Bahrain and Al-Ahsa in the hands of the Qarmatians!!

The Qarmatians took over Bahrain and Al-Ahsa and took Hajar as a base for their attacks on the Abbasid state and the convoys of pilgrims, during which they committed atrocities and slaughters that terrified the Muslims severely and prevented many from performing the rituals of Hajj in some years for fear of being subjected to sudden Qarmatian attacks.

Despite the apparent strength of the Qarmatians, which enabled them to defeat the forces of the Abbasid state in many of the confrontations that took place between both parties and allowed them to seize some Iraqi, Hijazi, Levantine and Egyptian states, yet the Qarmatians did not have a state in the strict sense of the word. They were a brutal military force that relied for continued existence on those sudden raids it launches on neighboring countries or attacks on convoys, especially pilgrims’ convoys, obtaining spoils and booties and taking them back to their bases in Bahrain and Al-Ahsa to survive therein for a while

Qarmatians in the Levant:

During the period (902-903 AD) the Qarmatians appeared in the Levant under the leadership of Zakarawayh ibn Mihrawayh and invaded the forces of the Abbasids and the Tulunids who confronted them. They wreaked havoc there, killed countless of its people, looted money and burned homes and furniture. Then the plan backfired when the Abbasid armies set out from Iraq to fight them under the leadership of Muhammad ibn Suleiman Al-Kateb and Al-Hussein ibn Hamdan. The Qarmatians were defeated. Many of them were killed and a large number were taken as prisoners. Whoever remained of them fled to their bases in eastern Arabia.

Abu Saeed al-Janabi remained at the head of the Qarmatians for about fifteen years, until his servant killed him in (913 AD), then his son, Abu Taher Suleiman ibn al-Hasan ibn Bahram al-Janabi took charge of them till year (944 AD). Abu Taher is considered the strongest, longest-reigning and most dangerous of the Qarmatian leaders to the Abbasid state, to Muslims in the region in general and to the pilgrims of the Sacred House of Allah in particular.

Captivity of Basra and the shedding of blood:

The Qarmatians committed brutal deeds to the Abbasid state. Whenever they entered any place, they destroyed and violated it. They adopted a plan of sudden raid and seizure of cities and villages, stirring terror and panic therein, which is the method of the terrorists today; similar to what ISIS does in our time. Every terrorist thought stems from the “Persian thought”.

In the year (923 AD) the Qarmatians attacked the city of Basra, plundered it and captivated its people. Abu Taher al-Janabi demanded the caliph to include Basra in his state, along with al-Ahwaz. The caliph refused and the Qarmatians raided Kufa in the following year, violated it for six days and carried whatever they could of its money and wealth to their state. People were terrified, so Caliph Al-Muqtadir marched to them in a large army, yet Abu Taher and his followers defeated and dispersed them, taking over Al-Rahba and Al-Raqqa in north Levant.

Year (927 AD) witnessed another round of fighting between the Qarmatians and the armies of the Abbasid state, in which Abu Taher and his men, who were about two thousand and seven hundred fighters, were victorious over the Abbasid commander Yusuf ibn Abi al-Saj and tens of thousands of soldiers in battles near Kufa and Anbar, until they approached the capital, Baghdad, where they killed many soldiers and took over thousands of them. Informed of the defeat of his armies, caliph Al-Muqtadir was amazed and said: “May Allah curse an army if more than eighty thousand soldiers who are incapable of defeating two thousand and seven hundred men”.

Qarmatians and the Black Stone:

Muslims cannot forget the reprehensible crimes of the Qarmatians in Makkah Al-Mukarramah. Even these holy lands were not spared from the corruption of their minds and the deviation of their thoughts. However, all this is understandable if we know that they stem from their hatred against Islam and Muslims and the place where the Arab Prophet was born and from where the message of Islam has been launched; Makkah Al-Mukarramah.

Their aggression against the Sacred House of Allah and the pilgrims thereto was in the year (929 AD) when they stormed Makkah Al-Mukarramah with seven hundred men. It was the seventh of Dhul-Hijjah when they killed the its people and the pilgrims who were preparing to standing at Arafat and performing the rituals. At that day, the Qarmatians killed about thirty thousand of them, stormed the Sacred Mosque and uprooted the Black Stone and the Kaaba’s door and curtains, which they kept for more than twenty years in the headquarter of their rule in Qatif. They filled up Zamzam well with the bodies of the dead whom they killed in the mosque. As for their leader, Abu Taher, he stood on the doorstep of the Kaaba and shouted in ecstasy: ” I am by God and God is me * He creates people and I annihilate them”.

When Al-Qarmati was on his way home, the Emir of Makkah, along with his household and his army, followed him and beseeched him to return the Black Stone to be put in its place. He offered all the money he had, yet Al-Qarmati refused and they fought, yet the Emir of Mecca was killed in the battle, along with most of his people and soldiers and Al-Qarmati continued to his country with the Black Stone and the money of the pilgrims. Ibn Katheer said: “This damned person practiced atheism in the Sacred Mosque in a way that no one did before or after him”.

No Haj rituals were performed that year. The Qarmatians went back home after they committed that heinous massacre and kept the Black Stone in their possession until they returned it back to Kaaba in the year (951 AD), saying: “We took it by order and brought it back by order”, which is meaningless, futile talk.