Kiya Buzurg-Umid

Kiya Buzurg-Umid ( Persian کیا بزرگ امید; † February 9, 1138 ) was the second head of the Shia of the Nizari-Ismailites of Alamut .

Buzurg-Umid was a missionary ( dāʿī ) working in Persia of the Shiite community of Ismailis, which was spread over the entire Middle Eastern region, and consequently recognized the Fatimid caliph of Egypt al-Mustansir as his imam . As Dailamit he was himself of Persian descent. He was also a trusted follower of the dāʿīs Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ, who was influential in the Persian community . With the death of the caliph in 1094 and the outbreak of the Ismaili schism through the succession of caliph al-Mustali in 1094, Buzurg-Umid, like Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ, became known to the eldest son of the caliph Nizar († 1095) as a legal imam and is thus one became the founder of the Shia of the Nizari-Ismailis, which still exists today, whose leadership was first held by Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ, while their imams were kept in secret ( ġaiba ) . The Nizarites made up almost the entire Ismaili community of Persia and Syria and from then on stood in opposition to the Fatimid caliphs who continued to rule in Egypt and North Africa, which, as Shiites, did not recognize the Sunni caliphate of the Abbasids of Baghdad .

The ruins of the fortress Lamasar

In 1096 or 1102 Buzurg-Umid conquered the great Lammasar castle from the Seljuks and became their commander for more than twenty years. He built it into one of the strongest fortresses of the Nizarites, which, along with Alamut, became one of their most important bases of power in Persia. In 1124 he was finally appointed as his successor in the leadership of the Nizarites by the dying Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ, who had his own sons executed for insubordination. His succession was not questioned in the community. He energetically continued the strict moral regime practiced by his predecessor in the sense of Sharia law , as well as the expansion of the community. During this time, missionaries spread the doctrines of the Nizarites as far as the Caucasus region around Azerbaijan and Georgia . He was repeatedly able to repel attacks by the hated Seljuks of Turkish origin, and the method of political murder of opponents introduced by Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ was continued.

On October 5, 1130, the Fatimid caliph al-Amir was murdered by supporters of the Nizarites near Cairo . As the Imam of the Mustali Ismailis , he was an enemy of the Nizarites by nature. In addition, in 1123 he had publicly denied the legitimation of her imamate and on this occasion denounced her for the first time as a “hashish smoker” (ḥashīshiyya) . With his murder, the Nizarites were once again able to repay the violent end of their 19th imam, but they were unable to derive any political benefit from it. The end of the Shiite Fatimid caliphate was heralded, whereupon Egypt could be returned to the area of ​​application of the Sunna by Saladin in 1171 . The murder of the Sunni Abbasid caliph al-Mustarschid also followed in 1135 . In 1132 the Nizarites defeated an army of the Zaidites in Gilan in a field battle and took their imams prisoner. He then renounced his claim to the Imamate and converted to the Ismailites, which helped the Nizarites to a significant increase in prestige and power. At the end of Buzurg-Umid's rule, the community controlled its own contiguous territory, which comprised the mountains of the western Elbors Mountains in northern Qazvin and around Rudbar . They also controlled some isolated castles in the Damghan region and in the Zāgros Mountains of Lorestan .

In Syria, however, the Nizarites suffered several setbacks. In 1124 their community was expelled from Aleppo . Attempts to establish a power base by taking possession of castles like banyas have met with little success. In 1128 even the dāʿī of Syria was killed in battle while trying to conquer Wadi al-Taym (in Lebanon ). In 1129 more than 6000, some chroniclers report 20,000, members of the Damascus community were massacred and their teaching facilities destroyed. In response to this, the Nizarites ceded banyas to the Franks of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and, following the Persian model , relocated their activities to the mountainous region of the Jebel Ansariye . It was only with the capture of Qadmus in 1133 that they were able to gain their first strong position here, from where they could expand into the surrounding area and establish their own domain.

Buzurg-Umid died in the month of Jumada I 532 AH (January 1138) and was buried next to Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ. Three days before his death he had designated his son Muhammad as his successor.

literature

• Vladimir Ivanow, Alamut and Lamasar, Two mediaeval ismaili strongholds in Iran: an archaeological study. Tehran, 1960.
• Farhad Daftary , The Ismāʿīlīs: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge University Press 1990.
• Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismaʿilis. London 1994.
• Farhad Daftary, Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and Studies. London 2004.

source

• Ata al-Mulk Dschuwaini , "History of the World Conqueror" ( Ta'rīkh-i Jahāngushāy ) : ed. as a translation into English by John Andrew Boyle, Genghis Khan, the history of the world conqueror (1958), pp. 679, 682-685.

predecessor	Office	successor
Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ	Ruler of Alamut 1124–1138	Muhammad ibn Buzurg-Umid