TheBaghdad Manifesto was a polemical tract issued in 1011 on behalf of theAbbasid caliphal-Qadir against the rivalIsma'iliFatimid Caliphate.
The manifesto was the result of the steady expansion of theFatimid Caliphate since its establishment in the early 10th century, and the continued activity of the pro-FatimidIsma'ili missionary movement (da'wa) across theMiddle East. In 1010/11, theda'wa scored a significant success when theShi'aUqaylids, who ruledMosul,Mada'in,Kufa, and other towns close to the Abbasid capital ofBaghdad, publicly recognized the suzerainty of the Fatimid caliphal-Hakim by having thekhutba read in his name. They were soon followed by theBanu Asad tribe, also resident inIraq.[1]
This expansion of Fatimid influence to the very doorstep of Baghdad alarmed the Abbasid caliphal-Qadir, who launched a series of counter-moves. In the same year, he successfully forced the Uqaylid rulerQirwash to return to recognizing Abbasid suzerainty by threatening to attack him otherwise.[2]
He then called an assembly of leadingSunni andTwelver Shi'a scholars, including several esteemedAlids. The assembly issued a manifesto denouncing theFatimids' claims of descent fromAli and theAhl al-Bayt (the family ofMuhammad) as false, and thus challenge the foundation of the Fatimid dynasty's claims to leadership in the Islamic world.[2][3]
Based on the work of the earlier anti-Fatimid polemicistsIbn Rizam andAkhu Muhsin, the manifesto instead put forth an alternative genealogy of descent from a certain Daysan ibn Sa'id.[4] The document was ordered read in mosques throughout the Abbasid territories, and al-Qadir commissioned a number of theologians to compose further anti-Fatimid tracts.[2] The manifesto and its list of signatories were reproduced by multiple medieval sources,[5] and during the early 20th century, due to the lack of sources that were not made available until later decades, it was used as a principal source on the origins and early history of the Fatimids.[3]
