Ibn Hawshab
Abu'l-Qāsim al-Ḥasan ibn Faraj ibn Ḥawshab ibn Zādān al-Najjār al-Kūfī (
Origin and conversion to Isma'ilism
Ibn Hawshab was born at a village near the
Sources differ on his profession, portraying him as a linen weaver or a carpenter.
According to his own account, Ibn Hawshab was converted to the rival Isma'ili branch of Shi'ism by an old man who came to him while he was studying the
Shortly after, Ibn Hawshab claims that he met the Isma'ili imam, then secretly living at Salamiya.[10] After his training was complete, he was tasked with spreading the Isma'ili creed to Yemen. He was joined by a recently converted native Yemeni, Ali ibn al-Fadl al-Jayshani, and set off in late May or early June 881.[1][10]
Mission to Yemen
The two missionaries made for
After travelling through Sana'a and al-Janad, Ibn Hawshab stayed for a while in
As in other areas of the Islamic world, this call soon attracted many followers. The widespread
By 885, the Isma'ili daʿwa was strong enough for Ibn Hawshab to request, and receive, permission from Salamiya to raise troops and openly engage in a military contest for power.[25] In 885/6, after repelling an attack by local Yu'firid troops, Ibn Hawshab and his followers erected a fortified stronghold at Abr Muharram at the feet of the Jabal Maswar (or Miswar) mountains,[1] northwest of Sana'a.[26] 500 men are said to have worked to build the fort in seven days, and Ibn Hawshab and the fifty most prominent of his followers took up residence there.[27] A few days later he led his followers to settle the Jabal al-Jumayma mountain.[27]
From this base, his forces took Bayt Fa'iz at Jabal Tukhla.
These three inaccessible fortresses provided a core territory from which Ibn Hawshab then began to extend his control over nearby valleys and mountains.
Expansion and clash with Ibn al-Fadl
In the meantime, Ibn Hawshab's fellow missionary, Ali ibn al-Fadl, had secured the support of the local ruler of
In the original Isma'ili doctrine, the expected mahdī was
On 25 January 905, Ibn al-Fadl evicted his erstwhile ally from al-Mudhaykhira.[35] The two Isma'ili leaders now exploited the country's political division to expand their domains: in November 905, Ibn al-Fadl captured Sana'a, which allowed Ibn Hawshab to in turn seize Shibam.[31][20] 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.[35] In late 905, for the first time after coming to Yemen 25 years earlier, the two men met at Shibam.[31] Madelung writes that the meeting "was evidently uneasy", as Ibn Hawshab warned Ibn al-Fadl against overextending his forces, which the latter disregarded.[20] Of the two, Ibn al-Fadl was the most active in the following years, campaigning across the country against those who still opposed the daʿwa;[36] but when he raided al-Bayad, Ibn Hawshab had to support him.[20]
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 Sana'a in April 907.[20][37] In June/July 910, after the Zaydis once again occupied Sana'a and then withdrew, Ibn Hawshab's men briefly occupied the city, but could not hold it due to their small number.[20] Instead, the city fell to the Yu'firid As'ad ibn Ibrahim, before being taken again by Ibn al-Fadl in August 911.[20]
At this point, Ibn al-Fadl publicly renounced allegiance to Abdallah al-Mahdi,[a] who had revealed himself following the successes of Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i and the establishment of the Fatimid Caliphate in 909.[20][37] Indeed, now Ibn al-Fadl declared himself to be the awaited mahdī.[18][17]
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.[20][42]
Death and aftermath
Ibn Hawshab died on 31 December 914,[20][42] followed in October 915 by Ibn al-Fadl. Both men were succeeded by their sons, but their power rapidly declined, and Ibn al-Fadl's domain was soon destroyed by the Yu'firids.[18][42] For over a century, until the rise of the Sulayhid dynasty, Isma'ilism remained mostly underground movement in Yemen, with few political patrons.[26][43] Ibn Hawshab's three sons were ousted from the leadership by the daʿī Shawiri, and one of them, Ja'far, fled to the Fatimid court in Ifriqiya, carrying his father's works with him and becoming himself a significant author of the early Fatimid period.[44][45] Nevertheless, the northern Yemeni community founded by Ibn Hawshab survived, and has provided the nucleus for the continued existence of Isma'ilism in Yemen to the present day.[18][42]
Writings
Ibn Hawshab's life is known in detail through a quasi-hagiographic Life (Sīra), written either by himself or by his son, Ja'far.[44][46] It is now lost, but known through extensive quotations in later authors, and is, according to the historian Heinz Halm, "one of the most important sources for the history of the daʿwa".[2]
Later Isma'ili tradition ascribed to him two of the earliest known Isma'ili theological treatises.
See also
Footnotes
- ^ The exact reason for Ibn al-Fadl's denunciation is not known; it may have been personal ambition, following his many successes,[26] or disillusionment with al-Mahdi, especially following his sending of a clearly forged genealogy to the Yemeni Isma'ili community, and his claim that while indeed being the mahdī, his coming was not to usher in the end days as commonly assumed, but merely renew Islam and restore the true line of imams to their rightful place.[38][39] Michael Brett suggests that the story of the joint mission of Ibn Hawshab and Ibn al-Fadl may have been an invention, although he emphasizes that the doctrinal issues at stake are obscure.[40] Farhad Daftary labels Ibn al-Fadl as a 'Qarmatian', denoting his opposition to al-Mahdi's claims, much like the original Qarmatians in 899.[41]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Madelung 1991, p. 438.
- ^ a b c d Halm 1991, p. 38.
- ^ Daftary 2007, p. 89.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 38–39.
- ^ a b Daftary 2007, pp. 107–108.
- ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 108, 132–133.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Halm 1991, p. 61.
- ^ a b c 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, 55.
- ^ a b Brett 2017, p. 20.
- ^ a b c d Daftary 2007, p. 122.
- ^ a b c Halm 1991, p. 44.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Madelung 1991, p. 439.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 42, 44.
- ^ Brett 2017, p. 17.
- ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 125–128.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 44–47, 99–115.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 55–56.
- ^ a b c Landau-Tasseron 2010, p. 427.
- ^ a b c d Halm 1991, p. 56.
- ^ a b Halm 1991, pp. 56–57.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 56, 176.
- ^ Madelung 1991, pp. 438–439.
- ^ a b c d e f Halm 1991, p. 177.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 27–29.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 64–67.
- ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 116–117.
- ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 176.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 177–178.
- ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 178.
- ^ Halm 1991, pp. 146–147, 178.
- ^ Brett 2017, pp. 22, 24, 36–37.
- ^ Brett 2001, p. 77.
- ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 122, 125.
- ^ a b c d Halm 1991, p. 179.
- ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 198–199.
- ^ a b Halm 1998.
- ^ Haji 2008.
- ^ Brett 2017, p. 31.
- ^ Daftary 2004, pp. 6, 117.
- ^ Daftary 2004, pp. 6, 17, 121–122.
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.
- Brett, Michael (2017). The Fatimid Empire. The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-4076-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8577-1386-5.
- 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.
- Haji, Hamid (2008). "JAʿFAR B. MANṢUR-AL-YAMAN". In ISBN 978-1-934283-08-0.
- ISBN 978-3-406-35497-7.
- ISBN 978-1-56859-058-5.
- 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.