in the year 317 AH (1), when the commander of the Two Iraqs was Mansur the Daylamite, and Mecca was reeking with the corpses of the slain (2).

Al-Marāghī said: Abu ʿAbd Allah ibn Muharram—who had been al-Muqtadir’s envoy to the Qarmatian—narrated to us: “After several rounds of discussion I asked him how he could deem lawful what he had done in Mecca. He produced the Stone wrapped in brocade; when it was uncovered I pronounced the takbīr and demonstrated to them, with great ceremony, the veneration and quest for blessing it commands. The Qarmatians were bewitched by Abu Ṭāhir, for his father had once taken him alone and shown him treasures that he had buried.

“When Abu Ṭāhir came to power he would say, ‘There is a treasure here,’ and they would dig and find money, which only deepened their fascination with him. On one occasion he said, ‘I want to dig a spring here.’ They replied, ‘No water will flow,’ but he went against them and water did gush forth, so their misguidance about him increased and they said, ‘He is a god.’ Others declared, ‘He is the Messiah,’ while yet others claimed, ‘A prophet.’

“He defeated the armies of Baghdad more than once and grew insolent and rebellious.

“Muhammad ibn Razzām al-Kūfī told me: Ibn Ḥamdan the physician related, ‘I was staying in al-Qaṭīf treating a patient when a man said to me, “Allah has appeared.” I went out and saw people rushing to Abu Ṭāhir’s residence. He was about twenty years old, a handsome youth wearing a yellow turban and yellow robe, mounted on a dapple-grey horse, with his brothers around him. He shouted:

“Whoever knows me, knows me; whoever does not, I am Abu Ṭāhir Sulaymān ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Ḥasan al-Jannābī. Know that we—and you—were mere donkeys, but Allah has favored us with this,” and he pointed to a beardless lad. “This is our Lord and our God, and we are all His servants.”

‘The people scooped up dust and placed it on their heads.

‘Abu Ṭāhir then proclaimed: “The true religion has now appeared; it is the faith of our father Adam. Everything the missionaries conveyed to you is false—any mention of Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad; they are impostors. And this lad is Abu al-Faḍl the Magian…”’