When We Have Written on ISIS before its Emergence: The ISIS-like Group in the Abbasid Era
Was published in January, 08, 2016
Translated by Ahmed Fathy
Introduction:
We have published on our website on Dec. 13th 2010 an article titled "And Shadee Is Lost", and here, we re-publish it followed by a commentary, while we live in the era of ISIS terrorists. Firstly, here's the article we have written.
(…Firstly:
1- Since the civil wars of Arabs, after the death of Prophet Muhammad, in the Arabian Peninsula and the assassination of the caliph Othman, early Muhammadans witnessed numerous civil wars and internecine strife under several banners and mottoes; even until recently: the Lebanese civil wars and their horrors are expressed by the song of Fayrouz, the Lebanese diva, titled "Shadee" to portrait the violated innocence and childhood. Other horrid wars are the ones in Iraq that iterated the civil wars of caliph Ali Ibn Abou Talib and the Umayyads.
2- In fact, the very first victims of civil strife are the youth deceived by mottoes and banners. They turn themselves from future hope into time bombs that will explode to destroy the present and the future.
3- We have witnessed such type of delusional youth, and we try using Quranism and the Quran to dispel such illusions and deceit. We have tried to make such youth wake up and get realistic. We have tried to raise the awareness that Islam is really a religion of peace and that faith is linked to feeling safe and preserving security. We have explained how that the worst crime, second only to unbelief, is to shed blood of the innocent using lies and falsehoods ascribed by force to God and His seal of prophets.
4- In general, ancient historians do not tend to record anything but stories of heroes and war & peace leaders. It is on very rare occasions that a historian cares to register a story of an ordinary youth or an ordinary woman in times of ordeals and civil strife.
5- The famous ancient historian, Al-Tabari, is known for his care for registering general events that do not heed ordinary folks; yet, he wrote a story of an ordinary woman in the context of his historical accounts of the Qarmatians wars tragedy.
6- The Qarmatians wars began in 286 A.H., and Al-Tabari was alive at the time, recording the events as an eye-witness. He recorded the killing of the leader of the Qarmatians wars, Abou Saeed Al-Junabee, in Bahrain in 301 A.H. and later on, Al-Tabari stopped writing the historical accounts in 302 A.H. and died in 310 A.H., but the Qarmatians wars went on in Arabia, Iraq, and the Levant until 378 A.H. Later on, the Qarmatians turned into just bloody lines in the history of Arabs to make us draw lessons, to which we never pay heed enough.
7- Al-Tabari wrote in his account the events of 290 A.H. that a leader of the Qarmatians, named Al-Hussein Ibn Zakarwey, killed whole population in several cities in the Levant, sparing no children, women, and old men, and even all animals! Other victims of this leader were the delusional youth who were deceived by him to join him in battles and in what they deemed falsely to be Islam; he turned them into ruthless murderers who killed their own folks deemed as renegades and apostates who forsook Islam!
8- The ancient historian, Al-Nuweiri, mentioned that Abou Saeed Al-Junabee the leader of the Qarmatians used to collect the youth in camps to be taught martial arts and blind obedience to the Qarmatians. They were subjected to being tattooed in the face, using fire. The youth used to get out of this horrible experience after they were trained to be ruthless murderers.
9- Al-Tabari wrote this realistic story that took place during the Qarmatians wars, about an ordinary woman who entered their camps looking for her son who joined the Qarmatians and deserted his mother and sisters.
10- This is probably the only realistic story written by Al-Tabari from the streets, and its heroine is an ordinary woman among the ordinary folks. Yet, a reader will feel as if this story has occurred recently.
Secondly:
Al-Tabari narrates that a woman went to a medical doctor in order to dress a bleeding wound in her shoulder, while she was weeping and in distress. The doctor asked her about her calamity and she told him her story: "My son deserted me and my daughters without a caretaker. Penniless, I begged in the streets. I longed to see my son, and I travelled to Al-Mosul in search for him. I spotted a camp of the Qarmatians, and I loitered around it. I suddenly saw my son and flung myself at him. He recognized me and asked about his sisters. I complained to him about our poverty after his departure. He took me to his house, and asked me about my creed. I told him that his question is strange, since he knew me and knew my creed. He told me that my creed is false; Islam is what he is doing now with the Qarmatians! I felt afraid of him. He sensed that, and left me to return later on with bread and meat for me to cook. He went out. I did not cook anything. He returned later on and cooked the meat himself. Later on, a man of the Qarmatians came in asking for a woman to help another woman in labor. I went with the man. I helped a woman in pain to give birth to her male child. The man told me not to talk to her. I felt compelled to know her story. She told it to me: she was a Hashemite woman whose relatives and family were all killed by the Qarmatians. She was taken into slavery for a few days in the house of one Qarmatian leader. They were bent on killing her, but later on, spared her life to be given to a man of the Qarmatians. Four men were about to quarrel by the sword to have her. The leader insisted that the four of them would have her in bed. She did not know who, amongst the four of these men, the father of her child was! Each man was congratulated as the father! Each gave me a bar of silver as a gift. I complained to the woman I helped and asked for a way out of the camp to get back to my daughters. She advised me to ask the leader's help. I kissed his hands and feet to allow me to return to my daughters. The leader wanted more women for his men to satisfy their carnal lusts and appetites. He made a group of soldiers to accompany me to get my daughters. My son raised the sword in anger and said to me that I am a bawdy pimp whose aim was to bring my daughters here. He tried to stab me, but the soldiers held him. I was injured in my shoulder. The soldiers took my son and left me alone. Later on, I struggled to walk to you to heal me." This doctor asserted to Al-Tabari that she went out of his house and never returned after she was healed. She probably died out of this wound. She lives on with her tragedy in the historical accounts of Al-Tabari. Millions of innocent ones were killed unjustly and in aggression in the way to apply the laws of the earthly man-made fabricated creeds of the Muhammadans and the Christians and the Jews.). That is the end of our 2010 article.
Lastly: our commentary:
1- The Abbasid era Qarmatians had similar traits and features of the ISIS terrorist group now. Both the Qarmatians and ISIS seem to be twins. ISIS men are now in Iraq, especially Al-Mosul city, like the Qarmatians. Both terrorist groups slaughtered the innocent, enslave and rape women, and manage to recruit the youth using propaganda. Both groups claim that by their crimes, they apply 'true' Islam! They reject all forms of Islam that oppose them as 'unbelief'. Both groups led the young men kill their folks, as they were, in their erroneous views, apostates who do not deserve to live. Both the Qarmatians and ISIS groups emerged in an era when the extremist doctrine of Ibn Hanbal spread and controlled the streets. The extremist Sunnites who followed the doctrine of Ibn Hanbal sieged the house of Al-Tabari, the Sunnite historian and scholar, until his death at his old age. After his death, they demolished his house on his corpse, forbidding anyone to give him a proper burial. This was done because he opposed their views in describing God in His throne. Al-Tabari used to fear both the Qarmatians and the extremist Sunnites who followed the extremist doctrine of Ibn Hanbal. He tried to summarize his historical accounts before his death. The last thing he wrote while his house was surrounded by soldiers was a letter to ask for a pardon for himself. ISIS belongs to the Wahabi creed; Wahabism is the offspring of Ibn Hanbal doctrine. Both the Qarmatians and ISIS groups are rooted in Najd area in northern Arabia, and both emerged in conditions of tyranny and corruption in the Middle East. It is of minor importance that ISIS is Sunnite and the Qarmatians were Shiite. Both groups kill everybody. Even the Qarmatians used to kill Shiites who do not obey them; likewise, ISIS terrorists kill Sunnites savagely. The only difference between the Qarmatians and ISIS is the type of weapons and arms used, and some names and mottoes, as well as the interference of regional and international powers.
2- The similarity between ISIS and the Qarmatians assert the tragedy; the Muhammadans (Shiites and Sunnites) of today are still living and reliving the past and battle with one another. Both are criminals and victims simultaneously. Why is this happening until today? Why the Muhammadans cannot join the caravan of civilization and modernity? Why are they using the tools of civilization to destroy and kill? Why are they re-creating the scenes of history of the Second Abbasid Era, with its backwardness, civil strife, and cowardice toward the foreign invaders?
The answer lies in one word: the KSA. The KSA Wahabism is the axis of evil and terrorism that prevented the Muhammadans from democratic change and adherence to real Islamic values like political freedom and complete liberty in matters of faith and creed, as well as justice, tolerance, and human dignity.
3- The Second Abbasid Era ended in the Moghuls' invasion of Baghdad and putting an end to the Abbasid Dynasty and caliphate: total destruction. Would ISIS end after the whole region would have been destroyed with American-Russian interference?!
4- This is what we are afraid of and warn against. Our warnings reiterated for years, and our predictions have taken place on many occasions within the last 30 years. We are shouting and find no reaction or response from anyone. Yet, we will never despair. We will go on calling for reform on all levels until our last breath. We offer at least our excuses to the coming generations.