The Qarmatians

The Qaramita are a branch of the Batiniyya whose power grew at the end of the third century and the beginning of the fourth AH, according to Ibn al-Jawzi in al-Muntazam. ²

Ibn al-Jawzi says that the Batiniyya were given titles, among them the Ismailis, after Isma'il ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq; the Batiniyya, because they claim that the outward meanings of the Qur'an and the reports have inner meanings; and the Qaramita, the Harmiyya, the Babakiyya, the Muhammira, the Sab'iyya and the Ta'limiyya. He gives six accounts of why they were called Qaramita, among them that the first to make them known was Muhammad al-Warraq al-Muqarmis al-Kufi, and another that they had a leader from the peasants of the Nabateans called Qarmat. ²

He says that they enticed people with what suited each group, and instructed their missionaries not to speak to a scholar but to the ignorant. ³

He transmits the chain of their leaders and says that they supported one another in the days of al-Mu'tasim, and that Ubayd Allah ibn Maymun was their head. This is Ibn al-Jawzi's account, and no other views are added here; a second source is needed. ⁴