Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath | |
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حمدان قرمط بن الأشعث | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Furat Badaqla |
| Died | 899 or later |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Shi'a Islam |
| Denomination | Isma'ilism |
| Sect | Qarmatians |
Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath (Arabic:حمدان قرمط بن الأشعث,romanized: Ḥamdān Qarmaṭ ibn al-Ashʿath;fl. c. 874–899CE) was theeponymous founder of theQarmatian sect ofIsma'ilism. Originally the chief Isma'ili missionary (dā'ī) inlower Iraq, in 899 he quarreled with the movement's leadership atSalamiya after it was taken over bySa'id ibn al-Husayn (the future firstFatimid Caliph), and with his followers broke off from them. Hamdan then disappeared, but his followers continued in existence in theSyrian Desert andal-Bahrayn for several decades.
Hamdan's early life is unknown, except that he came from the village of al-Dur in the district of Furat Badaqla, east ofKufa.[1] He was originally an ox-driver, employed in carrying goods. He enters the historical record with his conversion to theIsma'ili doctrine by the missionary (dā'ī) al-Husayn al-Ahwazi.[1][2] According to the medieval sources about his life, this took place in or aroundAH 261 (874/75CE) or AH 264 (877/78 CE).[1][2]
His surname "Qarmat" is considered as being probably ofAramaic origin. Various forms and meanings are recorded in the sources: according toal-Tabari, his name wasKarmītah, "red-eyed";al-Nawbakhti andNizam al-Mulk provide the diminutiveQarmāṭūya; others suggest that his name meant "short-legged".[1][3] It is traditionally considered that Hamdan's followers were named theQarāmiṭa (singularQarmaṭī), "men of Qarmat", after him.[1][4] However, theTwelver Shi'a scholaral-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]
Thedā'ī al-Husayn al-Ahwazi had been sent by the Ismai'li leadership atSalamiya, and when he died (or left the area), Hamdan assumed the leadership of Isma'ili missionary activity in the rural environs (sawād) of Kufa and southern Iraq. He soon moved his residence to the town of Kalwadha, south ofBaghdad, and rapidly won many new converts among the peasantry and theBedouin.[1][4] His success was aided by the turmoil of the time. TheAbbasid Caliphate was enfeebled, andIraq was in chaos due to theZanj Revolt. At the same time, the mainstream Twelver Shi'a adherent were becoming increasingly dissatisfied due to thepolitical quietism of their leadership, as well as by the vacuum left by the death of the eleventh imamHasan al-Askari and the supposed "occultation" of the twelfth imam,Muhammad al-Mahdi, in 874. In this climate, themillennialism of the Isma'ilis, who preached the imminent return of the messiah ormahdī, was very attractive to dissatisfied Twelvers.[4]
His most prominent disciple and aide was his brother-in-lawAbu Muhammad Abdan, who "enjoyed a high degree of independence" (Daftary) and appointed his owndā'īs in Iraq,Bahrayn and southernPersia.[6][4] Among the men trained and sent to missions asdā'īs by Hamdan and Abu Muhammad wereAbu Sa'id al-Jannabi (Persia and Bahrayn),Ibn Hawshab andAli ibn al-Fadl al-Jayshani (to theYemen), as well asAbu Abdallah al-Shi'i, who later helped convert theKutama inIfriqiya and opened the way to the establishment of theFatimid Caliphate.[6] According to the 11th-centurySunniheresiologistAbu Mansur al-Baghdadi, al-Ma'mun, adā'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 (thekhums), to be reserved for themahdī.[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 thesawād. 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]
No direct information on the doctrine preached by Hamdan and Abu Muhammad is known, but modern scholars likeFarhad Daftary consider it to have been, in all likelihood, the same as that propagated at the time from Salamiya, and described in the writings of al-Nawbakhti andIbn Babawayh.[9] In essence they heralded the imminent return of the seventh imam,Muhammad ibn Isma'il as themahdī, and thus the start of a new era of justice; themahdī would proclaim a new law, superseding Islam, and reveal the "hidden" or "inner" (bāṭin) truths of the religion to his followers. Until then,this knowledge was restricted, and only those initiated in the doctrine could access part of it. As a result of these beliefs, the Qarmatians often abandoned traditional Islamic law and ritual. Contemporary mainstream Islamic sources claim that this led tolascivious behaviour among them, but this is not trustworthy given their hostile stance towards Qarmatians.[1]
In 899, following the death of the previous leader of the sect at Salamiya,Sa'id ibn al-Husayn, the future founder of theFatimid 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 expectedmahdī 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 Iraqidā'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 writerIbn Malik reports the rather unreliable information that he was killed in Baghdad,[1][12] whileIbn Hawqal, who wrote in the 970s, claims that he reconciled with Sa'id and became adā'ī for the Fatimid cause under the name of Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ahmad. According toWilferd 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 fromMuslim ibn Aqil ibn Abi Talib and settled atFustat, the capital ofEgypt. From there he attempted to regain the support of Hamdan's followers, but those in Iraq and Bahrayn refused; Ibn Hawshab in Yemen and Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i in Ifriqiya, however, accepted his authority, and used him as an intermediary with Sa'id in Salamiya. When Sa'id fled from Syria and spent a year in Fustat in 904/905, Abu Ali was responsible for their safety.[6] Following the establishment of the Fatimid Caliphate in 909, Abu Ali visited Sa'id, now caliph, in Ifriqiya, and was sent to spread Islam inByzantineAsia 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 caliphal-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, appointed him as chiefdāʿi, with the title "Gate of Gates" (bāb al-abwāb).[a] In this post, he composed works explaining Fatimid doctrine; in theUmmahāt 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 oftaʾwil, esoteric interpretation, in Isma'ili religious teaching". He died in 933, and his son Abu'l-Hasan Muhammad succeeded him as chiefdāʿi.[6]
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 ofZakarawayh 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] Thedā'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-calledBaqliyya) survived in lower Iraq for several decades thereafter, with their teachings ascribed largely to Abu Muhammad.[12]
In theSyrian Desert and lower Iraq, Zakarawayh soon assumed the initiative, at first covertly. Through his sons, Zakarawayh sponsored a great uprising in Syria 902–903, that was brought to an end in theBattle of Hama in November 903; although probably designed to bring about a pro-Fatimid revolution, the large-scale Abbasid reaction it precipitated and the attention it brought on him forced Sa'id to abandon Salamiya for theMaghreb, where he would found the Fatimid state inIfriqiya. Zakarawayh himself emerged into the open in 906, claiming to be themahdī, to lead the last Qarmatian attacks on the Abbasids in Iraq, before being defeated and captured early in the next year.[16][17] The Qarmatians had more success inBahrayn, where Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, who had been sent to the regionc. 886/87 by Hamdan and Abu Muhammad, founded an independent Qarmatian state that became a major threat to the Abbasids in the 10th century.[18] Other Qarmatian groups existed independently inYemen,Rayy, andKhurasan.[19]
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