Abu Shalaghlagh

Abu sh-Schalaghlagh ( Arabic أبو الشلغلغ, DMG Abū š-Šalaġlaġ ; † approx. 899), actually Abu Ali Muhammad (أبو علي محمد, Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ) was the third leader (grand master) of the Ismailis in Salamya .

Life

Abu sh-Schalaghlagh was a grandson of Abdallah al-Akbar , the founder of the Ismaili movement from which the Fatimids were to emerge. He inherited the leadership of the sect from his father Ahmad and, like his predecessors, lived disguised as a merchant in Salamya, Syria. From here he directed the secret Ismailite cells that were set up by his missionaries ( dāʿīs ) all over the Islamic world and waited for the appearance of the hidden Mahdi Muhammad ibn Ismail, whose deputy was Abu sh-Shalaghlagh (the official title of Grand Master) Hudja - "proof"). Under his leadership, the mission ( dawa ) achieved great success, concentrating mainly on the outskirts of the caliphate , where the power of the hated Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad was not so strong. Under the missionary Hamdan Qarmat , followers up into the highest circles of the Baghdad administration could also be won in Iraq , while Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Shīʿī ( Maghreb ), al-Jannabi ( al-Hasa ) as well as Ibn Hauschub and al-Fadl ( Yemen ) established rulers in their mission areas.

The successes were made possible by the tight organization of the supporters. They can also be explained by the fact that the teaching of the Shiites was in crisis at the end of the 9th century, since in 874 the 11th Imam died without a successor. The doctrine of the hidden 12th Imam (see Imamites ) should only slowly gain acceptance, so that the Ismaili missionaries were able to propagate a new leader of the Shia in the form of Aliden Muhammad ibn Ismail, who will soon appear as the Messiah .

As his successor, Abu Shalaghagh designated his nephew Said ibn al-Husain, the later Fatimid caliph Abdallah al-Mahdi , whom he married off to his daughter.

literature

• Heinz Halm : The Empire of the Mahdi . CH Beck Munich, 1991 ISBN 3-406-35497-1