Abu al-Bahlul al-Awwam

Al-Awwam bin Mohammad bin Yusuf Al-Zajaj (Arabic: العوام بن محمد بن يوسف الزَجاج), known as Abu al-Bahlul (Arabic: ابو البهلول، Father of Al-Bahlul) was a Shiite member of the Abdul Qays tribe in Bahrain who overthrew Ismaili Qarmatian rule in the islands around 1058.

He is the founder and namesake of Al-Awamiyah, a village in the Qatif region.

Biography

Abu al-Bahlul was the guarantor of the Qarmatian governor in Bahrain, Jaafar bin Abi Muhammad bin Arham, and had a brother named Abu'l-Walid Muslim who was a member of the ulama there. Since there was no mosque on the island, then called Awal, Abu al-Bahlul paid the Qarmatians 3,000 dinars to erect one to serve the non-Arabs and merchants who would otherwise be reluctant to visit; the site was chosen therefore as close to the souk. Abu al-Walid dedicated the khutba (opening prayer) to Caliph Al-Qa'im as required by the Shi’ite Buyid dynasty then controlling the Caliphate. At first the Qarmatians agreed in exchange for his donations, acknowledging that the majority were not Qarmatian there. After the 1058 revolt of Al-Basasiri, however, the Baghdad sermons were redirected to the name of Al-Mustansir Billah, the Fatimid Caliph in Cairo. When the Qarmatians asked Abu’l-Walid to implement this change, Abu al-Bahlul made clear that the donations obligated his brother to do no such thing.

Tensions thus arose between Abu al-Bahlul and Bin Arham, who the Qarmatians sacked and replaced by a new governor tasked to reassert his authority by arresting Abu al-Bahlul and his cohort. The latter faction hired an Abdul Qays luminary, Abu al-Qasim ibn Abu al-Aryan, who proceeded to recruit around 30,000 who surprised the new governor and rapidly took control of the island in 1058. Upon receiving word, Qarmatian vizier Abu Abdullah ibn Sanbar sent some of his children to Oman for weapons and reinforcements, but Abu al-Bahlul and Abu al-Aryan ambushed the party and killed all 40, taking the 5,000 dinars and 3,000 spears as booty. The Qarmatians then offered Abu al-Aryan rule of Bahrain in 1066 in exchange for arresting Abu al-Bahlul. Aware of the plot, Abu al-Bahlul killed Abu al-Aryan while the latter was taking ablution with his servant at Abu Zaidan spring, in what is now Bilal Al Qadeem. The Qarmatians, thinking they would enter without resistance, invaded and were promptly ambushed and disarmed, leaving Abu al-Bahlul in firm control and Abu’l-Walid as vizier of Bahrain.

Abu al-Bahlul’s success prompted other Abdul Qays sheikhs to revolt. Yahya ibn Ayyash al-Jadhmi drove the Qarmatians out of Qatif in 1058. Meanwhile, a third leader, Abdullah bin Ali Al Uyuni, fled the Al-Ahsa Oasis to plot another revolt in Al-Oyun, a village to the north, culminating in a seven-year siege of the city by the Uyunids and Seljuk Turks ending in 1067. Abu al-Bahlul and Al Uyuni each wrote to the Abbasids for support in driving the Qarmatians out for good and unifying the region under their rule. After Ibn Ayyash’s death, however, his son Zakaria was the one to invade Bahrain and kill Abu al-Bahlul, thus uniting Awal and Qatif for a time, before they were in turn captured by Abdullah bin Ali Al Uyuni, the founder of the Uyunid Emirate.

See also

• History of Bahrain