A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate

by De Lacy O'Leary

III
THE QARMATIANS

We turn now to the formation of the important branch of the Ismaʿilian sect known as the Qarmatians, which is particularly interesting as we have detailed accounts of its formation which show how the propaganda worked, and illustrate the ease with which an armed group could set up an independent robber state in this period of the decay of the Khalifate. Of the history of their founding there are two leading narratives slightly divergent in details,—which De Goeje (pp. 13-17) calls A. and B. A. given by De Sacy (Druses, pp. clxvi., etc.) is that of Nuwayri, who drew his information from Akhu Muhsin, who obtained it from Ibn Razzam, and the substance, drawn from the same sources, appears in the Fihrist. B. (in De Sacy clxxi., etc.) is really the account given by Tabari, and is based on the description given by a person who had been present at the examination of Zaqruyah the Qarmatian by Muhammad b. Dawud b. al-Jarrah. The A. account is as follows.

One of Ahmad’s missionaries named Husayn Ahwazi was sent to labour in the district of Kufa known as the Sawad. As he was travelling he met a man named Hamdan b. Ashhath al-Qarmati, who was leading an ox with forage on its back. Husayn asked him the way to a place named Kass-Nahram, and Hamdan replied that he was going there himself. Then Husayn asked him where was a place named Dawr, and Hamdan told him that was his home. So they went on together. Then Hamdan says: “You seem to have come a long way and to be very tired: get on this ox of mine.” But Husayn declined, saying that he had not been told to do so. Hamdan remarked: “You speak as though you acted according to the orders which some one had given you.” Husayn admitted that this was so. “And who,” Hamdan asked, “it is then from whom you receive these orders and prohibitions?” Husayn replied: “It is my master and yours, the master of this world and of the world to come.” After some reflection Hamdan said: “There is only God most High who is master of all things.” “True,” replied Husayn, “but God entrusts control to whom he pleases.” Hamdan then asked, “What do you intend to do in the village to which you have asked to be directed?” “I am going,” said Husayn, “to bring to many people who dwell there a knowledge of the secrets of God. I have received orders to water the village, to enrich the inhabitants, to deliver them, and to put them in possession of their masters’ goods.” Then he began to persuade Hamdan to embrace his teaching. Hamdan said: “I beseech you in the name of God to reveal to me what you possess of this wisdom: deliver it to me, and God will deliver you.” “That,” said Husayn, “is a thing I cannot do, unless I previously get from you an undertaking and bind you in the name of God by a promise as an oath like that which God has always exacted from his prophets and apostles. After that I shall be able to tell you things which will be useful to you.” Hamdan continued to urge, and at last Husayn gave way, and as they sat by the roadside Husayn administered the oath to him and asked his name. Hamdan replied that he was commonly known as the Qarmat, and invited Husayn to take up his abode with him. So Husayn went to his house and gained many converts from Hamdan’s kinsmen and neighbours. There he stayed for some time, arousing in his host and others the strongest admiration of the ascetic and pious life he led, fasting by day, and watching by night. He worked as a tailor, and it was generally felt that the garments which had passed through his hands were consecrated. When the date harvest came a learned and wealthy citizen of Kufa named Abu ʿAbdullah Muhammad b. ʿUmar b. Shabab Adawi, hearing good reports of him, made him guardian of his date garden, and found him scrupulous in his attention and honesty. Husayn revealed his doctrines to this employer, but he saw through the piety which had impressed the villagers and understood that he was a conspirator. Before his death Husayn appointed Hamdan as daʿi in his place. This is an outline of the narrative of the origin of the Qarmatians, so called as the followers of Hamdan the Qarmat, according to the Sherif Abu l-Hasan as reported in the history of Nuwayri.

Gregory Bar Hebraeus gives a different account which appears also in Bibars Mansuri and in another part of Nuwayri who cites the authority of Ibn Athir, and this is the second account which de Goeje calls B. According to it a Persian of Khuzistan established himself in the Nahrayn or district between the rivers, near Hufa, and soon drew attention by the asceticism and piety of his life. When anyone went and sat by him he used to discourse about religion and try to induce his hearers to renounce the world; he taught that it was a matter of obligation to pray fifty times a day, and that it was his office to guide men to the true Imam whose abode he knew. Some merchants purchased the produce of the garden in which this recluse had taken up his abode, and enquired for a trustworthy watchman to look after their property. The gardener introduced the recluse to them, and they gave him charge of the produce. When they came to take away their dates they paid the watchman, and he, on his part, paid the gardener for the dates supplied to him, deducting a rebate for the stones. The merchants saw this reckoning going on, and supposed that he had been selling some of their dates, so they struck him, saying, “Is it not enough that you have eaten our dates?—is it for you also to sell the stones?” The gardener then spoke up and told them the facts, and when they perceived their error they made their apologies and conceived a very high opinion of his rectitude and probity. Some time later he fell ill, and the gardener sent for a certain villager commonly known as Qaramita, a word which in the Nabataean language means a man with red eyes. This villager’s real name is not given, but Tabari adds that Muhammad b. Dawud b. al-Jarrah said to someone that he was called Hamdan. He was an owner of oxen which were used to carry the produce of Sawad to the city of Kufa. He took the sick man to his house and there the devotee stayed until he was quite well, and whilst there taught the Qaramita the doctrines of the sect to which he belonged, and also instructed the villagers. From amongst his converts he chose twelve nakibs, in imitation of Moses and Jesus, and sent them out as missionaries. He required his followers to pray fifty times a day, and as a result the work of the villagers fell into arrears. A certain Haysam who possessed property in the village perceived this and made enquiry as to the reason; this led him into contact with the devotee who was induced to reveal to him his peculiar doctrines. Haysam perceived their subversive character and took him to Kufa where he locked him up in his house, but a female servant who was moved by the captive’s apparent piety stole the key and set him free. In the morning the room was found empty, and this was reported as a miracle. Soon afterwards the devotee re-appeared to the villagers and told them that he had been set free by angels, and then he escaped to Syria. After his departure the Qaramata continued to preach and expand the doctrines which he had learned, and in this was assisted by the other nakibs. According to Ibn Athir, cited by Nuwayri, this Qaramat or Hamdan was a man who “affected a religious life, detached from the world and mortified,” and “when anyone joined his sect Hamdan took a piece of gold from him, saying that it was for the Imam. From them (i.e., his followers) he chose twelve nakibs whom he charged to call men to his religion, saying that they were the apostles of Isa b. Maryam.”

The A. text refers to Husayn’s death, the B. text says that he went to Syria. Tabari speaks of the devotee as coming from Khuzistan, but Akhu Muhsin says that he was sent by Ahmad from Salamiya. De Goeje (p. 18) suggests that he may have been Ahmad’s son Husayn. According to the Kitab al-Oyun (MS. Berlin, 69—cited by de Goeje) Saʿid, the son of Husayn, the son of Ahmad, the son of ʿAbdullah, was born at Salamiya in 259 or 260. But evidently there is some error here. Husayn was the grandson, not the son, of Abdullah, and the head of the sect did not leave Askar Mokram before 266: probably not until after the repression of the slave rebellion in 270. No open revolt of the Qarmatians took place until 286.

In his Chronicle Bar Hebraeus applies to the sect of the Nusayri all that he says about the Qarmatians, and so the books of the Druses in their references to the Nusayri prove that they hold very much the same doctrines as the Ismaʿilians. It is supposed that the Nusayri sect is a survival of an ancient pagan community (cf. René Dussand: Hist. et religion des Nosairis, Paris, 1900). This fits in with the advice given to the missionaries that Manichaean converts may be admitted to a higher grade without hesitation.

After this rather confused account of the foundation of the sect of Qarmatians we find ourselves on surer ground. It is clear that Hamdan surnamed the Qarmati was the convert chosen to act as head of the branch founded near Kufa, and he seems to have been diligent in sending out missionaries throughout the whole district of Sawad, where success was easy as the oppressed Nabataean villagers were still groaning under the tyranny of the Arab colonists of the two camp-cities, Kufa and Basra. Not only were the peasants won over in large numbers, but many of the dissatisfied Arab tribes were also gained: these, it will be understood, were those tribes which had had no share in the wealth acquired by the Khalif and his followers. At first Hamdan required each proselyte to pay a piece of silver, corresponding to the fitr or legal alms which Muslims are expected to pay at the end of Ramadan. Then he exacted a piece of gold from each person on attaining the age of reason, a tribute which he called hijra or “flight,” perhaps because intended for the maintenance of a place of refuge called the “house of flight.” Later again he demanded seven pieces of gold which he termed bulgha or “livelihood.” He prepared a choice banquet, and gave a small portion to each of those who gave him the seven pieces of gold, saying that it was the food of the dwellers in paradise sent down to the Imam. He next levied a fifth of all their possessions, basing his claim on the words of the Qurʾan, “And know ye, that when ye have taken any booty, a fifth part belongeth to God and to His Apostle” (Qur. 8, 42). Next he required them to deposit all their goods in a common fund, a reminiscence of the communism taught in pre-Islamic times by the Persian prophet Mazdak, and justified this by the passages, “Remember God’s goodness towards you, how that when ye were enemies, He united your hearts, and by His favour ye became brethren” (Qur. 3, 98), and “Hadst thou spent all the riches of the earth, thou couldst not have united their hearts; but God hath united them, for He is Mighty, Wise” (Qur. 8, 64). He told them that they had no need of money because everything on earth belonged to them, but he exhorted them to procure arms. All this took place in the year 276.

The daʿi chose in each village a man worthy of confidence, and in his charge they placed the property of the inhabitants. By this means clothes were provided for those who were without, and all had their needs supplied so that there was no more poverty. All worked diligently, for rank was made to depend on a man’s utility to the community; no one possessed any private property save sword and arms. Then it is said the daʿi assembled men and women together on a certain night, and encouraged them to indulge in promiscuous intercourse. After this, assured of their absolute obedience, he began to teach them the more secret doctrines of the sect, and so deprived them of all belief in religion, and discouraged the observance of external rites such as prayer, fasting, and the like. This was the distinctive mark of the Qarmatian branch: the initiated were no longer a small minority living in the midst of their fellow sectarians who still adhered to the external forms of Islam, but amongst the Qarmatians all were initiated to the fullest extent in all the teachings of the sect. Before long they began to steal and to commit murders, so that they produced a reign of terror in the vicinity. Then the daʿis felt that the time was ripe for open revolt, and selected a village in the Sawad called Mahimabad, near the river Euphrates, and within the royal domain as their rallying place or “house of flight”: thither they carried large stones, and in a short time surrounded it with a strong wall and erected a building in the midst, in which a great many persons could be assembled and where goods could be stored. This took place in 277.

At this time the Khalifate was weak, and this favoured the lawless movements of the villagers who now came to be known as Qarmatians from their leader. Their head, Hamdan the Qarmati, meanwhile kept up constant correspondence with the leaders of the sect at Salamiya. After the death of Ahmad his son and successor wrote a letter to Hamdan, but he was not satisfied with its contents: he observed that this letter differed considerably in expression from those which he had previously received, and contained matters which did not seem to agree with the teaching he had received, so he concluded that the responsible heads had changed their policy. To make sure he sent a trusty follower named Abdan to Salamiya to find out how matters stood. Abdan arrived there, learned about the death of Ahmad and the succession of his son Husayn, and had an interview with this latter. In that interview he asked who was the Imam to whom they owed obedience, and Husayn replied by the counter question, “Who then is the Imam?” Abdan replied, “It is Muhammad the son of Ismaʿil the son of Jaʿfar, the master of the world, to whose obedience your father called men, and whose hujja he was.” Husayn showed some annoyance at this reply, and said: “Muhammad the son of Ismaʿil has no rights in all this; there has never been any other Imam than my father who was descended from Maymun b. Daysan, and to-day I take his place.” By this reply Abdan discovered the real nature of the sect, or at least its present policy. He then returned to the Qarmati and told him what he had discovered, and by his orders all the duʿat were called together and informed of what Abdan had discovered and advised to stop their propaganda. As a result the preaching came to an end in the districts about Kufa, but they were not able to check it in remoter parts, and they ceased all correspondence with the leaders at Salamiya.

Then one of the sons of Ahmad who had been on a visit to Talakan tried to see the Qarmati on his return journey, but was unable to find him. He therefore called on Abdan and reproached him for ceasing to correspond with Salamiya. Abdan replied that he had left off preaching and desired to sever his connection with the sect as he had discovered that they were not really loyal to the house of ʿAli, but were supporting an Imam of the family of Maymun: he only asked God’s pardon for what he had previously done in error. When the visitor saw that he had nothing to hope from Abdan, he turned to another daʿi named Zaqruya b. Mahruya and discussed with him Abdan’s attitude. Zaqruya received him well, and it was agreed that he should be established as chief daʿi in the district and, in return would resume the former relations with Salamiya. To this Zaqruya assented, but objected that, so long as Abdan was alive all efforts would be fruitless, as all revered him as a leader. They agreed therefore to get rid of Abdan. For this end Zaqruya collected a number of his neighbours, informed them that the hujja or earthly representative of the Imam was dead, and that his son was now occupying his place. The people expressed the greatest respect towards the new hujja, and declared their readiness to carry out his commands. He told them that they were to kill Abdan as he had proved to be a rebel and apostate. Next night Abdan was killed. When, however, it came to be known that it was Zaqruya who had brought about his death the Qarmates were indignant, and Zaqruya had to flee for his life and hide himself, and advised the representative from Salamiya who seems to have remained with him, to leave the neighbourhood. This took place in 286.