Abu Tahir Al-Jannabi

Abu Tahir Sulayman Al-Jannabi (906-944) was the ruler of the Qarmatian state in Bahrain and Eastern Arabia, who in 930 led the sacking of Mecca.

The son of ‘Abu Sa’id al-Jannabi, the founder of the Qarmatian state, Abu Tahir became leader of the state in 923 [Farhad Daftary, The Ismāı̄lı̄s: Their History and Doctrines, Cambridge University Press 1990, p160] . He immediately began an expansionist phase raiding Basra that year, followed by Kufa in 927, defeating an Abbasid army in the process, and then threatening Baghdad in 928 before pillaging much of Iraq when he could not gain entry to the city [Heinz Halm, The Empire of the Mahdi: The Rise of the Fatimids Brill 1996 p255] .

In 930, he led the Qarmatians’ most notorious attack when he pillaged Mecca and desecrated Islam’s most sacred sites. Unable to gain entry to the city initially, Abu Tahir called upon the right of all Muslims to enter the city and gave his oath that he came in peace. Once inside the city walls the Qarmatian army set about massacring the pilgrims, taunting them with verses of the Koran as they did so [Heinz Halm, 1996, Ibid, p255-6] . The bodies of the pilgrims were left to rot in the streets or thrown down the Well of Zamzam. The Kaaba was looted, with Abu Tahir taking personal possession of the Black Stone and bringing it back to Al-Hasa.

The attack on Mecca symbolized the Qarmatians’ break with the Islamic world – it was believed to have been aimed to prompt the appearance of the Mahdi who would bring about the final cycle of the world and end the era of Islam [Farhad Daftary, 1990, p162] .

Abu Tahir thought that he had identified the Mahdi as a young Persian prisoner by the name of Abu'1-Fadl al- Isfahani, from Isfahan who claimed to be the descendant of the Persian kings [Imagining the End: Visions of Apocalypse By Abbas Amanat, Magnus Thorkell - Page 123] [Women and the Fatimids in the World of Islam - Page 26by Delia Cortese, Simonetta Calderini ] [Early Philosophical Shiism: The Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abū Yaʻqūb Al-Sijistānī - Page 161 by Paul Ernest Walke] [The Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresyby Yuri Stoyanov] [Classical Islam: A History, 600-1258 - Page 113by Gustave Edmund Von Grunebaum] [The Other God: Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresyby Yuri Stoyanov] , brought back to Bahrain from the Qarmatians' raid into Iraq in 928 [Heinz Halm, 1996, Ibid, p257] . In 931, Abu Tahir turned over the state to the Mahdi-Caliph who instituted the worship of fire and the burning of religious books during an eighty day rule, which culminated in the Mahdi ordering the execution of members of Bahrain’s notable families including those of Abu Tahir’s family [Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma’ilis, IB Tauris, 1994, p21] . Fearing for his own life, Abu Tahir announced that he had been wrong and denounced the Madhi as ‘false’. Begging forgiveness from the other notables, Abu Tahir had the Mahdi executed [Farhad Daftary, 1990, p162] .

Abu Tahir resumed the reigns of the Qarmatian state and again began attacks on pilgrims crossing Arabia. Attempts by the Abbasids and Fatamids to persuade him to return the Black Stone were rejected.

He rejected and ridiculed belief in Mohammed and Islam in saying: "In this world, three individuals have corrupted mankind: a shepherd, a physician and a camel-driver. And this camel-driver was the worst pickpocket, the worst prestidigitator of the three." These ideas were transmitted to Emperor Frederick II by Averroes. All three are supected to have written The Treatise of the Three Impostors.

He died of smallpox in 944 and was succeeded by his three surviving brothers [Heinz Halm, 1996, Ibid, p383] .

References

ee also

* History of Bahrain