Religious utopian communes in America have no bite to them. Sure, they build "community" and giver their members a "purpose," but they rarely have any real flair, at least, outside of what they merely believe. But holding out-there beliefs can only go so far in making these communities actually worth acknowledging. The most impressive thing they actually do is build barns without modern equipment, and that was the norm until very recently! Call me back whenever a bunch of amish people burn down Cancun and massacre the Spring Breakers there. Y'know, like the Qarmatians.

Crazy Qultists

Our story begins with the death of Jafar. Not the one from Aladdin, I'm talking about Jafar al-Sadiq, the great-great grandson of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the legitimate successor of the Prophet Mohammed (please be up in him), at least if you ask the Shiites. Jafar held an important role in Shiite Islam, being their Imam, or spiritual leader , so succession was very important, seeing as following the wrong successor could lead to eternal darnation. Unfortunately for the Shiites, Jafar's chosen successor and his eldest son, Ismail ibn Jafar, died shortly before his father. Jafar failed to name another preferred successor, so some believed that Ismail's son, Muhammad ibn Ismail, should succeed him. These beliers in the Imamate Ismail are now dubbed Ismailis.

The Ismailis themselves were divided into two important branches at this time: those who acknowledged the authority of the descendants of Ismail, the Fatimids (the ancestors of the guy I made this post about), and those who rejected their authority, the Qarmatians. The Qarmatians believed Ismail to have been the prophesized Mahdi, the final prophet of god who would bring about the new Sharia and end of the current era of Islam. To the Qarmatians, Ismail's death was actually him going into a period of occultation, and he would soon emerge to lead the faithful as the Mahdi. Sounds like the Pope could've sent them a cease and desist.

Being that the Mahdi had already been born, the Qarmatians no longer had to adhere to Islamic Law, so they rejected it outright. Here's a translation of supposed Qarmatian thought during the early 900s:

Truth has appeared, the Mahdi has arisen, the rule of the Abbasids [the Sunni Caliphs], the jurists, the readers of the Koran, and the teachers of tradition is at an end. There is nothing more to wait for; we have not come to set up a government, but to abolish law.

Almost -like (The Qarmatians of this time were likely acting on the orders of the Fatimids, so this could be a summary of Ismaili goals in general, not only of Qarmatians)

Bash in Bahrayn

(Or Bahrain, whatever. I'll be calling it Bahrayn to differentiate it from the modern country)

The Abbasid Caliphs in the early 900s were losing ground fast, leaving vacuums for new powers to fill. Great set of circumstances for the Ismailis who were attempting to assert themselves. Ismaili da'is (half missionaries, half temporal leaders) proselytized and developed communities developed in Syria, Yemen, North Africa, and Eastern Arabia. Ismailis attempted to establish Ismaili states and governments in some of these places. An uprising in Bahrayn, led by a Qarmatian former merchant , Abu Sa'id ibn Braham al-Djannabi, succeeded in routing an army sent by the Abbasid Caliph in 900, and established a state comprising the Eastern coast of Arabia, then called Bahrayn (the modern island of Bahrain was called al-Awal at this time). By the time of his death in 913, Abu Sa'id had conquered all of Eastern Arabia (minus Oman).

The Qarmatians of Bahrayn had some pretty wild ideas for their time. They practiced communal ownership of livestock, furniture, and jewels. There were no taxes, wealth was distributed among the community, and maybe the women were, too (may have just been Abbasid propaganda). Really makes you . If the Arabians had it all figured out way back in the 900s, maybe all those other failed attempts actually weren't real communism, and this is proof that their ideals do, in fact, work! Unfortunately for the Marxian hopeful reading, I've not yet mentioned how they procured their communally own wealth. It was slaves. The slave trade and slave-worked plantations was what sustained the Bahrayni Qarmatians. At its peak, there were about 30,000 African Kangz serving their Gulf masters. Qarmatian policy more closely resembles Antebellum Southern Slave Aristocracy than it does Russian Revolutionaries . Although, those may be one in the same, depending on who you ask. (Yawp is a shit book, btw.)

Mischievous Marauders

Abu Sa'id al-Djannabi was dead, and his son, Abu Tahir al-Djannabi, was ready to take charge of Bahrayn! ...In a few years, at least. He was still too young in 913. The first known instance of Tahir leading in his own right is in 923, when he led an army to sack the Iraqi city of Basra. He was 16. Basra was a fitting beginning to his rather violent career. Tahir's entire reign would be spent constantly raiding and pillaging. In 925, after the Caliph refused a demand for control over Basra and other Southern Iraqi cities, Tahir led and army into Iraq and sacked Kufa, a city nearby Baghdad. Kufa was again sacked in 928, triggering a full war between the Caliph and Tahir which almost saw the Qarmatian capture Baghdad. Tahir raided, stole, and pillaged Iraqi cities as far North as Sinjar before withdrew his army.

There had been some rather interesting movements of the celestial bodies in 928. Saturn and Jupiter came into conjunction, and, with the rather superstitious attitude of the time, something big was expected to happen soon. Tahir believed the upcoming event to be the reemergence of the Mahdi, so he was looking to do something a little crazy . Tahir led his army to Mecca in 930 and sacked the city. He removed the valuables from the Great Mosque, desecrated the Kaaba, massacred the pilgrims, and stole the Black Stone (a holy artifact attached to the Kaaba). Days of razing two the holiest cities in Islam later (he also sacked Medina), and our little g*mer was all tuckered out , returning to Bahrayn with the pretty rock souvenir he'd stolen. The Fatimid and Abbasid Caliphs were both appalled at Tahir's actions, and both sent their appeals to him to stop the violence. Both were ignored.

The Kaaba has a bussy?! (That's the black stone)

False Prophets

What good is a heretical pseudo-cult without it's very own messianic idol? The Qarmatians had been sorely lacking such divine figure up until 931. It was that year in which a young Persian man, of alleged royal descent, named Zakari or Zakariyya, was noticed by Tahir. Given the strange astronomical events recently, Tahir had expected the Mahdi to return any day now, and he believed Zakari to be that risen incarnation (none of my sources said why he took notice of Zakari in particular). And so, like any rational leader, Tahir gave complete reins of his government to Zakari. Zakari was the Mahdi, after all, so whats the worst that could happen?

This probably wasn't the greatest idea Tahir ever had, since Zakari immediately started fricking up, big time. The newly proclaimed Mahdi instituted strange and pagan-adjacent rituals and ceremonies, including the worship of fire, drawing accusations of Zoroastrianism. To make things worse, Zakari denounced scorned past prophets, denouncing Mohammed and Isa (Jesus , for any non-seracens). He insituted the burning of books and executed many people belonging to prominent families. This went on for 80 days before Tahir had to face the consequences of his actions, but only after his own family was targeted, of course. Zakari was denounced by Tahir as a pretender, imprisoned and executed, after failing to produce proof of miracles by refusing to resurrect Tahir's aunt (probably apocryphal, but it's the only information available as to how Tahir overthrew Zakari).

Between Mecca and Zakari, the Qarmatians lost much of their appeal, and were relegated to Bahrayn, raiding only small cities and Hajj caravans, far from the constant savagery of their ealy days. There'd never be another invasion of Iraq or sacking of a major city, their glory days were behind them. The Qarmatian community in Syria would gather enough men and allies to attempt two invasions of Egypt, but they were beaten both times by the Fatimid governor there. They'd stay a major thorn in the Caliph's side for a while, eventually agreeing to open the Hajj routes back up in exchange for a yearly indemnity from him. Qarmati Bahrayn itself would last into the eleventh century.