Khurramites
The Khurramites (
The
History
The sect was founded in the 8th century AD by the
The sect grew out of a response to the execution of
According to
The Khurramites in Azerbaijan were associated with Javidhan, a landlord who led one of the two Khurramite movements in Azerbaijan (from 807–808 to 816–817), with his headquarters being Badd Fort, near the Aras River. The leader of the other Khurramite movement was Abu Imran, who often clashed with Javidhan. During one of the clashes, probably in 816, Abu Imran was defeated and killed, and Javidhan was wounded and died three days later. Javidhan was succeeded by his heir, Babak Khorramdin, who married Javidhan's widow.[6][7]
Babak's participation in the Khorrami movement was summarised by Waqed:
″Two rich men named Javidhan b. Shahrak (or Shahrak) and Abu 'Emran were then living in the highland around the mountain of Badd and contending for the leadership of the highland's Khorrami inhabitants. Javidhan, when stuck in the snow on his way back from Zanjān to Badd, had to seek shelter at Balalabad and happened to go into the house of Babak's mother. Being poor, she could only light a fire for him, while Babak looked after the guest's servants and horses and brought water for them. Javidhan then sent Babak to buy food, wine, and fodder. When Babak came back and spoke to Javidhan, he impressed Javidhan with his shrewdness despite his lack of fluency of speech. Javidhan therefore asked the woman for permission to take her son away to manage his farms and properties, and offered to send her fifty dirhams a month from Babak's salary. The woman accepted and let Babak go″.[6]
Under Babak's leadership, the Khurramites proclaimed the division and the redistribution of the great estates and the end to the despotic foreign rule. Taking advantage of the turmoil created by the
Al-Tabari recorded that Babak started his revolt in 816–817. At first, Caliph
In 824–825, Generals Ahmad ibn al Junayd and Zorayq bin ʿAlī bin Ṣadaqa were sent by the caliph to subdue Babakʿs revolt, but Babak defeated them and captured Jonayd. In 827–828, Moḥammad bin Ḥomayd was sent to overcome Babak and had several victories, but the last battle at Hashtadsar in 829, his troops were defeated by Babak.
When al-Ma'mun died in 833, he had failed against Babak, whose victories over Arab generals were associated with holding Badd Fort and the inaccessible mountain stronghold, according to Arab historians. They mentioned that his influence also extended to what is now Azerbaijan "southward to near Ardabīl and Marand, eastward to the Caspian Sea and the Šamāḵī district and Šervān, northward to the Mūqān (Moḡān) steppe and the Aras river bank, westward to the districts of Jolfā, Naḵjavān, and Marand".[8][9][5][10]
In 833, many men from Jebal,
In 835, al-Mutasim sent Ḥaydar bin Kāvūs Afšīn, a senior general and a son of the vassal prince of Osrūšana, to defeat Babak. Al-Mutasim set a price and allowances for Afshin that were unusually high. According to Said Nafisi, Afshin managed to attract Babak's spies on his side by paying much more than Babak. When Afshin knew that Babek was aware that Boḡā the Elder had been sent a large amount of money by Afshin and was preparing to attack Boga, he used that information to pressure Babak into full co-operation, managed to have Babak's comrades killed and let Babak flee to Badd.[6][7][11]
Before Afshin's departure, the caliph had sent a group under Abū Saʿīd Moḥammad to rebuild the forts demolished by Babak between Zanjān and Ardabīl. The Khurramites, led by Moʿāwīa, made a failed attack on the Arabs that was recorded by al-Tabari as Babak's first defeat.[6]
The last battle between the Abbasid caliphate and the Khurramites occurred in Badd Fort on 837. The Khurramites were defeated, and Afšīn reached Badd Fort. After capturing Badd Fort, Babak went to near the Araz River. His goal was to join the Byzantine emperor, gather new forces and continue the struggle. Thus, it was announced that al-Mutasim would give a reward of two million dirhams to whoever handed Babak over alive. Babak's former ally, Sahl ibn Sumbat, handed Babak over to the Abbasids, and on March 14, 838, Babak was executed in the city of Samira.[6][12][13]
The Abbasid suppression of the rebellion led to the flight of many thousands of Khurramites to Byzantium, where they were welcomed by Emperor Theophilos, and they joined the Byzantine army under their Iranian leader, Theophobos.[14][15][16]
Beliefs
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Regarding the variety of faiths, the Khurramites believe that "the prophets, despite the difference of their laws and their religions, do not constitute but a single spirit".[17] Naubakhti states that they also believe in reincarnation (metempsychosis) as the only existing kind of afterlife and retribution and in the cancellation of all religious prescriptions and obligations. They highly revere Abu Muslim and their imams. In their rituals, which are rather simple, they "seek the greatest sacramental effect from wine and drinks". As a whole, they were estimated by Al-Maqdisi as "Mazdaeans... who cover themselves under the guise of Islam".
Legacy
According to Turkish scholar Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı the Qizilbash ("Red-Heads") of the 16th century – a religious and political movement in Azerbaijan that helped to establish the Safavid dynasty – were "spiritual descendants of the Khurramites".[4]
See also
- Islamic conquest of Persia
- Kaysanites Shia
- Qarmatians
- List of extinct Shia sects
- Bahram Chobin
Notes
- ^ Arthur Goldschmidt, Lawrence Davidson, “A concise history of the Middle East”, Westview Press; Eighth Edition (July 21, 2005). p. 81: “..a Persian named Babak whose rebellion lasted twenty years. These uprisings were inspired by Persia's pre-Islamic religions, such as Zoroastrianism (the faith of the Sassanid ruler) and a peasant movement called Mazdakism”
- ^ Whittow (1996), "The Making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600–1025". New studies in medieval history, London: Macmillan, pp. 195, 203 & 215 Azerbaijan was the scene of frequent anti-caliphal and anti-Arab revolts during the eighth and ninth centuries, and Byzantine sources talk of Persian warriors seeking refuge in the 830s from the Caliph's armies by taking service under the Byzantine emperor Theophilos. [...] Azerbaijan had a Persian population and was a traditional centre of the Zoroastrian religion. [...] The Khurramites were a [...] Persian sect, influenced by Shiite doctrines, but with their roots in a pre-Islamic Persian religious movement.
- ^ a b W. Madelung, "Khurrammiya" in Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianchi, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2009. Brill Online. Excerpt: "Khurrammiya or Khurramdiniyya refers in the Islamic sources to the religious movement founded by Mazdak in the late 5th century A.D. and to various anti-Arab sects which developed out of it under the impact of certain extremist Shi'i doctrines."
- ^ a b Roger M. Savory (ref. Abdülbaki Gölpinarli), Encyclopaedia of Islam, "Kizil-Bash", Online Edition 2005
- ^ a b "ḴORRAMIS – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
- ^ a b c d e f "BĀBAK ḴORRAMI – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
- ^ ISBN 9781139510769.
- ^ Nafisi, Saeed. Bābak-e Ḵorramdīn. 1963.
- ^ "AZERBAIJAN iv. Islamic History to 1941 – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
- ISBN 9781558763227.
- ISBN 9789960892887.
- ^ Bahramian, Ali; Hirtenstein, Stephen; Gholami, Rahim (2013-12-04). "Bābak Khurram-Dīn". Encyclopaedia Islamica.
- ISBN 9780674986510.
- ^ "ḴORRAMIS IN BYZANTIUM – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
- ISBN 9780804731638.
- ISBN 9781317034278.
- ^ a b Yarshater, Ehsan. 1983. The Cambridge history of Iran, volume 2. p. 1008
- ^ Yarshater, Ehsan. The Cambridge history of Iran, volume 2. p. 1005
External links
- Encyclopaedia IranicaOnline. July 20, 2005. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
- Encyclopædia Iranica, Ḵorramis
- Encyclopædia Iranica, Bābak Ḵorrami