Al-Khasibi

Abu ʿAbd-Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥamdān al-Jonbalānī al-Khaṣībī[2] (Arabic: أبو عبد الله الحسين بن حمدان الجنبلائي الخصيبي), died 969,[1] was originally from a village called Jonbalā, between Kufa and Wasit in Iraq, which was the center of the Qarmatians.

[3] He was a member of a well-educated family with close ties to eleventh Twelver Imam Hasan al-Askari and a scholar of the deviant Islamic sect known as the Alawites or Nusayris, which is now present in Syria, southern Turkey and northern Lebanon.

According to the Alawites, after settling in Aleppo, under the rule of the Shia Hamdanid dynasty, he gained the support and aid of its ruler, Sayf al-Dawla, in spreading his teachings.

This period of dryness ended later when he encountered an ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad, who claimed to be a direct disciple of Nusayr.

Sayf al-Dawla's active promotion of Shi'ism began a process whereby Syria came to host a large Shi'a population by the 12th century.