Abū Tāhir al-Jannābī

Abū Tāhir Sulaimān ibn al-Hasan al-Jannābī ( Arabic أبو طاهر سليمان بن الحسن الجنابي, DMG Abū Ṭāhir Sulaimān ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ǧannābī ; * 906 ; † 944 ) was the second leader of the Qarmats in al-Ahsā ' and Bahrain (923-944) after his father Abū Saʿīd al-Jannābī .

Raids on the pilgrim caravans (923-926)

Abū Tāhir appeared for the first time in the Rabiʿ ath-thani of the year 311 dH (= August 923 AD), when he moved with a qarmatic unit of 900 men from al-Ahsā ' to Iraq and during the night invaded the city of Basra . His troops stayed in the city for 17 days and then withdrew to their area with rich booty. The next major action took place on 19 Muharram 312 (= April 27, 924), when he attacked the pilgrim caravan returning from Mecca with 1,100 fighters near ath-Thaʿlabīya , killing several high-ranking personalities, the commander-in-chief of the caravan, Abū l-Haidschā 'ʿAbdallāh ibn Hamdān and stole the caliph's parasol with his people.

In 313 (= 926 AD) he blocked the path of the pilgrim caravan coming from Iraq with the same number of fighters, took several pilgrims prisoner and forced the others to return to Kufa and Baghdad . Abū Tāhir followed the returnees to Kufa, attacked the city on 18th Dhu l-qaʿda (= 4th February 926) and inflicted a heavy defeat on the officers who were posted there by the caliph to fight him. He killed several of them and captured others.

Attacks on Iraqi Cities (927-928)

Abū Tāhir achieved his greatest military victory on the 9th Shawwal 315 (= 7 December 927), when he defeated 2,000 men, most of them foot soldiers, near Kufa, a caliphate army of 30,000 men and their commander Ibn Abī Sādsch captured. Then he pulled up the Euphrates with his fighters with the aim of taking the city of al-Anbar . Some of his fighters managed to cross the Euphrates and penetrate the city, where they killed several officers on the 3rd Dhū l-Qaʿda (= December 30, 927). Abū Tāhir himself then spanned a bridge over the Euphrates, crossed the river and set course for Baghdad. However, he was unable to take the capital because Abbasid officers had demolished the bridge over a small canal that blocked the way to Baghdad . When on 12./13. Dhū l-Qaʿda (= January 8/9, 928) some of his foot soldiers tried to swim across the channel, but were deterred by fire from the enemy side. Abū Tāhir had to retreat to al-Anbār, but was able to successfully repel an attack by an Abbasid military unit, which was under the command of Yalbaq, following him on 19 Dhū l-Qaʿda (= January 15, 928).

On the 8th Dhū l-Hiddscha (= February 3, 928) he attacked the city of Hīt , but gave up the siege of the city a day later due to strong resistance. Then he conquered the city of ar-Rahba and settled there. On 22 Jumada l-ula 316 (= 13 July 928) a troop of Abū Tāhir appeared in front of the city of Raqqa , but had to withdraw a few days later after a loss-making battle with the city's Abbasid garrison. Abū Tāhir abandoned his original plans to raid the Syrian cities of Damascus and Ramla . At the. 1. Hebān 316 (= September 19, 928) withdrew from ar-Rahba. He went down the Euphrates by land and water, attacked the city of Hīt for the second time and went via Kufa, al-Qādisīya and Basra to Bahrain, where he arrived at the beginning of 317 (= February 929).

The Raid on Mecca (930)

The most spectacular action by Abū Tāhir was his raid on Mecca with 1,500 fighters during the pilgrimage season in January 930. His fighters massacred the pilgrims, killing around 30,000 people. They stayed in the Holy City for eight days, looting, murdering, and desecrating the Kaaba , the central sanctuary of Islam. So they tore the gilded door from the Kaaba, removed all valuables from inside the building, broke the black stone from the corner of the Kaaba and took off the kiswa that encased the exterior of the building. They withdrew from the Holy City on the 13th of Dhu l-Hiddscha (= January 17, 930). The booty of the Kaaba alone accounted for fifty camel loads.

Approaching the Abbasids

In the following years, Abū Tāhir was also able to conquer Oman . After the Iranian Abu l-Fadl appeared as the expected Mahdi among the Qarmatians in 931 but was soon murdered, a failed attack on the Persian Gulf coast led to an rapprochement with the Abbasids. As a result, the Qarmatians stopped raiding the pilgrim caravans in 937 and ensured the pilgrims' safety in exchange for protection money.

After his death

After the death of Abu Tahir (944), his three brothers Abu l-Qasim Said, Abu l-Abbas al-Fadl and Abu Yaqub Yusuf took over the government in al-Hasa and Bahrain. However, the Jannabi clan was largely weakened by internal disputes, so that around 950 the missionary (dai) Sanbar ibn al-Hasan was the most powerful man in the Qarmatian state. Under this, the black stone of the Kaaba was brought back to Mecca in 951.

Abu Tahir becomes the utterance critical of religion. In this world three individuals have deceived the people, a shepherd, a doctor and a camel driver. And this camel driver is believed to have been the worst of the three . Some therefore suspect him of being the original author of the treatise De tribus impostoribus (The Three Deceivers).

literature

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• Al-Masʿūdī : Kitāb at-Tanbīh wa-l-išrāf . French Translation by B. Carra de Vaux. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1896. pp. 484-492. Digitized

Secondary literature

• Heinz Halm: The Empire of the Mahdi. The rise of the Fatimids (875–973) . CH Beck, Munich, 1991. pp. 225-236.
• M. Canard: Art. " Al- Dj annābī, Abū Ṭāhir" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. II, pp. 452b-454b.

supporting documents

1. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , pp. 484f.
2. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , p. 486.
3. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , pp. 486f.
4. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , p. 488.
5. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , pp. 488f.
6. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , p. 490.
7. ↑ Cf. Al-Masʿūdī: Kitāb at-Tanbīh , p. 491.