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Hamdan Qarmat
Cplakidas: ←Created page with ''''Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath''' (; –899}} Common Er...'
'''Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath''' (; –899}} [[Common Era|CE]]) was one of the founders of the [[Qarmatian]] sect of [[Isma'ilism]].
==Life==
Hamdan's early life is unknown, except that he came from the village of al-Dur in the district of Furat Badaqla, east of [[Kufa]]. He was originally a carrier (of goods with oxen), enters the historical record with his conversion to the [[Isma'ili]] doctrine by the missionary (''[[da'i]]'') al-Husayn al-Ahwazi. According to the sources this took place in or around [[Anno Hegirae|AH]] 261 (874/875 [[Common Era|CE]]) or AH 264 (877/878 CE), but possibly Hamdan was active earlier, as the [[Twelver Shi'a]] scholar [[al-Fadl ibn Shadhan]], who died in 873/874, had written a refutation of Qarmatian doctrines.
His surname "Qarmat" is considered as being probably of [[Aramaic]] origin. Various forms and meanings are recorded in the sources: according to [[al-Tabari]], his name was ''Karmītah'', "red-eyed"; [[Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Musa al-Nawbakhti|al-Nawbakhti]] and [[Nizam al-Mulk]] provide the diminutive ''Qarmāṭūya''; others suggest that his name meant "short-legged".
===Missionary activity===
The ''da'i'' al-Husayn al-Ahwazi had been sent by the Ismai'li leadership at [[Salamiyah]], and when he died (or left the area), Hamdan assumed the leadership of Isma'ili missionary activity in the ''[[sawad|sawād]]'' of Kufa. He appointed ''da'i''s of his own, including his brother-in-law Abu Ahmad Abdan, rapidly won many new converts among the peasantry and the [[Bedouin]]. His success was aided by the chaos of the [[Zanj Revolt]] then engulfing [[Iraq]] and the weakness of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], as well as by dissatisfaction among Twelver adherents with the [[Political quietism in Islam|political quietism]] of their leadership, as well as by the vacuum left by the death of the eleventh imam [[Hasan al-Askari]] and the "occultation" of the twelfth imam, [[Muhammad al-Mahdi]], in 874. In this climate, the [[millenialism]] of the Isma'ilis, who preached the imminent return of the Messiah or ''[[mahdi]]'', was very attractive to dissatisfied Twelvers.
Hamdan's followers were named the ''Qarāmiṭa'' (singular ''Qarmaṭī''), "men of Qarmat", after him. His brother-in-law Abu Ahmad quickly became prominent enough among them to start appointing his own ''da'i''s, including in [[al-Bahrayn]] and southern [[Persia]]; including perhaps such figures as [[Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi]] and [[Zikrawayh ibn Mihrawayh]]. Hamdan's agents collected taxes from the converts, including a one-fifth tax on all income, to be reserved for the ''mahdi''. Although Hamdan corresponded with the Salamiyah 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 al-Zanji|Ali ibn Muhammad]], who rebuffed the offer. In 890/891, a fortified refuge (''dār al-hijra'') was established by Hamdan for his supporters near Kufa.
For several years in the aftermath of the suppression Zanj Revolt in 883, Abbasid authority was not firmly re-established in the ''sawād''. Only in 891/892 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 to Ismai'li populations that were not proselytized by Hamdan.
===Doctrine===
No direct information on the doctrine preached by Hamdan and Abu Ahmad is known, but modern scholars like [[Farhad 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 and [[Ibn Babawayh]]. In essence they heralded the imminent return of the seventh imam, [[Muhammad ibn Isma'il]] as the ''mahdi'', and thus the start of a new era; the ''mahdi'' would proclaim a new law, superseding Islam, and reveal the "hidden" or "inner" (''[[Batin (Islam)|bāṭin]]'') truths of the religion to his followers. Until then, [[Esoteric interpretation of the Quran|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 to [[lascivious behaviour]] among them, but this is not trustworthy given their hostile stance towards Qarmatians.
===Split with Salamiya and aftermath===
In 899, following the death of the previous leader of the sect at Salamiya, [[Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah|Abdallah]], the future founder of the [[Fatimid Caliphate]], became the leader. Soon, he began making alterations to the doctrine, which worried Hamdan. Abu Ahmad went to Salamiya to investigate the matter, and learned that Abdallah claimed that the expected ''mahdi'' was not Muhammad ibn Isma'il, but Abdallah himself. This caused a major rift in the movement, as Hamdan denounced the leadership in Salamiya, gathered the Iraqi ''da'i''s and ordered them to cease the missionary effort. Shortly after he went to Kalwadha near Baghdad, where he "disappeared". [[Ibn Malik]] reports that he was killed in Baghdad, but this is considered unreliable.
Abu Ahmad was murdered in the same year at the instigation of Zikrawayh ibn Mihrawayh, apparently on the instructions of Salamiya. Hamdan's and Abu Ahmad's followers threatened to kill Zikrawayh, who himself was forced to hide. Through his sons, he sponsored the great Qarmatian uprising in 902–904, that was brought to an end in the [[Battle of Hama]]; fleeing from their approach, Abdallah abandoned Salamiya for the [[Maghreb]], where he would found the Fatimid state in [[Ifriqiya]]. Zikrawayh himself emerged into the open in 906, claiming to be the ''mahdi'', to lead the last Qarmatian attacks on the Abbasids in the [[Syrian Desert]] and Iraq, before being defeated and captured in the next year.
== References ==
== Sources ==
* |ref=harv}}
* |ref=harv}}
*
[[Category:9th-century Arabs]]
[[Category:9th century in the Abbasid Caliphate]]
[[Category:People from Kufa]]
[[Category:Qarmatians]]
==Life==
Hamdan's early life is unknown, except that he came from the village of al-Dur in the district of Furat Badaqla, east of [[Kufa]]. He was originally a carrier (of goods with oxen), enters the historical record with his conversion to the [[Isma'ili]] doctrine by the missionary (''[[da'i]]'') al-Husayn al-Ahwazi. According to the sources this took place in or around [[Anno Hegirae|AH]] 261 (874/875 [[Common Era|CE]]) or AH 264 (877/878 CE), but possibly Hamdan was active earlier, as the [[Twelver Shi'a]] scholar [[al-Fadl ibn Shadhan]], who died in 873/874, had written a refutation of Qarmatian doctrines.
His surname "Qarmat" is considered as being probably of [[Aramaic]] origin. Various forms and meanings are recorded in the sources: according to [[al-Tabari]], his name was ''Karmītah'', "red-eyed"; [[Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Musa al-Nawbakhti|al-Nawbakhti]] and [[Nizam al-Mulk]] provide the diminutive ''Qarmāṭūya''; others suggest that his name meant "short-legged".
===Missionary activity===
The ''da'i'' al-Husayn al-Ahwazi had been sent by the Ismai'li leadership at [[Salamiyah]], and when he died (or left the area), Hamdan assumed the leadership of Isma'ili missionary activity in the ''[[sawad|sawād]]'' of Kufa. He appointed ''da'i''s of his own, including his brother-in-law Abu Ahmad Abdan, rapidly won many new converts among the peasantry and the [[Bedouin]]. His success was aided by the chaos of the [[Zanj Revolt]] then engulfing [[Iraq]] and the weakness of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], as well as by dissatisfaction among Twelver adherents with the [[Political quietism in Islam|political quietism]] of their leadership, as well as by the vacuum left by the death of the eleventh imam [[Hasan al-Askari]] and the "occultation" of the twelfth imam, [[Muhammad al-Mahdi]], in 874. In this climate, the [[millenialism]] of the Isma'ilis, who preached the imminent return of the Messiah or ''[[mahdi]]'', was very attractive to dissatisfied Twelvers.
Hamdan's followers were named the ''Qarāmiṭa'' (singular ''Qarmaṭī''), "men of Qarmat", after him. His brother-in-law Abu Ahmad quickly became prominent enough among them to start appointing his own ''da'i''s, including in [[al-Bahrayn]] and southern [[Persia]]; including perhaps such figures as [[Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi]] and [[Zikrawayh ibn Mihrawayh]]. Hamdan's agents collected taxes from the converts, including a one-fifth tax on all income, to be reserved for the ''mahdi''. Although Hamdan corresponded with the Salamiyah 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 al-Zanji|Ali ibn Muhammad]], who rebuffed the offer. In 890/891, a fortified refuge (''dār al-hijra'') was established by Hamdan for his supporters near Kufa.
For several years in the aftermath of the suppression Zanj Revolt in 883, Abbasid authority was not firmly re-established in the ''sawād''. Only in 891/892 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 to Ismai'li populations that were not proselytized by Hamdan.
===Doctrine===
No direct information on the doctrine preached by Hamdan and Abu Ahmad is known, but modern scholars like [[Farhad 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 and [[Ibn Babawayh]]. In essence they heralded the imminent return of the seventh imam, [[Muhammad ibn Isma'il]] as the ''mahdi'', and thus the start of a new era; the ''mahdi'' would proclaim a new law, superseding Islam, and reveal the "hidden" or "inner" (''[[Batin (Islam)|bāṭin]]'') truths of the religion to his followers. Until then, [[Esoteric interpretation of the Quran|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 to [[lascivious behaviour]] among them, but this is not trustworthy given their hostile stance towards Qarmatians.
===Split with Salamiya and aftermath===
In 899, following the death of the previous leader of the sect at Salamiya, [[Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah|Abdallah]], the future founder of the [[Fatimid Caliphate]], became the leader. Soon, he began making alterations to the doctrine, which worried Hamdan. Abu Ahmad went to Salamiya to investigate the matter, and learned that Abdallah claimed that the expected ''mahdi'' was not Muhammad ibn Isma'il, but Abdallah himself. This caused a major rift in the movement, as Hamdan denounced the leadership in Salamiya, gathered the Iraqi ''da'i''s and ordered them to cease the missionary effort. Shortly after he went to Kalwadha near Baghdad, where he "disappeared". [[Ibn Malik]] reports that he was killed in Baghdad, but this is considered unreliable.
Abu Ahmad was murdered in the same year at the instigation of Zikrawayh ibn Mihrawayh, apparently on the instructions of Salamiya. Hamdan's and Abu Ahmad's followers threatened to kill Zikrawayh, who himself was forced to hide. Through his sons, he sponsored the great Qarmatian uprising in 902–904, that was brought to an end in the [[Battle of Hama]]; fleeing from their approach, Abdallah abandoned Salamiya for the [[Maghreb]], where he would found the Fatimid state in [[Ifriqiya]]. Zikrawayh himself emerged into the open in 906, claiming to be the ''mahdi'', to lead the last Qarmatian attacks on the Abbasids in the [[Syrian Desert]] and Iraq, before being defeated and captured in the next year.
== References ==
== Sources ==
* |ref=harv}}
* |ref=harv}}
*
[[Category:9th-century Arabs]]
[[Category:9th century in the Abbasid Caliphate]]
[[Category:People from Kufa]]
[[Category:Qarmatians]]
December 01, 2018 at 12:43AM
