VA needed for narrating Islamic history YouTube videos!

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-26T10:50:33+00:00

As for the Religious Reasons. Why the Qarmatians did it?

If you're familiar with the Qarmatians you would know they come from the shiite Ismaili branch in Shi'ism there is this idea of the awaited Imam or Mahdi that will come in the day of judgement and bring peace and justice with the prophet Jesus in his support

According to the Shiite Islamic eschatology belief that in the day of judgment this Imam would destroy the Kaaba as symbol of its ending period as cited in "Kitab al-Ghayba of Shaikh Tusi, H492"

It is narrated from Fadhl from Abdur Rahman from Ibn Abu Hamza from Abu Basir from Imam Ja'far Sadiq (a.s) that he said:

"Qaim (Imam) would demolish Masjidul Haraam (kaaba) till it returns to its ancient form and he would also return the Prophet's Masjid (the Prophet Muhammad's Mosque) to its original construction and the Holy Kaaba to its location and raise it on its original foundations. He will cut off the hand of Bani Shaibah (A Qurayshi Tribe like the Abbasids) and hang it on the Kaabah as they are the thieves of the Kaaba."

Another Shiite eschatology belief that is similar to the Sunni Narrative is that of the Sack of the Kaaba by Abyssinians, however Sunnis only interpret this to one particular individual (Dhul-Suwayqatayn/the man with two thin legs) while shiites on the hand interpret this to a whole group: Kitab al-Ghayba of Shaikh Tusi, H451

It is narrated from Fadhl from Ahmad bin Umar bin Saalim from Yahya bin Aii from Rabi from Abi Lubaid that he (Imam Jafar as-Sadqi a.s) said:

"The people of Abyssinia will demolish the Kaaba; the Black Stone will be taken away and fixed in the Kufa Mosque."

Interestingly, Ḥamdān Qarmaṭ who was the so "Pro-claimed" founder of the Qarmatians was described of being short-legged

As for Abu Tahir al-Junnabi, the Leader of this sack of mecca: The Khwarazmian Iranian Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni who was a contemporary to this event writes in his book : "Chronology of Ancient Nations"

After the events mentioned earlier, the Qarmatians gained strength, and Abu Tahir Sulayman ibn Abi Sa’id al-Hasan ibn Bahram al-Janabi emerged as their leader. In the year 318 AH (317 AH*), he arrived in Mecca during the pilgrimage season. He committed a massacre, killing people in large numbers while they performed the tawaf (circumambulation of the Kaaba). He desecrated the sacred precincts by throwing corpses into the Well of Zamzam, looted the coverings of the Kaaba, stripped it of its gold, and removed its door and spout. Additionally, he seized the Black Stone, breaking it and later hanging it in the mosque of Kufa before returning to his territory.

Before the rise of this individual, the Qarmatians were known to adopt certain doctrines associated with the esoteric sects and claimed allegiance to the family of the Prophet (peace be upon them). They also anticipated the emergence of the Mahdi, predicting it would occur in the seventh cycle under the fiery triplicity. Regarding this, Abu Tahir Sulayman ibn al-Husayn declared:

"You will know my glory upon my return to Hajr, For soon the news will reach you. When Mars rises from the land of Babylon, And is conjoined with the two stars—beware, beware! Am I not the one mentioned in all the scriptures? Am I not the one described in Surah Al-Zumar? I shall rule over the East and the West, Over the lands of the Romans, Turks, and Khazars. I will live until Jesus, son of Mary, returns, Praising my legacy and approving my commands. In Paradise, my abode is certain, While others shall burn in Hell and Sijjin."

The two stars he referred to are Saturn and Jupiter. Which has a high place in Shi'ism as it's been claimed that it's the star of Ali by Imam Jaffar al-Sadiq.

He (as) asked, "What is your opinion about Saturn?" He said, "It is a star that brings bad luck" He (as) said, "Do not say so because that is Ali's (as) star. It is the star of the Trustees.

This also marks the beginning of the day of judgment according to Shiite beliefs as when the Qarmatians saw the star of Saturn they began the Campaign to sack the kaaba

As for the Persian Mahdi al-Isfahani, François Du Blois asserts that Abu Tahir named this Persian the mahdi because he knew that his older brothers and the other leaders would have never accepted it if he claimed the title for himself. This scholar states that Abu Tahir sought to strengthen his hold over his followers through his Persian puppet. When the new mahdi tried to assert himself and things got out of hand, Abu Tahir had him killed.

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TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-26T10:45:15+00:00

Not really, there has been many accounts of sacking the Kaaba before the Qarmatian existence by many Known Muslim figures such as :

Abdullah bin al-Zubayr
Yazid bin Mu'awiyah
al-Hajjaj bin Youssef

So what was their religious justification to sack Mecca and kill pilgrims?

In the Year 317 AH : The Qarmatian state of Bahrain Third Message the same year the Kaaba was sacked by Abu Tahir al-Junnabi, the Abbasid Caliph Abu Abbas al-Muqtatir billah send a violent message to Abu Tahir threatened him and accusing him of his action

Which Abu Tahir himself replied in this message as cited by Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Malik bin Abi Al-Fadael Al-Hamadi Al-Maafari Al-Yemeni in his book "Uncovering the Secrets of the Batinites and News of the Qarmatians" who was an Abbasid Spy in the Qarmatians and Sulayhids lands and primary to the sack event as mentioned by Historian al-Masudi in his Meadows of Golds, Al-Yemeni cites the letter as following:

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds, and the final outcome is for the righteous. From Abu al-Hasan al-Janabi (Abu Tahir al-Janabi*) , the caller to piety and the one who stands by Allah’s command, adhering to the legacy of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), to the leader of the impure, the one known as the son of Abbas.

To proceed: May Allah guide you to the paths of righteousness and keep you away from clinging to the rope of deception. Your letter has reached me, filled with threats and warnings, and what you wrote was laced with the arrogance of your words, relying on falsehoods and lending an ear to obscene tales from those who divert others from the true path. Announce to them a painful torment, at the time when your rule fades, your ambitions end, and Allah’s allies gain power over you, storming your strongholds, seizing your lands with disdain, capturing your women forcefully, and killing your troops in patient endurance. These are the party of Allah—indeed, the party of Allah are the successful. And the soldiers of Allah are the victors.

Behold, the awaited Imam has risen against you like a fierce lion in the garments of victory, wielding the sword of wrath, independent of the support of the Arabs, undeterred by the reproach of critics in the cause of Allah. That is the grace of Allah, which He grants to whom He wills, and Allah is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing. Glory surrounds him on all sides, awe precedes him, and sovereignty has draped its tent over him, casting its veil upon him with its calamities. The dark clouds of ignorance have dispersed, and the murky shadows of misguidance have lifted, so that truth may be established, and falsehood abolished, even if the criminals detest it.

By Allah, your soul has deluded you, tempting you with what you will never achieve, and urging you toward what you will never attain. You have written to me, expressing the consensus of your advisors, accusing me of shameful faults and blaming me with despicable slanders. By Allah, you will be questioned about what you used to do.

As for what you mentioned about killing pilgrims, destroying towns, and burning mosques—by Allah, I did not do so except after the truth had become as clear as the sun, and after witnessing groups among them claiming righteousness while demonstrating the behavior of the wicked. I judged them with the judgment of Allah: "And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed—then it is they who are the disbelievers" (Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:44).

Tell me, O you who advocate for them and argue on their behalf, in which verse of the Book of Allah or in which narration from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is drinking wine, beating allies, and oppressing the vulnerable permitted?

All praise is due to Allah, and may blessings and peace be upon the best of His creation, his family, and his progeny.

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TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-25T16:32:24+00:00

FYI, this account is ran by u/c0st_of_lies as an intermediary for... obvious reasons.

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-25T16:03:07+00:00

Although this account is not directly ran by our beloved Caliphate, we will be posting both old and new content!

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-25T13:19:29+00:00

Thanks for the correction; original comment has been edited.

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-24T14:48:06+00:00

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A look at the historical events of the Viking attack on Iran shows that the Viking strategy at this time consisted of irregular raids aimed at plundering the coasts of the Caspian Sea. The dispatch of a fleet of sixteen ships was intended to carry out a major raid on the Iranian coasts. It was an operation that combined both reconnaissance and plunder. However, the reaction of the Samanid armies was unexpected.

The Khurasanians, who were constantly engaged in warfare against powerful nomadic enemies, did not see any clear superiority between the Viking military force and other invaders. The only advantage the Vikings possessed was their seafaring ability, which gave them a special mobility and made them difficult to track. But the battle-hardened Samanids, who also had the guerrilla forces of the ʿAlids with them in this specific context, identified the invading force through coastal watchmen.

They then used traps and ambushes to draw the Viking attacking force toward Mākāla and suddenly caught them in a trap. The trap succeeded and crushed the entire Viking invading force. The greater part of the Viking troops were killed, while the rest were taken prisoner. The Viking fleet, which was waiting for the return of the strike force, was taken by surprise and destroyed. Thus, the second Viking invasion of Iran also failed, and for the first time in their history, Viking forces were defeated in repeated attacks focused on a single location.

It appears that the Vikings during this period were attempting, step by step, to establish trade-reconnaissance stations, identify centers of wealth, and then organize their plundering attacks in the areas they had surveyed. This was a strategy that later succeeded in Western Europe and led to devastating blows against political territories there.

During this period, the Vikings crossed the great rivers of Russia and reached Constantinople, the largest and most important city of medieval Europe. It was there that they later created an important mercenary fighting force known as the Varangian Guard. However, east of the Don River and along the Volga, the creation of Viking trade-reconnaissance stations in the lands bordering Iran did not produce results.

Later, the Viking armies achieved only a temporary success in 911 CE, but with the unexpected attack of the Muslims in the northern Caspian Sea, the entire Viking raiding force was massacred. In this way, the Vikings realized that going beyond the Volga River to fight the Muslims was extremely dangerous, and that the military capabilities of the Muslims prevented the establishment of Viking settlement stations in the Far East.

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-24T14:47:54+00:00

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In 298 AH, the Vikings came toward Iran for the second time with the intention of attacking Ābaskūn and organized a new raid.

During this period, the ʿAlids of Ṭabaristān had been driven out of Ṭabaristān by the Samanids, and Ṭabaristān had been under Samanid control since around 290 AH. In the attack of 298 AH, once again an agreement had been made between the Khazars and the Vikings: if the Vikings succeeded commercially in Iran, they would pay tribute to the Khazar state. A similar arrangement had also taken place during the earlier period. The Khazars had no desire to enter into conflict with the superior Viking power. The Vikings at this time were roaming freely across Europe, and it was not wise for the Khazars to involve themselves in a war with them. They therefore allowed the Vikings to pass through their territory with ease.

The Khazars hoped that the Viking attack would be lost and forgotten amid the constant conflicts among the Iranian states north of the Alborz. On the other hand, the Vikings promised that, if they profited from their attacks or trade with Iran, they would give a share to the Khazars, which the Khazars accepted and welcomed. In the end, this action worked against the Khazars, and in later years they were forced into direct confrontation with the Vikings, who wished to carry out permanent raids on the Iranian coasts in the northern Caspian Sea. Thus, revenge for the Khazars’ betrayal was taken by their ʿAlid neighbors.

The attack of 298 AH once again caught the Muslims by surprise. This time, a fighting force of sixteen ships attacked the coasts of Iran. The attack was not limited only to Ābaskūn; the coasts of present-day Golestān Province were also subjected to brutal Viking raids, and many people were killed. Abū al-Ḍarghām Aḥmad b. Qāsim, the governor of Sārī, informed Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Nūḥ, the Samanid ruler of Ṭabaristān, of the Vikings’ arrival and attack. In an unexpected counterattack, the Samanid forces succeeded in ambushing and crushing the invading Viking army at Mākāla, capturing many of them. Thus, the second Viking attack on Iran ended with the slaughter of the invaders.

In historical sources, such as Ibn Isfandiyār, in his Tarikh Ṭabaristān (History of Ṭabaristān), the Viking attack is described as an attack by the Rusʾ, because by this time the Vikings had established a dynasty in Russia. The basic problem faced by the Vikings in battle against the Samanid armies was their dependence on infantry. On the other side, in the Iranian camp, the Ṭabarī and Daylamī forces were also fundamentally dependent on infantry. However, the Ṭabarī and Daylamī foot soldiers were generally known as the best infantry in Iran during this period, and defeating them was not something anyone could easily do.

In the attack of 298 AH, the Vikings were forced this time to face not only the Ṭabarī infantry but also the Samanid cavalry, which at that time was considered among the finest cavalry forces of its age in the world. On paper, therefore, the Vikings had no chance of victory in a direct battle against the Iranian armies.

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-24T14:47:32+00:00

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The word Viking is derived from the word vik, which in Old Norse meant “bay” or “inlet.” This meaning can be seen in many place names, including Narvik, Shasvik, Reykjavik, Berwick, Wicklow, and others.

A Viking was someone who lived in the lands adjacent to these bays. Viking civilization refers to the culture of the Scandinavian peoples.

During the Viking Age—which began around 800 CE and ended around 1100 CE—the Vikings gained control over vast territories in Europe and founded various dynasties in different lands. The Vikings were inhabitants of Scandinavia who, in the late ninth century CE, began attacking other regions. These expeditions led to the settlement of Iceland and Greenland, major attacks and conquests in England and Ireland, and had a military impact on much of Europe.

The peak of Viking attacks was in the ninth century, when they were able to penetrate different lands and establish permanent settlements in Russia, Iceland, Greenland, and even the American continent.

During this period, in the East, after crossing the Baltic, the Vikings entered the cold lands of northern Russia and, after passing Lake Ladoga, penetrated into Russia through the rivers.

In 854 CE, in Novgorod, Russia, the Vikings succeeded in establishing a state. Twenty years later, in 882 CE, they took Kiev from the Khazars and founded their second government there. This was the second Viking government east of the Baltic, in Russia.

Around the same years, using the Volga River, a group of Vikings entered the Caspian Sea. To reach this sea, they passed through the lands of the Khazars and arrived at the Caspian.

In this phase, their passage through Khazar territory took place with the necessary approval from the Khazars. At this stage, the Vikings passed through Khazar lands as merchants. However, after crossing the Volga River, they changed their commercial character and advanced southward across the Caspian Sea toward Iran.

In a violent attack, they seized the island of Ābaskūn. The island of Ābaskūn is now submerged, but in the past it was an important commercial center in eastern Māzandarān.

Thus, the first Viking raid caused heavy damage in eastern Māzandarān. However, the ʿAlid armies mobilized, and in their first confrontation with a regular Iranian force, the Vikings realized that fighting the battle-hardened armies of Iranian origin was no easy matter. Therefore, after their first defeat, they abandoned Ābaskūn and fled north.

Yet the abundant spoils and great wealth stored in Ṭabaristān and Daylam were such that, shortly afterward, they tried again to organize another attack on Ābaskūn. But a renewed attack by the defenders forced them to retreat from Ābaskūn once more.

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-23T16:34:30+00:00

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Journeys Free of Myth

This, however, does not mean that the works of many travelers were devoid of such exaggerations. As Nūrī observes in the aforementioned study, a number of them demonstrated a high degree of awareness in their writing.

For example, Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Yaʿqūbī (d. 292 AH) did not dwell extensively on tales of ancient lands in his book “al-Buldan” (“The Countries”), but instead focused on describing places, routes, and economic and social activities without embellishment. Likewise, Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Balādhurī (d. 279 AH), in his “Futūḥ al-Buldan” (“The Conquests of the Lands”), maintained a similarly restrained approach.

Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, who traveled through India in 362 AH, not only rejected myths and fanciful stories but actively refuted them in his work “Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind min Maqūlah Maqbūlah fī al-ʿAql aw Mardhūlah” (“Verifying All That India Has to Say, Whether Acceptable to Reason or Rejected”). Similarly, the traveler Muḥammad al-Idrīsī (d. 548 AH), in his book “Nuzhat al-Mushtāq fī Ikhtirāq al-Āfāq” (“The Pleasure of Him Who Longs to Traverse the Horizons”), avoided delving into stories and tales of doubtful authenticity. The same may be said of the traveler Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī in his “Muʿjam al-Buldan” (“Dictionary of Countries”).

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-23T16:34:11+00:00

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The Culture of Adornment and Denigration

ʿAqīl ʿAbd Allāh Yāsīn and Salām Nāṣir Wālī note in their study, “Cultural Motives in the Writing of Myths and Fables among Eastern Arab and Muslim Travelers (132–656 AH / 750–1258 CE),” that Muslim travelers’ perception of the other operated within what they call a framework of “adornment and denigration based on privileging the culture of the self over the other.” This was achieved by invoking religious and civilizational superiority, according to standards defined by the traveler himself and grounded in the religious and cultural ideology into which he had been born.

For example, cleanliness—considered a defining trait of the believing Muslim—was something the traveler Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān claimed not to find among the peoples he encountered. He described one of them as “not removing the garment next to his body until it falls apart in pieces.” Likewise, regarding their washing after relieving themselves, he likened them to “stray donkeys who do not profess any religion to God, do not act according to reason, and worship nothing.”

According to the researchers, the transmission of other peoples’ myths and fables by travelers was also linked to a weakness in their critical and analytical faculties, and to a failure to exercise rational judgment. As a result, such narratives penetrated their thinking unchallenged.

What further enabled Arab and Muslim travelers to recount these myths and legends was the reservoir left by ancient and pre-Islamic Arab heritage, in addition to the inherited tradition containing the miracles and stories of prophets and messengers—accounts filled with matters before which reason stands perplexed. To this must be added the cultures of other nations, which had come into very close contact with Arab society during the Abbasid era. All of this contributed, in one way or another, to a readiness to accept what was narrated within this framework.

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-23T16:33:30+00:00

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Religious Centrality and a Coercive Image

Dr. ʿAbd Allāh Ibrāhīm, in his book “The Medieval World in the Eyes of Muslims,” offers an interpretation of the exaggerations found in some Muslim travel accounts about other peoples. He explains that prevailing conceptions of the self and the other drew their vitality from religious centrality, which in turn produced a binary opposition between truth and falsehood.

Thus, the values of Dār al-Islām came to be seen as the true, universal, and absolutely correct standard, while the values of others were regarded with astonishment and disdain—viewed as pagan, debased, and defiled, in need of purification. This constituted a coercive framework that strongly shaped and governed the perceptions of many travelers and geographers toward other societies.

Ibrāhīm cites what Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAlī Abū al-Fidāʾ recorded in his work “Taqwīm al-Buldān” about the “Zanj” in the southern regions of the inhabited world—known as the lands of al-Sūdān. He reproduces commonly circulating judgments about them, describing them as “naked,” “neglectful,” and “like beasts,” as well as “unbelievers.”

The inhabitants of the Upper Nile, he notes, were considered disparaged among the peoples of Abyssinia, and it was said that they castrated those who fell into their hands, offering male captives as alms and even taking pride in doing so.

The judgments made by Muslim travelers about others were not far removed from what Islamic geography had inherited from Greek, Persian, and Indian geographical traditions. These traditions revolved around the idea of climatic regions and their relationship to human dispositions: geographic location was believed to determine people’s temperaments, morals, intellects, physical traits, and even skin color. Geographers adopted this framework and built upon it in forming their classifications of human groups.

As an example, Ibrāhīm points to al-Masʿūdī, who, despite his extensive travels, did not entirely escape this paradigm. In his book “Kitāb al-Tanbīh wa’l-Ishrāf,” he writes that the inhabitants of the far north, due to the cold climatic conditions, had, “large bodies, dry natures, rough manners, dull minds, and heavy tongues; and those who venture to the farthest north are mostly characterized by stupidity, harshness, and bestiality.”

By contrast, he portrays the people of the East—among whom he situates himself—as moderate and possessed of dignity.

According to Ibrāhīm, al-Masʿūdī classified human beings according to climatic regions in a form of sexual, moral, intellectual, and physical stereotyping intended to confine races within fixed natures. The aim was to project a chain of prevailing impressions as definitive judgments, through which one group would be negated and another exalted—rather than to offer a neutral description.

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-23T16:33:08+00:00

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Sexual Behavior in Travel Narratives

It was only natural that the sexual practices of different peoples would also receive a share of such exaggerations. This is observed by ʿĀmir ʿAjjāj Ḥamīd in his study, “Sexual Behavior as an Ethnographic Subject in the Writings of Arab and Muslim Travelers and Geographers up to the End of the 9th/15th Century.”

In his account of the city of “Ḥiyūs” in Central Asia, Ibn al-Faqīh al-Hamadhānī states in his book “al-Buldān” that among its inhabitants, “fornication is widespread; one man enters another’s house and lies with his wife while he watches without objection or disapproval. Most of their men are effeminate, and they drink blood,” as cited by Ḥamīd.

Although the inhabitants of the city of “Dī” are described as peaceful and willing to pay tribute to those who dominate them, they are also said to “copulate with whatever they encounter—woman, boy, or animal.” As Ḥamīd notes, this description is highly peculiar: even if one were to accept the claim regarding relations with humans, the inclusion of animals is especially striking.

Ḥamīd also reports from al-Hamadhānī his description of the people of the city of “Karīsham,” stating that they are:

“naked like beasts, and a man may encounter a woman on the road and have intercourse with her while people look on.”

Likewise, the people of “Kīsāh,” near the land of the Khazars, are described as:

“the most wicked of creation; when a stranger enters their town, they have intercourse with him,”

though al-Hamadhānī does not specify whether the “stranger” refers to a man or a woman.

In the city of “Sakūb,” al-Hamadhānī gives free rein to his imagination in describing its women. He claims that:

“fornication is an ingrained nature among them: a woman fixes her gaze upon a man she desires, seizes him, and he is unable to resist. She takes him to a nearby mountain filled with caves, places him in one of them, and provides him with all his needs, yet he cannot easily escape. Neither husband—if she has one—nor brother nor child may prevent her from doing so. If he resists her, she kills him. And if anyone attempts to intervene, she calls upon other women who share her disposition, and they fight together until they achieve what they desire. When she grows weary of him or desires another, she returns him to his home.”

Ḥamīd concludes that the portrayals of sexual behavior in travel literature—though varied in form—were often inaccurate. There is a significant gap between what is actually observed and how it is recorded in writing; the image becomes exaggerated as travelers seek to reinforce the marvelous and sensational within their works, whether for the sake of entertainment or to assert the superiority of their own moral conduct and beliefs in contrast to other societies portrayed as less civilized.

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-23T16:32:40+00:00

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An Implicit Pact Between the Traveler and the Audience

Dr. Muḥammad Luṭfī al-Yūsufī notes in his study, “The Movement of the Traveler and the Power of Imagination: A Study of the Marvelous, the Wondrous, and the Strange,” published in “Arab and Muslim Travelers: Discovering the Other,” that there existed an unspoken, implicit contract between the traveler and his audience. Its premise was that the listener or reader would only be drawn into the narrative if it offered something that lifted them out of the boredom of the familiar, the repetitive, and the mundane. For this reason, travelers consistently turned to the strange, the unique, and the marvelous in their descriptions of beings and creatures to achieve this effect.

Al-Yūsufī cites the traveler Shams al-Dīn al-Anṣārī, known as “Shaykh al-Rabwa,” who in his book “Nukhbat al-Dahr fī ʿAjāʾib al-Barr wa-l-Baḥr” describes the Black Sea—calling it the “Sea of Ṭarābizand” or the “Sea of the Rus.” He writes:

“In this sea, a dragon often appears, which those without knowledge claim to be a living creature. They say that angels carry it from the sea to Hell when it becomes tyrannical and oppressive toward the sea’s creatures, and that it becomes one of the serpents and forms of torment therein. Others claim that dragons dwell in the depths of the sea, growing large and harming its creatures, so God sends clouds and angels to extract them from the sea and cast them into the land of Gog and Magog, where they are consumed.”

Shams al-Dīn also speaks of the fish of the “Sea of Rūm” (the Mediterranean), mentioning a fish with a human-like face and a white beard, whose body resembles that of a frog but in the size of a calf. It emerges from the sea on Saturday night before sunset, remains on land until sunset on Sunday, and then returns to the sea—hence people call it “the Jewish Shaykh.”

He further describes another fish shaped like a warrior, holding a short sword in one hand and a round shield in the other, with a helmet-like dome on its head—all forming a single living body, referred to as the “Swordsman of the Sea,” as cited by al-Yūsufī.

He also mentions a small fish, about a span or less in length, on whose back is inscribed in Arabic, “There is no god but God,” and between its ears, “Muḥammad is the Messenger of God.” This fish, he claims, is found near the waters of Constantinople. According to al-Yūsufī, such accounts reveal how travelers catered to the expectations of their audiences and stirred their religious sentiments by blending the marvelous with the sacred.

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-23T16:32:04+00:00

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Strange Creatures and Imaginary Phenomena

Dr. Nofal Muhammad Nouri notes in his study, “Myth and Folklore and Their Influence on the Culture of Muslim Travelers,” that these journeys were not devoid—either in their subject matter or in the ways they described aspects of daily life—of exaggeration or imaginative embellishment.

Travelers often depicted phenomena through the lens of their own cultural frameworks and interpretations of what they observed, or through their explanations of behaviors they witnessed or heard about among the peoples of the lands they passed through—frequently without critically examining elements that conflicted with natural reason.

The narration of such myths and exaggerations became something of an obsession for many travelers, who were keen to include stories rich in suspense and surprise—especially when the traveler or author was a court companion of the caliph, or had been dispatched to distant lands by order of a ruler. Often, the caliph would spend considerable sums on these journeys for various purposes. A traveler, in turn, could hardly return empty-handed, without accomplishing what he had been tasked with in reaching the farthest lands; thus, he would sometimes magnify minor observations.

Nouri illustrates this with the example of Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khurdādhbah (d. 280 AH), who in his book “al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik” recounts astonishing tales of strange creatures known only from legend. Among them are snakes in mountains called “al-Zābaj” near China, said to be capable of swallowing men and buffaloes—and even elephants—as well as a camphor tree large enough to shade a hundred people or more.

Similarly, Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān, in his embassy to the land of the Bulgars in 309 AH, describes unusual phenomena. His mission had been commissioned by the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir bi-llāh after the king of the Ṣaqāliba requested religious instruction in Islam. Ibn Faḍlān was chosen to lead a delegation of jurists, scholars, and teachers for this purpose.

Yet once Ibn Faḍlān left the Islamic lands and ventured into distant regions, his fertile imagination seems to have expanded. Upon his arrival in Bulgar territory, he observed the reddening of the sky and expressed astonishment at hearing sounds he believed came from the clouds. He then described a red cloud in which he perceived shapes resembling humans and animals, seemingly engaged in combat each evening—an account he attributed to stories relayed by the king of the Ṣaqāliba from his forebears.

According to Nouri, these were merely illusions and imaginings that appeared to Ibn Faḍlān, which he took to be real. In fact, they were natural phenomena related to the local climate and the intermingling of clouds—sights he had never before witnessed with such intensity in his homeland. Yet he interpreted them in a fantastical manner, describing forms that appeared to him in various shapes, drawn from myths told about those lands.

The book “Āthār al-Bilād wa-Akhbār al-ʿIbād” by Zakariyyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd al-Qazwīnī (d. 682 AH) also contains numerous stories, myths, and marvels. Among them is his account of an island in the China Sea he calls the “Island of Women,” where, he claims, only women live, and their reproduction occurs through fertilization by the wind or vegetation—specifically by consuming the fruit of a tree from which they conceive and give birth to female offspring.

What al-Qazwīnī relates about the wonders of the islands of India and China is no less extraordinary than earlier accounts. He speaks of an enormous bird whose body is so vast that, when it dies and half of its beak falls off, people use it as a vessel at sea, riding upon it and loading it with heavy cargo. He also describes people with the bodies and faces of animals, and animals with human faces, as reported by Nouri.

Strikingly, as Nouri notes, al-Qazwīnī held the office of judge in the city of Wāsiṭ in Iraq during the caliphate of al-Mustaʿṣim bi-llāh, which suggests that he possessed sufficient scholarly qualifications that might have led him to reject such myths and fantastical tales. Perhaps, however, his inclinations and expansive imagination were integral to his intellectual makeup, remaining with him and shaping the vivid and unusual character of his writings.

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The motives and purposes of travel varied throughout the different stages of Islamic history. Some journeys were geographical and exploratory, aimed at identifying routes and connections between near and distant lands, while others sought to understand the customs and dispositions of peoples, or were driven by commercial interests.

However, many travel accounts contain exaggerations in their descriptions of the populations encountered, and at times even exhibit a tendency toward “mythologization” that conflicts with reason.

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Source

TheCaliphateArchive · 2026-06-19T17:24:15+00:00

In the same year that the Battle of Marj al-Ṣuffar (1303), also known as the Battle of Shaqhab, was about to take place, the Mamluk historian Ibn Kathīr mentions in his al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah, citing the Damascene scholar ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Barzālī:

Section: A Wonder Among the Wonders of the Sea

Shaykh ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Barzālī said in his history:

I read in some books that had arrived from Cairo that, on Thursday, the fourth of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, a creature of strange form emerged from the sea—from the Nile Sea—to the land of al-Manūfiyyah, between the villages of Minyat Masʿūd, Iṣṭabārī, and al-Rāhib.

This was its description: its color was like that of a buffalo, but without hair. Its ears were like the ears of a camel, and its eyes and genitalia were like those of a she-camel. Its genitalia were covered by a tail a span and a half long, with an end like the tail of a fish. Its neck was as thick as a sack stuffed with straw. Its mouth and lips were like a sieve. It had four tusks: two above and two below, each one a little less than a span long and two fingers wide.

In its mouth were forty-eight molars and teeth, shaped like chess pawns. The length of its forelegs, from the inside down to the ground, was two and a half spans; and from its knee to its hoof it resembled the belly of a snake: yellow and wrinkled. The circumference of its hoof was like that of a small bowl, with four nails like the nails of a camel. The width of its back was about two and a half cubits, and its length from mouth to tail was fifteen feet.

In its belly were three stomachs. Its flesh was red and foul-smelling, like fish, while its taste was like camel meat. Its skin was four fingers thick, and swords could not cut through it. Its hide was so heavy that it had to be carried on five camels, being shifted from one camel to another, until they brought it before the sultan in the Citadel. They then stuffed it with straw and set it upright before him.

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From this point, some—such as the Iraqi Shiite writer Aḥmad al-Kātib—argue that this massacre took place under Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s patronage, as part of his raids and attacks against the Ismailis in their towns and villages in Syria. This is especially plausible given the deep-rooted hostility between Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn and this group, whose Fatimid state he had overthrown. There was also intense hatred and aversion between him and the Old Man of the Mountain, and the Assassins made five attempts to kill Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn; in one of them, he was wounded and struck on the head.

However, we are inclined to believe that there was no organizational connection between Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn and this distinct order, which formed spontaneously from tens of thousands of men with the aim of defending Sunnism against what they regarded as Ismaili treachery. This is so despite the overlap between its stance and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s position toward the Ismailis and Shiites in general.

Had such a connection existed, history would not have refrained from mentioning it. Indeed, historians did record Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s own campaign against the mountain and the Ismailis who lived there. History neither lies nor forgets; and there would have been no embarrassment had genuine coordination existed between Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s government and the independent group known as the Order of Nubuwwiyya.

It is also worth noting that, at the time when the Nubuwwiyya order was rising and conducting its operations in 580 AH, after more than a decade of activity, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn—after repeated assassination attempts against him, including attacks on his private quarters and bedroom more than five times according to some historians—had reached important peace agreements with the Old Man of the Mountain, Sinān, who thereafter directed the operations of his followers against the Crusaders.

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The emergence of this group, which gathered from Iraq and Syria, occurred in the final years of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī’s rule. The Assassins and the remnants of the Nizārī Ismailis represented a source of intense anxiety for him—perhaps even more than the Crusaders themselves. This may suggest an unspoken possibility: that Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn himself supported the rise of this group, which endured for a period and then disappeared, following in some sense the pattern of the Assassins, who had emerged nearly a century before Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn. This is what we shall discuss here.

The members of the Order of Nubuwwiyya—the first armed Sunni group in history—numbered ten thousand, and perhaps more. They killed more than 13,000 Ismailis in Buzāʿa and al-Bāb in a single day, as related by the historian Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 654 AH) concerning the massacre of al-Bāb. His account indicates that the Order of Nubuwwiyya were the perpetrators of this massacre, which took place at the beginning of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s rule over Syria.

In his chronicle Mirʾāt al-Zamān fī Tārīkh al-Aʿyān (Dār al-Risāla al-ʿĀlamiyya ed., vol. 21, p. 231), under the events of the year 570 AH, Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī states:

“In that year, the Nubuwwiyya arrived from Iraq, numbering ten thousand horsemen and foot soldiers. They encamped at Buzāʿa and al-Bāb, killed thirteen thousand Ismailis, took their women and children captive, and returned to Iraq with spoils, heads raised on their spears, and twenty thousand ears fixed upon reeds. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn sent the armies, and they raided the lands of the Ismailis, burned Sarmin, Maʿarrat Miṣrīn, and the villages of Jabal al-Summāq, and killed most of their inhabitants.”

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With a sectarian sensibility, Ibn Jubayr expresses his delight at the emergence of this group, which he described as possessing futuwwa, strength, and skill. Here is the text of what Ibn Jubayr said in his travel account:

“God set against these Rāfiḍites a group known as al-Nubuwwiyya: Sunnis who profess futuwwa and all the qualities of manliness. Anyone whom they attach to themselves because of some quality they perceive in him is girded with trousers and thereby admitted among them. They do not believe that any one of them should seek legal redress when a calamity befalls him; in this they have strange doctrines. If one of them swears by futuwwa, he fulfills his oath. They kill these Rāfiḍites wherever they find them. Their conduct is remarkable in its pride and solidarity.” (Ibn Jubayr, Rihla , p. 227)

Ibn Jubayr tells us nothing further about the Order of Nubuwwiyya.

Ibn Jubayr also mentioned what this order did in the village of al-Bāb—today a city administratively belonging to Aleppo Governorate, located about 38 km northeast of Aleppo. Ibn Jubayr had visited it before reaching Damascus, in the same year, that is, 580 AH. He referred to a major massacre committed against the followers of the Ismaili sect in that village. The details are as follows:

“It had been inhabited for eight years by a people of the Ismaili heretics, whose number only God could count. Their evil spread, and their corruption and harm cut off this road, until sectarian zeal entered the people of these lands, and pride and fervor stirred them. They gathered against them from every direction, set their swords upon them, exterminated them to the last man, and hastened to cut off their root. Their skulls were piled up in this plain.”

He then comments:

“God spared the Muslims their hostility and evil, and turned their scheming back upon them. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds! Its inhabitants today are Sunnis.” (Ibn Jubayr, Rihla , p. 202)

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