The Qarmatians ; from concept to state
تاريخ النشر: 01/01/2019
الناشر: مركز الشيخ إبراهيم بن محمد آل خليفة للثقافة والبحوث
نبذة الناشر:In The Qarmatians From Concept to State, author Mal Mohammed Al Khalifa provides a fresh and engaging reinvestigation of the most pivotal history of Islam and the Middle East in 7th – 10th century Arabic, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.
Up until recently, Bahrainis referred to their modhab (religious school) and ...self-identified as “Abū Sa īdis” in reference to Abū Sa īd al- Jannabi (d. 913 CE), the founder of the independent Qarmatian state in Bahrain, which persisted for a century- and – a- half (ca, 899- 1078 CE) on the principle of ol- wfah- “brotherly love” and camaraderie – and provided the world with a unique political and socio- economic model of Islam.
The Qarmatians are most frequently remembered for their bands of fast-roving horsemen committed to a Spartan, desert code and Abū Tàhir al- Jannàbi’s (d.944 CE) infamous seizure of the hajar al-aswad (‘black stone’) from the ka’bah in Mecca, which was sequestered away for 22 years in their capital of al-Aksà.
Yet, the Qarmatians merit serious, dispassionate academic consideration for the fact that the viable states and forms of equitable human society evolved under Hmdan Qarmat, in al-Kufah and Abū Sa īd al jannabi in Bahrain remain unique in the annals of human history. Their mode of living presaged many vital concerns of our era including: socialization of wealth and means of production, gender – equality; group- / collective decision making (under the Islamic democratic principle of shūra); and abolition of private property, in a system of social status and merit conferred according to moral rectitude and service of community.
In meticulously detailed research, author Mai Mohammed Al Kalifa presents a vivid history of the rise of forms of state in Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain that lays open to question many common assumptions about “Islam” and Islamic historiography.
A uniquely Bahraini perspective, relying in part on previously unpublished manuscripts, raises the provocative possibility that the political- and socio-economic model of the Qaramtians might have actually been closer than anything under the Umayyads or “Abbāsids to the original Islam and initial dār al-hijrah (‘house of emigration”) of the first independent community of Muslims established by the Prophet Muhammad in Medina (Yathrib) between 622-632 CE.
At conceptual and philosophical levels, early Isma'ilis- Qarmatians doctrine and the derivative projects of state are, arguably, the best expressions ‘on the ground” of the principles of the Risàil of the ikhawān al-safà (The Treatises of the ‘Brethren of Purity’), which summarized of the known global, scientific, mathematical, philosophical and religions knowledge of the ancient world as synthesized, codified and developed under the aegis and massive ninth-century knowledge collection, translation and dissemination initiative of Baghdad’s Bayt al-Hikmah (‘House of Wisdom’).
Athe spiritual level of credo and world view, there are tantalizing suggestions that the Qarmatians may have drawn inspiration from the greatest Sufi of all time, al- Husayn bin Mansūr al- Hallaj) (d.922 CE).
In the integration of science, philosophy and religion with parameters for equitable and egalitarian human coexistence the Qarmatians merit renewed attention as the society they evolved may have indeed reflected the legal intents (maqasid al- shariah) of Islamic law in a highly progressive form that remains unprecedented up until today.
This book makes meaningful contribution to the field due to the depth of anylayis and reliance on previously overlooked Bahraini source.
The author’s dispassionate and unbiased approach cracks the façade of dubious historiographical suppositions and accretions and sheds new light in a highly politicized domain where politics and dynastic intrigue have frequently been confounded with Islam. Her reader is poised to revisit, witness and ponder a new reading of the history of the Qarmatians and the formative period of Islam itself with an open mind. إقرأ المزيد