Zakarawayh ibn Mihrawayh

Zakarawayh ibn Mihrawayh,[a] (Arabic: زکرويه بن مهرويه) often misspelled as Zikrawayh in modern sources,[1] was an Isma'ili and Qarmatian leader in Iraq who led a series of revolts against the Abbasid Caliphate in the 900s, until his defeat and death in January 907.

[1] His efforts there were less than successful,[2] so in 901 he sent his son al-Husayn, who was called the ṣāḥib al-shāma ("Man with the Mole"), to the western Syrian Desert, for missionary work among the large tribal group of the Banu Kalb.

[7] The brothers launched raids against the Abbasid and Tulunid provinces of the Levant, even laying siege to Damascus from December 902 to July 903, where the ṣāḥib al-nāqa was killed.

[8][4] In recent years, however, the argument of Heinz Halm had prevailed,[6] according to which Zakarawayh and his sons remained loyal to Sa'id, and their actions aimed at securing possession of Syria and triggering a general rebellion against the Abbasids.

[1] In Halm's interpretation, Sa'id regarded the uprising as premature, and felt that it compromised his own safety as the brothers called their supporters to visit the supposedly "hidden" leader at Salamiya.

[2][10][11] Zakarawayh sent another of his dā'īs, al-Qasim ibn Ahmad, to lead the Bedouin that remained loyal, promising that the day of his own appearance, and of their final victory, was drawing near.

On 10 January, however, Abbasid troops under Wasif defeated and scattered his men in a two-day battle at Wadi Dhi Qar, near the "Ruins of Iram".

[12][13] Their interrogation of Zakarawayh's captured brother-in-law by Muhammad ibn Da'ud al-Jarrah provided the Abbasid government authorities with the "first reliable information concerning the clandestine Isma'ili da'wa organization", and forms the core of the contemporary historian al-Tabari's report on the origins of the Qarmatian movement in Iraq.