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, pl. Ḳarāmiṭa, name given to the adherents of a branch of the Ismāʿīliyya [q.v.]. Originally it is generally reported to have referred to the followers of Ḥamdān Ḳarmaṭ [q.v.], an Ismāʿīlī leader in the sawād of al-Kūfa, whose surname Ḳarmaṭ (also Ḳarmaṭūya) is variously explained in the sources as meaning short-legged or red-eyed. It is to be noted, however, that the Imāmī scholar al-Faḍl b. S̲h̲ād̲h̲ān of Naysābūr, who died in 260/873-4, already wrote a refutation of the Ḳarāmiṭa ( al-Radd ʿalā ’l-Ḳarāmiṭa ). Thus either the missionary activity of Ḥamdān must have commenced long before the year 261/874-5 or 264/877-8, which the sources give as the date of its beginning, or his surname was itself derived from the name of the sect. The movement directed by Ḥamdān was, in any case, merely part of the general Ismāʿīlī movement of his time whose leadership he recognized. After Ḥamdān’s revolt against the leadership in 286/899 and his subsequent disappearance, the term Ḳarāmiṭa was generally used for those Ismāʿīlī groups which joined this revolt and consequently refused to recognize the claims of the Fāṭimid caliphs to the imāmate. Sometimes it was pejoratively applied also to the Ismāʿīlīs supporting the Fāṭimid imāmate. The present article, however, will deal only with the history of the former groups and their relationship with the Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī movement.
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Search for other papers by W. Madelung in
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(6,287 words)