3. A Radical Sect in Eastern Arabia
Al Mutanabbi’s rebellion was suppressed, and he was captured and imprisoned until he recanted two years later. The Nabi claim earned him the derisory nickname Al Mutanabbi, or “would-be prophet”, by which he is known to history. As to the sect on whose behalf he led a revolt, the Qarmatians combined elements of Zoroastrianism with Shiite Islam. They formed a radical sect that was deemed heretical by other Muslims. They started off as bandits who earned a living attacking trade and pilgrimage caravans, but became religious after they came under the sway of a Persian mystic, Abu Sa’id Al Jannabi. Their leader transformed the bandits into a millenarian cult that preached the End of Days was near, and gathered a large following of fanatics. The Qarmatians rose in the ninth century and captured eastern Arabia and Bahrain, where they founded a utopian religious republic in 899.
