A Short History of the Fatimid KhalifateO'Leary, De Lacy
History
A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate
O'Leary, De Lacy
Egypt -- History -- 640-1250; Egypt -- Kings and rulers; Fatimites -- History
This check caused the Arabs to keep quiet for some time. Then they
received a letter from Zaqruya saying that he had heard of the death of
Hasan and Isa by revelation, and that after their death the Imam was
going to be revealed and would triumph with his followers. Kasam was now
getting anxious, and thought it well to visit his grandfather Zaqruya in
the Sawad; but Zaqruya disapproved the course of events and rebuked him
severely, sending another disciple, an ex-schoolmaster named Muhammad b.
Abdullah, to replace him. At first this new commander met with success,
then came reverse and he was killed. At this news Zaqruya sent back
Kasam to collect the remnants of the party which he did and brought them
to ad-Derna, a village in the Sawad. Here they were joined by Zaqruya,
who was hailed by the Arabs as their _wali_, and all the Qarmatians in
the Sawad came out to join them. The rising in the Sawad was a mere
_jacquerie_ of Nabataean peasants, and the Qarmatian movement proper
never rose much above this level. At the head of his men Zaqruya attacked
the caravan of pilgrims on their way to Mecca in 294, plundered it, and
slew twenty thousand pilgrims. The Khalif then sent out forces to put
down these troublesome brigands, the Qarmatians were severely punished,
Zaqruya was taken prisoner and sent in chains to the Khalif, but died of
his wounds on the way (Abu l-Feda: _Ann. Mosl._, ii. 299).
In 295 a man named Abu Khatam founded a new sect of Qarmatians in the
Sawad, and these were known as the _Buraniyya_ after Burani, who was the
most active _daʿi_ in organising them. Abu Khatam forbade his followers
to use garlic, leeks, or radishes, and prohibited the shedding of any
animal’s blood; he made them abandon all the religious observances of
Islam, and instituted rites of an entirely new character. We shall
find these prohibitions of particular vegetables in the ordinances
of the Fatimid Khalif Hakim later on, but there justified by certain
Shiʿite theories. At the end of the year Abu Khatam drops out of sight
entirely. The movement is of interest only in showing the tendency of the
Ismaʿilians to form new schisms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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