page_title: Abu Tahir al-Jannabi
section_title: Invasion of Mecca
hierarchical_section_title: Abu Tahir al-Jannabi / Invasion of Mecca
caption_attribution_description: English: Engraving of Mecca
context_page_description: Abu Tahir Sulayman al-Jannabi was an Iranian warlord and the ruler of the Qarmatian state in Bahrayn, who in 930 led the sacking of Mecca.
  A younger son of Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, the founder of the Qarmatian state, Abu Tahir became leader of the state in 923, after ousting his older brother Abu'l-Qasim Sa'id. He immediately began an expansionist phase, raiding Basra that year. He raided Kufa in 927, defeating an Abbasid army in the process, and threatened the Abbasid capital Baghdad in 928 before pillaging much of Iraq when he could not gain entry to the city.
  In 930, he led the Qarmatians' most notorious attack when he pillaged Mecca and desecrated Islam's most sacred sites. Unable to gain entry to the city initially, Abu Tahir called upon the right of all Muslims to enter the city and gave his oath that he came in peace. Once inside the city walls the Qarmatian army set about massacring the pilgrims, taunting them with verses of the Koran as they did so. The bodies of the pilgrims were left to rot in the streets or thrown down the Well of Zamzam. The Kaaba was looted, with Abū Tāhir taking personal possession of the Black Stone and taking it away to al-Hasa.
context_section_description: In 930, Abu Tahir led the Qarmatians' most infamous attack when he pillaged Mecca and desecrated Islam's most sacred sites. Unable to gain entry to the city initially, he called upon the right of all Muslims to enter the city and gave his oath that he came in peace. Once inside the city walls the Qarmatian army set about massacring the pilgrims, riding their horses into Masjid al-Haram and charging the praying pilgrims. While killing pilgrims, he was taunting them with verses of the Koran as they did so, and verses of poetry: "I am by God, and by God I am ... he creates creation, and I destroy them". 
  Their victims allegedly numbered around some thirty thousand. The bodies of the pilgrims were left to rot in the streets, or thrown down the Well of Zamzam, filling it. The Kaaba was looted, houses were plundered, slaves seized. Abū Tāhir and his army removed the Black Stone and took it away to al-Hasa.  For 21 years, it was in his possession, and it is reported that he daily desecrated it with urine.
  The attack on Mecca symbolized the Qarmatians' break with the Sunni world; it was believed to have been aimed to prompt the appearance of the Mahdi who would bring about the final cycle of the world and end the era of Islam.
caption: Abu Tahir desecrated Islam's holiest site after gaining entry (Mecca circa 1778)
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