A STUDY ON THE CLAİMS THAT THE FATİMİD CALİPHS WERE DESCENDANTS OF MAİMUN AL-QADDAH
FÂTIMÎ HALİFELERİNİN MEYMÛN EL-KADDÂH’IN SOYUNDAN OLDUĞU İDDİALARI ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA
Abstract
The founding leader of the Fatimid dynasty is Ubaydullah al-Mahdi. The Fatimids accepted Ismailism as the official sect. According to Shiite sources, the lineage of the Fatimids goes back to Muhammad ibn Ja‘far al-Sadiq, that is, they are from the Shiite sect and descend from the doughter of the Prophet (pbuh) Hazrat Fatima and Hazrat Ali. However, some Sunni sources denied this lineage and attributed the Fatimids to Maimun al-Qaddah, who they said was Zoroastrian and Jewish origin. With this, the Sunnis wanted to say that the caliphate of the Fatimids was invalid. According to the official doctrine accepted by the Fatimids, the lineage of the eleventh imam, Ubaydullah al-Mahdi, goes back to Hazrat Fatima through Muhammad ibn Ismail. Sunni sources viewed Ismailism as one of the extreme Shiite sects founded in Damascus by Maimun al-Qaddah. It did not take long for the Ismaili invitation to be carried to the east. The Ismailis managed to establish authority in the Maghreb and Ubaydullah al-Mahdi declared his state in 296/909 AH. After the Ismaili State moved from Maghreb to Egypt, it took the name Fatimids. The Fatimids made Cairo their new capital. The Fatimid State continued its existence for approximately three hundred years. It is a historical fact that the Fatimids attributed themselves to the lineage of Hazrat Fatima. The discussion of the legitimacy of the Fatimid State based on lineage and the different views on the identities of Maimun al-Qaddah and his son Abdullah are seen as a problem. This situation stemmed from the fact that the Fatimids avoided revealing their lineage throughout their rule and deliberately concealed the names of their imams during the period when they adopted the principle of concealing the imam. The issue is still being debated. The Fatimids emerged during the Abbasid period. The Fatimids became an independent caliphate state and the main rival of the Abbasids. This situation made the Abbasids, who held the caliphate, uneasy. The Abbasids viewed the Fatimids as rebels trying to take over a region of the state. The Abbasids thought that they could solve the problem by ostracizing the Fatimid lineage. Caliph Qadir-Billāh gathered Sunni and Shiite clerics in Baghdad and a declaration was signed at the meeting stating that the Fāṭimids’ lineage claims based on Hazrat Fatima were not authentic. In the study, descriptive and analytical approach methods were followed and a series of findings were reached. The findings of the article include the following: Maimun al-Qaddah was a freed slave and one of the faithful men of the contemporary Ahl al-Bayt imams. It is not possible to say that Maimun al-Qaddah is the ancestor of the Fatimids. The Ismaili invitation was made in the name of Muhammad ibn Ismail. The purpose of the article is to dispel some of the myths and misinformation about the Fatimids and provide the correct context. In the research, the genealogy of the Fatimid caliphs and the role of the father and son Qaddahs in the first Ismailism movement will be tried to be illuminated within the framework of classical and modern studies. The two sides of the story, Sunni and Shiite views, will be synthesized with new analyses in the light of the sources accessed, and diffrent views and interpretations will be presented objectively.
Keywords
The History of Islamic Sects, Ismailism, The First Ismailism Movement, Genealogy of the Fatimids, Maimun al-Qaddah.
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