Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Shīʿī

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Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Husain ibn Ahmad asch-Shīʿī ( Arabic أبو عبد الله الحسين بن أحمد الشيعي, DMG Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥusain ibn Aḥmad aš-Šīʿī ) († February 28, 911 ) was an important missionary of the Ismailis and founder of the Fatimid rule in North Africa.

He was born in Kufa, Iraq (according to other sources in Sana'a ) and worked in administration in Iraq before joining the Ismailis' teachings. First he missioned under Ibn Hauschab in Yemen and Mecca , but was invited by pilgrims to the Maghreb.

There he campaigned among the Kutāma bers ( Sanhadscha ) for the hidden Mahdi from 893 and formed a fighting alliance against the ruling Aghlabids from the tribes of the Kutāma . After the latter had fended off the first military actions of the Kutama in 902, Abu Abdallah and the Kutāma conquered all of Ifrīqiya in 909 and took their capital Raqqada (near Kairuan ) in March 909 . After he had installed his brother Abū l-ʿAbbās as deputy in Raqqada, he headed an army to Sidschilmasa to pick up the Fatimid Mahdi who was hiding there. Together with him he made a triumphant entry into Raqqada in January 910.

The previously hidden leader of the Ismaili Fatimids now assumed the title of caliph and led the government of the Fatimid Empire as Abdallah al-Mahdi (910-934). Since Abu Abdallah asch-Shi`i had hoped that al-Mahdi would be content with spiritual guidance and give him worldly rule, tensions soon arose. When he was playing a dubious role in a conspiracy between missionaries (du'at) and Kutama leaders, al-Mahdi had him murdered on February 28, 911.

literature

  • Heinz Halm : The Empire of the Mahdi . CH Beck, Munich, 1991. ISBN 3-406-35497-1 , pp. 44-49, 99-156.
  • Wilferd Madelung, Paul E. Walker: The advent of the Fatimids, a contemporary Shiʿi witness; an edition and English translation of Ibn al-Haytham's Kitāb al-Munāẓarāt . IB Tauris, London, 2000. pp. 1-10, 42-53.
  • Tilman Nagel: Early Ismailiya and Fatimids in the light of the Risālat iftitāḥ ad-daʿwa. A study of the history of religion. Bonn 1972.
  • SM Star: Art. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al- Sh īʿī. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Brill, Leiden, Vol. 1, pp. 103b-104b.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ See Halm: Das Reich des Mahdi . 1991, p. 122.
  2. ↑ See Halm: Das Reich des Mahdi . 1991, pp. 137f.
personal data
SURNAME Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Shīʿī
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Husain ibn Ahmad al-Shīʿī (full name); أبو عبد الله الحسين بن أحمد الشيعي (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ismaili missionary in the Maghreb
DATE OF BIRTH 9th century
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 911