return the Black Stone were rejected.
He died in 944 around the age of 38, due to smallpox.[28] He was succeeded by his three surviving sons and nephews.[29]
See also
- History of Bahrain
- 1979 Grand Mosque seizure
References
- ^ Carra de Vaux & Hodgson 1965, p. 452.
- ISBN 978-0-7100-9093-5
- ^ Daftary 1990, p. 160.
- ^ Halm 1996, p. 255.
- ^ a b Halm 1996, pp. 255 f..
- ^ ISBN 978-9960-892-93-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4381-0830-8.
- ^ a b c Madelung 1996, p. 37.
- ^ Madelung 1996, p. 39.
- ^ Imagining the End: Visions of Apocalypse By Abbas Amanat, Magnus Thorkell - Page 123
- ^ Women and the Fatimids in the World of Islam - Page 26 by Delia Cortese, Simonetta Calderini
- ^ Early Philosophical Shiism: The Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abū Yaʻqūb Al-Sijistānī - Page 161 by Paul Ernest Walke
- ^ The Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresy by Yuri Stoyanov
- ^ Classical Islam: A History, 600–1258 - Page 113 by Gustave Edmund Von Grunebaum
- ^ Halm 1996, p. 257.
- ^ "CARMATIANS – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
- ^ Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis, IB Tauris, 1994, p21
- ISBN 978-0-7486-1733-3.
- ^ a b Daftary 1990, p. 162.
- ^ John Joseph Saunders, p. 130.
- ^ "Qarmatiyyah". Overview of World Religions. St. Martin's College. Archived from the original on 2007-04-28.
- ISBN 0-7591-0190-6
- ^ "Black Stone of Mecca". 'Encyclopædia Britannica'
- Al-Mawrid
- OCLC 30671443.
- ^ John Joseph Saunders, A History of Medieval Islam, Routledge 1978 p130
- ISBN 978-93-82573-47-0.
- OCLC 495469475.
- ^ Halm 1996, p. 383.
Sources
- OCLC 495469475.
- OCLC 495469475.
- Daftary, Farhad (1995). The Assassin Legends Myths of the Isma'ilis. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-85043-950-9. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-521-37019-6.
- ISBN 978-90-04-10056-5.
- ISBN 978-0-521-00310-0.
- Rezazadeh Langaroodi, Reza (2015). "Abū Ṭāhir al-Jannābī". In ISSN 1875-9831.