18. Fatimid Conflict with the Ibāḍīs and the Ibāḍī Version of the Imamate, in North Africa and in the East
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Paul E. Walker
Abstract
Despite intense conflict with the Ibāḍīs in North Africa, Fatimid and Ismaili sources contain surprisingly little comment on Ibāḍī doctrine and its imamate. If Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s refutation of the Khawārij had survived, we would have heard more. An explicit condemnation of the Ibāḍī imam occurs in a work of Ḥamīd al-Din al-Kirmānī. In his al-Maṣābīḥ fī ithbāt al-imāma, written about 405 h, he provides a catalog of those who claimed the imamate; significantly, among them is the Ibāḍī imam in Jabal ʿUmān, whom he names as ʿUmar al-Nazwānī. An earlier Ismaili heresiographical work, the “Chapter on Satans” by Abū Tammām, lists the Ibāḍīs as one of fourteen subsections of the Khawārij and it provides some general details about distinguishing doctrines. The encounter with Ibāḍīs in North Africa began with Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Shīʿī’s mission. Among the Kutāma, the Masālta were the only branch to adhere to Ibāḍīsm. They held out against his Ismaili daʿwa. Finally, he attacked them and their leader Fatḥ b. Yaḥyā. Ibāḍī resistance in this case is surely significant in Abū ʿAbdallāh’s later determination to eradicate the imamate centered in Tahert. Once he had overthrown the Aghlabids, he set out to retrieve his imam from Sijilmāsa in the summer of 297/909. His first stop was Tahert, which he entered with little opposition under an amān that did not include, most especially, the Ibāḍī imam Yaqẓān and his family. They were seized and executed. In this fashion Abū ʿAbdallāh wiped out the Rustumid imamate after 130 years of existence. Oddly, Qadi al-Nuʿmān says nothing about it. The anti-Fatimid revolt instigated by Abū Yazīd is the major example of confrontation between the Ibāḍīs and the Ismailis. Many details of what happened are well known, a few worth recalling here. Abū Yazīd was a student in Tahert at precisely the moment when Abū ʿAbdallāh arrived there. However, as a Nukkārī, did he owe any allegiance to this imamate? Fatimid writers nearly always refer to Abū Yazīd as the Dajjāl, the Arch-Deceiver. For the events in question we possess an unusually rich supply of materials: document, proclamations, personal accounts and other records on the Fatimid side. In some Abū Yazīd is specifically labeled ‘Nukkārī’, as in a khuṭba of 333/945 where the caliph begins “O people! Truly this accursed Nukkārī has exacerbated his wickedness and his disease has infested the land.” But how precise was Ismaili knowledge of Abū Yazīd’s status among the Ibāḍīs, or his history with them (or that of Abū ʿAmmār, his mentor)? A comment of a Fatimid authority at one point puts him among the Azāriqa, instead of Ibāḍīs or Nukkār, and that appears to reflect an appreciation of Abū Yazīd’s later adoption of the doctrine of istiʿrād.
Abstract
Despite intense conflict with the Ibāḍīs in North Africa, Fatimid and Ismaili sources contain surprisingly little comment on Ibāḍī doctrine and its imamate. If Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s refutation of the Khawārij had survived, we would have heard more. An explicit condemnation of the Ibāḍī imam occurs in a work of Ḥamīd al-Din al-Kirmānī. In his al-Maṣābīḥ fī ithbāt al-imāma, written about 405 h, he provides a catalog of those who claimed the imamate; significantly, among them is the Ibāḍī imam in Jabal ʿUmān, whom he names as ʿUmar al-Nazwānī. An earlier Ismaili heresiographical work, the “Chapter on Satans” by Abū Tammām, lists the Ibāḍīs as one of fourteen subsections of the Khawārij and it provides some general details about distinguishing doctrines. The encounter with Ibāḍīs in North Africa began with Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Shīʿī’s mission. Among the Kutāma, the Masālta were the only branch to adhere to Ibāḍīsm. They held out against his Ismaili daʿwa. Finally, he attacked them and their leader Fatḥ b. Yaḥyā. Ibāḍī resistance in this case is surely significant in Abū ʿAbdallāh’s later determination to eradicate the imamate centered in Tahert. Once he had overthrown the Aghlabids, he set out to retrieve his imam from Sijilmāsa in the summer of 297/909. His first stop was Tahert, which he entered with little opposition under an amān that did not include, most especially, the Ibāḍī imam Yaqẓān and his family. They were seized and executed. In this fashion Abū ʿAbdallāh wiped out the Rustumid imamate after 130 years of existence. Oddly, Qadi al-Nuʿmān says nothing about it. The anti-Fatimid revolt instigated by Abū Yazīd is the major example of confrontation between the Ibāḍīs and the Ismailis. Many details of what happened are well known, a few worth recalling here. Abū Yazīd was a student in Tahert at precisely the moment when Abū ʿAbdallāh arrived there. However, as a Nukkārī, did he owe any allegiance to this imamate? Fatimid writers nearly always refer to Abū Yazīd as the Dajjāl, the Arch-Deceiver. For the events in question we possess an unusually rich supply of materials: document, proclamations, personal accounts and other records on the Fatimid side. In some Abū Yazīd is specifically labeled ‘Nukkārī’, as in a khuṭba of 333/945 where the caliph begins “O people! Truly this accursed Nukkārī has exacerbated his wickedness and his disease has infested the land.” But how precise was Ismaili knowledge of Abū Yazīd’s status among the Ibāḍīs, or his history with them (or that of Abū ʿAmmār, his mentor)? A comment of a Fatimid authority at one point puts him among the Azāriqa, instead of Ibāḍīs or Nukkār, and that appears to reflect an appreciation of Abū Yazīd’s later adoption of the doctrine of istiʿrād.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Remerciements V
- Table des matières VII
- Liste des Figures XI
-
Part I: Introduction
- 1. Une étude des modèles politiques et sociaux de l’ibadisme médiéval 3
- 2. Reflections on History and Historiography of the Early lbāḍis 14
- 3. Ibadism in the Societies of Mediaeval Islam: a Few Remarks 19
-
Part II: La période de formation
- 4. “The World thus Became Severed from Them:” Khārijī and Ibāḍī Concepts of Shirā’ in their Near Eastern Context 25
- 5. Some Reflexions on the Origins of the Ibāḍiyya and Zaydiyya 42
- 6. Le kharijisme ibadite au Yémen et au Ḥaḍramawt à travers la révolte: d’Ibn Yaḥyā al-Kindī à la fin de l’epoque omeyyade 48
- 7. Les ibāḍites du Ḥaḍramawt: quelques suggestions généalogiques et historiographiques 63
- 8. Law and Politics in the Early Ibāḍī Communities: Abū ‘Ubayda al-Tamīmī’s Risāla to Abū ’l-Khaṭṭāb al-Ma‘Āfirī 72
- 9. The Butr and North African Ibāḍism: Praise and Criticism of the Berbers 88
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Part III: Territoires et sociétés
- 10. The Political Organization of Oman from the Second Imamate Period to the Yaʻrūba: Rereading Omani Internal Sources 113
- 11. Réflexions sur la nature du pouvoir rustumide 127
- 12. Sijilmāsa au temps tes Midrārides: nouvelles approches historiques et premier bilan archéologique 137
- 13. Essai de cartographie des groupes dissidents dans le Maghreb ibadite 169
- 14. An Ibadi Islandscape: Ibadi Communities on Djerba in the Medieval Period 190
- 15. Wārjlān, un foyer de l’ibadisme médiéval aux marges du Sahara 207
- 16. Les communautés ibadites du nord du Sahara au Moyen Âge: espace et société dans la région de l’oued Rīgh 244
- 17. Analyse comparative de l’organisation urbaine des qṣūr du Sud-Est algérien (Rīgh, Miya, Mzāb et al-Manī‘a 276
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Part IV: Réseaux et interactions
- 18. Fatimid Conflict with the Ibāḍīs and the Ibāḍī Version of the Imamate, in North Africa and in the East 303
- 19. Le pouvoir almohado-hafside et les ibadites en Ifrīqiya 315
- 20. L’ibadisme et la malikisation du Maghreb central: étude d’un processus long et complexe (ive–vie/xe–xiie siècle) 329
- 21. La communauté ibadite entre Orient et Occident musulmans (iiie/ixe–viie/xiiie siècle): une histoire d’échanges et de construction identitaire 348 348
- Index des noms de personnes 367
- Index des noms de lignages, de tribus et de groupes religieux 371
- Index des noms de lieux 373
- Index thématique 376
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Remerciements V
- Table des matières VII
- Liste des Figures XI
-
Part I: Introduction
- 1. Une étude des modèles politiques et sociaux de l’ibadisme médiéval 3
- 2. Reflections on History and Historiography of the Early lbāḍis 14
- 3. Ibadism in the Societies of Mediaeval Islam: a Few Remarks 19
-
Part II: La période de formation
- 4. “The World thus Became Severed from Them:” Khārijī and Ibāḍī Concepts of Shirā’ in their Near Eastern Context 25
- 5. Some Reflexions on the Origins of the Ibāḍiyya and Zaydiyya 42
- 6. Le kharijisme ibadite au Yémen et au Ḥaḍramawt à travers la révolte: d’Ibn Yaḥyā al-Kindī à la fin de l’epoque omeyyade 48
- 7. Les ibāḍites du Ḥaḍramawt: quelques suggestions généalogiques et historiographiques 63
- 8. Law and Politics in the Early Ibāḍī Communities: Abū ‘Ubayda al-Tamīmī’s Risāla to Abū ’l-Khaṭṭāb al-Ma‘Āfirī 72
- 9. The Butr and North African Ibāḍism: Praise and Criticism of the Berbers 88
-
Part III: Territoires et sociétés
- 10. The Political Organization of Oman from the Second Imamate Period to the Yaʻrūba: Rereading Omani Internal Sources 113
- 11. Réflexions sur la nature du pouvoir rustumide 127
- 12. Sijilmāsa au temps tes Midrārides: nouvelles approches historiques et premier bilan archéologique 137
- 13. Essai de cartographie des groupes dissidents dans le Maghreb ibadite 169
- 14. An Ibadi Islandscape: Ibadi Communities on Djerba in the Medieval Period 190
- 15. Wārjlān, un foyer de l’ibadisme médiéval aux marges du Sahara 207
- 16. Les communautés ibadites du nord du Sahara au Moyen Âge: espace et société dans la région de l’oued Rīgh 244
- 17. Analyse comparative de l’organisation urbaine des qṣūr du Sud-Est algérien (Rīgh, Miya, Mzāb et al-Manī‘a 276
-
Part IV: Réseaux et interactions
- 18. Fatimid Conflict with the Ibāḍīs and the Ibāḍī Version of the Imamate, in North Africa and in the East 303
- 19. Le pouvoir almohado-hafside et les ibadites en Ifrīqiya 315
- 20. L’ibadisme et la malikisation du Maghreb central: étude d’un processus long et complexe (ive–vie/xe–xiie siècle) 329
- 21. La communauté ibadite entre Orient et Occident musulmans (iiie/ixe–viie/xiiie siècle): une histoire d’échanges et de construction identitaire 348 348
- Index des noms de personnes 367
- Index des noms de lignages, de tribus et de groupes religieux 371
- Index des noms de lieux 373
- Index thématique 376
