Rustamid

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The Rustamid (or Rustumid, Rostemid) dynasty of Ibāḍī Kharijite imāms ruled the central Maghreb as a Muslim theocracy for a century and a half from their capital Tahert in present Algeria until the Ismailite Fatimid Caliphs destroyed it. The state's extent is not entirely clear, but it stretched as far east as Jabal Nafusa in Libya.

[edit] History

The Ibāḍiyya Kharijites reached North Africa by 719, when the missionary Salma ibn Sa'd was sent from the Ibāḍī jama'a of Basra to Kairouan. By 740, their efforts had converted the major Berber tribes of Huwwara around Tripoli, Nafusa in Jabal Nafusa and Zenata in western Tripolitania. In 757 (140 AH), a group of four Basra-educated missionaries (including Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rustam) proclaimed an Ibāḍī imamate, starting an abortive state led by Abul-Khattab Abdul-A'la ibn as-Samh which lasted until the Abbasids suppressed it in 761, and Abul-Khattab Abdul-A'la ibn as-Samh was killed. On his death, the Tripolitanian Ibāḍiyya elected Abul-Hatim al-Malzuzi as imām; he was killed in 772 after launching a second unsuccessful revolt in 768.

After this, the center of power shifted to Algeria, and ˤAbd ar-Rahmān ibn Rustam, a Tunisian-born convert to Kharijism of Persian origins already mentioned as one of the four founders of this imamate, was elected imām; after this, the post remained in his family, a practice which the Ibāḍiyya justified by noting that he came from no tribe, and thus his family had no bias towards any of the tribes of which the state was formed.

The new imamate was centered on the newly built capital of Tahert; several Ibāḍī tribes displaced from Tunisia and Tripolitania settled there and strong fortifications were built. It became a major stop on the newly developing trade routes with sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. It is described by visitors such as the Sunni Muslim Ibn as-Saghir as notably multi-religious, with a significant and loyal Christian minority and a substantial number of Sunnis and Jews, and open religious debate was encouraged.

Ibn as-Saghir also describes the imām as notably 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.

The Rustamids fought the Aghlabids of Ifriqiyya (based in Qairawan) in 812, but otherwise reached a modus vivendi; this displeased the Ibāḍī 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 Shiite Fatimids in 909, upon which many Ibāḍiyya - including the last imām - fled to the Sedrata tribe of Ouargla, whence they would ultimately emigrate to Mzab.