Baghdad Manifesto

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The Baghdad Manifesto was a polemical tract issued in 1011 on behalf of the Abbasid caliph al-Qadir against the rival Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate.

Background[]

The manifesto was the result of the steady expansion of the Fatimid Caliphate since its establishment in the early 10th century, and the continued activity of the pro-Fatimid Isma'ili missionary movement (da'wa) across the Middle East. In 1010/11, the da'wa scored a significant success when the Shi'a Uqaylids, who ruled Mosul, Mada'in, Kufa, and other towns close to the Abbasid capital of Baghdad, publicly recognized the suzerainty of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim by having the khutba read in his name. They were soon followed by the Banu Asad tribe, also resident in Iraq.[1]

This expansion of Fatimid influence to the very doorstep of Baghdad alarmed the Abbasid caliph al-Qadir, who launched a series of counter-moves. In the same year, he successfully forced the Uqaylid ruler to return to recognizing Abbasid suzerainty by threatening to attack him otherwise.[2]

Manifesto[]

He then called an assembly of leading Sunni and Twelver Shi'a scholars, including several esteemed Alids. The assembly issued a manifesto denouncing the Fatimids' claims of descent from Ali and the Ahl al-Bayt (the family of Muhammad) as false, and thus challenge the foundation of the Fatimid dynasty's claims to leadership in the Islamic world.[2][3]

Based on the work of the earlier anti-Fatimid polemicists and Akhu Muhsin, the manifesto instead put forth an alternative genealogy of descent from a certain Daysan ibn Sa'id.[4] The document was ordered read in mosques throughout the Abbasid territories, and al-Qadir commissioned a number of theologians to compose further anti-Fatimid tracts.[2] The manifesto and its list of signatories were reproduced by multiple medieval sources,[5] and during the early 20th century, due to the lack of sources that were not made available until later decades, it was used as a principal source on the origins and early history of the Fatimids.[3]

References[]

  1. ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 184–185.
  2. ^ a b c Daftary 2007, p. 185.
  3. ^ a b Jiwa 2018, p. 22.
  4. ^ Daftary 2007, pp. 101–102, 185.
  5. ^ cf. Jiwa 2018, pp. 23–24

Sources[]

  • Daftary, Farhad (2007). The Ismāʿ��̄lı̄s: Their History and Doctrines (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-61636-2.
  • Jiwa, Shainool (2018). "The Baghdad Manifesto (402/1011): A Re-examination of Fatimid-Abbasid Rivalry". In Daftary, Farhad; Jiwa, Shainool (eds.). The Fatimid Caliphate: Diversity of Traditions. London and New York: I.B.Tauris, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies. pp. 22–79. ISBN 978-1-78831-133-5.
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