Ali ibn al-Fadl al-Jayshani
ʿAlī ibn al-Faḍl al-Jayshānī (
Origin
Ali ibn al-Fadl was born in the village of Suhayb, near the town of
At the time, the dominant strain of
Mission to Yemen
Ibn al-Fadl's conversion opened the prospect of extending the secret Isma'ili missionary mission (
The Yemen was at the time a troubled province of the
After travelling through Sana'a and al-Janad, Ibn Hawshab stayed for a while in
In the original Isma'ili doctrine, the expected mahdī was
On 25 January 905, Ibn al-Fadl evicted his erstwhile ally from Mudhaykhira.[25] The two Isma'ili leaders now exploited Yemen's political division to expand their domains: in November 905, Ibn al-Fadl captured Sana'a, which allowed Ibn Hawshab to in turn seize the Yu'firid base of Shibam.[17][15] With the exception of Zaydi-held Sa'ada in the north, Ziyadid-ruled Zabid on the western coast, and Aden in the south, all of Yemen was now under Isma'ili control.[25] In late 905, for the first time since coming to Yemen 25 years earlier, the two men met at Shibam.[17] Madelung writes that the meeting "was evidently uneasy", as Ibn Hawshab warned Ibn al-Fadl against overextending his forces, which the latter disregarded.[15] Ibn al-Fadl was the most active of the two in the following years, campaigning across the country against those who still opposed the daʿwa: in spring 906 he subdued the mountain massifs of Hadur and Haraz and conquered the cities of al-Mahjam, al-Kadra, and, briefly, even Zabid.[26]
Both Sana'a and Shibam were briefly lost to the Zaydi imam al-Hadi in 906, but Shibam was recovered before the end of the year, and Ibn al-Fadl reoccupied Sana'a on 17 April 907.[15][27] Sana'a changed hands a few times again over the following years, until it was finally captured by Ibn al-Fadl in August 911.[15]
Revolt against Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah
At this point, Ibn al-Fadl publicly renounced allegiance to Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah, who had revealed himself and established the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya in 909.[15][27] The exact reason for Ibn al-Fadl's denunciation is not known; it may have been personal ambition, following his many successes,[28] or disillusionment with al-Mahdi. Al-Mahdi evidently expected that the movement that had brought him to power in Ifriqiya would soon sweep eastwards towards Egypt, where his forces would link up with his Yemeni supporters. For this reason, he had sent to the Yemeni faithful a letter documenting his descent from Ja'far al-Sadiq, the last common imam recognized by Twelvers and Isma'ilis alike. This letter caused much unease and dissension, for not only was the claimed genealogy patently false, but al-Mahdi took pains to clarify that though he was the 'expected one' mahdī, his rule would not bring about the end times, but merely represent another link in a line of imams that was to continue endlessly into the future, thereby contradicting all millennialist expectations vested in his person.[29] Historian Michael Brett even suggests that, since Ibn al-Fadl and Ibn Hawshab are explicitly said to have met in Yemen for the first time in 905/6, the story of their joint mission may have been an invention, although he too emphasizes that the doctrinal issues at stake are obscure.[30] The historian Farhad Daftary labels Ibn al-Fadl as a 'Qarmatian', denoting his opposition to al-Mahdi's claims, much like the original Qarmatians in 899.[31] Indeed, Ibn al-Fadl went as far as to declare himself to be the true mahdī instead.[32]
When Ibn Hawshab rebuffed his colleague's demands to join him and criticized his actions, Ibn al-Fadl marched against Ibn Hawshab. Shibam and Jabal Dhukhar were captured, and after a few battles, Ibn Hawshab was blockaded in the Jabal Maswar. After eight months of siege, in April 912, Ibn Hawshab sought terms, and handed over his son Ja'far as a hostage. Ja'far was returned after a year with a golden necklace as a gift.[15][33] Ibn al-Fadl died on 28 October 915 at Mudhaykhira of an unknown illness; later Isma'ili legend claimed that he was poisoned by agents of al-Mahdi posing as physicians.[33]
His death, following that of his erstwhile colleague Ibn Hawshab in December of the previous year,[33] left a power vacuum that was swiftly exploited by the Yu'firid ruler As'ad ibn Ibrahim, who had recognized Ibn al-Fadl's suzerainty and had been left in control of Sana'a.[32] In January 916, As'ad began reclaiming the fortresses captured by the Isma'ilis in the previous years. Ibn al-Fadl's son and successor, Fa'fa (or Gha'fa), was unable to stop his advance, and on 6 January 917, the Yu'firid forces stormed Mudhaykhira, taking the two sons and three daughters of Ibn al-Fadl prisoner. After his return to Sana'a, As'ad executed the two brothers and twenty of their followers, and sent their heads to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad.[33][32] In contrast to the swift end of the southern Isma'ili domain, the northern community founded by Ibn Hawshab has survived to the present day.[33]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ The historian Ella Landau-Tasseron points to a report in al-Maqrizi of a certain al-Hasan ibn Faraj al-Sanadiqi, an Isma'ili missionary, who sometime in the second half of the 9th century "based himself in Mudhaykhira, acquired many followers and conquered the Yemen. He pretended to be a prophet, committed many atrocities, and was the cause of a massive emigration". It is entirely unclear, however, when this happened, or if there is a connection to later events.[16]
References
- ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 40.
- ^ a b c Daftary 2007, p. 109.
- ^ Halm 1991, p. 41.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 107–108.
- ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 108, 132–133.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 28–29.
- ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 42.
- ^ Landau-Tasseron 2010, pp. 419–421.
- ^ a b Landau-Tasseron 2010, p. 424.
- ^ Landau-Tasseron 2010, p. 422.
- ^ a b Landau-Tasseron 2010, pp. 421, 424.
- ^ Eagle 1994, pp. 111, 114.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 42, 44.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Madelung 1991, p. 439.
- ^ Landau-Tasseron 2010, p. 426.
- ^ a b c d e Halm 1991, p. 177.
- ^ Halm 1991, p. 44.
- ^ Madelung 1991, p. 438.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 27–29.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 64–67.
- ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 116–117.
- ^ Halm 1991, p. 61.
- ^ Daftary 2007, p. 125.
- ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 176.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 177–178.
- ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 178.
- ^ Landau-Tasseron 2010, p. 427.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 146–147, 178.
- ^ Brett 2001, p. 77.
- ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 122, 125.
- ^ a b c Daftary 2007, p. 122.
- ^ a b c d e Halm 1991, p. 179.
Sources
- Brett, Michael (2001). The Rise of the Fatimids: The World of the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the Fourth Century of the Hijra, Tenth Century CE. The Medieval Mediterranean. Vol. 30. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 9004117415.
- ISBN 978-0-521-61636-2.
- Eagle, A. B. D. R. (1994). "Al-Hādī Yahyā b. al-Husayn b. al-Qāsim (245–98/859–911): A Biographical Introduction and the Background and Significance of his Imamate". New Arabian Studies. 2: 103–122. ISSN 1351-4709.
- ISBN 978-3-406-35497-7.
- Landau-Tasseron, Ella (2010). "Arabia". In ISBN 978-0-521-83823-8.
- Madelung, Wilferd (1991). "Manṣūr al-Yaman". In ISBN 978-90-04-08112-3.
Further reading
- Geddes, Charles L. (1983). "The Apostasy of ʿAlī b. al-Faḍl". In Bidwell, Robert L.; Smith, G. Rex (eds.). Arabian and Islamic Studies: Articles Presented to R. B. Serjeant on the occasion of his retirement from the Sir Thomas Adam's Chair of Arabic at the University of Cambridge. London: Longman. pp. 80–85. ISBN 0-58278308-9.
- Jiwa, Shainool (1988). "The Genesis of the Ismāʿīlī Daʿwa Activities in the Yemen". British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Bulletin. 15 (1): 50–63. JSTOR 43577567.
- JSTOR 25683010.
- Langroudi, Reza Rezazadeh (2014). "The Qarmaṭī Movement of ʿAlī b. al-Faḍl in Yemen (268-303/881-915)". Studia Islamica. 109 (2): 191–207. JSTOR 43577567.