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Rustamid dynasty

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The Rustamid dynasty (Arabic: الرستميون) (or Rustumids, Rostemids) was an Ibadi Persian dynasty[3][4] centered in present-day Algeria.[5][6][7] The dynasty governed as a Muslim theocracy for a century and a half from its capital Tahert (present day Tagdemt[8]) until the Ismaili Fatimid Caliphate defeated it. Rustamid authority extended over what is now central and western Algeria, parts of southern Tunisia, and the Jebel Nafusa and Fezzan regions in Libya as far as Zawila.[9][10][11][12]

Rustamid Kingdom
777[1]–909
Approximate extent of Rustamid control in the 9th century
Approximate extent of Rustamid control in the 9th century
CapitalTahert
Common languagesBerber, Arabic, Persian
Religion
Ibadi Islam
GovernmentImamate[2]
Imam 
• 777–788
ʿAbdu r-Rahman ibn Bahram ibn Rūstam
• 906–909
Yaqzan ibn Muhammad Abil-Yaqzan
History 
• Established
777[1]
• Disestablished
909
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Berber revolt
Emirate of Tlemcen
Fatimid Caliphate
Today part ofAlgeria
Tunisia
Libya

History

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The Ibāḍī movement reached North Africa by 719, when the missionary Salma ibn Sa'd was sent from the Ibādī jama'a of Basra to Kairouan.[13][14] By 740, their efforts had converted the major Berber tribes of Huwara around Tripoli, in the Nafusa Mountains and at Zenata in western Tripolitania.[15] In 757 (140 AH), a group of four Basra-educated missionaries including ʻAbd ar-Rahmān ibn Rustam proclaimed an Ibāḍī imamate in Tripolitania, starting an abortive state led by Abu l-Khattab Abdul-A'la ibn as-Samh which lasted until the Abbasid Caliphate dispatched Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath al-Khuza'i to suppress it in 761. Ifriqiya was conquered by the Abbasids from Kharijite control and Abul-Khattab Abdul-A'la ibn as-Samh was killed.[16] On his death, the Tripolitanian Ibādiyya elected Abu l-Hatim al-Malzuzi as Imām; he was killed in 772 after launching a second unsuccessful revolt in 768.[17] After this, the center of power shifted to Algeria, and, in 777, ʻAbd ar-Rahmān ibn Rustam, an Ifriqiyan-born convert to the Ibāḍī movement of Persian origin[18] and one of the four founders of the imamate, was elected Imām; after this, the post remained in his family, a practice which the Ibādiyya justified by noting that he came from no tribe, and thus his election as imam would not favour the domination of one Ibadi tribe over the others.[19]

In 873, a succession crisis occurred as the Third Imam Abu Bakr, fearing the loss of his title to his older brother Mohammed Abu-l-Yaqzan, attempted to assassinate him. However, his plot failed, leading to the population uprising against Abu Bakr, resulting in his overthrow and death In 874. Consequently, Mohammed Abu-l-Yaqzan assumed the title.[20]

The new imamate was centered on the newly built capital of Tahert (or Tahart), near present-day Tiaret.[21][22] Several Ibādī tribes displaced from Tunisia and Tripolitania settled there and strong fortifications were built.[21] It became a major stop on the newly developing trade routes with sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.[23]

Ibn as-Saghir also describes the Imām as ascetic, repairing his own house and refusing gifts; the citizens sharply criticized him if they considered him derelict in his duty. Religious ethics were strictly enforced by law.[citation needed]

The Rustamids fought the Kairouan-based Aghlabids of Ifriqiya in 812, but otherwise reached a modus vivendi; this displeased Ibādī tribes on the Aghlabid border, who launched a few rebellions.

After Abdu l-Wahhāb, the Rustamids grew militarily weak; they were easily conquered by the Ismaili Fatimids in 909, upon which many Ibāḍis – including the last Imām – fled to the Sedrata tribe of Ouargla, whence they would ultimately emigrate to Mzab.

Society and culture

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The Rustamid dynasty, "developed a cosmopolitan reputation in which Christians, non-Kharijite Muslims, and adherents of different sects of Kharijism lived".[24] On the intellectual field, the Rustamids had many scholars and learned men, such as Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam, Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Rahman, Aflah ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, dan Abu al-Yaqzhan ibn Aflah, Mahdi an-Nafusi, ‘Abd Allah al-Lamthi, and Mahmud ibn Bakr. ‘Abd ar-Rahman had an exegesis of the Qur’an. ‘Abd al-Wahhab wrote his Masa'il Nafusah on Islamic jurisprudence. Aflah mastered Arabic literature, mathematics, and astronomy. Abu al-Yaqzhan wrote about 40 works. Because of their intellectual enthusiasm, the Rustamids vigorously transferred valuable works from the Mashriq to the Maghrib, especially to the library of al-Ma‘shumah (in Tahert) and that of Khizanah Nafusah (in Jabal Nafusah). Moreover, Tahert was famous as ‘Iraq al-Maghrib, al-‘Iraq ash-Shaghir, Balkh al-Maghrib, or Little Basra. Apart from these achievements, the Rustamids also had significant contribution to Islamization in the Maghrib and Bilad as-Sudan. For about two centuries (130-340 AH / 750-950 AD), the Kharijite people gained control of trade routes in the Maghrib and Bilad as-Sudan. Many Ibadite merchants made journeys along the vast area, such as Tahert, Wargla, Nafzawa, Jabal Nafusah, Tadmakkat, Gao, and Ghana. By this economic activity, the Ibadites took advantages of trading business and preaching Islam at the same time.[25]

Rustamid Imams

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Family tree

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Family tree of the Rustamid dynasty
Rustam
1
Abd al-Rahman
ibn Rustam
r. 776-788
2
Abd al-Wahhab
ibn
Abd al-Rahman
r. 788-824
3
Aflah ibn
Abd al-Wahhab
r. 824-872
4
Abu Bakr
ibn Aflah
r. 872-874		5
Muhammad
Abu al-Yaqzan
ibn Aflah
r. 874-894		7
Ya'qub
ibn Aflah
r. 895-899
8
Yaqzan ibn
Muhammad
r. 906-90		6
Yusuf Abu
Hatim ibn
Muhammad
r. 894-895,
899-906

References

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  1. ^ A Chronology of Islamic History, 570-1000 CE - Habib Ur Rahman G.K. Hall, 1989
  2. ^ The Transmission of Learning in Islamic Africa - Scott Steven Reese
  3. ^ Bosworth, C.E., ed. (1995). Encyclopedia of Islam (New ed.). Leiden [u.a.]: Brill [u.a.] p. 638. ISBN 9004098348.
  4. ^ Islamic History - Laura Etheredge - p73
  5. ^ Britannica Encyclopedia, Retrieved on 18 December 2008.
  6. ^ "The Places where Men Pray Together", pg. 210.
  7. ^ Based on Britannica 2008: The state was governed by imams descended from ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Rustam, the austere Persian who founded the state in the 8th century.
  8. ^ Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. (1971). A history of the Maghrib. Internet Archive. Cambridge [Eng.] University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-521-07981-5.
  9. ^ Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (2004). "The Rustamids". The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748696482. Here, 'Abd al-Raḥmān in 144/ 761 founded a Khārijī principality based on the newly-founded town of Tahert (Tāhart) (near modern Tiaret), and some fifteen years later he was offered the imamate of all the Ibāḍiyya of North Africa. This nucleus in Tahert was linked with Ibāḍī communities in the Aurès, southern Tunisia and the Jabal Nafūsa, and groups as far south as the Fezzān oasis acknowledged the spiritual headship of the Ibāḍī Imāms.
  10. ^ Anderson, Glaire D.; Fenwick, Corisande; Rosser-Owen, Mariam (2017). The Aghlabids and their Neighbors: Art and Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa. Brill. p. 3. ISBN 978-90-04-35604-7. The Kharijite Rustamid state based at Tahert (western Algeria) was also established by a Persian missionary, ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Rustam of the Ibadi tradition. Their area of influence stretched to Jerba, Jabal Nafusa, and the Fazzan.
  11. ^ Syed, Muzaffar Husain; Akhtar, Syed Saud; Usmani, B. D. (2011). Concise History of Islam. Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. p. 143. ISBN 978-93-82573-47-0. The Rustamid (Rustumid, Rostemid) dynasty of Ibadi Kharijite Imam that ruled the central Maghrib as a Muslim theocracy for a century and a half from their capital Tahert in present Algeria until the Ismailite Fatimid Caliphate destroyed it. (...) The exact extent of its dominions is not entirely clear, but it stretched as far east as Jabal Nafusa in Libya.
  12. ^ Brett, Michael (2013). Approaching African History. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-84701-063-6. After the great Kharijite rebellion this encampment developed into the oasis city of Zawila, at the south-eastern extremity of the Kharijite realm of the Rustamids of Tahart.
  13. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2014). Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History: 5,000 Years of Religious History. Vol. 2. ABC-CLIO. p. 545. ISBN 978-1-61069-026-3.
  14. ^ Abun-Nasr 1987, p. 37.
  15. ^ Abun-Nasr 1987, p. 38.
  16. ^ Abun-Nasr 1987, pp. 41, 43.
  17. ^ Abun-Nasr 1987, p. 43.
  18. ^ Britannica Encyclopedia, Retrieved on 18 December 2008.
  19. ^ Abun-Nasr 1987, pp. 43–45.
  20. ^ Mattson, Ingrid; Nesbitt-Larking, Paul; Tahir, Nawaz (2015-02-05). Religion and Representation: Islam and Democracy. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-7514-1.
  21. ^ a b Abun-Nasr 1987, p. 45.
  22. ^ Talbi 1995.
  23. ^ Chronique D'Ibn Saghir Sur Les Imams Rostemides de Tahert. Par A. de C. Motylinski, Etc. Arabic & Fr. Ibn saghir. 1908. p. 19.
  24. ^ John P. Entelis, Algeria: The Revolution Institutionalized, page 14
  25. ^ Ahmad Choirul Rofiq, "Moderation and Civilization: A Historical Analysis on the Moderate Policy of the Rustamid Dynasty" in doi:10.24269/ars.v6i2.1031

Sources

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