Hamdan Qarmat

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Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath
حمدان قرمط بن الأشعث
Personal
Born
Furat Badaqla
Died899 or later
Religion
Shi'a Islam
DenominationIsma'ilism
SectQarmatians

Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath (

al-Bahrayn
for several decades.

Life

Hamdan's early life is unknown, except that he came from the village of al-Dur in the district of Furat Badaqla, east of

AH 261 (874/75 CE) or AH 264 (877/78 CE).[1][2]

His surname "Qarmat" is considered as being probably of

Twelver Shi'a scholar al-Fadl ibn Shadhan, who died in 873/74, is known to have written a refutation of "Qarmatian" doctrines. This means that either Hamdan had become active several years before the date recorded in the sources, or alternatively that he took his surname from the sect, rather than the other way round.[4][5]

Missionary activity

Map of Iraq in the later 9th century

The dā'ī al-Husayn al-Ahwazi had been sent by the Ismai'li leadership at

mahdī, was very attractive to dissatisfied Twelvers.[4]

His most prominent disciple and aide was his brother-in-law

heresiologist Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi, al-Ma'mun, a dā'ī active in southern Persia, was a brother of Hamdan.[6]

Hamdan's agents collected taxes from the converts, including a one-fifth tax on all income (the khums), to be reserved for the mahdī.[1][4] Although Hamdan corresponded with the Salamiya group, their identity remained a secret, and Hamdan was able to pursue his own policy locally. Thus in 880 his numbers were large enough to make overtures for an alliance with the leader of the Zanj, Ali ibn Muhammad, who rebuffed the offer.[4] In 890/91, a fortified refuge (dār al-hijra) was established by Hamdan for his supporters near Kufa.[7]

For several years following the suppression of the Zanj Revolt in 883, Abbasid authority was not firmly re-established in the sawād. Only in 891/92 did reports from Kufa denouncing this "new religion" and reporting on mounting Qarmatian activity begin to cause concern in Baghdad. However, no action was taken against them at the time. As this group was the first to come to the attention of the Abbasid authorities, the label of "Qarmatians" soon came to be applied by Sunni sources to Ismai'li populations in general, including those were not proselytized by Hamdan.[1][8]

Doctrine

No direct information on the doctrine preached by Hamdan and Abu Muhammad is known, but modern scholars like

lascivious behaviour among them, but this is not trustworthy given their hostile stance towards Qarmatians.[1]

Split with Salamiya and possible reconciliation

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In 899, following the death of the previous leader of the sect at Salamiya,

Sa'id ibn al-Husayn, the future founder of the Fatimid Caliphate, became the leader. Soon, he began making alterations to the doctrine, which worried Hamdan. Abu Muhammad went to Salamiya to investigate the matter, and learned that Sa'id claimed that the expected mahdī was not Muhammad ibn Isma'il, but Sa'id himself. This caused a major rift in the movement, as Hamdan denounced the leadership in Salamiya, gathered the Iraqi dā'īs and ordered them to cease the missionary effort. Shortly after this Hamdan "disappeared" from his headquarters at Kalwadha.[10][11] The 13th-century anti-Isma'ili writer Ibn Malik reports the rather unreliable information that he was killed in Baghdad,[1][12] while Ibn Hawqal, who wrote in the 970s, claims that he reconciled with Sa'id and became a dā'ī for the Fatimid cause under the name of Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ahmad. According to Wilferd Madelung, given Ibn Hawqal's Fatimid sympathies and friendship with Abu Ali's son, "his information may well be reliable".[6][12]

Abu Ali Hasan claimed descent from

Asia Minor, where he was captured and imprisoned for five years. After his release he returned to Ifriqiya, where Sa'id's son and heir apparent, the future caliph al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, appointed him as chief dāʿi, with the title "Gate of Gates" (bāb al-abwāb).[a] In this post, he composed works explaining Fatimid doctrine; in the Ummahāt al-Islām, he refuted use of philosophy among the anti-Fatimid eastern Isma'ilis (including in the teachings of Abu Muhammad Abdan), and instead "asserted the primacy of the principle of taʾwil, esoteric interpretation, in Isma'ili religious teaching". He died in 933, and his son Abu'l-Hasan Muhammad succeeded him as chief dāʿi.[6]

Subsequent history of the Qarmatian movement

After Hamdan's disappearance, the term "Qarmatians" was retained by all Isma'ilis who refused to recognize the claims of Sa'id, and subsequently of the Fatimid dynasty.[5] At times it was also applied by non-Isma'ilis in a pejorative sense to the supporters of the Fatimids as well.[5] Abu Muhammad was murdered in the same year at the instigation of Zakarawayh ibn Mihrawayh, apparently on the instructions of Salamiya.[11][14] Hamdan's and Abu Muhammad's followers threatened to kill Zakarawayh, who himself was forced to hide.[14] The dā'īs appointed by Abu Muhammad then resumed their work, denouncing the claims of Sa'id in Salamiya, and continuing the Qarmatian movement, although Abu Muhammad was often cited as the source of their religious and philosophical works.[15] A Qarmatian movement (the so-called Baqliyya) survived in lower Iraq for several decades thereafter, with their teachings ascribed largely to Abu Muhammad.[12]

In the

Khurasan.[19]

Footnotes

  1. ^ The title of bāb was widely used in the esoteric terminology of Isma'ilism for the "leading disciple and authorised representative of the Imām", and was awarded to the leaders of the Fatimid dāʿwa.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Madelung & Halm 2016.
  2. ^ a b Daftary 2007, p. 107.
  3. ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 107–108.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Daftary 2007, p. 108.
  5. ^ a b c Madelung 1978, p. 660.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Madelung 2003.
  7. ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 108–109.
  8. ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 108, 109.
  9. ^ Daftary 2007, p. 109.
  10. ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 116–117.
  11. ^ a b Madelung 1996, p. 24.
  12. ^ a b c Daftary 2007, p. 120.
  13. ^ Bayhom-Daou 2010.
  14. ^ a b Daftary 2007, p. 117.
  15. ^ Madelung 2007.
  16. ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 122–123.
  17. ^ Madelung 1978, pp. 660–661.
  18. ^ Madelung 1978, pp. 661, 662.
  19. ^ Madelung 1978, p. 661.

Sources

  • Bayhom-Daou, Tamima (2010). "Bāb (in Shīʿism)". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online.
    ISSN 1873-9830
    .
  • ISBN 978-0-521-61636-2
    .
  • OCLC 758278456
    .
  • ISBN 978-0-521-00310-0
    .
  • ISBN 978-0-933273-70-2
    .
  • ISSN 1873-9830
    .
  • ISSN 1873-9830
    .
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