they were cut down all the same; some were performing ṭawāf (the circumambulation) and were slain in the very act. One of the ḥadith scholars happened to be making ṭawāf that day. When he had completed his circuits, the swords overtook him, and as he fell (1) to the ground he recited:
You see the lovers lying slain in their own land—
Like the Companions of the Cave, not knowing how long they have tarried.
The Qarmatian (2) then ordered that the dead be thrown into the Well of Zamzam; many were left buried where they had fallen throughout the sanctuary, even inside the Sacred Mosque. Blessed indeed was that death and that resting-place (3). They were neither washed, shrouded, nor prayed over, for they were muḥrimūn (pilgrims in a state of consecration), martyrs in truth and among the choicest of martyrs (4).
He demolished the dome over Zamzam, ordered the door of the Kaʿbah to be torn away, stripped off its kiswah (ceremonial covering) and divided it among his men. He told a man to climb up to the Kaʿbah’s waterspout (mizāb) and wrench it out; the man attempted it but fell head-first and died—may Allah curse him; he went to his “mother,” the Abyss. At that, the accursed leader desisted from the waterspout, but he next commanded that the Black Stone be uprooted.
One of his followers struck the Stone with a heavy mallet and cried, “Where are the birds of Abābīl? Where are the stones of baked clay?” They then removed the Black Stone—may Allah honor and exalt it—and carried it off to their land. It remained with them for twenty-two years, until they returned it, as we shall relate under the year 339 AH. Truly, to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.
As he headed home, the Emir of Mecca pursued him with his household and soldiers, pleading with him and interceding that the Black Stone (5) be restored to its place, offering him all the wealth he possessed. He refused. The Emir fought him, but the Qarmatian killed the Emir, most of his family, and his troops, then went on—may Allah curse him—bearing the Stone and the pilgrims’ treasures.
This accursed man (6) committed in the Sacred Mosque a profanation unmatched before or after him, and He who has said, “None punishes as He will punish, and none binds as He will bind” (al-Fajr 89:25–26) will surely requite him.
What drove these people to such deeds was their unbelief and heresy. They were also in league with the Fatimids who had recently arisen in Ifriqiyah in the Maghrib. Their leader styled himself al-Mahdi; he was Abū Muḥammad ʿUbayd Allah ibn Maymun al-Qaddaḥ, once a dyer in Salamiyyah (7) and, it is said (8), originally a Jew who claimed to have embraced Islam. He then left that town and went