Hamdan Qarmat

Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath
حمدان قرمط بن الأشعث
Personal
Born
Furat Badaqla
Died899 or later
ReligionShi'a Islam
DenominationIsma'ilism
SectQarmatians

Hamdan Qarmat ibn al-Ash'ath (Arabic: حمدان قرمط بن الأشعث, romanizedḤamdān Qarmaṭ ibn al-Ashʿath; fl.c. 874–899 CE) was the eponymous founder of the Qarmatian sect of Isma'ilism. Originally the chief Isma'ili missionary (dā'ī) in lower Iraq, in 899 he quarreled with the movement's leadership at Salamiya after it was taken over by Sa'id ibn al-Husayn (the future first Fatimid Caliph), and with his followers broke off from them. Hamdan then disappeared, but his followers continued in existence in the Syrian Desert and al-Bahrayn for several decades.