Book The Qarmatians From Concept To State

Book Description

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‎ A uniquely Bahraini perspective, relying in part on previously unpublished ‎manuscripts, raises the provocative possibility that the political- and socio-‎economic model of the Qaramtians might have actually been closer than anything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. ‎

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