I was recently reading a fascinating article about a sect that splintered off from the Ismailis in the late 800s, called the Qarmations. They ruled what is now Eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
They concluded that Hajj was a superstition and that Hajjis were gross sinners. IN the year 906 they ambushed the returning Hajjis after Eid-ul-Fitr, and killed 20,000 Hajjis.
In 930 they attacked Mecca and Madina. Once again, they killed all the Hajjis they found, and desecrated the well of Zamzam by stuffing it full of the bodies of dead Hajjis.
One their way out of Mecca, they stole the Black Stone from the Kaaba and took it back to Bahrain, where they kept it for 22 years until ransoming it for a huge sum of money.
The sect eventually went into decline when their Imam declared that he had found the Mahdi, a young Persian man, and handed over all power to this “Mahdi”. The “Mahdi” then began ordering the sect to curse all the Prophets and Shia imams, forbade Islamic worship, then the sect’s leaders, and declared a new religion about worshiping Hazrat Adam. 80 days later, the sect’s Imam had to kill the man he himself had proclaimed to be the Mahdi to stop the madness!
The sect never recovered from this, and their power slowly wound down and the Abbasids took over their territory.
Re: The Qarmations: Killing Hajjis and stealing the Black Stone from the Kaaba
Are the Qaramatis same as Ismailis?
No they split off from them and had different beliefs. One of the reasons why they disappeared as they lost political power is that the Fatimid Ismalies sent missionaries to Eastern Arabia to convert the Qarmations and return them to Ismaili beliefs.
Re: The Qarmations: Killing Hajjis and stealing the Black Stone from the Kaaba
No they split off from them and had different beliefs. One of the reasons why they disappeared as they lost political power is that the Fatimid Ismalies sent missionaries to Eastern Arabia to convert the Qarmations and return them to Ismaili beliefs.
so there is no legacy of qaramitions today? all converted to Ismailis?
Re: The Qarmations: Killing Hajjis and stealing the Black Stone from the Kaaba
so there is no legacy of qaramitions today? all converted to Ismailis?
Yup, all gone. I think they converted to Ismaili first and then later to sunni and mainstream shia, given that the area has very few Ismailis today (Most Saudi Ismailies live near Yemen, I think)
Re: The Qarmations: Killing Hajjis and stealing the Black Stone from the Kaaba
Yup, all gone. I think they converted to Ismaili first and then later to sunni and mainstream shia, given that the area has very few Ismailis today (Most Saudi Ismailies live near Yemen, I think)
Were Fatmids Bohri? Bohris still follow Egyptian calendar?
Re: The Qarmations: Killing Hajjis and stealing the Black Stone from the Kaaba
Were Fatmids Bohri? Bohris still follow Egyptian calendar?
This one is complex. Both Bohris and Agha Khani beliefs are descended from the form of Ismailism that the Fatimids followed. Like the Sunni/Shia split, Bohris and Aga Khanis separated for political reasons, and religious differences followed.
When the Fatimid Caliph died in 1094, his Grand Vizier, a Sunni, declared that the Caliph's younger son was the new Caliph, not the older son, in defiance of Ismaili tradition.
Bohri beliefs stem from those who accepted the younger son as Caliph. Agha Khani beliefs stem from those who tried to fight for the right of the elder son, were defeated, and left Egypt into exile.
Re: The Qarmations: Killing Hajjis and stealing the Black Stone from the Kaaba
This one is complex. Both Bohris and Agha Khani beliefs are descended from the form of Ismailism that the Fatimids followed. Like the Sunni/Shia split, Bohris and Aga Khanis separated for political reasons, and religious differences followed.
When the Fatimid Caliph died in 1094, his Grand Vizier, a Sunni, declared that the Caliph's younger son was the new Caliph, not the older son, in defiance of Ismaili tradition.
Bohri beliefs stem from those who accepted the younger son as Caliph. Agha Khani beliefs stem from those who tried to fight for the right of the elder son, were defeated, and left Egypt into exile.
which areas Agha Khani migrated at that time and are the Agha Khanis in Sindh are those who migrated at that time or they later came from Iran, etc? I read somewhere that Fatmid rule was extended to Sindh.
I was recently reading a book on Bhanbhor, which tells that Bhanbhor (old city of Sindh near karachi, which has been considered as Deebal by some historians) was destroyed by Jalaludin Khwarsam Shah. Was he an Agha Khani / Ismaili?
Re: The Qarmations: Killing Hajjis and stealing the Black Stone from the Kaaba
which areas Agha Khani migrated at that time and are the Agha Khanis in Sindh are those who migrated at that time or they later came from Iran, etc? I read somewhere that Fatmid rule was extended to Sindh.
I was recently reading a book on Bhanbhor, which tells that Bhanbhor (old city of Sindh near karachi, which has been considered as Deebal by some historians) was destroyed by Jalaludin Khwarsam Shah. Was he an Agha Khani / Ismaili?
Ismaili power was mostly broken by the time of the Bohri/Agha Khani split. The Sunni army of the Fatimid Caliphate was running the Caliphate with just an Ismaili figurehead.
When the Nizaris (who became the Agha Khanis, because that Caliph's elder son was called Al-Nizar) left Egypt, they settled in Alamut in Lebanon and became the Hashashiyya, the Assasins, striking out at everyone they felt was unjust (Crusaders, Sunnis, and the group that became the Bohris, named the Mustalis, after the younger son, Al-Mustali).
When the Mongols crushed the Hashashhiyya, they were forced to scatter again, eventually settling in Persia. When their missionaries started finding converts in India, they relocated their Imam to India in the 1800s, where he got the title Agha Khan.
The Bohris ended up in India after a power struggle. Fatimid missionaries had already found converts in India; after one of the Fatimid Caliph's / Imams died, his cousin seized power in Cairo but most religious Ismailies left in Egypt believed that his infant son was the rightful Imam. The boy went into exile and then into hiding (where they believe he still lives on as the hidden Imam). Eventually, an Indian Ismaili was chosen to be the movement's first non-Arab leader, beginning the transition of the mostly Arab Mustalis into today's Indian Dawoodi Bohris.
Re: The Qarmations: Killing Hajjis and stealing the Black Stone from the Kaaba
When the Nizaris (who became the Agha Khanis, because that Caliph's elder son was called Al-Nizar) left Egypt, they settled in Alamut in Lebanon and became the Hashashiyya, the Assasins, striking out at everyone they felt was unjust (Crusaders, Sunnis, and the group that became the Bohris, named the Mustalis, after the younger son, Al-Mustali).
Ok so this is the story behind movement of Hassan Bin Sabah of Alamut ( includinf fake paradise) and his hostility towards Sunni scholars.