May Allah disgrace him. He then gained mastery over their affairs, revived the Qarmaṭian doctrine among them, and they answered his call, gathered around him, and he assumed full command over them, becoming the very figure indicated among them (1).
He was originally from a locality in that region called Jannaba, and we shall later relate what befell him and his followers.
Ibn al-Jawzi says in al-Muntaẓam (2):
“Among the wondrous events of this year is what I transmit with my chain: A woman came before the judge of Rayy and claimed from her husband her dower (mahr) of five hundred dinars. He denied the claim, so she produced witnesses who testified on her behalf. The witnesses said, ‘We wish her to unveil her face so that we may know whether she is indeed the wife or not.’ When they persisted in this demand, the husband said, ‘Do not do so; she is truthful in what she claims,’ and he acknowledged her claim so as to protect his wife from having her face exposed. The woman thereupon said, ‘Since he wished this, he is absolved of my dower in this world and the hereafter.’ ”
Among the eminent figures who died in this year were:
• Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā, Abū Saʿīd al-Kharraz, as reported by our shaykh al-Dhahabī (3). Ibn al-Jawzi (4) dated his death to 277 AH; Allah knows best.
• Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abān (5), Abū Yaʿqūb al-Nakhaʿī al-Aḥmar, after whom the Shīʿī sect known as the “Isḥāqiyya” is named. Ibn al-Nawbakhtī (6), al-Khaṭīb, and Ibn al-Jawzi report that this man believed ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib to be divine, that the divinity then passed to al-Ḥasan and thereafter to al-Ḥusayn, and that he would manifest himself in every age. A multitude of simpletons followed him in this blasphemy—may Allah disgrace him and them.
He was called “al-Aḥmar” (“the Red”) because he suffered from leprosy and used to cover the affected skin with a dye that changed its color. Al-Nawbakhtī records for him statements of monstrous unbelief—may Allah curse him. He also transmitted a few anecdotes and witticisms from al-Māzinī and his contemporaries, but a person such as he is far too insignificant and contemptible to merit narration.