Qarmatians

The Qarmatians (Qarāmiṭa; قرمطیان) were a militant Isma'ili Shia movement centred in al-Hasa in Eastern Arabia, where they established a religious- and as some scholars claimed proto-socialist or utopian socialist state in 899 CE. Its members were part of a movement that adhered to a syncretic branch of Sevener Ismaili Shia Islam, and were ruled by a dynasty founded by Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, a Persian from Jannaba in coastal Fars. They rejected the claim of Fatimid Caliph Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah to imamate and clung to their belief in the coming of the Mahdi, and they revolted against the Fatimid and Abbasid Caliphates. Mecca was sacked by a Qarmatian leader, Abu Tahir al-Jannabi, outraging the Muslim world, particularly with their theft of the Black Stone and desecration of the Zamzam Well with corpses during the Hajj season of 930 CE. The origin of the name "Qarmatian" is uncertain. According to some sources, the name derives from the surname of the sect's founder, Hamdan Qarmat. The name qarmat probably comes from the Aramaic for "short-legged", "red-eyed" or "secret teacher". Other sources, however, say that the name comes from the Arabic verb قرمط (qarmaṭ), which means "to make the lines close together in writing" or "to walk with short steps". The word "Qarmatian" can also refer to a type of Arabic script. The Qarāmiṭah in Sawad (southern Iraq) were also known as "the Greengrocers" (al-Baqliyyah) because they followed the teachings of Abū Hātim al-Zutti, who in 908 forbade animal slaughter. He also forbade radishes and alliums such as garlic, onions, and leeks. By 928, it is uncertain whether the people still held on to those teachings. Under the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 CE), various Shiite groups organised in secret opposition to their rule. Among them were the supporters of the proto-Ismā‘īlī community, of whom the most prominent group were called the Mubārakiyyah. According to the Ismaili school of thought, Imām Ja'far al-Sadiq (702–765) designated his second son, Isma'il ibn Ja'far (ca.