Abu Tahir al-Jannabi

Abu Tahir Sulayman al-Jannabi (, Persian: ابوطاهر بهرام گناوه‌ای, romanized: Abū-Tāher Bahrām Ganāveh'ī) was an Arabized Persian warlord and the ruler of the Qarmatian state in Bahrayn. He became the leader of the state in 923, after ousting his older brother Abu'l-Qasim Sa'id and immediately began an expansionist phase, raiding Basra that year. He raided Kufa in 927, defeating an Abbasid army in the process, and threatened the Abbasid capital Baghdad in 928 before pillaging much of Iraq when he could not gain entry to the city. In 930, he led the Qarmatians' most notorious attack when he attacked and pillaged Mecca and desecrated Islam's most sacred sites. Unable to gain entry to the city initially, Abu Tahir called upon the right of all Muslims to enter the city and gave his oath that he came in peace. Once inside the city walls the Qarmatian army set about massacring the pilgrims, taunting them with verses of the Quran as they did so. The bodies of the pilgrims were left to rot in the streets.

Early life Abu Tahir Suleyman al-Jannabi was an Arabized Persian, born in June-July 906 in Ganaveh, in coastal Fars (modern-day Iran). His family was claimed to be of an Alid and a Sasanian descent. Abu Tahir's father Abu Sa'id was a tribal leader who had initiated the militarization of the Qarmatians. Abu Sa'id began preaching against Sunni Islam around 890 after being taught by his mentor Hamdan Qarmat, a native of Kufa, from whose name the Qarmatian sect is derived.

Abu Sa'id started off plundering caravans, traders and Persian hajj pilgrims en route to Mecca before gathering a large following. The Qarmatians soon mobilized an army and set out to lay siege to Basra. However, the governor of Basra learned of their preparations and informed the Abbasid Caliph, al-Muktafi, in Baghdad. The Caliph sent the general Abbas bin Umar to save Basra, but Abbas was defeated and his men executed and the Qarmatian siege was successful in capturing the city. Al-Isfahani had been brought back to Bahrayn from the Qarmatians' raid into Iraq in 928. In 931, Abu Tahir turned over the state to this Mahdi-Caliph, said to in fact be a Zoroastrian revivalist with anti-Arab sentiments. He reinstituted the veneration of fire and engaged in burning of religious books during an eighty-day rule. Isfahani also is thought to have some links with established Zoroastrian orthodoxy as the high priest of the Zoroastrians, Esfandiar Adarbad was executed by the Abbasid Caliph after being accused of complicity with Abu Tahir. His reign culminated in the execution of members of Bahrayn's notable families, including members of Abu Tahir's family. Abu Tahir's mother conspired to get rid of Abu'l-Fadl; she faked her death and sent a messenger to call the Mahdi to resurrect her. When he refused, he was exposed as being a normal human, and Abu Tahir's brother Sa'id killed Abu'l-Fadl after the Mahdi had reigned for only eight days. Other accounts say fearing for his own life, Abu Tahir announced that he had been wrong and denounced the al-Isfahani as a false Mahdi. Begging forgiveness from the other notables, Abu Tahir had him executed.

Sack of Mecca

Abu Tahir desecrated Islam's holiest site after gaining entry (Mecca circa 1778)Before Abu Tahir's rule, the Qarmatians had launched several raids along the pilgrim routes crossing Arabia. In 906, Qarmatians ambushed the pilgrim caravan returning from Mecca and massacred 20,000 pilgrims. During the Hajj of 930 CE, Abu Tahir led the Qarmatians' most infamous attack when he pillaged Mecca and desecrated Islam's most sacred sites. Unable to gain entry to the city initially, he called upon the right of all Muslims to enter the city and gave his oath that he came in peace. Once inside the city walls, the Qarmatian army set about massacring the pilgrims, riding their horses into Masjid al-Haram and charging the praying pilgrims. They set the Kaaba on fire and smeared it with the blood of dead pilgrims. While killing pilgrims, he taunted them with verses of the Quran and verses of poetry: "I am by God, and by God I am ... he creates creation, and I destroy them".

The attack on Mecca symbolized the Qarmatians' break with the Islamic world; it was believed to have been aimed to prompt the appearance of the Mahdi who would bring about the final cycle of the world and end the era of Islam.

The Qarmatians defiled the Zamzam Well with the bodies of pilgrims and the black stone was stolen and taken to the oasis in Eastern Arabia known as al-Aḥsāʾ, where it remained until the Abbasids ransomed it in 952 CE. According to historian al-Juwayni, the stone was returned 22 years later in 951 under mysterious circumstances. Wrapped in a sack, it was thrown into the Great Mosque of Kufa in Iraq, accompanied by a note saying "By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back." The theft and removal of the Black Stone caused it to break into seven pieces. The basic shape and structure of the Kaaba have not changed since then.

The sack of Mecca followed millenarian excitement among the Qarmatians (and in Persia) over the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 928. Bahrain became the seat of the Qarmatian Mahdi-Caliph from Isfahan who abolished Sharīa law. The new Mahdi also changed the qibla of prayer from Mecca to that of fire, a specifically Zoroastrian practice. Some scholars take the view that "they may not have been Ismailis at all at the outset, and their conduct and customs gave plausibility to the belief that they were not merely heretics but bitter enemies of Islam."

Final years and death Abu Tahir resumed the reins of the Qarmatian state and again began attacks on pilgrims crossing Arabia. Attempts by the Abbasids and Fatimids to persuade him to return the Black Stone were rejected.

He died in 944, around the age of 38, due to smallpox. He was succeeded by his three surviving sons and nephews.