The Revolts of the 'Iraqi Qarmatians

Abstract

The Qarmatian movement was probably first organized by Muhammad b. Isma'il or his sons in the middle of the ninth century in order to seize the caliphate from the 'Abbasids, after the "historical compromise" through which al-Ma'mun dared to attempt to conciliate the 'Alids, ended in failure. Ibn Rizam's story that 'Abdullah b. Maymun initiated the movement and his sons continued to hold the leadership is certainly forged. This movement seems to have soon been divided into many independent regional factions each of which had their own candidates for the imamate. The 'Iraqi faction began to propagate their cause in the villages of Sawad al-Kufa at the end of the ninth century. Their first recognizable leader was Zakrawayh, while the alleged founders, Hamdan Qarmat and 'Abdan, cannot be testified to be real persons in the sources. They did not propagate the tenets which contradicted Islam, though it is possible that they organized their followers into the community of wealth. But they failed to attract peasants as many as to challenge the 'Abbasid army and consequently were easily crushed. Then they turned to the Arab nomads living in the steppe near the Euphrates. Only the tribes that carried the merchandise through the Syrian desert, the 'Ulays and the Asbagh, both sub-tribes of Kalb, responded to their appeal and recognized the leadership of Sahib al-naqa and Sahib al-shama successively. Maybe both Sahib al-naqa and Sahib al-shama were really Muhammad b. Isma'il's grandsons. At least the 'Ulays and the Asbagh sincerely believed so. The Qarmatians, mainly composed of the 'Ulays and the Asbagh tribesmen, attacked the cities in Syria and on the Euphrates under the command of their tribal leaders. To their dissapointment, the urban poor did not join their army but cooperated with the government army everywhere and fought them vehemently. Even most of the 'Alids including Muhammad b. Isma'il's descendants opposed the Qarmatians. Then they constituted the Twelve-Imam Party, the opposition party within the 'Abbasid Establishment, and deffered the political activity to the unknown future by setting up the hidden imam. The urban poor and the peasants did not support the Qarmatians, partly because the anti-Qarmatian propaganda of the Establishment including the moderate Shi'ites that they were an anti-Islamic movement having nothing to do with 'Alids permeated the people, but chiefly because the allegiance of the people to the 'Abbasid caliphs was beyond the Qarmatian shaking off.