How Islam’s Most Important Relic Was Stolen From The Heart of Mecca

The brazen heist of the Black Stone and the desecration of the Kaaba

(By Rashid Al-Din — Jami al-Tawarikh (“The Compendium of Chronicles” or “The Universal History”) This illustration is in a folio in the Oriental Manuscript Section of the Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections and Archives, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12046936)

In the 10th Century, an Isma’ili Islamic group known as the Qarmatians residing on the eastern coast of Arabia began raiding caravans passing through their territory on the way to Mecca to complete the hajj. The lucrative caravans carrying pilgrims and gifts came pouring south from the heart of the Abbasid Caliphate centered in Mesopotamia and ran into Qarmatian raiders. Year after year, the Qarmatians sacked more and more caravans, gained more and more wealth, and attracted more and more followers.

With the influx of wealth and warriors, the Qarmatians became a legitimate power in Arabia right in the Abbasid’s backyard. Capitalizing on their new power, the Qarmatians consolidated under the leadership of one Abu Tahir al-Jannabi, who believed that a new Islamic messiah was coming and that the Qarmatians were going to usher him into his reign.

All of these factors collided and caused a chain of events that would rock the Islamic world.

Abu Tahir al-Jannabi decided that raiding caravans heading to Mecca was no longer enough. He wanted to raid Mecca itself. While the Qarmatians were a radical and offshoot sect of mainline Islam, they were still…