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Hamdan Qarmat
Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath (Arabic: حمدان قرمط بن الأشعث, romanized: Ḥamdān Qarmaṭ ibn al-Ashʿath; fl. c. 874–899 CE) was the eponymous founder of the Qarmatian sect of Isma'ilism. Originally the chief Isma'ili missionary (dā'ī) in lower Iraq, in 899 he quarreled with the movement's leadership at Salamiya after it was taken over by Sa'id ibn al-Husayn (the future first Fatimid Caliph), and with his followers broke off from them. Hamdan then disappeared, but his followers continued in existence in the Syrian Desert and al-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 of Kufa. He was originally an ox-driver, employed in carrying goods. He enters the historical record with his conversion to the Isma'ili doctrine by the missionary (dā'ī) al-Husayn al-Ahwazi. According to the medieval sources about his life, this took place in or around AH 261 (874/75 CE) or AH 264 (877/78 CE).
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"; al-Nawbakhti and Nizam al-Mulk provide the diminutive Qarmāṭūya; others suggest that his name meant "short-legged". It is traditionally considered that Hamdan's followers were named the Qarāmiṭa (singular Qarmaṭī), "men of Qarmat", after him. However, the Twelver Shi'a scholar al-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.
The dā'ī al-Husayn al-Ahwazi had been sent by the Ismai'li leadership at Salamiya, 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 of Baghdad, and rapidly won many new converts among the peasantry and the Bedouin. His success was aided by the turmoil of the time. The Abbasid Caliphate was enfeebled, and Iraq was in chaos due to the Zanj Revolt. At the same time, the mainstream Twelver Shi'a adherent were becoming increasingly dissatisfied due to the political quietism of their leadership, as well as by the vacuum left by the death of the eleventh imam Hasan al-Askari and the supposed "occultation" of the twelfth imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, in 874. In this climate, the millennialism of the Isma'ilis, who preached the imminent return of the messiah or mahdī, was very attractive to dissatisfied Twelvers.
His most prominent disciple and aide was his brother-in-law Abu Muhammad Abdan, who "enjoyed a high degree of independence" (Daftary) and appointed his own dā'īs in Iraq, Bahrayn and southern Persia. Among the men trained and sent to missions as dā'īs by Hamdan and Abu Muhammad were Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi (Persia and Bahrayn), Ibn Hawshab and Ali ibn al-Fadl al-Jayshani (to the Yemen), as well as Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i, who later helped convert the Kutama in Ifriqiya and opened the way to the establishment of the Fatimid Caliphate. According to the 11th-century Sunni heresiologist Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi, al-Ma'mun, a dā'ī active in southern Persia, was a brother of Hamdan.
Hamdan's agents collected taxes from the converts, including a one-fifth tax on all income (the khums), to be reserved for the mahdī. 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. In 890/91, a fortified refuge (dār al-hijra) was established by Hamdan for his supporters near Kufa.
For several years following the suppression of the Zanj Revolt in 883, Abbasid authority was not firmly re-established in the sawād. 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.
No direct information on the doctrine preached by Hamdan and Abu Muhammad 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 mahdī, and thus the start of a new era of justice; the mahdī 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 to lascivious behaviour among them, but this is not trustworthy given their hostile stance towards Qarmatians.
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Hamdan Qarmat
Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath (Arabic: حمدان قرمط بن الأشعث, romanized: Ḥamdān Qarmaṭ ibn al-Ashʿath; fl. c. 874–899 CE) was the eponymous founder of the Qarmatian sect of Isma'ilism. Originally the chief Isma'ili missionary (dā'ī) in lower Iraq, in 899 he quarreled with the movement's leadership at Salamiya after it was taken over by Sa'id ibn al-Husayn (the future first Fatimid Caliph), and with his followers broke off from them. Hamdan then disappeared, but his followers continued in existence in the Syrian Desert and al-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 of Kufa. He was originally an ox-driver, employed in carrying goods. He enters the historical record with his conversion to the Isma'ili doctrine by the missionary (dā'ī) al-Husayn al-Ahwazi. According to the medieval sources about his life, this took place in or around AH 261 (874/75 CE) or AH 264 (877/78 CE).
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"; al-Nawbakhti and Nizam al-Mulk provide the diminutive Qarmāṭūya; others suggest that his name meant "short-legged". It is traditionally considered that Hamdan's followers were named the Qarāmiṭa (singular Qarmaṭī), "men of Qarmat", after him. However, the Twelver Shi'a scholar al-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.
The dā'ī al-Husayn al-Ahwazi had been sent by the Ismai'li leadership at Salamiya, 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 of Baghdad, and rapidly won many new converts among the peasantry and the Bedouin. His success was aided by the turmoil of the time. The Abbasid Caliphate was enfeebled, and Iraq was in chaos due to the Zanj Revolt. At the same time, the mainstream Twelver Shi'a adherent were becoming increasingly dissatisfied due to the political quietism of their leadership, as well as by the vacuum left by the death of the eleventh imam Hasan al-Askari and the supposed "occultation" of the twelfth imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, in 874. In this climate, the millennialism of the Isma'ilis, who preached the imminent return of the messiah or mahdī, was very attractive to dissatisfied Twelvers.
His most prominent disciple and aide was his brother-in-law Abu Muhammad Abdan, who "enjoyed a high degree of independence" (Daftary) and appointed his own dā'īs in Iraq, Bahrayn and southern Persia. Among the men trained and sent to missions as dā'īs by Hamdan and Abu Muhammad were Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi (Persia and Bahrayn), Ibn Hawshab and Ali ibn al-Fadl al-Jayshani (to the Yemen), as well as Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i, who later helped convert the Kutama in Ifriqiya and opened the way to the establishment of the Fatimid Caliphate. According to the 11th-century Sunni heresiologist Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi, al-Ma'mun, a dā'ī active in southern Persia, was a brother of Hamdan.
Hamdan's agents collected taxes from the converts, including a one-fifth tax on all income (the khums), to be reserved for the mahdī. 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. In 890/91, a fortified refuge (dār al-hijra) was established by Hamdan for his supporters near Kufa.
For several years following the suppression of the Zanj Revolt in 883, Abbasid authority was not firmly re-established in the sawād. 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.
No direct information on the doctrine preached by Hamdan and Abu Muhammad 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 mahdī, and thus the start of a new era of justice; the mahdī 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 to lascivious behaviour among them, but this is not trustworthy given their hostile stance towards Qarmatians.