Ibn Hauschab

Ibn Hauschab († 914 ) was an important Ismaili missionary in Yemen .

Abu l-Qasim al-Hasan ibn Faraj ibn Hauschab ibn Zādhān  /أبو القاسم الحسن بن فرج بن حوشب بن زاذان / Abū ʾl-Qāsim al-Ḥasan b. Faraǧ b. Ḥaušab b. Zāḏān came from Sawad near Kufa in Iraq . He worked as a linen weaver or carpenter and joined the teachings of the Ismailis under the leadership of the Fatimids . In 881 he went with Ali ibn al-Fadl to the mission to Yemen, where he was able to gain a larger following among the hill tribes north of Sanaa . Ibn Hauschab also sent missionaries ( dāʿī ) from Yemen to Sindh ( India ) and the Gulf region.

After Ali ibn al-Fadl had started an independent mission around Taizz , Ibn Hauschab began to establish a rule in 885 and was able to largely push back the ruling Yuʿfirids and in 905 even temporarily occupy their capital Shibam . Although he now ruled almost all of Yemen with al-Fald, the unity of the two missionaries broke around 911 when Ibn Hauschab recognized the Fatimid Abdallah al-Mahdi as the rightful leader of the Ismailis, which al-Fadl rejected. At times there were even fights between Ibn Hauschab and al-Fadl, but these were soon ended by a compromise. Ibn Hauschab died in Yemen in 914.

literature

• Heinz Halm: The Empire of the Mahdi . CH Beck Munich, 1991 ISBN 3406354971
• Heinz Halm: The Sīrat Ibn Ḥaušab: the Ismaili daʿwa in Yemen and the Fatimids. In: Die Welt des Orients (WO), Vol. 12 (1981), pp. 108-35.