167 – Ibn Ghataash, Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ghataash al-ʿAjami
The “tyrant of the Ismaʿilis” (1) was the chieftain Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ghataash al-ʿAjami.
His father had been one of the foremost propagandists of the Bāṭiniyya, a man of keen intellect and refined literary taste, eloquent and quick-witted. He enticed a group of followers and then died, leaving the leadership to this son. The son, though unlettered, was bold and widely obeyed. A contingent gathered around him, and by stratagem they captured the fortress of Isfahan—on which the sultan Malikshah had spent two million dinars. From it they began to cut off the highways, and every depraved character rallied to them. Their scourge endured for ten years, until Muḥammad ibn Malikshah besieged them for several months. Famine overtook them; many of their number came down under a promise of safety, while Ibn Ghataash held out in a tower for a few days more. After a protracted sequence of events (2) he was seized and flayed alive, and leadership of the Bāṭiniyya then passed to Ibn Sabbah (3). They proved a calamity for the Muslims, murdering a number of dignitaries with the blade of the dagger.
(*) Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam, vol. 9, pp. 150-151; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, vol. 10, pp. 316-318, 430-434; al-Duwal al-Islam, vol. 2, p. 29; al-Dhahabi, al-Ibar, vol. 3, pp. 354-355; Tammat al-Mukhtasar, vol. 2, p. 31; Uyun al-Tawarikh, vol. 13, p. 155; Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, Mirat al-Zaman, vol. 8, pp. 12-13; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, vol. 12, p. 167; al-Nujum al-Zahira, vol. 5, p. 195; Shadharat al-Dhahab, vol. 3, p. 410.
(1) Ibn al-Athir observes that these were the same people previously called the Qaramita (Carmathians).
(2) See Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, vol. 10, pp. 430, 434.
(3) This refers to Hasan ibn Sabbah ibn Ali, the Ismaili leader of the Nizari mission and founder of the Alamut faction. Imam al-Dhahabi writes in al-Mizan, 1/500: “He was a leading heretical freethinker, one of the world’s master strategists. His exploits are too numerous to recount; I have summarized them in my larger history under the events of 494 AH. Originally from Marw, he travelled extensively between Egypt and Kashghar, luring people into error and misleading the ignorant, until matters reached their well-known outcome. He was deeply versed in philosophy and engineering, exceedingly deceitful and crafty, and remarkably shrewd. May Allah never bless him.”